Human workflows

I did a little BA work last week during a "workflow workshop." It was a gathering of stakeholders from around the globe who understood their business. The goal was to come to a consensus on one source of truth when it came to some business process--with the goal to automate the workflows in the future.

With 16 people in a room, some from across the globe, opinions are bound to differ, and communication styles vary. Overall, though, most everyone agreed the workshop was a success. Looking back, I tried to focus on some general questions that--if answered by the group--resulted in a better result.

Some pertain to the overall workflow, and others are for individual tasks

Overall - Should this workflow focus more on the flow of tasks or the possible states and transitions?

Diagrams just represent the real process, like a drawing and a picture both represent a real physical item, different diagrams have strengths & weaknesses. Example - State Machine diagram vs. Activity diagram

Overall - what business problem are we trying to solve?

Do the minimum amount of effort required to solve the business problem - remember, every box, every line is a potential constraint on the users and is potentially more development effort

Overall - What audit trail or history is needed?

Sometimes the only reason for a workflow is audit trail, but often it is involved as part of the overall business problem

Task - Who completes each task?

This is role-based, not individual based. Meaning, a single individual could fill multiple swimlanes in a single workflow

Task - What information is required to complete the task?

Present the minimum required information in the UI for a person in the role needs to complete the task

Task - What are the time constraints (if any) and what happens when they are exceeded? Default selected or escalation?

Task - Enter and exit conditions for each task?