Workflow management systems (WfMSs) are software systems for supporting coordination and cooperation among members of an organization whilst they are performing complex business tasks. According to our survey, the previously proposed and implemented distributed WfMSs need the existence of some centralized workflow engines for their operations. In this thesis, we proposed a distributed WfMS which does not need any centralized workflow engine. It is called XDWfMS (XML-based Non-centralized Workflow Management System). It is with the following features: (1) It employs the XML technology for the document exchange and storage; (2) It is document-based system; (3) The generated workflow document is protected by itself without the need of a server; (4) The technology of the digital signature is applied to authenticate the action of all the particapants; (5) There is no any centralized workflow engine needed during the execution of a workflow. The implementation and the related experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system is practical.