Scientific Workflows

A scientific workflow is the description of a process for accomplishing a scientific objective, usually expressed in terms of tasks and their dependencies. Typically, scientific workflow tasks are computational steps for scientific simulations or data analysis steps. Common elements or stages in scientific workflows are acquisition, integration, reduction, visualization, and publication (e.g., in a shared database) of scientific data. The tasks of a scientific workflow are organized (at design time) and orchestrated (at runtime) according to dataflow and possibly other dependencies as specified by the workflow designer. Workflows can be designed visually, e.g., using block diagrams, or textually using a domain-specific language.