Workflow best practices
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This document discusses five common mistakes made with workflow projects and provides recommendations to avoid them. The mistakes covered are: overusing SharePoint workflow, trying too hard to plan everything upfront, starting with high-profile processes instead of everyday ones, thinking in straight lines rather than using stages, and making forms do too much instead of using forms and workflows together. The recommendations emphasize starting simply, planning to fail initially and improve, focusing on processes with few stakeholders, using stages for easier participation and adjustment, and separating forms, process logic, and data access.
Workflow best practices
- 1. Five Workflow Project Mistakes and Five Ways to Avoid Them Mike Fitzmaurice VP – Workflow Technology, Nintex mikefitz@nintex.com @mikefitz
- 2. Introduction There are more than five These are extra top-of-mind Based on real-world projects Advice applies to any workflow product Warning: no demos
- 4. Mistake 1: Overusing SharePoint Workflow
- 5. Instead: Don’t Always Use SharePoint Workflow
- 6. Good Uses of SharePoint Workflow Managing how people work Document approval & feedback Collaborative reviews & discussions Gathering signatures
- 7. Good Uses of SharePoint Workflow Automating some of SharePoint’s behavior Approve site creation requests Parse incoming email in a list and act on it Publishing items to target Moving project proposals through lifecycles
- 8. Possible Uses of SharePoint Workflow Manipulating other applications, data sources Employee onboarding Resource scheduling SharePoint lists become work queues
- 9. Bad Uses of SharePoint Workflow Transaction-oriented processes Blocking or modifying activity Aggressive data transformations Calculation-intensive processes
- 11. Mistake 2: Trying Too Hard
- 12. Consensus Probably Doesn’t Exist Get 3 employees and 1 manager together Talk about a process Little agreement Documentation disagreement, too
- 13. The Process Will Change
- 14. Exceptions Will Be Ignored
- 15. Instead: Plan to Fail the First Time
- 16. Initial Failure as a Winning Strategy Create an initial workflow just to show how awful (or incomplete) a process is. Only then can you change it.
- 19. Mistake 3: Starting with High-Profile Processes
- 20. Instead: Focus on Everyday Processes
- 21. “Policy is the abdication of thought.” -Nathan Myrvold
- 22. “Process is the reuse of thought.” -Mike Fitzmaurice
- 23. Everyday Processes Steal time Get in the way Annoy users Attract mistakes
- 24. Everyday Processes Have few stakeholders (even if many participants) Are easier to automate Free up time to focus Teach users how to think
- 25. Everyday Processes Are best designed following a screw-up
- 27. Mistake 4: Thinking in Straight Lines
- 29. Sequential workflows get messy – quickly
- 30. Example: Press Release Author Management Legal Publisher
- 31. You may think it looks like this… Start Publisher deploys to public web site End End End Manage r approve s Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No
- 32. Or perhaps this… Start Publisher deploys to public web site End End Author Revis es Yes No Manage r Approv es Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No
- 33. We can make it messier… Professional editorial review Lawyer with question for management
- 34. How About This Instead? Author Manager Legal Publisher
- 35. How About This Instead? (re) Submit? Author End Manager OK? Manager Author Legal Choice Legal Author ManagerPublish Publisher Manager Publisher
- 37. Who Understands All of This? Start Publisher deploys to public web site End End Author Revis es Yes No Manage r Approv es Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No
- 38. Who understands this part? This person. (re) Submit? Manager Author Legal
- 39. Who understands this part? This person. (re) Submit? Author End Manager
- 40. Easy User Participation Any user understands his/her part Few people understand everything Process = sum of stages
- 41. Easy to adjust
- 42. How About This? (re) Submit? Author End Editor OK? Manager Author Legal Choice Legal Author PublisherManager Publisher End Publisher(re) Submit? Editor Author Manager
- 43. Without stages… A lot of If-Then-Else conditions A lot of looping Very confusing diagrams “GoTo” statements
- 45. Mistake 5: Making Forms Do Too Much
- 46. Instead: Use Forms and Workflow Together
- 49. If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if
- 50. If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if
- 51. If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if
- 52. If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if If (user is Bob) then do this and that and the other thing undo that End if If (x and y) then do this do that End if
- 53. Form-Only App Problems Logic either hidden or disconnected Security Complexity without code
- 57. All forms have processes
- 58. Better Example: Workflow on a Form
- 68. Problems That Remain Form rules still needed Form & workflow must be kept in sync Workflow has many extra steps
- 69. This is not 1 form with 31 pages
- 70. This is 1 workflow with 8 forms for 3 people
- 71. Best Example: Workflow with Multiple Forms
- 72. One Form Per Step Content Submit (list item or form library) Workflow Start (manually-executed workflows only) Workflow Task
- 83. Why this is good Forms stay simple Forms are specific to tasks Workflow is simpler Data can live anywhere Easier to secure It doesn’t fight the platform
- 85. Master-Detail
- 86. Problems with Master-Detail No two-phase commit No set integrity
- 88. Use a Repeating Section with a Workflow
- 90. Summary Use SharePoint Workflow when it fits the use case Fail quickly and fix it Focus on everyday processes Embrace stages Use forms and workflow together
- 91. Thank You