sharepoint workflows - sharepoint saturday twin cities april 2012

SharePoint Workflow:

Taking the Manual Out of Your Process

Donald Donais

Avtex IT Pro Consultantddonais@avtex.com

Blog – Tales from IT Sidehttp://talesfromitside.wordpress.com

Twitter@dondonais

Donald Donais

• Business Process Management• Crawl, Walk, Run Approach• Crawl

OOB SharePoint Workflows• Walk

SharePoint Designer 2010 3rd Party Vendor Workflow Products

Overview

Business Process Management

A series of Actions, directed toward a specific

aim or goal

What is a Process?

Activities or set of Activities that

accomplish Business Goals

What is Business Process?

Systematic approach looking at org workflow more effectively,

by reducing human error

What is Business Process

Mgt?

• 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

** https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/SharePoint-and-BPM-Whats-your-Strategy.aspx

BPM Survey

Which of the following types of add-on packages planning to use with SharePoint?

Survey Continued

#3

#2

#1Workflow/BPM Search

/Analytics Secure & Rights Mgt

Which of the following process have you automated with SharePoint

Survey Continued

#3

#2

#1Project Mgt Internal

IT Support

Other LOB Processes

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

Approaching SharePoint WorkflowsCrawl, Walk, Run…

Crawl

• Out of the Box Workflows

Walk

• Introduce SharePoint Designer 2007/2010 Workflows CodePlex Actions

• Introduce 3rd Party Workflow Tools 2007/2010

• Use Visio Services to Visualize Business Processes 2010

Run

• Develop more robust workflows• .NET workflows• Integrated systems• Custom .NET Actions and Conditions for

SharePoint Designer• Advanced 3rd Party Workflow Tools

Why Workflow?

• One version of the truth• Flexibility• Auditability

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

Understanding The Workflow Lifecycle

• 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

Association Initiation Running Termination Remove Association

Workflows 2007

Out of the Box

SharePoint Designer

2007

Visual Studio 2005 &

2008

Workflows 2010

• Out of the Box 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

Site Content Types

Lists and Libraries

Lists

Publishing

•Approval•Collect Feedback•Collect Signatures•Disposition Approval

•Approval•Collect Feedback•Collect Signatures•Disposition Approval

•Three State*•Translation Management

•Publishing Approval

*WSS 3.0

Out Of the Box SharePoint 2007

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*• Approval – SharePoint 2010• Collect Feedback – SharePoint 2010• Collect Signatures – SharePoint 2010• Disposition Approval

• Three State• Translation Management

• Publishing Approval

* SharePoint Foundation

Out Of the Box SharePoint 2010

Out of the Box Workflows

DEMO

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

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

SharePoint Designer and Visio Workflows

DEMO

Let’s set it up!

• Sales Documents Process• If Estimate is >$100000 then . . .• Automatically approved if less• Manager Approved and email Sales and VP of

Sales

• 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

Custom .NET Workflow

• Windows Workflow Foundation• Its not just a SharePoint Platform

Built into .NET 3.0

Custom .NET Workflow – The Platform

• 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

Workflow – Platform Implications

• Nintex Workflow 2007 & 2010 Forms 2007 & 2010

• K2 Blackpearl Blackpoint K2 Forms

3rd Party SharePoint Workflows

• 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

K2

• Expand workflows beyond SharePoint Designer

• Implement workflow logic without code

• Rich visual designer from SharePoint

• Connect to AD or LOB data sources

Nintex

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

Nintex

Nintex Workflow 2010

DEMO

SharePoint Workflow:• Workflow Resource Center | SharePoint 2010 (Dev): http://

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/hh295805• Workflows in SharePoint Server 2010: http://

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff819861

SharePoint 2010:• SharePoint 2010: http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com• SharePoint MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx

Resources

Questions?

THANK YOU

Donald Donaisddonais@avtex.com

Blog – Tales from IT Sidehttp://talesfromitside.wordpress.com

Twitter@dondonais