1. A method comprising: outputting by a workflow instance on a computing device, to an output store, a document comprising a specified attribute of a document source activity identifier, wherein the specified attribute of the document source activity identifier is combined with a unique source activity name; retrieving by the workflow instance from the output store at runtime, a document based on a provided combination of the document source activity identifier and the unique source activity name, wherein the retrieving of the document is based on a query for matching the unique source activity name across workflow activities; and executing the workflow instance based on stored data associated only with the workflow instance, wherein the work flow instance execution does not perform an action to bind the document outputted by the workflow instance with the document retrieved by the workflow instance wherein the action to bind requires knowledge of information to be used for binding of data components to activities within a workflow instance, thereby retrieving documents across workflow activities of the workflow instance at runtime and without the retrieving workflow instance having prior knowledge of the outputting workflow instance.