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- What are workflows?
- Why create workflows?
- WorkflowHub
- Creating tools for workflows
- Sustainability of workflows
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- References
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What are workflows?
Computational workflows allow for automation of multi-step analyses, which can include collection, preparation and analysis of data. Such workflows are becoming more and more common in the analysis of life sciences data, as analyses involve the use of more and more tools, and methodologies and datasets become larger. Figure 1 outlines the structure of a simple workflow.
The development and use of workflows revolves around the following terminology:1
- Workflow – a set of computational tasks and their relationships
- Tool – a piece of software used by researchers to carry out a computational task
- Command-line tool – a piece of software that runs as a non-interactive program that automatically terminates upon task completion
- Workflow management system/workflow engine – software in charge of executing and monitoring a workflow
- Registries – catalogues of tools and workflows
Workflows can include tools written in different programming languages. A workflow consists of a set of rules, which each have an input and output.
On the next page, we consider why creating workflows is useful.