This document summarizes a presentation on creating taskless workflows in SharePoint 2007-2010. It begins with an agenda and overview of workflows and their benefits. It then contrasts task and taskless workflows, demonstrating a task workflow. The document discusses the tools needed to create workflows and demonstrates how to build a taskless workflow. It notes the benefits of taskless workflows for users and processes, though they have some constraints. It concludes by taking questions.

1. SharePoint Saturday Bend
presents:
Advanced Workflow
Creation in SharePoint
2007-2010
Streamlining Your Business
Processes AND Making Users
Happy with Task Less Workflows

2. Agenda
• SharePoint Workflows – High Level
• Differences - Tasks Workflow and Taskless
• Demo: Standard Approval Tasks Workflow
• Tools List
• Demo: How to Build a Taskless Workflow
• Benefits/Constraints of Taskless Workflows
• Conclusion and Questions/Answers
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

3. What are SharePoint workflows?
“Workflow is a term used to describe the tasks,
procedural steps, organizations or people
involved, required input and output information,
and tools needed for each step in a business
process.” – WhatIs.com
SharePoint workflows allow organizations to
move any SharePoint business artifact (Word
document, InfoPath form, etc.) through a series
of steps and approvals.
SharePoint 2007 has this ability built into the
engine and comes with several out of the box
workflows: Approval, Collect Feedback, etc.
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

4. What are SharePoint workflows good for?
• Publishing documents
• Gathering approvals
• Garnering feedback on work
• Interdepartmental business processes
• Automating manual paper driven processes
• Controlling / Auditing processes
• Eliminate human error
• Performing tedious manual work
• Saving your company money!
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

5. Why create Taskless workflows in SharePoint?
• Allows busy users to complete tasks faster
• Further streamlines business processes
• Still allows for auditing/workflow processing
• Keeps the „bounce‟ factor to a minimum
• All the power of SharePoint workflows without
all the messy tasks!
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

6. Demo
Task Workflow

7. What tools are required to build workflows?
Environment:
• Critical - VMWare or Virtual PC
• Windows Server 2003/2008
• SharePoint Server 2007/2010
• InfoPath 2007 Forms Services
• Visual Studio 2008/2010
• Office 2007/2010
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

8. How do we create Taskless workflows
Magic. Well, even better than Magic actually…
The concepts of creating task less workflows:
• Create two site columns to keep track of your
workflow „actions‟ and your workflow „state‟
• Add the two columns into your InfoPath form.
• InfoPath form reads the workflow state
column and displays the appropriate UI
• InfoPath form sets the workflow action as the
user selects what they want to do with the
form.
• The workflow reads the workflow action and
depending upon what it says performs the
next action in the workflow.
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

9. Demo
Taskless Workflows

10. What workflows have we created like this?
• Capital Expenditures
• Employee Status Changes V2
• Store Management Performance Evaluations
• S&SP List and Hiring Applications
• Assistant Manager List and Hiring Applications
• Store Manager List and Hiring Applications
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

11. How much time does it cut from the process?
Comparing two projects we have recently done,
we have achieved at least a 25% improvement
in time spent processing forms by eliminating
tasks!
25% for this process equated to a savings of 40
hours of time each month!
A final step of the process cut out several human
interventions as well, which further automated
the process.
Depending on your process, of course.
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

12. Why do users like task less workflows?
• Users have the information right in front of them
that they are going to process.
• Eliminates bouncing from one item to another
and all processing happens right in the form.
• Users can see what has been done prior by
other users in an Audit Trail.
• Greater control on their User Experience
compared to Tasks.
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

13. What are the constraints for task less workflows?
• Constraints? What Constraints?
• Only works with InfoPath forms and not other
artifacts that might need to run through a
workflow like Word documents, images, etc.
• Multiple people cannot be tasked at the same
time. Well…maybe.
• Tasks are good for activities that don‟t directly
relate to the item the workflow is running on like
gathering feedback from multiple people.
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010

14. Conclusion and Questions/Answers
• You can have the best of both worlds with task
less workflows – streamlined processes and
usability.
• It does save users time even though it‟s a bit of
investment to build.
• Almost any process can be automated using
this approach.
Questions?
Advanced Workflow Creation in SharePoint 2007-2010