Patent ID: 7953758

Claim:
A workflow management method, implemented on a workflow management apparatus, comprising: a workflow starting step of determining, at the workflow management apparatus, a workflow based on one or more tags attached to a workflow document based on a received input from a user, retrieving a status tag, a document type tag, and a participant tag from a tag database, attaching the retrieved status tag, document type tag, and participant tag to the workflow document, and starting the workflow; a document filtering step of filtering, at the workflow management apparatus, the workflow document based on one or more tags attached to the workflow document indicating a document type; and a review/approval step of requesting, at the workflow management apparatus, review or approval of the workflow document based on the status tag and the participant tag and updating the status tag and the participant tag after the review and/or approval, wherein the workflow starting step includes registering the one or more tags for determining the workflow in association with the workflow document, determining the workflow based on the registered one or more tags and displaying the determined workflow to request confirmation for starting the workflow, and registering the participant tag indicating a first participant of the workflow and the status tag indicating a status of the workflow in association with the workflow document; and the review/approval step includes delivering metadata of the workflow document to a corresponding participant based on the participant tag to request the review or approval of the workflow document, updating the status tag and, if there is a next participant, updating the participant tag so as to indicate the next participant based on the result of the review or approval, and repeating the delivering and updating steps until the workflow is completed.