公开(公告)号：GB2460730A

公开(公告)日：2009-12-16

申请号：GB0906516

申请日：2009-04-16

Applicant: IBM

Inventor： NEUMANN FRANK ,  PFAU GERHARD ,  SCHMAUDER RALF

IPC: G06F17/30 ,  G06Q10/00

Abstract: Management of a workflow in a distributed computer environment comprising multiple interconnected sites (1A, 1B, 1C). Business process definitions implemented in the workflow system comprise a number of workflow objects, including activities which are to be processed sequentially or in parallel. Each workflow object (OBJ4) is associated to exactly one site (1A), the so called "owner site" (1A). Each owner site (1A) updates and/or modifies only the workflow objects (OBJ4) it owns. Ownership workflow objects (OBJ4) may be transferred of another site (1B, 1C) on request ("pull") or when said owner site (1A) determines a need for transfer to another site (1B, 1C) ("push"). All sites (1A - 1C) maintain information on which site (1A - 1C) currently owns which workflow object (OBJ1 -OBJ4). Transfers between sites may therefore be updated synchronously, whilst other sites are updated asynchronously. Workloads may be balanced using an algorithm and other sites may have read access.