Originally posted by John Todd:
seems like rocket science !
I understand ....... nothing
Some of the vendors try to make it look like magic. Let's back up and talk about an example workflow that might help. Say new ads on our web site go through this process: Marketing has an idea, copywriter writes an ad, editor reviews it, legal dept reviews it again, the ad goes to a
test web server, manager approves it, it goes to public web site. It's easy to imagine people passing paper around to do most of this. In a nifty automated system the marketing guy would sketch out the idea and hit "Send to copywriter". The work might appear in the copywriter's in-bin like e-mail, or it might pop up like an instant message. The copywriter makes up some good stuff and hits "Send to Editor". As each person finishes their bit, the work goes to the next person or to the next server.
A slick system would make some decisions, too. It might say "This idea relates to kitchen appliances and should go to copywriter Steve, but this other idea is auto parts and should go to copywriter Mary." It might say "if the editor hasn't reviewed new copy in 2 hours send mail to the CEO."
Real life is of course much messier. What if the editor rejects the first draft of the copy and sends it back? What if legal says You can't promise our website will make you lose weight!
I mentioned Q,R,S,T above. This was a very clever separation of different parts of the problem. And notice it's all flow oriented and says nothing about the work to be done. I like to think of the workflow engine passing along a 3x5 card that tells the next person what task they should do with enough keys to look up the information they need. "Review the copy for the new
fertilizer ad which you can find (link) HERE"
Some of the top workflow products mix work and flow. For example: System scans inbound mail to image, clerk reviews image and sets "keywords" like "this letter is about toasters", system routes the image to the toaster guy, toaster guy reviews image and sends reply to customer. The product might handle all this, soup to nuts. Great stuff if that's exactly what you want to do, but we don't work with images.
Having fun yet?