1. A method for performing an automated business process, the method comprising: storing a first database at a data storage system; storing a second database at the data storage system, the first database having a different schema than the second database; displaying, by a design computing system, a workflow design user interface containing a catalog of available activities, the catalog of available activities including names of activities available to be included in a workflow; initializing, at a server computing system, a workflow instance, the workflow instance being an instance of the workflow that facilitates performance by an enterprise of a business process, the business process being a structured set of tasks routinely performed by the enterprise to accomplish a specific business goal, the workflow instance comprising a plurality of activities, each activity in the plurality of activities comprising a set of computer-executable code that when executed facilitates performance of a task in the business process; initializing, at the server computing system, a list object, the list object being a software object enabling access to a list, the list comprising a data item collection, each data item in the data item collection comprising an item key field specifying an item key, no two data items in the data item collection having item key fields specifying a shared item key, each data item in the data item collection comprising a set of additional fields, each field in the set of additional fields having a value derived from the first database or each field in the set of additional fields having the value derived from the second database, the list object implementing an interface, the interface being the same regardless of whether fields in the set of additional fields have values derived from the first database or the second database, the item keys specified by the item key fields being of a same data type regardless of whether fields in the set of additional fields have values derived from the first database or the second database; receiving, at the design computing system, activity selection input from a user via the workflow design user interface, the activity selection input indicating a selected activity selected by the user from the catalog of available activity, displaying, by the design computing system in response to receiving the activity selection input, a natural language sentence in the workflow design user interface, the natural language sentence describing the task of the business process facilitated by the selected activity, the natural language sentence including an input feature inserted within the natural language sentence, the input feature enabling the user to directly bind data to an input property of the selected activity by entering input data into the input feature, and the input feature further enabling the user to indirectly bind data to the input property of the selected activity by designing a lookup query through a lookup dialog user interface displayed by the design computing system, wherein the design computing system selects input data based on the lookup query; initiating, at the server computing system, after initializing the workflow instance and the list object, execution of the workflow instance; accessing, at the server computing system, during execution of the workflow instance in response to executing one of the activities in the workflow instance, a data item in the list by invoking an access method of the list object, the access method being a member of the interface; and completing, at the server computing system, execution of the workflow instance, thereby completing a cycle of the business process.