Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2007 Bible

Chapter 8. Workflow and Process Improvement

In this Chapter

The Microsoft Office workflow environment Creating basic workflows Using Office SharePoint Designer Creating advanced workflow solutions with Visual Studio and InfoPath

Workflow technologies facilitate human processes by attaching business logic to items and documents, while providing context and tracking progress. With the proliferation of digital information and the speed with which that information is propagated, having a way to track and manage the creation, approval, and publishing of information to the right place and at the right time is much easier with workflow technologies. Approvals can continue unimpeded even when the designated approver is out of the office by automatically routing the work item to a supervisor. If a response isn’t received within documented guidelines, reminders can automatically be sent out. Workflow technology has the ability to increase customer satisfaction by helping to keep responses within Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and provide an audited method of maintaining compliance.

The SharePoint technologies make it easy to build workflows out of the box with templates that provide support for a broad range of routing and tracking scenarios without IT involvement.

MOSS and WSS also empower organizations to build a broad range of sophisticated workflow-based solutions that utilize the functionality of the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) platform. The platform facilitates the integration ...