Patent ID: 8812660

Claim:
A method performed by a federation of workflow management systems, comprising: maintaining a master workflow process definition in a first workflow management system, wherein the first workflow management system creates an export record corresponding to the master workflow process definition; publishing the master workflow process definition to an object directory services server; importing a replica workflow process definition, corresponding to the master workflow process definition, by a second workflow management system, wherein the replica workflow process definition identifies the first workflow management system and includes an owning site attribute that identifies the replica workflow process definition as a copy, wherein the master workflow process definition includes the export record, and wherein the export record identifies the second workflow management system and the date and time the replica workflow process definition was imported by the second workflow management system and identifies at least one other workflow management system that has received the replica workflow process definition; modifying the master workflow process definition to produce an updated master workflow process definition; and sending an updated replica workflow process definition, corresponding to the updated master workflow process definition, to the second workflow management system based on the time and date identified by the export record in the master workflow process definition and according to a last modification date of the master workflow process definition, wherein the first workflow management system, the second workflow management system, and the object directory services server are each implemented in at least one hardware data processing system.