1. SharePoint Workflow: Taking the Manual Out of Your Process
Donald Donais

2. Donald Donais
Avtex IT Pro Consultant Blog – Tales from IT Side

3. Overview Business Process Management Crawl, Walk, Run Approach Crawl
OOB SharePoint Workflows
Walk
SharePoint Designer 2010
3rd Party Vendor Workflow Products

4. Business Process Management
Systematic approach looking at org workflow more effectively, by reducing human error
What is Business Process Mgt?
Activities or set of Activities that accomplish Business Goals
What is Business Process?
A series of Actions, directed toward a specific aim or goal
What is a Process?

5. BPM Survey
June 20th, 2011 Assoc. for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
SharePoint Survey – Expectation for future users
#1 – “Lack of strategic plans on what to use it for” with to SharePoint ** “

6. Survey Continued
Which of the following types of add-on packages planning to use with SharePoint? #3 #2 #1
Workflow /BPM
Search /Analytics
Secure & Rights Mgt

7. Survey Continued
Which of the following process have you automated with SharePoint #3 #2 #1
Project Mgt
Internal IT Support
Other LOB Processes

8. Tips when Automating Business Process
Make sure to define the process
Define reasons for automation
Necessary to define initial investment and maintenance costs
Do not automate every step in the process
Take the time to analyze potential ROI from process automation
Make sure to consider the human element within process

9. Approaching SharePoint Workflows Crawl, Walk, Run…

10. Crawl
Out of the Box Workflows

11. Walk Introduce SharePoint Designer 2007/2010
Workflows
CodePlex Actions
Introduce 3rd Party Workflow Tools 2007/2010
Use Visio Services to Visualize Business Processes 2010

12. Run Develop more robust workflows .NET workflows Integrated systems
Custom .NET Actions and Conditions for SharePoint Designer
Advanced 3rd Party Workflow Tools

13. Why Workflow?
One version of the truth
Flexibility
Auditability

14. Basic Workflow Capabilities
Start Workflow Manually or Automatically
Visibility into Running Workflows
Collection of Historical Workflow Data
Status of approval, errors,…
Stop (or Terminate) a Running Workflow
Tight Integration with Office

15. Understanding The Workflow Lifecycle
Association
Initiation
Running
Termination
Remove Association
Association
When a workflow is associated with a list
Data can be associated with the workflow
Initiation
When the workflow is first started on a list item
Data can be associated with the instance of the workflow
Running
Status page reflects state of the workflow
User primarily interacts via Tasks
Termination
End an instance of a workflow
Remove Association

16. Workflows 2007 Out of the Box SharePoint Designer 2007
Visual Studio 2005 & 2008

17. Workflows 2010 Out of the Box SharePoint Designer
New Site Level Workflows
Customizable with SharePoint Designer
Visualization with Visio 2010
SharePoint Designer
Parallel Execution Paths
Reusable Workflow
Visualization/Design with Visio
Exportable to Visual Studio
Visual Studio Workflow
Built-in Deployment/Debugging Tools
Workflow Events
Pluggable Workflow Services

18. Out Of the Box SharePoint 2007
Site Content Types
Lists and Libraries
Lists
Publishing
Approval
Collect Feedback
Collect Signatures
Disposition Approval
Three State*
Translation Management
Publishing Approval
*WSS 3.0

19. Out Of the Box SharePoint 2010
Site Content Types
Lists and Libraries
Lists
Publishing
Three State*
Approval – SharePoint 2010
Collect Feedback – SharePoint 2010
Collect Signatures – SharePoint 2010
Disposition Approval
Three State
Translation Management
Publishing Approval
* SharePoint Foundation

20. Demo
Out of the Box Workflows

21. SharePoint Designer 2007 Next version of FrontPage!
UI comprised of multiple panels
Only Compatible with SharePoint 2007 (all versions)
Allow Users to Create Workflows
Associate Workflow to List or Library
Workflow Designer
Conditions & Actions – Augmented by CodePlex

22. SharePoint Designer 2010 Redesigned for SharePoint 2010 New UI
Only Compatible with SharePoint 2010
Allow Users to Create New Workflows
Associate Workflow to List, Library or Reusable (Content Types)
Import/Export to Visio
New Workflow Designer Wizard

23. Demo
SharePoint Designer and Visio Workflows

24. Let’s set it up! Sales Documents Process
If Estimate is >$ then . . .
Automatically approved if less
Manager Approved and Sales and VP of Sales

25. Custom .NET Workflow Bring in the Reinforcements!
You are here because:
Missing Specific Feature
SharePoint Designer Missing Action
Custom Data or Actions Needed
Existing Windows Workflow Investment
State Machine Workflow Requirement
Expose the Full Power of .NET
Word of Warning – There is a steep learning curve

26. Custom .NET Workflow – The Platform
Windows Workflow Foundation
Its not just a SharePoint Platform
Built into .NET 3.0

27. Workflow – Platform Implications
Workflow a Core .NET Feature
Workflow can be ‘hosted’ anywhere
SharePoint was Microsoft’s first host (CRM 4 uses it now too)
Custom applications can host it as well
Standardized Format
XML based file format (XOML)
Widespread Availability

28. 3rd Party SharePoint Workflows
Nintex
Workflow 2007 & 2010
Forms 2007 & 2010 K2
Blackpearl
Blackpoint
K2 Forms

29. K2 Visual Designer based in SharePoint
Implement workflow logic without code
Also has Visual Studio integration
Rich visual designer from SharePoint
Connect to AD or LOB data sources

30. Nintex Expand workflows beyond SharePoint Designer
Implement workflow logic without code
Rich visual designer from SharePoint
Connect to AD or LOB data sources

31. Nintex Small Installation Footprint
Start in SharePoint, stay in SharePoint
Document Assembly and Conversion
User Defined Actions (UDA)
Lazy Approval
Workflow Change Approval

32. Demo
Nintex Workflow 2010

33. Resources SharePoint Workflow: SharePoint 2010:
Workflow Resource Center | SharePoint 2010 (Dev):
Workflows in SharePoint Server 2010:
SharePoint 2010:
SharePoint 2010:
SharePoint MSDN:

34. Questions?

35. Thank you Donald Donais ddonais@avtex.com Blog – Tales from IT Side
Twitter
@dondonais