Rockley - Chapter 11 - Designing Workflow
What is workflow?
Rockley says that workflow, as it relates to content management, defines how people and tasks interact to create, update, manage, and deliver content. A properly designed workflow helps organizations perform tasks smoothly and efficiently.
Rockley says there are three components of workflow:
- Roles (players)
Multiple people play different roles in producing, delivering, and storing content. Players can include authors, reviewers, editors, and approvers. The workflow doesn't tell players how to do their part. Instead, it tells them that they are part of the process, what that part is, and when their part must be completed. - Responsibilities (tasks)
A task is defined as a particular series of actions that accomplish a particular goal. There are several different types of tasks: tasks that add value (work tasks), tasks that move the task along ( transport tasks), and tasks that introduce a delay (wait tasks). - Processes (flow)
A process has a starting point and an ending point. Separate individual tasks must be completed between the beginning and end to reach the final goal.
Rockley says effective workflow is just common sense. It provides many benefits in the content management world, including the fact that:
- Departments that should be creating content or be aware of it are included.
- Content and supporting material are created in a logical order.
- Content is reviewed at the proper time by the proper people.
- Departments are notified when new content is published.
- Duplicate efforts are eliminated.
- Content is stored properly.
To create a workflow, you should review a process as it currently exists and then work to improve and simplify it. It is important to include everything that needs to take place in a process, but what should happen. Analyze, change, and test the tasks for a smooth sequence. It provides these benefits:
- Greater efficiency - work is done more quickly and delays are eliminated
- Better quality - authors can focus on their individual tasks
- Lower costs - duplicate efforts are eliminated
How are workflows depicted?
Rockley suggests two formats for designing workflow:
- Flowcharts - depicts a process in a linear format -- from beginning to end using symbols. There can be some frustration trying to read flowcharts if universally understood symbols are not used.
- Swimlane diagrams - depicts processes in a lane format, showing tasks that occur concurrently, who does what, and when.
Rockley suggests that a workflow that will be supported by a workflow system should use the swimlane format.
How do business requirements affect workflow?
Each organization can make business decisions that affect how a workflow is used:
- Budgets
- Time dedicated
- Union job descriptions
- Physical locations
- Suppliers
How should tasks be written?
Rockley recommends that tasks be written in a consistent verb-noun format. Everyone who reads a task should be able to understand it. Write tasks descriptively so they are not open to misinterpretation.
How is an effective workflow designed?
- Determine a starting point, whether it is a new product or a crisis situation. If tasks that are not part of an automated workflow, indicate where the automated workflow starts.
- Determine a place for the workflow to end.
- Identify all the players from the beginning to the end of the workflow. A task should be associated with a role.
- Sketch the tasks by identifying which tasks align with each player. Look for potential conflicts.
- Identify interactions patterns among players and tasks.
- Set timeframes for tasks and select an start and end for the entire workflow
- Identify notification patterns.
- Identify approval patterns.
- Determine the "what if" scenarios that may affect the workflow.
- Examine final workflow for simplification.
- Repeat the steps for all the workflow processes needed to support the unified content life cycle.
Selecting a workflow system.
Rockley says that selecting a workflow system should come after the workflow has been designed. It is important to make sure that the system will do what needs to be done.
posted by Anne Peterson | 6:49 PM
11 Comments:
I'll be interested in reading what Carl and Anne have to say about this chapter (especially regarding workflow [diagrams].
Rockley defines components of workflow as consisting of roles, responsibilities, and processes. Under roles Rockley discusses players. I think she minimizes the importance of one of the most important players in the workflow--the end-user. I realize that the end-user doesn't actually produce work, but everything we produce is produced for someone's consumption.
In my opinion, tasks are what workflow is all about. If I see a workflow diagram, it generally lists the steps that need to be taken to produce some useable output. The tasks she lists are useful depictions of what needs to be done to produce a workflow diagram.
It seems to me that processes are simply an extension of tasks; by their very nature, processes induce the performance of tasks. How picky do we want to be about our worflow diagrams?
I'm not currently involved in the production of documentation, but I do work in a manufacturing environment (that has workflow). We don't have workflow diagrams because we all understand our jobs and what tasks are required to complete the jobs. The only place I ever worked that had anything that approached a workflow diagram was a grease-pencil chart that gave a brief job description and the date the job was due. A workflow diagram could be one of those things that gobbles up a lot of your time with a somewhat limited degree of usefulness.
