Workflow

All of us are faced from time to time with decisions about workflow. Whether we are conscious of them or recognize them as workflow decisions, I daresay we are affected daily by these decisions, both past, present and future.

What is it? What is workflow? It is the sequence of industrial, administrative or other process through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.

Automation of processes via software brings us a step closer to describing the workflows that affect or govern both content creators and distributors. Automation of these processes, in theory, should increase efficiencies and thereby allow for more creativity/productivity.

I’ll break the discussion into three broad categories:

• content creation workflows
• operational workflows
• production workflows

Let’s define each category and cite some examples.

Content Creation workflows are the processes dealing with composition of content. In narrow but familiar strokes print, web, email, mobile, video, music. In broader strokes email, correspondence, speeches, communication of any kind whether it’s destined for an audience of one or millions. Examples of this workflow are basic publishing, editorial workflows, XML, etc.

Operational workflows are the processes dealing with the administrative, management and organizational structures of content. Examples of operational workflows include collaboration, review and approval, job tracking/job management, organization workflows such as digital asset management or Version Cue.

Production workflows are the processes dealing with the distribution of content. Examples of production workflows include trapping and imposition, validation of code for websites, data mining and cleansing for email distribution, testing workflows for mobile content publishing.

Regardless of which workflow you may be making a decision about there are some factors that are constant:

• Scope of the decision or the potential project
• Requirements of the workflow in question
• Diversity of participants
• Existing technology
• and last but not least—budget

Stay vigilant to this decision-making matrix or methodology. Don’t be seduced by technology. The realities of your work environment and the requirements you have of your workflow should govern your technology choices.

Scope of project

You should be able to define the beginning and the end of the workflow you are deciding upon. For example: it can be as narrow as preflighting which simply deals with the verification that all resources are present and validation that the content is viable for a production workflow. It begins with an examination of the project components and ends with documentation and communication. Scope.

Requirements

What do you require this workflow to do for you? What functions must it perform? Who needs to use it? You should be able to define the key features or goals you wish to achieve with your workflow decisions. For example: you need to organize your digital files and whatever tool you choose should be able to record all the file formats you typically work with. That’s a requirement.

Diversity of participants

Who will need to use the workflow? Are they members of your department? Or will staff from other departments need to participate? Inside your network or outside? Will participants need to work remotely while they travel or from a home office? What technology do they possess or lack? Skill sets need to be considered when making this workflow. For example: you need to create a review and approval process for both internal participants as well as your ad agency. Your internal participants are on a Wintel platform whereas the agency is on Macs. Diversity of Participants.

Existing Technology

“Boots on the ground” or the reality of your existing technology will affect your choices. If you don’t already possess an inventory then take one and factor that inventory, its age, and whether or not it adheres to technology standards when making decisions about adopting a workflow. For example: you are making a decision about job tracking AND your IT department has the company standardized on a SQL database. It would make sense then to narrow your decision to job tracking applications or developers experienced in SQL.

Budget

How much do you have to spend on this decision? Was this identified and accounted for in the annual budgeting process or will have to petition for special consideration and approval. For example: the follow up question to this will be, how long before the implementation pays for itself. Executing an ROI (return on investment) will be an inevitable exercise for any project of consequence. It’s a good exercise and helps you think like a stakeholder in the company.

A Word About “off the shelf” vs. development

I am often times surprised by how quickly decision-makers give in to the quick suggestion of someone on staff who eagerly volunteers to whip something up on a development platform the staffer is familiar with. Something along the lines of, “oh, I know Filemaker like the back of my hand. I can create something easily with this for you.”

Unless you have clearly defined your requirements and have the appetite to manage a development project (rather than leave it to the enterprising but inexperienced developer) including setting goals and timelines and managing staff then managing such a project to completion may not make sense.

Additionally, can you handle the resulting technical support issues that your diverse participants will experience? Is the development platform common? Because if your staffer gets hit by a bus or quits, there better be other developers out there, readily available, to finish the project or continue to support it. Is the development platform standard and are you committed to staying with if for at least 3 years. What’s the ROI on development costs?

While off the shelf products may be limited and don’t perfectly fit your requirements, finding one that’s a close fit is usually less expensive than the development route. Another benefit to off the shelf products is that they often have a large selection of add-ons and pre-built solutions that, as-is or with a little customization, may answer workflow needs without the need to invest in custom development.

Off the shelf choices are often built on industry standard platforms. They enjoy the benefit of being tested in a variety of environments with all the kinks worked out. There are usually existing technical support services to ease implementation and answer on-going issues. If you’ve chosen well, odds are your chosen commercial software developer will be around for a while.

I will break down upcoming articles and focus on content creation workflows, operational workflows and production workflows specifically. Not only will we examine examples of these workflows but specific products as well.