A workflow engine is a software designed to help you manage your processes. Let us imagine a process that, to be completed, has to go through a certain amount of people or departments. It can take time and resources since the information has to flow through everybody. To post news on a website for example:
- marketing has the idea
- a copywriter writes the story
- editor reviews it
- the legal department reviews it
- the story goes online in a test web server
- the manager approves, and then it goes up on the website.
- It is the process, and it is done partly by each of the participants.
If not automated, this process will take time and money. Emails have to be sent by each of the ones involved, that let the other knows his part is completed, time is lost and the process does not flow properly. With a workflow engine, this can be done much more quickly. The people are notified as soon as they can do their jobs, the engine automatically sends all the information to the chain and even gives smart suggestions, as “this looks like a marketing job, send it to Mark”.
It can help: what is workflow?
See also this tool for process modeling and create your free account: HEFLO BPMN Modeling Tool.
Workflow engine functions
All of the tasks and actions are defined, as well as the rules as to when and how the tasks must be completed. Not only that, but it also determines what are the actions following, and exactly how they are connected. Maybe in a process, the tasks are not sequential, but concurrent. The engine understands that and acts upon this information.
The workflow engine then allocates the tasks, either to a person, a group of people, a department or even a machine. When allocating, the workflow engine communicates the data needed to the participants.
When a particular action is completed, automatically another task is allocated. It is a chain of events, controlled intelligently by the engine.
The workflow engine puts it all together, checks the data and helps the completion of the process in a fast, efficient and money saving way.
Workflow engine benefits
- Workflow engines facilitate the flow of information, tasks, and events.
- Everybody has access to the information that needs to complete the action.
- It is easy to understand the whole process.
- The engine sets a time in which each task has to be completed, making the process faster.
- It is easy to identify where are the bottlenecks since we can clearly see in which task the process is.
- The workflow engine memorizes client’s data and history of the participants.
- It smartly allocates tasks, saving time in decision-making processes.
- Many emails, papers and memos are radically reduced, thus saving money and resources, besides making sure no information is lost.
How to implement a workflow engine?
As you can see, many advantages come from using a workflow engine. It is important to remember that a process can only enter the engine and be executed in this efficient way if it has been an improvement. BPM – Business Process Management – is all about that. Before the automation, these are the steps to take:
- Identify the processes: what are the processes to improve?
- Map the processes: understand the steps, participants, information and purpose.
- Model the processes: get rid of bottlenecks, wastage, duplicated actions and design the new and improved processes. See also this tool for process modeling and create your free account: HEFLO BPMN Modeling Tool.
- Execute the processes: carry out the processes in a new way, getting everybody aboard.
- Optimize the processes: check for what worked and did not work, for new improvement points and improve again.
- Automate the processes: now it is the time to make things automatic and use the best workflow engine available!
Now that you know what workflow engine is, also understand Business Process Modeling Notation and start your project!