[Sigia-l] Responses of the Automated workflow in a web-based content management system

[Adi]

Hi folks,
Sometimes ago I post a question of designing a usable automated workflow.
Apologise for the delay and thanks to the responders. Here are the few
replies that I received:

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I would be very interested in such a tool.

thx.
g.
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Gordon Montgomery
Founder, http://gMeta.com
+44 (0) 777 328 8198
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Have you investigated off the shelf content management systems such as
Documentum or Interwoven products? I have heard particularly in Documentum's
case, that they are very good.

in any case, I will be interested to see your summary posting,

Mary
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I'll bet! There's no such thing as a usable automated workflow, I
think. Think about it: in any office or company that you've ever
worked in (with computers or without), has there ever been total
agreement on "how things get done?" Real workflows are messy, manual,
and frequently un-usable.

I don't know of any specific research in this area, because the huge
players like Vignette, Broadvision, and MS don't publish it. There's
no such thing as an "ideal" workflow: since every organization and
every user would have a different idea of what that is. The Vignette
installations I've seen tried to be ideal, customizable, automated
workflows and they were giant piles of crap.

Who are the target clients of the CMS? Big corporations? Small
businesses? Centralized workgroups, or spread out in space and time?
None of those groups want the same CMS, and no amount of
customization will make the same one work for all of them.

You're designing a web-based content management system--that's one of
the hardest jobs in this business. Be careful that your plan doesn't
include trying to be everything to everyone, it's just impossible
with CMS systems.

I think the only way to approach CMS tool-building is to identify a
very specific client and set of users, and build exactly what they
need. Only when you've satisfied one kind of client can you start
looking at other situations, clients, and users to determine where
where you can make generalizations about workflows. That's mostly a
people-challenge, not a technology-challenge. The zillions of dollars
put into Vignette, Broadvision, InterShop and the rest haven't solved
that problem yet either....

ao
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I think there is an whole Open Source movement that defines what
Workflow is using XML, but all I can find is this...
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/wftk.html?dwzone=
opensource

cheers

tom
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