Part 1
First, if you do not know what workflow is then we might be in a little trouble.... Workflow is basically a sequence of events, operations or processes. Work is work and that is really what people are doing, but the description of that work as it goes through a process or evolves is the flow. Workflow concepts are one of the more basic building blocks of a procedure and larger processes. You could say that workflow is the fundamental backbone of process management. Workflow is probably best represented as a flow chart visually, but is usually more integrated with computer processing and integration.
When your business workflow is described, it almost always involves a technological component to track and manage each of the individual processes ( workflows ). Part of the business context in workflow management is documenting a pattern or process to be easily learned, duplicated and repeated. Providing a machine, human or process a way to most efficiently complete a task. Part of this process is to always improve the process, thus improving the workflow and interaction between all parties in the process. Some of the theories used in todays markets include Six Sigma, Lean systems and Total Quality Management. All current process modeling involves computers and software, the systems are too complex to be written out on paper anymore.
Process Modeling
One of the first phases and parts of the management software implementation or design involves a modeling phase. Often the process management software includes this as part of it's development system. This initial phase is often a visual representation of the process flows that are currently in place in the business. This modeling is done with a visual design tool such as visio, which is one of the most common. However, many of the workflow management software solutions and vendors have their own proprietary solution and tool for this part of the design phase.
A Process is a grouping of tasks or activities that link to and from each other in a flow. This process or workflow usually has a single purpose or goal to achieve. Defining a full process from scratch does take some time, but it needs to be done. Conditions that invoke the process must be defined and the conditions affect the flow too. During the process modeling phase you will need to include all files, documents, steps, tasks and interactions that occur throughout each process. Define the human interactions as well as the non-human processes that can be automated along the way too, you don't have to fully develop them at this time, but it is a good time to make a note of where improvements can be made. The modeling tool you use must be able to handle all the human to human as well as the system to system interactions. It also needs to be able to handle all the events that can invoke the process, as well as end it.
All this documentation in a single visual tool might seem impossible, but it is not. One of the ways that these new tools represent all the different forms of activities is by using widely accepted standard, known as BPMN, which stands for Business Process Modeling Notation.
The outcome of the process modeling phase usually yields a somewhat executable process flow. The next step is to be able to migrate that visual flow into a working executable format. The type of business process modeling format that most of the business process modeling tools use, such as XPDL or BPEL. These formats, or languages are understood by most of the process modeling tools out there today. XPDL stands for the XML Process Definition Language and was standardized by the Workflow Management Coalition ( WfMC ), BPEL stands for Business Process Execution Language ( short for Web Services Business Process Execution Language ) and is used for specifying interactions with Web based services.
In the next post, I will continue with this article and move into more of the process implementation stage.
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