The goal of using workflows in SharePoint is to take a complicated manual process and transform it into an efficient automated process. But you’d be surprised how easy it is to overcomplicate things under the mantle of good intentions.
I experienced this common problem firsthand in working with a consulting firm that needed to automate a complex approval process. With this client, I saw the importance of keeping a workflow simple for all users involved, rather than allowing an automated workflow to become too cumbersome and difficult to use.
About the Project
This client came to us with a challenge: They had a manual process they wanted to automate that involved passing a request through three levels of approval. For every approval, each approval team would request various pieces of information from the user they deemed necessary to making their decision.
The Problem
The primary issue was simple; the input form that was being passed from department to department had become extremely long. In fact, at one pointthe form contained over 100 questions. As a result, users often didn’t have the information they needed to complete the form. Or worse, they would skip answering parts of the form in an effort to try and speed up the approval process.
In practice, the approval teams were processing the forms with missing information, such as contract numbers and start dates, which the automated workflow assumed the initial user would provide. In addition, the workflow was carrying so much data that it would often break down. Attachments sometimes didn’t save correctly because the request form was so large. Those involved in the process sometimes did not receive important notifications. Worst of all, the workflow was so complicated and unwieldy that the IT team struggled with managing these frequent breakdowns.
The Solution
When we came on board as consultants, we talked to the teams involved to see if we could the simplify process. They insisted, however, that there was no room to trim the fat; they needed all the information included on the form. In addition, they wanted us to rebuild the workflow to make it work more effectively, but it was difficult to understand how the workflow operated, as there was no documentation.
Ultimately, we had to slim down the workflow, stripping out unnecessary information so the request form was small enough to handle in SharePoint. We also tried to break the one big workflow down into several simpler workflows, which were easier for IT teams to understand and troubleshoot.
Lessons Learned
In retrospect, the biggest mistakes made during this process were:
- Asking users to input too much information;
- Routing the document to too many people, opening up multiple opportunities for the workflow to fail; and
- Not being clear about the practical benefit the workflow provided to the business.
SharePoint workflows can provide a lot of value to an organization. But if the business processes behind them aren’t well defined, the automated workflows won’t be efficient. Therefore, the first step in automating a process must be for everyone involved in the process to agree on what needs to be included.
Final Thought
Never be afraid to redefine a business process when automating it in SharePoint, especially since it’s not uncommon for a manual process to not make sense as-is when automated. As I learned from this client, it’s important to keep workflows in SharePoint as simple as possible.
