The automated routing of tasks associated with one or more business processes, or the whole lifecycle. For example; when an employee requests access to a resource or service an approval task is sent to that person's line manager; if approved, an authorisation request is sent to the resource owner; if authorised, a provisioning task is sent to the resource manager who organises the access and advises the relevant parties. Tracking of progress, need for justification, and rerouting based on business rules and elapsed time, may be included as options in workflow diagrams. The workflow may be initiated by the individual, or others such as the line manager, but it usually cannot be approved by the requester (separation of duties). If the person's functional role changes, a revalidation of the person's access profile may be initiated automatically and routed to the new line manager.

Source: http://identityaccessman.blogspot.com/2006/08/identity-dictionary.html