Draft Minutes - ITANA Meeting - July 9, 2009

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*Attending*

Jim Phelps, University of Wisconsin-Madison (chair)
Marina Arsinev, University of California Irvine
Tom Barton, University of Chicago
Michael Daly, University of Michigan
Scott Fullerton, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jan Grasser, Penn State University
Keith Hazelton, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bob Morgan, University of Washington
Piet Niederhausen, Georgetown University
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Benn Oshrin, Rutgers University
Todd Piket, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Ron Theilin, University of Chicago
David Walker, University of California Davis
Ann West, Internet2
Dean Woodbeck, Internet2 (scribe)

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Action Items

(AI) Jim will work with Bob Morgan to have someone from Washington on a future ITANA call to discuss their work.

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*Enterprise Workflow*

On the last call the group identified some action items going forward:

  • Provide overviews of workflow systems included with products like the Sun access management system.
  • Develop applicable definitions (what do we mean by workflow?)
  • Define use cases to illustrate the range of problems that we're trying to solve.
  • Develop case studies
  • Compile a survey of tools
  • Adapt information from well-known workflow sites to higher education (the workflow management coalition site is www.wfmc.org

Bob Morgan sent a link to a wiki with substantial workflow work done at the University of Washington:https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/workflow/Enterprise+Workflow+Investigation

UC Irvine reports having its workflow embedded in its portal, where faculty and staff can access workflow items across multiple applications. The portal is oriented to business processes supporting faculty and staff, not students, and is a collection and access point for all applications.

Jim reported that Wisconsin defined two types of workflow a few years ago:

  • workflow internal to an app
  • enterprise workflow - coordinating activities between applications

Another distinction would be

  • workflow that involves interacting with a process
  • workflow that is simply moving documents around

And, finally, a lot of workflow tends to be wrapped up in service orientation, which is message oriented - moving docs around is a form of moving messages around. But there could be multiple documents wrapped in a single message.

A successful workflow design takes into account work items (such as documents or steps in a process) and the critical processes, and is based on roles. Setting up such a workflow requires a rigorous codification of roles.

The benefits of developing a comprehensive workflow system include:

  • identification of capabilities
  • identification of business processes
  • analyzing and improving business processes
  • transparency - the process is visible
  • ability to gather metrics
  • record-keeping and auditibility

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Use Cases/Drivers

There was a discussion around some use cases and business drivers for workflow systems.

  • tracking documents and processes from the source to the data warehouse.
  • streamlining processes - for example, the hiring process. When someone is hired, there are a number of systems to be updated (parking, payroll, HR, IT system access, etc). Under the old model, these may have been done sequentially. With a workflow system, authorizations could occur in parallel.
  • learning management systems. Grade reporting, for example, may require input from multiple people (instructor, TA, etc.).
  • single workflow interface for multiple systems.
  • older ERP systems may not have built-in workflow systems. The solution may be to implement a workflow system next to the HR system (again, the hiring process is a good example of the need).
  • it might be interesting to pick a common business process - like hiring - and see how workflow has been done in different ways (doc management systems, large-scale ERPs, etc).
  • integrating enterprise workflow across apps and across campus units.
  • bridging islands of workflow systems for an integrated enterprise approach.

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Workflow Examples

The University of Washington has posted extensive information on their wiki page. (AI) Jim will work with Bob Morgan to have someone from Washington on a future ITANA call to discuss their work.https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/workflow/Enterprise+Workflow+Investigation

At the University of Chicago, the facilities office is implementing a new capital projects management system, to involve university staff, project managers, outside vendors and construction firms. A workflow analysis is currently underway, documenting the current process, prior to sending out an RFP to choose a system.

Todd Piket reported that several of these examples are on his radar as the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities implements an access management system (using the Sun identity manager as the toolset).

UC Irvine is using Liquid BPM, which they have found to be a great workflow engine; however they have found the support to be lacking.

Kuali RICE, discussed on the last Screen2Screen, and its eDoc Lite has been discussed as a workflow system.

Again, the University of Washington wiki page has a list of tools that could be fleshed out.

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Next Steps

Jim has started gathering issues and resources on the ITANA wiki: (https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/x/6Abp).

*Next Conference Call - July 23, 2009 - 2 p.m. (EDT)*

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