title: Workflow Foundation suitability - duplicating stored information
body: <p>Given that in Workflow Foundation, a "Workflow Instance" stores the information about how far through the workflow that instance is, how would people recommend reporting on that?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Contrived Example</strong><br>
  Consider a workflow for repairing a PC. It has simple states: Investigating, Obtaining parts, Repairing, Returning.</p>
  
  <p>In theory I might also have in my database a table called <code>RepairJob</code>, where each record relates to the job. There will be foreign keys to technicians, skus etc.</p>
  
  <p>However, I might want to query <code>RepairJob</code>s by their current state:</p>
  
  <pre><code>select * from RepairJob where StatusId = @statusId
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But effectively this means somehow duplicating the current "state" of a <code>RepairJob</code> both in the workflow instance and in the database. It means that my workflow actions need to do something when activated that fires off the database update.</p>
  
  <p>Is this the accepted use for Workflow Foundation?  How are other people using it?</p>
  
  <p>Many thanks in advance.</p>