.NET Workflow Scheduling, best practices, and is it the right solution

I'm working on a project where I need to schedule processes. I'm thinking WF would be great tool to use. But since this will be my first dive into WF I got a few questions.

Here is the project: Based on time (every week, month, day, etc...) system needs to notify someone (email) that something needs to be done. Person needs to be able to tell system it's done and provide info. If that person does not complete task in a specified amount of time (2 days for example) escalation occurs (notify manager). That's the just.

This needs to be managable thru an .NET WPF application that I'm writing (this is an add on). Users开发者_运维问答 pick time frames, who and when to notify. Also there will be multiple workflows occuring at same time.

Questions:

1. Will and is WF a good fit?

2. Since this a multi user app, should I create a service to run on a server and have app use remoting or other method to create, modify or delete WF?

3. How do I schedule a workflow to fire on a specific date? Would I need to use something like http://quartznet.sourceforge.net/ (which looks fantastic)?

4. Any good books on the subject that I should pick up?

Thanks in advance.

Rick

1. From your description it sounds like WF4 will be a good fit.
2. If the workflow structure is not subject to a lot of changes I would use a workflow service and if possible host it using IIS or if that is not possible use a Windows service and self host using the WorkflowServiceHost. If your workflow is subject to a lot of change I would create a Windows Service and use a WorkflowApplication to an each instance.
3. I have never used Quartz.net but it looks interesting. You can also use a master workflow that triggers the other workflows that do the actual work.
4. Pro WF: Windows Workflow in .NET 4.0 is the best book I am aware of.

This is certainly a good fit for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4).

Do you plan on implementing other clients besides the WPF app? Web clients? Device clients?

What about management and monitoring of this solution?

Do you plan on hosting the solution in Windows Azure at some point?