Integrating Document and Workflow Management Tools using XML and Web Technologies: a Case Study Lerina Aversano, Gerardo Canfora, Andrea De Lucia, Pierpaolo Gallucci (aversano / canfora / delucia / gallucci)@unisannio.it RCOST – Research Centre On Software Technology Department of Engineering, University of Sannio Palazzo Bosco Lucarelli, Piazza Roma - 82100 Benevento, Italy Abstract A critical point for developing successful information systems for distributed organisations is the need for integrating heterogeneous technologies and tools. This paper reports a case study of integrating two key enabling technologies, namely workflow and document management. Integration is achieved by combining several approaches, including software engineering and hypertexts. In this way, we raise the integration problem from the level of a purely technical issue to a level of conceptual modelling: integration is not focused solely on the information/software systems but involves, and is driven by, the related business processes and the documents they deal with. 1. Introduction Convergence between telecommunications and computing and the explosion of the Internet have opened the way to new ways of conceiving, designing, and running businesses and enterprises. More and more companies are moving towards distributed or even virtual organisation models, where independent institutions, departments, and groups of specialised individuals converge in a temporary network with the aim of utilising a competitive advantage or solving a specific problem. Information and communication technology (ICT) is a primary enabler of virtual organisations, as peoples and institutions in a network make substantially more use of computer- mediated channels than physical presence to interact and cooperate in order to achieve their objectives. In particular, two primary enabling technologies are workflow management and document management systems. One of the main advantage of workflow management systems is moving the focus from the automation of single process activities, through traditional information systems, to the overall management and improvement of the business processes, through the integration of different software technologies [11, 22, 27]. In addition, the last generation of workflow management systems leverage the Web as an enabling infrastructure, thus allowing a higher level of coordination and control among the geographically distributed teams and individuals that take part in a business process [1]. Document management systems complement workflow management as they focus on the management of the documents developed and exchanged by the subjects taking part in a business process. Typical features of modern document management systems include the management of content independently of the document layout and presentation, the support for the collaborative production of documents, and advanced information retrieval techniques [6]. A critical point for developing successful information infrastructures and services for distributed and virtual organisations is the need for integrating different, and sometimes heterogeneous, technologies and tools. Integration involves creating expressive models of the business processes and the involved documents and devising open architectural models of the supporting infrastructure and services. In this paper we illustrate a case study of achieving integration of workflow and document management. We combine software engineering approaches, namely object oriented modelling through the Unified Modelling Language (UML) [7] and hypertexts, and particularly the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) [21]. The main role of UML is modelling the business processes and involved documents at an abstract level, whereas XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) are used to concretely model the document content. Finally, visual approaches are used to implement the processes and to develop the end-users interfaces of the integrated application. Several other authors have pointed out the problem of integrating workflow and document management to create information systems for distributed collaborative Proceedings of the Sixth European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR02) 1534-5351/02 $17.00 ' 2002 IEEE