This document discusses five common mistakes made with workflow projects and provides recommendations to avoid them. The mistakes covered are: overusing SharePoint workflow, trying too hard to plan everything upfront, starting with high-profile processes instead of everyday ones, thinking in straight lines rather than using stages, and making forms do too much instead of using forms and workflows together. The recommendations emphasize starting simply, planning to fail initially and improve, focusing on processes with few stakeholders, using stages for easier participation and adjustment, and separating forms, process logic, and data access.

1. Five Workflow Project Mistakes
and Five Ways to Avoid Them
Mike Fitzmaurice
VP – Workflow Technology, Nintex
mikefitz@nintex.com
@mikefitz

2. Introduction
 There are more than five
 These are extra top-of-mind
 Based on real-world projects
 Advice applies to any workflow product
 Warning: no demos

4. Mistake 1:
Overusing SharePoint Workflow

5. Instead:
Don’t Always Use
SharePoint Workflow

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

7. 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

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

9. Bad Uses of SharePoint Workflow
 Transaction-oriented processes
 Blocking or modifying activity
 Aggressive data transformations
 Calculation-intensive processes

11. Mistake 2:
Trying Too Hard

12. Consensus Probably Doesn’t Exist
 Get 3 employees and 1 manager together
 Talk about a process
 Little agreement
 Documentation disagreement, too

13. The Process Will Change

14. Exceptions Will Be Ignored

15. Instead:
Plan to Fail the First Time

16. 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.

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

19. Mistake 3:
Starting with High-Profile Processes

20. Instead:
Focus on Everyday Processes

21. “Policy is the abdication of thought.”
-Nathan Myrvold

22. “Process is the reuse of thought.”
-Mike Fitzmaurice

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

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

25. Everyday Processes
 Are best designed following a screw-up

27. Mistake 4:
Thinking in Straight Lines

28. Instead:
Use Stages

29. Sequential workflows get messy – quickly

30. Example: Press Release
 Author
 Management
 Legal
 Publisher

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

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

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

34. How About This Instead?
Author Manager Legal Publisher

35. How About This Instead?
(re)
Submit?
Author
End Manager
OK?
Manager
Author Legal
Choice
Legal
Author ManagerPublish
Publisher
Manager
Publisher

36. Easy User Participation

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

38. Who understands this part?
This
person.
(re)
Submit?
Manager
Author Legal

39. Who understands this part?
This
person.
(re)
Submit?
Author
End Manager

40. Easy User Participation
 Any user understands his/her part
 Few people understand everything
 Process = sum of stages

41. Easy to adjust

42. How About This?
(re)
Submit?
Author
End Editor
OK?
Manager
Author Legal
Choice
Legal
Author PublisherManager
Publisher
End
Publisher(re)
Submit?
Editor
Author Manager

43. Without stages…
 A lot of If-Then-Else conditions
 A lot of looping
 Very confusing diagrams
 “GoTo” statements

45. Mistake 5:
Making Forms Do Too Much

46. Instead:
Use Forms and Workflow Together

47. Rethink the Problem

48. Worst Example:
Form-Only App

49. 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

50. 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

51. 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

52. 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

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

54. Process LogicPresentation Logic

55. Three-Tier Solutions

56. Presentation Process Data

57. All forms have processes

58. Better Example:
Workflow on a Form

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

69. This is not 1 form with 31 pages

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

71. Best Example:
Workflow with Multiple Forms

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

83. 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

84. Master/Detail Forms

85. Master-Detail

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

87. Presentation
Logic
Data Access
Logic
Process
Logic

88. Use a Repeating Section with a Workflow

90. Summary
 Use SharePoint Workflow when it fits the use case
 Fail quickly and fix it
 Focus on everyday processes
 Embrace stages
 Use forms and workflow together

91. Thank You