A workflow is a reliably repeatable pattern of activity enabled by a systematic organization of resources, defined roles and mass, energy and information flows, into a work process that can be documented and learned. Workflows are always designed to achieve processing intents of some sort, such as physical transformation, service provision, or information processing. Look up Resource in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A function is part of an answer to a question about why some object or process occurred in a system that evolved or was designed with some goal. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The ASCII codes for the word Wikipedia represented in binary, the numeral system most commonly used for encoding computer information. ... This article is about a term used in economics. ... In general, information processing is the changing (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer. ...

Workflows are closely related to other concepts used to describe organizational structure, such as silos, functions, teams, projects, policies and hierarchies. Workflows may be viewed as one primitive building block of organizations. The relationships among these concepts are described later in this entry. An information silo is a computer system that does not provide efficient machine communication systems to other computers. ...

The current (Aug 2007) use of the term workflow is that of computer programming to capture and develop human to machine interaction. Software such as K2 and Microsofts Windows Workflow Foundation aim to provide end users with an easier way to orchestrate or describe complex processing of data in a visual form, much like flow charts but without the need to understand computers or programming. This subsystem is a part of . ... A simple flowchart for what to do if a lamp doesnt work A flowchart (also spelled flow-chart and flow chart) is a schematic representation of an algorithm or a process flowchart is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which include the histogram, Pareto chart, check...

Related concepts

The concept of workflow is closely related to several other terms in operations research and other fields that study the nature of work, either quantitatively or qualitatively, such as artificial intelligence (in particular the sub-discipline of AI Planning) and ethnography. The term workflow is more commonly used in particular industries, such as printing, and professional domains, where it may have particular specialized meanings. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Operations management. ... Garry Kasparov playing against Deep Blue, the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion. ... Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing) refers to the genre of writing that presents varying degrees of qualitative and quantitative descriptions of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. ...

1. Processes: A process is a more specific notion than workflow, and can apply to physical or biological processes, for instance. In the context of concepts surrounding work, a process may be distinguished from a workflow by the fact that it has well-defined inputs, outputs and purposes, while the notion of workflow may apply more generally to any systematic pattern of activity (such as all processes occurring in a machine shop).
2. Planning and Scheduling: A plan is a description of the logically necessary, partially-ordered set of activities required to accomplish a specific goal given certain starting conditions. A plan, when augmented with a schedule and resource allocation calculations, completely defines a particular instance of systematic processing in pursuit of a goal. A workflow may be viewed as an (often optimal or near-optimal) realization of the mechanisms required to repeatedly execute the same (or similar) plans.

Illustration of a physical process: a geyser in action. Process (lat. ... For schedule in computer science, see schedule (computer science). ... In strategic planning, a resource-allocation decision is a plan for using available resources, for example human resources, especially in the near term, to achieve goals for the future. ...

Historical development

Workflows are a distinctly modern phenomenon. While one might imagine individual efforts in rational organization of labor in the construction of historical artifacts such as the pyramids, the idea that one can create value by studying the nature of work itself and organizing it better is a distinctly modern one that should probably be attributed to Adam Smith. It is easiest to understand the development of the notions of workflow in terms of loosely defined eras, with a great deal of overlap. This is about the polyhedron. ... In general, the economic value of something is how much a product or service is worth to someone relative to other things (often measured in money). ... Adam Smith FRSE (baptised June 5, 1723 O.S. / June 16 N.S. – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. ...

Beginnings in Manufacturing ): Notions of workflow are best understood in terms of the historical development of the conceptualization of work itself. The modern history of workflows can be traced to F. W. Taylor (Taylor, 1919) and H. Gantt. Together they launched the study of the deliberate, rational organization of work, in the context of manufacturing. The types of workflow of concern to Taylor and his contemporaries primarily involved mass and energy flows, and these were studied and improved using time and motion studies. Information-based workflows, however, did begin to grow in the same era. A particularly influential figure was Melvil Dewey who, besides inventing the eponymous Dewey Decimal System, was also responsible for the development of the hanging file folder. While the assembly line remains the most famous example of a workflow from this era, the early thinking around work was far more sophisticated than is commonly understood, and the notion of flow was more than a sequential breakdown of processing. The common conceptual models of modern operations research, including flow shops, job shops and queuing systems (Pinedo, 2001) can be found in evolved forms in early 20th century industry. That said, this early era was still limited by its relatively inflexible notions of information flow and thus is identified with the simplest notions of workflow optimization and productivity: throughput and resource utilization. The cultural impact of this era of workflows can be understood through films such as Chaplin's classic Modern Times. These concepts did not stay confined to the shop floor (one magazine invited housewives to puzzle over the fastest way to toast three slices of bread on a one-side, two-slice grill). The popular cheaper by the dozen introduced the emerging concepts to the context of family life. Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 - March 21, 1915) was an American engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. ... Henry Laurence Gantt, A.B.; M.E. (1861-1919) was a mechanical engineer and management consultant who is most famous for developing the Gantt chart in the 1910s. ... Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, making by hand) is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale. ... A time and motion study (or time-motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the Time Study work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the Motion Study work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (best known through the biographical 1950 film and book Cheaper by the Dozen). ... File folder symbol under Windows Vista environment A file folder is a kind of folder that holds loose papers together for organization and protection. ... Cheaper by the Dozen is a 1948 novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. ...

