1. Workflow Best Practices (and Mistakes to Avoid) Mike Fitzmaurice VP – Workflow Technology Nintex mikefitz@nintex.com @mikefitz

2. Who am I? Original SharePoint evangelist 11 years at Microsoft 8 years at Nintex Working with workflow solutions for over 25 years Past lives in development, IT, R&D, power usage

4. Focus on Everyday Processes

5. Handle returns from our Retail Stores. I need to simplify Internal Procurement. Streamline cross-product Sales and Marketing lead processing. Automate Loan Approvals.

6. What is my Job Task? Can you approve this Equipment Purchase? I need this Expense Report approved. Can you approve my Vacation Request? I need to Onboard a New Employee. Please Review this Document ASAP. Route tasks to Launch the New Product 3 rd party vendor needs a New Account to collaborate. Submit that Service Request Form remotely. Who is on point to finish the Campaign Materials? How is that Sales Proposal coming together? Route tasks to Launch the New Product Here’s some Social Content to publish.

7. What is my Job Task? Can you approve this Equipment Purchase? I need this Expense Report approved. Can you approve my Vacation Request? I need to Onboard a New Employee. Please Review this Document ASAP. Route tasks to Launch the New Product 3 rd party vendor needs a New Account to collaborate. Submit that Service Request Form remotely. Who is on point to finish the Campaign Materials? How is that Sales Proposal coming together? Route tasks to Launch the New Product Here’s some Social Content to publish.

8. Everyday Processes Steal time Get in the way Annoy users Attract mistakes

9. What is my Job Task? Can you approve this Equipment Purchase? I need this Expense Report approved. Can you approve my Vacation Request? I need to Onboard a New Employee. Please Review this Document ASAP. Route tasks to Launch the New Product 3 rd party vendor needs a New Account to collaborate. Submit that Service Request Form remotely. Who is on point to finish the Campaign Materials? How is that Sales Proposal coming together? Route tasks to Launch the New Product Here’s some Social Content to publish.

10. What is my Job Task? Can you approve this Equipment Purchase? I need this Expense Report approved. Can you approve my Vacation Request? I need to Onboard a New Employee. Please Review this Document ASAP. Route tasks to Launch the New Product 3 rd party vendor needs a New Account to collaborate. Submit that Service Request Form remotely. Who is on point to finish the Campaign Materials? How is that Sales Proposal coming together? Route tasks to Launch the New Product Here’s some Social Content to publish.

11. Everyday Processes Have few stakeholders (even if many participants) Are easier to automate Free up time to focus Teach users how to think

13. Failure

14. Consensus Probably Doesn’t Exist

15. The Process Will Change

16. Exceptions Will Be Ignored

17. 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.

18. Process Step Start Simple Automate this first Automate these later

19. Review. Revise. Repeat.

21. Stages are Your Friend

22. Sequential workflows get messy – quickly

23. Example: Press Release Author Management Legal Publisher

24. You may think it looks like this… Start Publisher deploys to public web site End Manage r approve s Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No

25. Or perhaps this… Start Publisher deploys to public web site End Author Revis es Yes No Manage r Approv es Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No

26. We can make it messier… Professional editorial review Lawyer with question for management

27. How About This Instead? AuthorManagerLegalPublisher

28. How About This Instead? (re) Submit? Author EndManager OK? Manager AuthorLegal Choice Legal AuthorManagerPublish Publisher Manager Publisher

29. Easy User Participation

30. Who Understands All of This? Start Publisher deploys to public web site End Author Revis es Yes No Manage r Approv es Yes No Lawyer Approv es Yes No

31. Who understands this part? This person. (re) Submit? Manager AuthorLegal

32. Who understands this part? This person. (re) Submit? Author EndManager

33. Easy to adjust

34. How About This? (re) Submit? Author EndManager OK? Manager AuthorLegal Choice Legal Author Publisher Manager Publisher End Publisher

35. How About This? (re) Submit? Author EndManager OK? Manager AuthorLegal Choice Legal Author Publisher Manager Publisher End Publisher (re) Submit? Editor AuthorManager Editor

36. Easy to restore

37. The alternative is yucky

39. Use Forms and Workflow Together

40. Worst Example: Form-Only App

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. Form-Only App Problems Logic either hidden or disconnected Security Complexity without code

46. Process Logic Presentation Logic

47. Three-Tier Solutions

48. Presentation Process Data

49. All forms have processes

50. Better Example: Workflow on a Form

60. Problems That Remain Form rules still needed Form & workflow must be kept in sync Workflow has many extra steps

61. This is not 1 form with 31 pages

62. This is 1 workflow with 8 forms for 3 people

63. Best Example: Workflow with Multiple Forms

64. One Form Per Step Content Submit (list item or form library) Workflow Start (manually-executed workflows only) Workflow Task

65. Task Forms Workflow can route data to tasks Forms contain exactly what’s needed Securable to specific users Can combine with structured document

76. 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

78. Workflow is Not Access

79. Master/Detail Forms

80. Master-Detail

81. Problems with Master-Detail No two-phase commit No set integrity

82. Presentation Logic Data Access Logic Process Logic

83. Use a Repeating Section with a Workflow

85. Don’t Forget to Measure

86. Least-Loved Techniques Browsing individual history entries Building custom reports

87. You’re Already Using SharePoint The list itself can be the report Users can sort, group, filter on metadata Write progress information to item properties Stage Workflows already do this

89. Know When to Use SharePoint Workflow (and Which One)

90. Good Uses of SharePoint Workflow Managing how people work Document approval & feedback Collaborative reviews & discussions Gathering signatures

91. 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

92. Possible Uses of SharePoint Workflow Manipulating other applications, data sources Employee onboarding Resource scheduling SharePoint lists become work queues

93. Bad Uses of SharePoint Workflow Transaction-oriented processes Blocking or modifying activity Application-to-application service activity Aggressive data transformations Work that doesn’t involve SharePoint at all

95. “Form” can mean many things…

96. Structured Documents Coupled to data Contains data Records scenarios Eden Stafford Sales Pens 3.00 >10 30.00 Pencils 1.00 >10 10.00 Paper 10.00 >10 100.00 140

97. Data UI Coupled to data Connected to data source View/edit scenarios

98. Solution UI Decoupled from data Data packaged, parsed Task scenarios

99. Standalone App Form holds data Form holds process Form holds everything

101. Recap Everyday processes matter, too Failure is good Stages are practical Use forms and workflow together Workflow is not Access Don’t forget to measure Think about whether SharePoint workflow is the right tool “Form” is not a single concept

102. Thanks!