Project Workflow - what it is and how it works

In mass communication, it is increasingly possible to find the term "workflow", which is applied to almost all aspects of professional life. It is worth considering what this process is and what areas it affects.

Workflow is currently one of the most common ways to manage a team of people. In short, this can be defined as a view of the organization of work. This means that managers separate tasks by following the guidelines established in the process. From the employee's point of view, it looks like they are informed of the obligation to comply, but don't know which application or what part of it matters.

So what does a management process called a workflow look like?

To understand the essence of this method, it is worth knowing what it is. In a broader sense, this concept describes a way of transmitting information between the various objects involved in its processing. In a narrower sense, it is a flow of documents between employees who perform a certain set of actions.

In the case of computer processes, a workflow, in turn, can mean automating business processes in which documents, information, or tasks are automatically transferred from one employee to another based on the relevant procedures.

A workflow is a software process that supports teamwork. First of all, it allows you to specify the roles performed by individuals when processing documents, as well as specify the intermediate states of files.

As an example of this workflow, we can mention documents related to delegation.

• The first person fills in the information about the place where the employee should go, which creates a document about the delegation order.
• The interested party receives the document, and after adding the date and means of transport, a delegation document is created and sent to the decision-makers who accept the order.
• After completing the task, it is completed, and returns.
• In the above example, it is clearly seen that each stage of writing is associated with a certain group of people and a change in the status of documents.

To illustrate this process, it is very common to use multi-color graphs that simply point to the teams of employees involved and determine the status of the document after processing by the team.

How does the workflow work?

As with any task, a workflow also has special terminology related to task development.

The first and most important term is a process that simply defines a task to work with.
There is activity in this process. This is due to parts of the task that have been assigned to individual employees. Here we can distinguish two types of activities: manual, which is performed by an employee, and automatic - performed by the system.

Last transit. This term refers to the conditions necessary for a smooth transition from one activity to another.

Like any procedure, the workflow has its clear beginning and end. The first step is usually to define the process. Here decisions are made regarding the teams of employees involved, the characteristics of the project and the division of labor.

The next element is the implementation of the process.

The work of individual teams of employees on the task begins. At the same time, the software used provides other users with the status of actions performed as applications. At any time, the system checks the conditions in transit and decides on the next action.

Why use a workflow?

There are several reasons why you should use such a work management system. First of all, thanks to the use of modern technologies, not all tasks need to be performed by human hands. Liabilities can be automated, giving companies the opportunity to save time and reduce the costs associated with human labor.

By using the right workflow management software, you can focus on improving the separation of tasks in terms of employee qualifications or the use of their access rights. At the same time, this leads to better management and control of workflows. Thus, using appropriate workflow software, you can combine the work of different departments (often located on different continents) and systems.

Workflow programs also allow you to quickly troubleshoot problems. This means that process progress information is available more quickly, allowing for immediate response to downtime during operation.

Workflow management software

It turns out that such a program is not only a tool that allows you to exchange documents between individual employees, but also a set of options that give you the opportunity to manage business processes.

Due to the many different types of tasks, such software is usually designed for users working in industries related to customer service or manufacturing. This is due to the fact that the activities of such enterprises require very good coordination and control of the state of the tasks that make up the individual processes.

What does the use of the document management program in the company give?
First of all, it provides information on the control and testing of working methods. It shows who made changes to this operation and at what time, so that you can improve the process in the future, and also represents the current state of its execution. At the same time, workflow software allows you to control the time it takes to complete a task and allows you to change the execution plan according to actual actions.

Employees also benefit from this program. Each team member is assigned a task in which actions are organized. This way of managing also gives them motivation for further action, as it confirms their belief that they are links in a chain of important activities. Employees know that it is easy to identify the source of potential delays and find the person who is responsible for them.

Adaptation of work programs

The basis for the implementation of document management programs is knowledge of management processes. On their basis, programs are developed that immediately show the places where modifications are needed. The implementation of the system indicates its pros and cons, which, when transferred to programmers, allow you to improve and adapt the application. As a result, they are an excellent tool for process management and load reduction.