Workflow Orchestration Patterns for Enterprise Automation
Discover proven patterns for orchestrating complex multi-system workflows with reliability and maintainability.
TL;DR
Effective workflow orchestration uses patterns like saga, choreography, and orchestration to coordinate actions across systems. Choose patterns based on consistency requirements, coupling preferences, and failure handling needs.
The Orchestration Pattern
A central orchestrator coordinates all steps in a workflow, calling services in sequence or parallel. This provides clear visibility and control but creates a single point of coordination.
The Choreography Pattern
Services react to events without central coordination. Each service knows what to do when it receives an event. This is more loosely coupled but harder to track and debug.
The Saga Pattern
For long-running transactions across services, sagas break work into steps with compensating transactions for failures. This maintains consistency without distributed locks.
Choosing the Right Pattern
Use orchestration for complex flows needing visibility and control. Use choreography for loosely coupled, event-driven systems. Use sagas when you need transaction-like consistency across services.