With the increasing complexity of business applications around the globe, there was a need for a technology that could not only reduce the operational costs for an enterprise by automating the business processes, but at the same time provide transparency or visibility of the business processes.  Windows Workflow Foundation is a relatively new technology from Microsoft that simplifies development of business processes in Microsoft .NET Framework.  Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) for development of Workflows or Workflow based applications uses the Microsoft .NET Framework and provides better visibility, expressiveness and control to the business processes.  The windows Workflow Foundation Framework typically consists of the following three components:

·         A runtime engine that can be used to execute a workflow

·         A set of activities that constitute a complete workflow

·         A set of services to support the executing workflow

This article provides a basic understanding of Business Processes, Workflows and the Windows Workflow Foundation Framework architecture.  It does not discuss how we can implement Workflows using the Windows Workflow Foundation Framework in Microsoft .NET; rather, it provides an overview of this awesome technology from Microsoft.  I would like to discuss implementation of Workflows using this framework in my forthcoming articles.