So is it useful? It probably comes down to whether you're happier using the Windows Workflow designer or writing code. It doesn't provide anything new that hasn't been available via the .NET ECL or FreeFlow for some time. It is possible that the Windows Workflow designer could be used by a non-technical user, but we cannot see this as being likely. Setting up the activities to successfully communicate with Metastorm BPM is still fairly technical whether achieved via the Designer or via code.

One problem that will always occur when integrating with Metastorm BPM in this fashion is that the links are based on Stage, Action and form name rather than an invisible ID. Because of this, any integration piece must be refreshed whenever the process changes. If the changes are significant, re-applying the integration may be troublesome. Given the ease with which you can change such names in Metastorm, and the benefit for such systems to be 'Agile' (as Metastorm claim), these names are likely to change fairly frequently. Any integration plan will need to take this into account in order to be successful.

If the next release were to include the ability to receive data from Metastorm BPM, then it could potentially become much more useful.