Information systems for automating work flows: a comparative analysis

Abstract

Workflow is a sequence of repeated and controlled steps aimed at completing a specific task or work. The urgency of the task of optimizing such works contributed to the development of methods and means of operations research to optimize such processes for the needs of various subject areas. Information technologies to support such workflow are workflow engines that enable faster automation, ensure compliance with norms and standards, formalize business processes, improve communication, etc. The workflow management systems are divided into the following categories: automation using robotics, intelligent integration platforms, intelligent business process management systems, open-source engines, the cloud-supported, as well as data flow processing systems. For a more detailed analysis, it is advisable to choose the following engines and services: built-in, cloud-oriented, and those to support both scenarios (jBPM, Camunda, Zeebe, Amazon Step Functions). It is appropriate to define evaluation criteria and compare such workflow automation systems to form further recommendations regarding their selection and application. Such criteria are development activity, stability and history of commercial use, versioning support, standards support, support for timers and asynchronous execution, support for human-oriented and manual tasks, integration with other solutions, monitoring and logging, scaling, cloud support, the possibility of scanning in private infrastructure, the presence of a visual interface, the convenience of local development and testing, open source code, the necessary programming for implementation and cost. A comparison of advantages and disadvantages can be used to decide on a workflow automation system.