We currently use a sequential workflow to process documents. We have a total of 10 distinct workflow steps. We have re-analyzed the workflow and realized that we could restructure the workflow to process in parallel a number of the workflow steps. Basically we are able to process steps 1,2,3,4 in parallel, wait until steps 1-4 are completed and then process step 5, then process steps 6,7,8,9 in parallel wait until steps 6-9 are completed and then finally process step 10. If we were able to implement this new workflow we could boost our processing throughput dramatically.
My question is: What java-based open-source workflow projects would you recommend? Do they typically support what I outlined above?
Thanks for all the replies. After taking a quick look at the the websites you all have listed I think I have more than enough to chew on for a while.
I have used jBPM, and it’s pretty nice. It has the parallel processing (forking) and waiting for tasks to be done (joining) the workflow.
The latest version supports a standard notation for business processes – BPMN 2.0