Why Workflow Design Matters
"Don't pave the cow path." Now that's one of the most colorful pieces of CMS advice I've heard. Another great one: "Fix the hole in the boat before you put a more powerful motor on it." Or my favorite: "When you automate bad workflows, all you do is make mistakes faster!"
One of the most common mistakes people make when implementing a CMS is automating their existing workflows without taking into consideration that there may be a better way to do it.
Some call it workflow, others call it business process, but the end result is all about getting content through its lifecycle as efficiently as possible. Believe it or not, having good workflow doesn't depend on having an automated software solution (a CMS). Content management is not just software, it's a discipline that involves organizing and storing content in a logical way, then applying logical processes to make the content behave the way you want it to.
Workflow design is not rocket science (although I'm sure the rocket scientists are really good at it!) There are some important rules to know about designing a workflow—whether it's one that you automate or not.
- Workflows are made up of Steps. A step is anything that is completed by one individual.
- Each step has a Turn-around time.
- Steps are made up of Tasks, which are one or more actions taken by the one step owner.
- Between Steps is a Handoff, sometimes called a Trigger.
Like in a relay race, in a workflow someone carries the baton. It's a shared responsibility of both the passer of the baton and the receiver to look out for the handoff. A handoff could be putting a document on someone's desk. Or, it could be clicking a button that triggers an e-mail to be sent or a task to be added to the next person's to-do list.
Remember, when designing your optimal workflows, there's not just one. You'll need several—workflows for creating new content, for revising existing content, for publishing content to your site, for retiring content, and so on. Take the time to sit down and diagram out what you do now. Ask the people who are working with your content how they think it could be done better. Listen to them, and collectively come up with workflows that really work.
So when you embark for the promised land of content management, set your course first. Don't pave the cow path. Don't just make mistakes faster. Fix the hole in the boat, then put a more powerful motor on it—a CMS.
