Scientific analysis and simulation requires the processing and generation of millions of data samples. These processing and generation tasks are often comprised of multiple smaller tasks divided over multiple (computing) sites. This paper discusses the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) workflow infrastructure, and specifically the Python based workflow library which is used for so called task lifecycle management. The CMS workflow infrastructure consists of three layers: high level specification of the various tasks based on input/output datasets, life cycle management of task instances derived from the high level specification and execution management. The workflow library is the result of a convergence of three CMS subprojects that respectively deal with scientific analysis, simulation and real time data aggregation from the experiment
