It seems I keep having the same conversation when it comes to BPM, Content Management and Workflow. Everyone has a different idea what each one means, how they relate (or don't relate) to each other. And of course there is always the "what exactly is <insert term from above>" question and debate.

Remember the saying "One man's code is another man's data.", well that same thought process applies to Content Management, Process Management and Workflow.

#1. Content folks will tell you that Process and Workflow exist in order to accommodate CONTENT.

#2. While folks from the Process Management pool will tell you that content and workflow are just aspects of THE PROCESS.

#3. Then there are the Workflow centric types who will gladly explain that without WORKFLOW there can be no process and content will have no meaning.

So what conversation do I keep having? From my own experience and point of view all 3 of the above views combine to make a whole. Content in and of itself is just so much data. Workflow, while it can exist without content is usually the way that content gets consumed by, wait for it, a process!

Each of the 3 components, Content, Workflow, and Process, can exist in their own right. (Although I would tend to argue that a "workflow" is a process by definition.)

But from a very real world point of view (after all IT systems are primarily a way to model the "real" world right?), most process's are enriched by and contain content and workflow's. Even if they are not formally identified as such. For example, take buying a house, from the buyers perspective.

There is a fairly standardized process to buying a home. Once the offer is accepted, you enter the final phases of that process culminating in a sub process called a closing.

Some of the steps, workflow anyone, in that process are having the home inspected, having the home appraised, having a termite inspection, acquiring an insurance binder, checking the title, etc. Some of these steps are independent and can proceed asynchronously, other aspects are serial or synchronous in nature. (Appraisal first then check on Insurance etc.)

How about some content in this process? My last home purchase generated somewhere in the neighborhood of 500+ pages of reports, inspections, loan documents, insurance documents, tax information etc, etc. Talk about content! A home purchase is swimming in content.

So there is a real world process that requires both content and workflow in order to come to a successful conclusion. The content alone would do me little good without a process to give it context, and without a workflow to give it meaning and order.

So my conversation is usually something to the effect that Process Management, includes Process, Content, and Workflow. And that they are all interdependent on, and mutually beneficial to, each other. So lets all quit trying to shoehorn everything into a <insert part here> centric view.

So, to use another well used phrase; Can't we all just get along?

Cheers,

Robert Porter