Work flow management systems. Selection of Platforms and tools

This paper addresses a formal procedure for selecting the Platform and tools necessary to implement a Work Flow system in a company's organisation. The proposed method is based on a preliminary study to ascertain the company's requirements; in other words, the tool is selected on the basis of the environment in which it is to be used, thus making it essential to know the frequency of use, the types of tasks to be executed, the complexity of work flow, etc. Once the preliminary study has been performed, the formal selection method does no differ greatly from that for selecting any other tool. The objective is to establish a series of weighted parameters so that each candidate configuration can be assessed and one finally selected. Lastly, the paper discusses some practical considerations which became evident during the selection of a work flow management tool for our own company. (Author)