General

This past year saw the release of Version 1.1 of the Wf-XML interoperability binding, an XML-based standard facilitating consistent data transfer between workflow engines, after substantial collaborative testing and discussion. The WfMC and Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI is a non-profit corporation which aims to promote and develop the use of business process management), met in London to discuss the possibility of a joint initiative. Later in the year, Version 1.0 of the Workflow Process Definition Interface (XPDL) was released. It comprises a specification supporting process definition import and export, a common meta-model for describing the process definition and an XML schema specifying the XML Process Definition Language (XPDL). (XPDL samples are available to view or download from the WfMC website.)

have developed and matured substantially, such that we may have

difficulty in recognizing five-year-old workflow products!

The purpose of this document is to specify what information needs to be captured and recorded from the various events occurring during a workflow enactment. This document does not define how the data is stored, but what information is to be gathered and made available for analysis. The information will be called Common Workflow Audit Data (CWAD).

This is an abstract specification from which it is intended that concrete bindings will be derived, such as SQL, C, or C++. By defining the semantics for this data, a cohesive analysis is possible when working with heterogeneous workflow products.