General question about Teamsite workflow

At the moment, we only use the ootb workflow. We've had a couple of problems recently that we can get around using workflows (the main one relating to our users submitting the generated pages but not the data records).

I'm interested in the broader issue, rather than creating workflows to solve individual problems as they arise. What do people here use them for, what sort of processes?

Also, do you use the modeller or create them another way?

thanks,
Rachel

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nipper

At the moment, we only use the ootb workflow. We've had a couple of problems recently that we can get around using workflows (the main one relating to our users submitting the generated pages but not the data records).

I'm interested in the broader issue, rather than creating workflows to solve individual problems as they arise. What do people here use them for, what sort of processes?

Also, do you use the modeller or create them another way?

thanks,
Rachel

Well you get what you pay for. The OOTB workflows do what they are designed to do, that is take said file, and move it through the "process"

You are eluding to the much larger issue is what does my project need in a workflow ? That is an answer that is very project specific and does not lend itself to a sound bite or a post in a forum.

That being said, the WF should do the mundane, repetitive tasks associated with getting content out to the website. So in my environment when a user changes a page, it grabs the associated DCR, generates all required files, attaches all images referenced in the DCR, and then starts the WF process. I also have some index pages that are built with a number of other DCRs, so I attach and rebuild those pages as well.

Needless to say, this is all custom code, I use WFT which is the older workflow technology. WFM should be able to do what I need, but I stayed with WFT.

I would strongly suggest getting an architect to spend some time defining the requirements for a WF.

HTH

Andy

rach

Well you get what you pay for. The OOTB workflows do what they are designed to do, that is take said file, and move it through the "process"

You are eluding to the much larger issue is what does my project need in a workflow ? That is an answer that is very project specific and does not lend itself to a sound bite or a post in a forum.

That being said, the WF should do the mundane, repetitive tasks associated with getting content out to the website. So in my environment when a user changes a page, it grabs the associated DCR, generates all required files, attaches all images referenced in the DCR, and then starts the WF process. I also have some index pages that are built with a number of other DCRs, so I attach and rebuild those pages as well.

Needless to say, this is all custom code, I use WFT which is the older workflow technology. WFM should be able to do what I need, but I stayed with WFT.

I would strongly suggest getting an architect to spend some time defining the requirements for a WF.

HTH

Andy

Sorry, I know that was a bit vague. I've been tasked with finding out the "business benefits" of using custom-built workflows. I find it easy to give specific examples of how we could use it, less easy to get an idea of the bigger picture. I was hoping that by seeing how others were using it, I would be able to connect the dots (as it were).

Migrateduser

May I respectfully suggest that you are approaching the question backwards? There are no inherent benefits to custom built workflows. In an ideal world, any enterprise software package you bought would do exactly what you wanted it to do out of the box. However, as one of my old bosses said when we were trying to purchase a system for which we really needed some cutting edge features, "If anyone actually made a system that did what we wanted it to do, no one else would want to buy it."

Rather than trying to think about the value in the abstract, you need to have a good business analyst and a good technical architect look at what workflow needs to accomplish in your organization. If those requirements happen to be met by the out of the box workflows, that's wonderful! You just saved yourself thousands of dollars worth of design, code, testing, training, and future regression testing with upgrades.

However, if you look and listen carefully, I bet you'll find some evidence that the OOTB workflows aren't meeting every requirement you have. Do you hear people complaining about their usability? Is any part of the process manual? Are things slipping through the process - for instance, are people publishing HTML files without publishing the associated images and stylesheets? Are there any notifications to external systems that need to be happening that aren't?

Bottom line - Technology is only valuable when it solves identified business problems.