Maturation and Growth ): The invention of the typewriter and the copier allowed the principles of rational organization of labor, first discovered in the manufacturing shop floor. Paper, filing systems and sophisticated systems of managing physically manifest information flows evolved. Alongside this increasing scope of formalized workflows to information work, two other events provided a huge impetus for the development of thought around workflows. These were the development of mathematical optimization techniques and the maturation of the field of optimization and the impact of World War II and the Apollo program, both unprecedented in their demands for the rational organization of work. In cultural terms, the classic management tome, The Organization Man documented the nature of work in this era. Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ... A small, much-used Xerox copier in a high school library. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ...

The Quality Era ): By 1980 two glaring flaws in the nature of the supposedly scientific organization of workflows became apparent. The first was that the methods pioneered by Taylor only applied to humans conceptualized as one-dimensional automatons. Considered in the light of human needs for self-actualization, creative engagement in work and growth (the Maslow hierarchy became a popular tool in this critique), the classical industrial-style organization of work was critiqued as being both dehumanizing and suboptimal in its use of the potential of human beings. The second critique had to do with quality. Workflows conceptualized to be rational with respect at a given time, even with the best of intentions, were understood to acquire inertia and rigidity, rendering them irrational with respect to changing work conditions. The first critique did not gain much traction other than acknowledgement as an issue, but quality, in both analytic and synthetic manifestations, transformed the nature of work through a variety of movements ranging from total quality management to six sigma to more qualitative notions of business process re-engineering (Hammers and Champy, 1991). Under the influence of the quality movement, workflows became the subject of much scrutiny and optimization efforts. Acknowledgement of the dynamic and changing nature of the demands on workflows came in the form of recognition of the phenomena associated with critical paths and moving bottlenecks (Goldratt, E., 1996). Maslows Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which he subsequently extended to include his observations of humans innate curiosity. ...

The Information Era (1990 - 2002): The experiences with the quality movement made it clear that information flows are fundamentally different from the mass and energy flows which inspired the first forms of rational workflows. The low cost and adaptability of information flows were seen as enabling workflows that were at once highly rational in their organization and highly flexible, adaptable and responsive. These insights unleashed a whole range of information technology at workflows in manufacturing, services and pure information work. Flexible manufacturing systems, just in time inventory management and other highly agile and adaptable systems of workflow are products of this era.

The Virtual Workflow Era (2002): The Internet bust of the early years of the 21st century led to a period of caution towards ambitious conceptualizations of smart workflows. Today, a variety of actors in the economy are returning to a consideration of the problem of developing models of work that are at once rational, flexible and capable of taking advantage of globalization, distributed work practices, while allowing the humans embedded in them to realize their full creative potential. Among the most exciting developments are the serious thought given to apparently anarchic systems of organization that have evolved in the open source software community.

See also

• Organizational structure

This does not cite its references or sources. ...

Examples

The following examples illustrate the variety of workflows seen in various contexts:

1. In military planning, a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) is a workflow that defines particular mission types
2. In machine shops, particularly job shops and flow shops, the flow of a part through the various processing stations is a work flow
3. Insurance claims processing is an example of an information-intensive, document-driven workflow
4. Wikipedia editing is an example of a stochastic workflow
5. The Getting Things Done (GTD) system is a model of personal workflow management for information workers

A Concept of Operations is a description of a particular method of deploying resources for a particular military mission. ... There are several people named David Allen who have articles: David Allen, the author of the book Getting Things Done. ...

