1. Cornell University’s Workflow Experiences
For Internet2 Workflow Panel - Fall 2006
Aaron Godert
Sr. Software Architect/Engineer CIT, Advanced Technology and Architectures
8/9/2019

2. The Need for Workflow Timeline: ~ year 2001
Software being built around campus by various IT development groups
Online = accessible
Formalizing business processes in units
Each app had its own “list”
Common pattern - prepare and send on for approval
Vended software being purchased also had business process concepts
“Workflow” seemed to come of age
8/9/2019

3. The Need for Workflow Units started buying tools to model workflow
Around 2004 we started to think centrally about it
Period of discovery
webMethods
OpenSymphony Workflow
Indiana’s Workflow
Metastorm
Oracle
OpenWFE
8/9/2019

4. Reasons We Choose Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW)
Some products didn’t scale for university enterprise applications
Some products were excellent at some features, but missing others
Some products felt constraining (proprietary integration)
KEW had a rich feature set that was closes to the complete package we were looking for
Open source
Able to participate
Control our destiny
Close community
Flexibility in customization
In line with our Kuali strategy
8/9/2019

5. Cornell’s Future Goals for KEW and Workflow
Melding with BPEL concepts
Business process orchestration
Flow callouts to services
Enhanced EDocLite features for simple business processes
GUI representation of business processes
Kuali Rice - ESB and Notification integration in a productive development environment
In general - a convergence towards a best-of-breed
8/9/2019