A business process is a step by step sequence of tasks executed in a coordinated, predefined manner with rules to be followed along the way in some or many or all steps.

Some steps could be automated, some semi-automated and some completely manual, which introduces some friction and obstacles as the process flows from one step to another.

The process needs to be continually tinkered to smoothen the passage and facilitate easy execution of the process. Non-automated processes are not amenable to easy tinkering and hinder productivity in organizations.

This is where Workflow Automation steps in … several platforms/solutions exist, with varying degrees of effectiveness and ease of use, to define business processes on the fly and create forms to execute them to perfection – all done in a few hours, or for the more complex business processes, in a few days – a far cry from the months and years software implementations generally take, following the traditional Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) route.

Key Terms in Workflow Automation (in alphabetical order)

Activity, Annotation, Artifact, Association, Automation, BPMN, Catch/Throw, Clone, Connector, Conversation, Data Object, Deadline, Deviation, Element, Event, Escalation, Form, Flow, Gateway, Group, Instance, Lane, Message, Pool, Participants, Process, Process Manager, Process Owner, Publish, Signal, Subprocess, Task, Token, Track, Trigger, Validation, etc