Workflow Ontology

• A workflow consists of states and actions.
• A workflow is defined for an object. It applies to every record in that object.
• A state is a static attribute that applies to a record. If a workflow is defined for an object, then a record in that object is always in one (and only one) state.
• An action is a dynamic transition between states. (A state transition).
• A state has one or more decision makers, who can take one of the actions defined for the state.
• A record in a given state has workflow owners who can choose one of the actions for the state. So run-time workflow owners are concrete equivalents of abstract design-time decision-makers. (Ex: The decision-maker defined for a state is "record owner". The record owner (original creator, or designated stand-in) is "Fred", so "Fred" is the workflow owner for that record, as well as the record owner.