Flutterby™! : Winer on Workflow 2001-02-25 15:43:17+00

Winer on Workflow

2001-02-25 15:43:17+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Leo once recounted a meeting with Disney execs when he was producering Toy Story Animated StoryBook. There was a suggestion made, a suggestion that everyone thought was really compelling and would improve the product, and one of the Disney guys said "but that's not something our company does". And it was important because it showed just how clearly the Disney corporate culture is distinct, and the employees are aware that the value of Disney the trademark is that corporate culture. There's a reason they fired Harlan Ellison. This morning Dave Winer talks about workflow, and why his system doesn't implement it. I like his reasons, but I think about the checks and balances Leo talked about Disney implementing and I realize that those things exist for a reason, and there are times when I wish I had an editor even for Flutterby.

Well, in the Dave Winer tradition of tarring everything with the same brush, and throwing the baby out with the bathwater, he's trashing workflow management now, is he?

Workflow management is merely the capability to make certain that things happen in the order you want them to, that no one misses doing something you need them to do, and -- most importantly -- that they're notified that they need to do something.

The canonical example is a purchase requisition. The employee needs a stapler. They file a PR. The system looks at the category of item, and the order total (and maybe the person/department's budget). It then either ships the PR along to Purchasing to cut a PO directly, or puts it on the work queue of the appropriate manager(s) for approval.

If he thinks that workflow is *solely* concerned with restricting people from getting things posted on public websites... well, then, he's a tunnel-visioned as ever.

Ummm... No, that all should still work, I haven't changed the formatting engine in a looong

time. The problem is that space after your "either", remove that (no, I'm not going to edit your messages without your express permission) and it'll work.