Method and system for managing a distributed workflow

#The present invention relates to data processing system, and more specifically to workflow management system running on a data processing system.

#The process of designing, developing and manufacturing new products and the process of changing or adapting existing products present many challenges to product managers and engineers to bring the products to market at low cost and within schedule while maintaining or even increasing product quality. Many companies are realizing that the conventional product design process may not be satisfactory to meet these needs. Thus, these companies may involve manufacturing engineering, cost engineering, logistic planning, procurement, manufacturing, service and support early in the design effort. Furthermore, they may plan and control product data through design, release and manufacturing.

#The correct and efficient execution of business processes within a company, such as the development or production processes, may be of enormous importance for a company and may have a significant influence on company's overall success in the marketplace. Therefore, business processes are being regarded similarly to technology processes, and are being tested, optimized and monitored.

#The features and advantages of the present invention will be made apparent by the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, provided by way of a non-limiting example, which will be made with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 schematically shows two entities, e.g. two organizations participating to the execution of a common business process, each having a computer-based workflow management system implementing a state-shadowing mechanism;

#FIG. 2 shows in terms of functional blocks the main components of a state-shadowing engine, provided in each workflow management system for implementing the state-shadowing mechanism;

#With reference to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows at a high level two organizations ORG1, ORG2 participating to the execution of a common business process. For example, the two organizations ORG1, ORG2 are peer organizations of a same enterprise or company, each of which is in charge of the execution of a respective part of the common business process; alternatively, one organization, e.g. organization ORG1, is a customer organization that has outsourced the execution of all or part of the business process to the organization ORG2, the provider organization. It is intended that, albeit only two organizations are considered in this example for the sake of simplicity, the present invention straightforwardly applies also in case the organizations participating to the execution of a common business process are more than two.

#Each organization ORG1, ORG2 participating to the execution of the business process, in the following referred to as participating organization, has a respective workflow management system WfMS1, WfMS2, for the management of the respective part of the business process. In particular, in each participating organization ORG1, ORG2 the respective workflow management system WfMS1, WfMS2 is a computer-based management system running on a respective data processing system of that organization. The data processing system in each organization ORG1, ORG2 may include one or, more typically, several personal computers or workstations, interconnected through a data communication network, such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) where the organization is spread on different geographic locations, the Internet.

#The workflow management system WfMS1, WfMS2 in each participating organization ORG1, ORG2 conventionally includes a workflow management system server WfMS1_S, WfMS2_S, in the following simply referred to as workflow server. The workflow server WfMS1_S, WfMS2_S is a server computer application, running on a dedicated or general-purpose personal computer or workstation of the data processing system behaving as the server of the workflow management system WfMS1, WfMS2. The workflow server WfMS1_S, WfMS2_S updates and persistently maintains information about the state of execution of the respective part of the business process. State changes are determined by operations in the workflow.