Although the workflow module doesn't define any explicit dependency on the dms one, the workflow bootstrap contains configuration for commands in the dms module (/modules/dms/trees/dms/commands) and magnolia doesn't work properly when workflow is installed and dms isn't.

The following is the exception you get while starting magnolia (apart from removing this dependency we should also make sure that the module registration doesn't try to load dummy module definitions without a class defined):

WARN info.magnolia.cms.beans.config.ModuleRegistration ModuleRegistration.java(readModuleDefinitions:201) 27.09.2006 11:18:19 no proper module definition file found for [dms]: will add an adhoc definition
INFO info.magnolia.cms.beans.config.ModuleRegistration ModuleRegistration.java(registerModule:355) 27.09.2006 11:18:19 Registration of module adminInterface completed in 0 second(s)
INFO info.magnolia.cms.beans.config.ModuleRegistration ModuleRegistration.java(registerModule:355) 27.09.2006 11:18:19 Registration of module cache completed in 0 second(s)
ERROR info.magnolia.cms.util.ClassUtil ClassUtil.java(classForName:54) 27.09.2006 11:18:19 Unable to load class "" due to a ClassNotFoundException
ERROR info.magnolia.cms.beans.config.ModuleRegistration ModuleRegistration.java(registerModule:378) 27.09.2006 11:18:19 can't register module [dms] due to a java.lang.ClassNotFoundException exception:
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException:
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:242)