Workflow definition

A workflow definition is the representation of a business process. For easy understanding, we can compare the workflow definition to a flowchart which specifies how the business process work. In a workflow definition you specify which actions are to be performed (update database, send e-mail, run a script and, more important, create a task), and in which order. If you are creating a workflow definition for order processing, for example, then you might want to check if the order amount is higher than 10 000. If not, then create an approval task for the local manager. If yes, create an approval task for the director. In any case of approval, send an e-mail for the financial department. You can use the workflow designer to visually build the flowchart for the workflow definition. All the workflow definitions are kept in the database. Each workflow definition receives a name that uniquely identifies it (for example, "order processing", "software deployment", "help desk support", etc.).