Perhaps the single feature that produces a “wow” in any SharePoint solution is the use of workflow to automate business processes. Users are impressed to see that tasks previously taking days of paper shuffling and manual reminders by e-mail are now done in minutes and completely automatic.
However, SharePoint business process automation isn’t just a single topic. In fact, out of the box, you have at least two vastly different workflow options. If you don’t think that’s enough, several third-party developers offer even more options. Simply saying that you want workflow isn’t enough.
Let’s introduce the contestants.
SharePoint Designer workflows
SharePoint Designer 2007 offers easy access to workflows for end users. The major benefits of SharePoint Designer workflows are the low entry point and that you can easily create and modify workflows without hiring an expensive specialist. Do you want an approval workflow slightly different from the out-of-the-box version? You’ll have it within minutes of starting SharePoint Designer.
The downside is lack of flexibility, and, at least until SharePoint Designer 2010 comes along, lack of reusability. SharePoint Designer is perfect for smaller ad-hoc processes, but lacks the power to perform the truly heavy lifting in business process automation.
Visual Studio workflows
When you want to use a workflow for multiple sites or need more flexibility than SharePoint Designer offers, you want to look into Visual Studio workflows. With the power of Visual Studio, developers can create about as complex processes as anyone can imagine. Hook up to data sources to retrieve information, spawn recursive and parallel workflows, calculate the exact value of pi; anything can, in theory, be accomplished with a Visual Studio workflow.
The downside, however, is the learning curve. Visual Studio workflows require far more of the developer than SharePoint Designer, and if you don’t have deep pockets or vast amounts of time on your hands, you may end up wishing more than deploying.
Third-party workflows
If these two extremes are not for you, you need to look outside the Microsoft realm for your solution. Several third-party developers provide workflow authoring tools that adds variety to the workflow fauna.
I have worked extensively with two of these developers, Nintex and K2. Both offer complementary workflow products, and where Nintex is a balance between SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio, K2 is targeted at developers looking to harness even more power than Visual Studio provides.
If you want to learn more about these technologies, I have written several issues of Understanding SharePoint Journal focused on workflow. Issue 4 covers SharePoint Designer workflow. There is a special issue covering Nintex Workflow, and issue 7 covers Visual Studio workflows.
Bjorn Furuknap is the creator of the online “Understanding SharePoint Journal”
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