Workflow Management Coalition

Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems. Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems. The Coalition was founded in May 1993 with original members including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, ICL, Staffware and approximately 300 software and services firms in the business software sector. Since its founding, the use of XML has become more widespread. Today the Coalition's focus is principally around process definition file interchange, using the standard XML Process Definition Language (XPDL). The Workflow Reference Model was published first in 1995 and still forms the basis of most business process management (BPM) and workflow software systems in use today. It was developed from the generic workflow application structure by identifying the interfaces which enable products to interoperate at a variety of levels. All workflow systems contain a number of generic components which interact in a defined set of ways; different products will typically exhibit different levels of capability within each of these generic components. To achieve interoperability between workflow products a standardised set of interfaces and data interchange formats between such components is necessary. A number of distinct interoperability scenarios can then be constructed by reference to such interfaces, identifying different levels of functional conformance as appropriate to the range of products in the market.