Why is workflow Management still unattractive

Hector Chapa Sikazwe

Newcastle Upon Tyne 2012

Why is workflow Management still unattractive

Constraints, challenges and successes

The Misapplication of the technology

Hector Chapa Sikazwe

Newcastle upon Tyne, 2012

Keywords

Workflow management, Workflow, Architecture, Processes, business environment,

competition, market advantage, competitive concepts, planning, Workflow engines,

Software environment, consultancy, tools, paradigms, work, tasks, information,

processed data, Re-engineering

Abstract

In the simplest terms, Workflow management deals with Workflows. A Workflow, seen

from the most primitive position is a collection of tasks organized to accomplish some

business process. It also defines the order of task invocation or conditions under which a

task must be invoked, task synchronization is achieved, and how information flow is

eventually accomplished. Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) facilitate the

definition of structure and decomposition of business processes and assists in

management of coordinating, scheduling, executing and monitoring of such activities.

Most of the current WFMSs are built on traditional relational database systems and/or

using an object-oriented database system for storing the definition and run time data

about the workflows. However, a WFMS requires advanced modelling functionalities to

support adaptive features, such as on-line exception handling. Incidentally, research on

specification and scheduling of workflows has concentrated on temporal and causality

constraints, which specify existence and order dependencies among tasks. However,

another set of constraints that specify resource allocation is also equally important. This

paper limits the definition of resources within the context of a work environment to

include agents such as people, machines (Computers), software, etc. that facilitate the

execution of planned tasks. The paper also supports the empirical fact that the execution

of a task has a cost and this may vary depending on the resources allocated in order to

execute that task. Resource allocation constraints define restrictions on how to allocate

resources, and scheduling under resource allocation constraints provide proper resource

allocation to tasks. In this paper, an architecture to specify and to schedule workflows

under resource allocation constraints as well as under the temporal and causality

constraints is suggested and provided as a possible solution to the architectural

environment that supports workflow management theories and applicability.

In the millennium, there has been much talk about a “Workflow management system

revolution”. The revolutionary part is about this new category of software known as the

“Workflow engine architecture” that promises solution to poor business process

environments. In basic language, the evolutionary part is about using workflow

management systems (WFMSs) to exploit existing business and technology assets in a

way that creates new value and meaning to business processes. Unfortunately, along with

any revolution comes confusion. What exactly is WFMSs? Isn’t it just workflow

technology, which has been in use for twenty years, plus Web services? Why don’t we

describe what is going on today as the “new workflow revolution,” a subtle extension of

workflow systems? To seek answers to these questions, this paper explores the

foundations of the workflow paradigm, and describe the paradigm shift in technology that

is needed to overcome limitations of workflow systems to build and deploy robust

business process management systems whilst unmasking the kind of information systems

that businesses now demand as new sources of competitive advantage in an ever more

uncertain and complex global economy.

The use of unnecessary technical jargon and workflow language that mystifies the

technology has played a major role in boomeranging attractions that the technology

initially invoked in the early 1990s. Studies in workflow management systems have been

intensive and widely spread without clinical evaluation of the impact of the technology

on the business environment it meant to service.

This paper suggests that using simple language, basic software application and joining

the dots of the different nodes of workflow achievements over the years would create

rejuvenated attraction in the technology as was once seen when it rivalled other

technologies like business process reengineering (BPR) and business process modelling

(BPM) that are now almost becoming white elephants in the business environment as

new web based technologies are developed as solutions to profit, processes, competition

and human and business cravings.

With all the hype about governments wanting to cut costs in establishments and the

stepping backwards in the ding-dong of bank bonuses, it is amazing to see that simpler

ways of “talking with technology” are avoided. Working smart, whilst using basic day to

day knowledge of how things should be done have been complicated in the way things

are explained resulting in many corporations running away from basic technology that

would have provided solutions to the problem at hand.

Current solutions presented by many proposals demanding employee layoffs and cutting

down operations is very disheartening when the solution can be found in simply working

smarter and simpler without even using complex computer systems. The author proposes:

“Recognising that things go wrong because procedures are not followed or adhered to

strictly is the source of many woes in organisations or individual lives”

Workflow solutions would help in putting the stop-plug in the leakage of resources.

Workflow is concerned with the automation of procedures where documents, information

or tasks are passed between participants according to a defined set of rules to achieve, or

contribute to, an overall business goal. Whilst workflow may be manually organised, in

practice most workflow is normally organised within the context of an IT system to

provide computerised support for the procedural automation.

For instance, it is common knowledge that one does not put his shoes on and then

followed by his socks, or one does not put on warm coat on and then the shirt or dress

over it! It is common knowledge that one does not put a tea bag in a mug full of cold

water and later boil it! It is knowledge of what comes first, then second, then third etc

that will help many organisations and individuals to attain better results in even basic

operations in business and individual lives.

The fear of technology has been exaggerated by those who thrive on the shortcomings of

the systems and like exploiting the status quo because it makes them seem more valuable

and non-expendable. If technology is regarded as being a complex issue, think about

what is actually happening in real life. Consider the 7 year old child who has learnt to use

the X-box, play station, surf the internet and in some extreme cases use a mobile phone.

Think of the complex games that Sony and Microsoft have peddled on the market that

teenagers spend precious man hours attempting to complete in record times! Teenagers

today spend record production man-hours completing complex games that demand a lot

of complex brain use than most technology enthusiasts would like to admit.

Smart phones like IPhones, HTC series or Samsung phones on the market are now found

on the remotest parts of poverty ravaged third-world Countries and are used effectively

for communication, social networking like Facebook, email and even business

transactions. The idea that technology is complex is hence defeated by such examples of

how easily humans adapt to the introduction of new things. Therefore, it is not factual to

claim that technology is complex but rather that it is simply misunderstood to mean

something else when in fact, it is in use in our daily lives from when we wake up to when

we lay down to rest.

The Workflow management community has attempted to simplify the essence of

procedures being the major culprit of poor results if not adhered to. The use of computers

has simply enhanced the argument that if procedures are followed with particular order

whilst using enhanced help from computer systems, then the results that are attained

bring about higher productivity and quality results required in these dreary economic

circumstances. In surmising, Workflow Management at its simplest is the movement of

documents and/or tasks through a work process. More specifically, workflow is the

operational aspect of a work procedure: how tasks are structured, who performs them,

what their relative order is, how they are synchronized, how information flows to support

the tasks and how tasks are being tracked.

As the dimension of time is considered in Workflow, Workflow considers "throughput"

as a distinct measure. Organisations need to understand that without the use of common

sense in work procedures, there will always be the fear of failure that is exaggerated and

peddled by dinosaur employees and Corporations that are on their way out.