Features and phenomenology

1. Modeling: Workflow problems can be modeled and analyzed using graph-based formalisms like Petri nets.
2. Measurement: Many of the concepts used to measure scheduling systems in operations research are useful for measuring general workflows. These include throughput, processing time, and other regular metrics.
3. Specialized connotations: The term workflow has specialized connotations in information technology, document management and imaging. Since 1993, one trade consortium specifically focused on workflow management and the interoperability of workflow management systems has been the Workflow Management Coalition.
4. Scientific workflows: found wide acceptance in the fields of bioinformatics and cheminformatics in the early 2000s, where they successfully met the need for multiple interconnected tools, handling of multiple data formats and large data quantities. Also, the paradigm of scientific workflows was close to the well-established tradition of Perl scripting in life-science research organizations, so this adoption represented a natural step forward towards a more structured infrastructure setup.
5. Human-Machine Interaction: In recent years, several conceptualizations of mixed-initiative workflows have been studied, particularly in the military, where automated agents play roles just as humans do. For innovative, adaptive, collaborative human work the techniques of Human Interaction Management are required.

A Petri net is a mathematical representation of discrete distributed systems. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Operations management. ... Information and communication technology spending in 2005 Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ... Originally, a document management system was a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store images of paper documents. ... Imaging refers to the science of obtaining pictures or more complicated spatial representations, such as animations or 3-D computer graphics models, from physical things. ... Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is a consortium, formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems. ... Map of the human X chromosome (from the NCBI website). ... Cheminformatics (also known as chemoinformatics and chemical informatics) is the use of computer and informational techniques, applied to a range of problems in the field of chemistry. ... The 2000s are the current decade, spanning from 2000 to 2009. ... Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Perl Programming Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... Human Interaction Management is a name for the process used to support and monitor tasks while also permitting ongoing process development. ...

Workflow improvement theories

The key driver to gain benefit from the understanding of the workflow process in a business context is that the throughput of the workstream path is modelled in such a way as to evaluate the efficiency of the flow route through internal silos with a view to increasing discrete control of uniquely identified business attributes and rules and reducing potential low efficiency drivers. Evaluation of resources, both physical and human is essential to evaluate hand-off points and potential to create smoother transitions between tasks. Several workflow improvement theories have been proposed and implemented in the modern workplace. These include:

1. Six Sigma
2. Total Quality Management
3. Business process reengineering
4. Lean systems

As a way of bridging the gap between the two, significant effort is being put into defining workflow patterns that can be used to compare and contrast different workflow engines across both of these domains. The often-used six sigma symbol. ... Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. ... Business process reengineering (BPR) is a management approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that exist within and across organizations. ... Lean may be: Lean manufacturing Lean, a drug made from cough syrup. ... A workflow pattern is a specialized form of a design pattern as defined in the area of software engineering. ...

Workflow components

A workflow can usually be described using formal or informal flow diagramming techniques, showing directed flows between processing steps. Single processing steps or components of a workflow can basically be defined by three parameters:

1. input description: the information, material and energy required to complete the step
2. transformation rules, algorithms, which may be carried out by associated human roles or machines, or a combination
3. output description: the information, material and energy produced by the step and provided as input to downstream steps.

Components can only be plugged together if the output of one previous (set of) component(s) is equal to the mandatory input requirements of the following component. Thus, the essential description of a component actually comprises only in- and output that are described fully in terms of data types and their meaning (semantics). The algorithms' or rules' description need only be included when there are several alternative ways to transform one type of input into one type of output - possibly with different accuracy, speed, etc.. Input is the term denoting either an entrance or changes which are inserted into a system and which activate/modify a process. ... In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related disciplines, an algorithm is a finite list of well-defined instructions for accomplishing some task that, given an initial state, will terminate in a defined end-state. ... // Information processing In information processing, output is the process of transmitting information by an object (verb usage). ... A data type is a constraint placed upon the interpretation of data in a type system in computer programming. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Especially when the components are non-local services that are invoked remotely via a computer network, like Web services, additional descriptors like QoS, availability, etc. have to be considered, too. The W3C defines a Web service (many sources also capitalize the second word, as in Web Services) as a software system designed to support interoperable Machine to Machine interaction over a network. ... In the fields of packet-switched networks and computer networking, the traffic engineering term Quality of Service (QoS) refers to control mechanisms that can provide different priority to different users or data flows, or guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow in accordance with requests from the... In telecommunications and reliability theory, the term availability has the following meanings: 1. ...

Workflow applications

Main article: Workflow application A Workflow Application is where various applications, components and people must be involved in the processing of data to complete an instance of a process. ...

Many software systems to support workflows in particular domains exist. Such systems manage tasks such as automatic routing, partially automated processing and integration between different functional software applications and hardware systems that contribute to the value-addition process underlying the workflow.

