By Beth Schultz
IntraNet, 9/22/97

1. Start out with a small, nonmission critical project and maintain control over its scope from beginning to end. This will have several benefits, such as:

* Makes success more likely.

* Makes it easier to learn what you are missing for larger workflow projects.

* Provides a chance to "truly" evaluate the selected workflow package.

* Gets you past the steep part of the learning curve.

2. When evaluating workflow packages, consider:

* How or if the workflow workbox will integrate with your corporate e-mail and security systems.

* How organizational roles maintained elsewhere (like in your human resources database) can be incorporated into the package.

* Whether this is the basis for a corporate solution or a single application solution, keeping in mind that single application solutions often turn out to be used for other applications.

* How the package will integrate with other packages/development tools in use.

* How you will identify limitations in the workflow package that require solutions and early testing.

3. Allow sufficient time for checkout, testing, preproduction activities and postproduction fixes.

* Validate all workflow interfaces early in the project.

* Allow for additional testing time since workflow applications tend to be more complex than other applications because of rule-based routing.

* Ensure that you can play the part of any member of the organization to thoroughly test out how the routing works at all levels.

* Ensure that production application data and associated workflow data can be synchronously recovered in the event of a system failure.

* Despite your best effort and thorough testing, you will not satisfy everybody's workflow needs. Plan on several small, simple fixes to meet dissatisfied customers' needs and win them over.

4. Plan to define and execute the training process and online help early in the design.

* Training will not only show people how the system works, but also will help "sell" the system. If you want your first application to be a success, don't give people an out, such as "I didn't understand the new system," "I didn't have time to learn the new system" or "It's easier to do it the old way."

* Supply good online help.

5. Ensure that your application and workflow promotion processes from development to test/quality to production have been validated well in advance of putting the first workflow application into production. This will eliminate unpleasant surprises.