1. A method for asynchronous handling a faulting event for an activity of a workflow, said method comprising: defining a state automaton for an activity, said state automaton including at least an executing state, a faulting state, and a closed state, said state automaton classifying an execution lifetime of the activity; defining the activity to include a plurality of work items, said defined activity having an execution hierarchy for the plurality of work items, each of the work items including an operation for executing a portion of the activity; transitioning each of the work items to the executing state; executing the included operation of transitioned work items in the executing state; identifying one or more of the transitioned work items in response to the faulting event as a function of the execution hierarchy and the included operation; and asynchronously handling the faulting event by transitioning the one or more identified work items to the faulting state while executing the included operation of the remaining transitioned work items not identified in response to the faulting event.