See also

• Business process management, Business process modeling
• Business-driven development
• Computer-supported collaboration
• Enterprise content management
• Human interaction management
• Smart contracts
• Workflow management coalition

Business process management (BPM) is a field of knowledge at the intersection between management and information technology, encompassing methods, techniques and tools to design, enact, control, and analyze operational business processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other sources of information. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Process Modeling. ... Business Driven Development is a methodology for developing IT solutions that directly satisfy business requirements. ... Computer-supported collaboration (CSC) research focuses on technology that affect groups, organizations communities and societies, e. ... Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is any of the strategies and technologies employed in the information technology industry for managing the capture, storage, security, revision control, retrieval, distribution, preservation and destruction of documents and content. ... Human Interaction Management is a name for the process used to support and monitor tasks while also permitting ongoing process development. ... Smart contracts are protocols, usually associated with user interfaces, that embed or emulate contractual clauses or logic for the purpose of facilitating, verifying, or enforcing the performance of a contract. ...

Notes

References

• Layna Fischer (ed.): 2007 BPM and Workflow Handbook, Future Strategies Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0-9777527-1-3
• Layna Fischer: Workflow Handbook 2005, Future Strategies, ISBN 0-9703509-8-8
• Layna Fischer: Excellence in Practice, Volume V: Innovation and Excellence in Workflow and Business Process Management, ISBN 0-9703509-5-3
• Keith Harrison-Broninski. Human Interactions: The Heart and Soul of Business Process Management. ISBN 0-929652-44-4
• Holly Yu: Content and Work Flow Management for Library Websites: Case Studies, Information Science Publishing, ISBN 1-59140-534-3
• Wil van der Aalst, Kees van Hee: Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems, B&T, ISBN 0-262-72046-9
• Marlon Dumas, Wil van der Aalst, Arthur ter Hofstede: Process-Aware Information Systems, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-66306-9
• Setrag Khoshafian, Marek Buckiewicz: Introduction to Groupware, Workflow and Workgroup Computing, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-02946-7
• Rashid N. Kahn: Understanding Workflow Automation: A Guide to Enhancing Customer Loyalty, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-061918-3
• Dan C. Marinescu: Internet-Based Workflow Management: Towards a Semantic Web, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-43962-2
• Frank Leymann, Dieter Roller: Production Workflow: Concepts and Techniques, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-021753-0
• Michael Jackson, Graham Twaddle: Business Process Implementation: Building Workflow Systems, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-17768-4
• Alec Sharp, Patrick McDermott: Workflow Modeling, Artech House Publishers, ISBN 1-58053-021-4
• Toni Hupp: Designing Work Groups, Jobs, and Work Flow, Pfeiffer & Company, ISBN 0-7879-0063-X
• Gary Poyssick, Steve Hannaford: Workflow Reengineering, Adobe, ISBN 1-56830-265-7
• Dave Chaffey: Groupware, Workflow and Intranets: Reengineering the Enterprise with Collaborative Software, Digital Press, ISBN 1-55558-184-6
• Wolfgang Gruber: Modeling and Transformation of Workflows With Temporal Constraints, IOS Press, ISBN 1-58603-416-2
• Andrzej Cichocki, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Darrell Woelk: Workflow and Process Automation Concepts and Technology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 0-7923-8099-1
• Alan R. Simon, William Marion: Workgroup Computing: Workflow, Groupware, and Messaging, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-057628-9
• Penny Ann Dolin: Exploring Digital Workflow, Delmar Thomson Learning, ISBN 1-4018-9654-5
• Gary Poyssick: Managing Digital Workflow, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-010911-8
• Frank J. Romano: PDF Printing & Workflow, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-020837-X
• James G. Kobielus: Workflow Strategies, Hungry Minds, ISBN 0-7645-3012-7
• Alan Rickayzen, Jocelyn Dart, Carsten Brennecke: Practical Workflow for SAP, Galileo, ISBN 1-59229-006-X
• Alan Pelz-Sharpe, Angela Ashenden: E-process: Workflow for the E-business, Ovum, ISBN 1-902566-65-3
• Stanislaw Wrycza: Systems Development Methods for Databases, Enterprise Modeling, and Workflow Management, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, ISBN 0-306-46299-0
• Database Support for Workflow Management, Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 0-7923-8414-8
• Clarence A. Ellis: Workflow technology, Computer Supported Co-operative Work, M. Beaudouin-Lafon (ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 1999, pp. 29-54
• Matthew Searle: Developing With Oracle Workflow

External links

Look up Workflow in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Workflow patterns
• "Knowledge Based Techniques to Increase the Flexibility of Workflow Management" by Barbara Dellen, Frank Maurer, Gerhard Pews
• The State of Workflow May 2004 article by Tom Baeyens
• Business Process Modelling vs. Workflow Management
• Workflow Management Coalition