Presented By Peter Ward - Business Collaboration Manager

July 31st 2010

The true power of SharePoint Designer for workflows.

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Before We Begin

Q&A – We will have time at the end of the presentation for

questions

A copy of this presentation can be sent to you

Thank You

Disclaimer

Only discussing SharePoint Designer workflows…..Nothing

else

Value of the session

Level 1

Level 3 Level 2

Agenda

Terminology Your SharePoint environment Limits of SharePoint Designer Pitfalls Easter eggs SharePoint Designer 2010 Other workflow options Release process

Terminology

Approval

Workflow

Department • Expense Claims• Vacation Request• Monthly Report• News Release• Hiring Request (Web)• Interview Process• Hiring/Intake Process• “On-Exit” Process• Helpdesk Process• Financial Planning• Proposal/Sales Process• Contract Approval• Localization / Globalization

Corporate • Content Management/Approval• Order Fulfillment• Inventory Management• Logistics• Wills / Estates / Incorporations• Quotation & Contract Costing• Exploration & Appraisal• Check Request Approval• Real Estate Buy/Sell• Collections• Internal Audit• Purchase Orders• Pharmaceutical Trial

Enterprise • Quality Management• Resource Planning• Procurement & subcontracts• Initial Public Offering• Enrollment & Administration• ISO 9000/9001 Control• Safety & Regulation Control• Cataloging & Distribution• Product Engineering • Claims Processing• Facilities Management• Bill Consolidation & Control• Succession Planning

Inter - Enterprise • Press Release • Drug Discovery• Treasury / Cash Management• Supply Chain Management• Customer Acquisition• Mergers and Acquisition• Trade Show Process• Airline Operation Maintenance• Contract Risk Mitigation• Harmonized Tariff Scheduling• Federal Audit Control• Cataloging & Distribution• Advertising Collection & Control

Workflow Business Process

Excitement of the first day at a new job

Here is your new desk.

Informal ProcessInformal Results

Excitement of your first day on the job

Here is a new desk.

Formal ProcessFormal Results

Types of SharePoint Workflow

Out of the boxBrowser based

SharePoint DesignerReplacement to FrontPageCan handle more complex workflows

K2 – No code solutionsCustom development

> SharePoint Designer is not for business users, power user experience.

> Network administrator is coding the workflows

>The transition from SharePoint Designer to Visual Studio is a large leap.

>Governance is important to workflows.

A typical SharePoint Workflow environment in a company

Workflows should not be a haphazard undertaking

There’s no such thing as a simple workflow

START

Declined

Approval

Approved

Rework

START

DeclinedApproved

ReworkApproval

START

DeclinedApproved

ApprovalRework

START

DeclinedApproved

ApprovalRework

START

Declined

ReworkApproval

Approved

Common workflow requirements

SharePoint Designer DO NOT have a simple solution for this basic requirement.

START

The ability to model business logic as part of the workflow decision making

Parallel approval

DeclinedApprovedApproved

DeclinedApproved DeclinedSharePoint Designer DO NOT have easy solutions to basic business requirements.

3 people in the group select “Approved”

1 person in the group selects “Declined”

OR

Incorporate business rules Approval

DeclinedApproved

ReworkAll users in a group must select “Approved,” one after another

Incorporate business rules

Seri

al ap

pro

val

Common workflow requirements

Medium Approval

High Approval

Low Approval

< 2K > 8K

DeclinedApproved

START

(Seri

al)

… can become quite complicated

START

$$ > 2K

$$ < 8K

False True

Low Approval

Declined Approved

Clean up Update List

False True

Medium Approval

Declined Approved

Clean up Update List

High Approval

Declined

Clean up

Approved

Update List

A simple workflow …

What you don’t want> Conditions limited to “True” or “False”

> Approval limited to “Approved” or “Declined”

> Duplication of business logic

> Processes not representing the business problem

> Manual creation of workflow user interfaces

START

$$ > 2K

$$ < 8K

False True

Low Approval

Declined Approved

Clean up Update List

False True

Medium Approval

Declined Approved

Clean up Update List

High Approval

Declined

Clean up

Approved

Update List

Limited to “True” or “False”

Limited to “Approved” or “Declined”

Duplication of business logic

>> Maintenance nightmare

>> Reporting no longer accurate

>> Expensive!!

Common workflow requirements

The risk of reaching the end of the road

A new platform? Custom development?

What if your needs outgrow the capabilities of your approach?

Will you have to start over?

Requirements 80%Development 20%

SharePoint Designer Pitfalls

Once you have chosen the list, it’s difficult to change it

Workflows is front end activity

Empty field values ?????

Can not copy and paste between steps

Nested conditionals

Space characters – e.g. space in URL

Approvals and workflows do not always work together

SharePoint Designer Easter Eggs

Codeplex - www.codeplex.com - First name , Last Name perform a search on Lookup user infohttp://spdactivities.codeplex.com/

Parsing of list item informationhttp://www.codeplex.com/spdwfextensions

CodePlex

Open source, not supported

SharePoint Designer Easter Eggs

Codeplex - www.codeplex.com - First name , Last Name perform a search on Lookup user infohttp://spdactivities.codeplex.com/

Parsing of list item informationhttp://www.codeplex.com/spdwfextensions

-Dynamic url in the email body

-Mixing workflow and Alerts Workflows are event driven- Alerts can be timely

SharePoint Designer Easter eggs. Continued

Security- Copy an item from one list to another

Use the task list for approvals

Email an issue list

Workflow TipsWhen there’s a submission, have an acknowledgement sent

Good naming conventions for the variablesstrRequester noCount

SharePoint Designer 2010Workflows

ListsSiteReusable

Integration with Visio

Import into Visual Studio

Event Handlers

Other 2010 Features

Other workflow options

Assemble workflows that solve business problems

Release Process

Not a one shoot deal 1 st meeting questions

-Workflow Name

-How it starts, ends, milestones

-What is being approved? Excel doc? submitted form?, PDF?

-Number of approval steps

-Number of approvers (people) in the process

-Number of submitters

-Is there status reports/views required?

Next Step

Summarize Terminology

Your SharePoint environment

Limits of SharePoint Designer

Pitfalls

Easter Eggs

Other workflow options

Release process

Microsoft confidential internal use only

e-peterward@wardpeter.comb-www.wardpeter.comp- 862 220 6080

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Questions?