Workflow instance scheduling with project management tools

It is easy to initiate a business process once it is implemented as a workflow type and executable as a workflow instance. Whenever a user wants to initiate a workflow instance, he brings up the appropriate interface provided by a workflow management system (WFMS) and starts it. However, this "demand-based" initiation of workflow instances might cause tremendous problems for a company. Resource overload to meet a deadline or late deliveries due to limited resources can be the result of unconstrained workflow initiation. If there was a way to schedule a workflow instance at its initiation time against the capacity of the required and available users as well as other resources, then resource overload could be avoided and late deliveries could be predicted. Project management (PM) tools are scheduling tools that are used to schedule tasks against resources over time in project settings. The possibility of an integration of WFMSs with PM tools is explored in this paper in order to enable scheduled workflow instance execution.