The terms document and content (or business content) are used here in a somewhat interchangeable manner. Documents and content, both, are objects of enterprise knowledge. They are containers that define, structure, and store information used within an organization. Distinctions between the two terms can be drawn where content relates more to a fully structured entity (as in a relational database) such as a record or item. Document refers to semi-structured information created using officeware, such as Word, InfoPath, Excel, as well as other applications that create electronic forms of formatted information. A knowledge portal stores content in a list and documents in a document library, which is a special type of list. A document, therefore, is a special type of content. In general, both content and document should be viewed as containers of enterprise knowledge and the terms can be treated as interchangeable.

A content type is used to define and organize documents and content by managing the structure of their state information (templates and metadata – information about the content) and the execution of their behavior (event handlers, workflow and policy) in a centralized, reusable, and extensible way. A content type encapsulates the specifications that define a category of content and are inheritable. In this manner, a content type increases the semantic meaning, structure and management of content.

A process defines and controls the execution of tasks the organization performs to conduct its daily business activities. Activities are the building blocks of a process. Activities can be broken down into tasks and sub-tasks.

The Process Diagram in Figure 1 shows the relationship between content type, process, activity, and the Content Technology Architecture. The Content Technology Architecture provides the infrastructure needed to create content-centric processes. Content (document) and process are tightly integrated by defining a content type for the content and associating it with a template, metadata, workflows, and information management policies. The content type is then used to initiate, execute, record, and complete a business process.

 Figure1: Content-Centric Process Diagram