The Case Handling Case

On the Dutch workflow market, a new and interesting paradigm named "case handling" is emerging. The goal of case handling is to overcome the limitations of existing workflow management systems. By using a data-driven approach combined with implicit routing and carefully avoiding context tunneling, awareness and flexibility are improved. Currently, many organizations are considering case handling systems such as FLOWer (Pallas Athena) rather than the more traditional workflow management systems. This paper provides a critical assessment of this development. The goal is to show the pro's and con's of case handling. Moreover, based on this assessment, an alternative approach using slightly extended workflow management systems is proposed. This approach is being pursued by the Dutch government in a project involving the workflow management system Staffware. Based on our experiences thus far, we provide guidelines for selecting the proper technology.

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