[australia] Capturing Processes

[HALL Bill]

-----Original Message-----
From: Melanie Kendell [mailto:melanie.kendell at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, 19 July 2006 10:13 AM
To: HALL Bill
Cc: australia at lists.cmprofessionals.org
Subject: Re: [australia] Capturing Processes

Hi Bill

We're not saying don't use workflow - we're saying don't implement a
standard automated workflow without thinking about whether it fits
your actual workflow.

Many organisations implement a one-size-fits-all workflow for all
content that is generally far too complex and creates bottlenecks
unnecessarily. This often leads to turning off workflow altogether
"because it doesn't work".

Properly implemented workflow is obviously a good idea otherwise it
wouldn't be considered a desirable feature :)

One way to avoid negativity towards workflow is to implement the very
simple model that David proposed and then evolve the complexity as
things progress and extra steps become obvious (always with the option
of falling back if unforseen problems occur).

Better that than implementing something that causes more problems that
it solves - of course better still, is to properly analyse and test
workflow before implementation, but that rarely happens.

-Melanie
--------------

Melanie,

I totally agree with this. The advantage that electronic workflow
systems offer in the kinds of systems we have used in Tenix is that they
can be readily tailored to fit whatever organisational requirements you
have. 

In the one for the ANZAC Ship Project. By starting simple, it proved to
be very easy to include the Client in our review process. We are still
managing ANZAC Ship documentation and continuing engineering work on the
ships after the last ship has been delivered and the project itself
finished. We have quite a reasonable expectation that as long as we
continue to deliver the goods that we will be providing in-service
support for at least another 20 years for the full life-span of the
ships because our workflow management systems allow us to deliver
high-quality, reliable service on time - in good part because there are
no stuff-ups with the documentation.

The concept that someone might implement a workflow system BEFORE they
understand their business processes is a sure fire recipe for failure.
We did that with a manufacturing resource planning system because we let
a supplier guide us. Two years later they were told to leave the
premises and take their stuff with them - at a cost of several $M.
Having learned the hard way the importance of doing the analysis first,
the content management implementation was quite successful.

Regards,

William P. (Bill) Hall, PhD
Documentation & KM Systems Analyst
Head Office/Engineering
Nelson House Annex, Nelson Place
Williamstown, Vic. 3016 Australia
Tel: +61 3 9244 4820
Email: bill.hall at tenix.com
URL: http://www.tenix.com

Evolutionary Biology of Species and Organizations
http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Visiting Faculty Associate
University of Technology Sydney

Senior Fellow
Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society
History and Philosophy of Science
University of Melbourne
email: whall at unimelb.edu.au
URL: http://www.acsis.unimelb.edu.au/

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