So: what's workflow? Workflow is the automatic management of tasks and processes. In its simplest form, workflow is simply a notebook where you keep your to-do lists. Those lists consist of tasks which you have to get done (or you have to delegate to someone else.) The wftk task manager is concerned with managing your tasks -- duh.
As your task list grows, you find that some "tasks" are more complicated than others. So what started as, say, build a house, ends up being made up of other steps, such as "find a contractor", "buy a lot", "dig a basement", and so forth. In other words, those tasks have become processes, at least in wftk language. A simple process is nothing more than a checklist of tasks which can be done in any order. The task manager still handles these tasks, and really, this isn't workflow proper yet.
When you really get down and dirty, you start requiring that some tasks are done before others. Some tasks don't even need to be done in certain circumstances. Some of them can be done automatically. Moreover, processes tend to collect data -- the name of your plumber, maybe, or the date you expect the foundation to be done. As you get more sophisticated, you need real workflow, and that's what a workflow engine does for you.
Once you define a process, you can tell the engine, "we have a house to build" and it will automatically lay out the skeleton of the process for you. As you make decisions, it will modify the list of things to be done. If some tasks must be done before others can start, you will only see (and have to think about) the ones that are current.
Sounds great, eh? And it is. But (until now) it's always been rather expensive to get serious on this level. Enter wftk.
So: what's wftk? The wftk, or open-source workflow toolkit is a cheap (in fact, free) system to manage workflow. It is written to allow you the greatest possible flexibility in integration with your existing databases, directories, servers, and what have you. Using the wftk, you can create processes via definition or simple checklist, you can assign tasks by username or by role in your organization (or by role in a single process). You can delegate tasks by sending requests to people. You can do "ad-hoc workflow" by inserting arbitrary process pieces into your process. If you ask me nicely, you can do anything else that I haven't thought of yet. The wftk is intended to document and enable your existing practices, not force you to conform to somebody else's idea of the right way to do things.
More later. Ask me some questions.