Patent ID: 7664419

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a management unit configured to manage an upper limit value of a use amount for each of a plurality of different functions in a plurality of steps included in a work flow; a calculation unit configured to calculate a use amount for each of a plurality of different functions required for processing process information requested in the work flow before the work flow structured by the plurality of steps is executed; a determination unit configured to determine whether an operation in the plurality of steps included in the work flow which uses the use amount can be executed or not based on the upper limit value of the use amount for each of the plurality of different functions managed by the management unit and the use amount for each of the plurality of different functions calculated by the calculation unit, wherein the determination unit compares the use amount for each of the plurality of different functions and the upper limit value of the use amount for each of the plurality of different functions, and determines that the operation in the plurality of steps included in the work flow cannot be executed when the use amount of at least one of the functions included in the work flow is larger than the upper limit value of the function; and a use amount control unit configured to reserve the use amount for each of the plurality of different functions which is calculated by the calculation unit before the work flow is executed when it is determined that the operation in the plurality of steps included in the work flow can be executed based on a determination result of the determination unit.