Workflow survey questions

The purpose of this survey is to provide a quick first cut of information regarding how institutions have applied enterprise workflow.

• The best person to respond depends on the institution; it could be an architect, CIO, or director for administrative computing. Multiple responses from the same institution are ok, we can merge the data.
• We would like to try the survey on a focus group of about six institutions to find out if the questions "work".
• We will make available a PDF of the survey so recipients can decide if they are the right peson to answer the survey, or redirect it.

For purposes of this survey, we define workflow as a sequence of steps carried out by different actors as part of a business process. A workflow solution uses software to notify participants, authorize and record decisions, and route information.

The following questions are proposed:

1. About you:
   1. Your institution
   2. Your role at your institution
2. Workflow can be implemented in a variety of ways. Does your institution use (check all that apply):
   1. Internal workflow: A workflow solution provided inside an existing application. For example: Hiring workflow built into your HR system.
   2. Workflow as a service: A general purpose workflow solution designed to support many business processes. For example: A general purpose document routing and approval tool.
   3. A workflow dashboard that summarizes a user's workflows in different systems. For example: A web portal that collects the user's "to do" items across different systems.
   4. A general purpose workflow solution that also integrates with other systems. For example: A workflow solution that can read from or update a core business system as part of a workflow step.
3. Please indicate if your institution uses workflow in the following areas.
   Note: This question will be in the form of a grid -- see example at the end of this page. For each item the user may select: manual process; internal workflow; workflow as a service; or don't know.
   1. Human Resources
      1. Onboarding of new hires
      2. Leave requests, timesheets
      3. Off-boarding employees
      4. Retirement processing
      5. Wage and compensation
      6. other...
   2. Financial Services
      1. Purchase requests
      2. Reimbursements
      3. Travel expense approval
      4. other...
   3. Research Administration
      1. Grant submission
      2. IRB administration
      3. other...
   4. Student Systems
      1. Admissions
      2. Course catalog
      3. Scheduling
      4. Grading
      5. other...
   5. Course Management
      1. Tests, assignments
      2. eReserves
      3. Grading
      4. other...
   6. Access Management
      1. ERPs
      2. Secondary administrative systems
      3. Collaboration services
      4. other...
   7. Academic Administration
      1. Tenure and promotion
      2. Effort reporting
      3. Portfolio management
      4. other...
   8. Facilities Management
      1. Maintenance
      2. Construction and renovation
      3. HVAC
      4. Space planning
      5. other...
   9. Content Management
      1. Web publishing
      2. other...
4. Please list any other important current uses of workflow not captured in the previous question:
   1. (free text)
5. Do you have future plans for use of workflow that you would like to share?
   1. (free text)
6. Please name any specific workflow tools/products you are using:
   1. (free text)
7. Were your workflows developed by (check all that apply):
   1. Business users (with appropriate training)
   2. IT staff
   3. External resources
8. Do you consider your institution's uses of workflow:
   1. Not as beneficial as expected
   2. Provided the expected benefits
   3. Provided even greater benefits than expected
   4. It's a mixed bag
9. May we contact you for further conversation about your institution's uses of workflow? If yes, please provide:
   1. Your name
   2. Your email address

Format of question 4: