Date: WEDNESDAY, Apr 16, 2003

Time: 6:30pm Refreshments; 7:00pm Speaker

Slides (in MS PPT format): 20 Strategies for Designing Dynamic Workflow

Location: Hewlett Packard (see Directions below)
Pruneridge and Wolfe,
Cupertino, Bldg. 48, Oak Room.

Free and open to all who wish to attend, but membership is only $10/year.

Abstract

A workflow application can control a process where a transaction is approved (or task completed) by a number of individuals (serially or in parallel) over some period of time, enforcing rules and substantially reducing completion time.

For past five years, I have designed several large global dynamic workflow approval systems for Cisco. Each of these systems was designed to handle complex requirements, have varying number of approvers, have alternative approvers, use time-outs to keep the process moving, and above all, be designed for change. In each system, transaction approval times were reduced from an average of 4-6 weeks to under 3 days.

This talk will demonstrate 20 design strategies used to approach problematic workflows. I will also discuss global considerations and workflow engine selection criteria. This talk is recommended to anyone who enjoys seeing interesting solutions to difficult problems.

Biography

John Adams is an IT Engineer with Cisco. In addition to the workflow systems, he designed the Bingo survey system which is used worldwide to measure customer satisfaction. Other systems he has designed include the user interface for a nuclear power plant safety system for GE Nuclear, a hospital surgery scheduling system, and a missile logistics system for Lockheed. He is twice past chairman of this chapter and a member of the Northern California Oracle Users Group. He has a BS in Business Administration and a MS in Computer Science, both from San Jose State University.

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