Those of you who are actively working in this field--do you use them?
Since I work with the documentation end of things, I haven't been involved in any official workflow diagramming. Our IS department works with business analysts to develop workflows. From what I've seen, they use a specific project management software.
IS has developed an automated workflow tool to help process applications (paper or electronic documents) we receive requesting property/casualty, work comp, life, or group health coverage.
My department publishes the steps that have been developed in the final workflow--what do the processors do and what does the system do for them.
There are tools available that streamline and automate underwriting for smaller, straightforward business insurance apps. This frees up time for underwriters to spend on the more complex, high premium cases.
I've personally never seen the swimlane method before and I think I'd like it.
Is insurance ever really interesting?
Rockley correctly identified roles, tasks, and flows but I am mystified that she totally missed the fourth aspect of a workflow system - "state".
Each of the three elements identified, below, can possess multiple states. Suppose, for example that Larry Hennis is an identified editor in a workflow system. Normally jobs would be edited by him. But suppose he goes on vacation? Then what? In sophisticated workflow systems Larry's "state" would automatically change to "unavailable." Then the system, if designed properly, would also change the state of a backup editor and change that person's state to "primary editor - active".
The effect would ripple throughout the system and the actual flow would be altered (changing the flow's "state" on a temporary basis.
I agree with Larry that the workflow diagram can be a useful tool in understanding the tasks in a process. Personally, I work better when a have a physical representation of what makes up a process, so the workflow diagram sounds useful to me. The swimflow would probably work best for me, as it would physically show the hierarchy of each task in the overall process.
After thinking about it, I’ve only seen a few workflow diagrams in the documentation at my job, and I think some of the more complex processes could be made clearer with the use of the diagrams. It could help us better understand the process and the players we have to involve in what stages.
I have never been part of this process but I understand what Rockley is saying. The importance and connection of each person working with the content would be crucial for a successfull project. We have processes listed on our intranet at work but they are very simplistic documents and they are not documents that can be created, updated or managed by more than a few individuals, usually a training team or management. The little people can only view them.
I have only worked in restaurants so I haven't seen any of these methods used in the work place.
I have never really seen the idea of workflow in the workplace, but I can definitely see how it would benefit almost any organization that deals with content management. I imagine that my internship this summer - where I'll be writing content for publications and promotional materials - will give me a lot more experience with workflow and will allow me to see how the company organizes and assigns tasks.
As important as it seems to have workflow documents I think that Anne touched on it a little in her example that these workflow charts allow for more time to be spent on the more important aspects of a job. These tools allow for users to concentrate more on their job rather than wasting time by creating something each and every time you need to use it. Again, content management becomes apparent with the ability to reuse and modify any existing helpful tools.
Workflow exists regardless of whether we have a chart or visual to show us how it should work. Even without any guidance or workflow charts, business would carry on, tasks would get done, people would work their roles. But (and this is a big 'but') without a designed workflow system, people would get lost, argue about what they're responsible for, lose track of time, or do work that someone else is already doing.
I think it's important to look at this chapter as a method of streamlining a process that already exists. That, through a little preparatory work, you can make your workplace run more smoothly and efficiently than before.
I imagine what my job would be like if we didn't have pre-designed workflow. I work in a computerized kitchen, where orders are separated by roles. Food that is done by the fry cook only show up on the fry cook's screen, and when the food is done, the fry cook selects it as 'done' on the computer screen. When a whole table's order is done, the expediter sends it out to the table. This whole system helps the kitchen achieve very short ticket times, improves food quality (because it doesn't sit in the hot window waiting to be taken to the table), and keeps the kitchen from arguing about who should do which orders. Without our computer system, I think the kitchen would be in chaos.
I am in the same boat as Bynum I am to new to this world and haven’t experienced much of it yet.
Work flow seems like a pretty basic concept but to be used properly I think it requires a lot of planning. I have never used work flow full fledged but I have, of course, been invovled inprojects that have had bits doled out to each participant. It doesn't always work the best though. Like in art class when everyone gets a tiny piece of the picture to recreate and when you put them all together it looks like a massive mess. This shows that communication is still key in the project. I'm sure these scenarios will get better when i am part of a group that has been assigned by training or talent verses "...all the 2's get together here and all the 3's meet over here.."
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