Workflows in Sharepoint 2010 .....Basic Definition

What is a WorkFlow in Sharepoint 2010?

Workflow feature in sharepoint ,in simple words is a collection of a sequence of steps programmed to perform a bussiness process reducing the number of human interactions and chance for the errors that prevail during the interactions respectively.
        Worlflow is the best feature adopted by sharepoint architects, sharepoint designers and admins to lessen the human interaction and thereby improving the bussiness processes.
        Generally the Workflow feature uses forms which are intended or say programmed to interact with the users with certain logic that describes the behaviour of the respective workflow.
        Inorder to understand clearly what a workflow is, and how they are created, you need to be clear with two things that a workflow contains in it.
So you need to understand two basic things:

1. Forms used by the workflow to interact with the users
2. Logic defined in the background that reflects the workflow’s behaviour

The main difference you could notice implementing the workflow feature is ,If we practice conventional methods to perform a bussiness process that involved a group of people or a group of organisations then we need to follow a series of steps which may be formal or an informal implicitly understood way which involves more human interactions , finally to come out with a decision which really consumes lot of processing time and also creates scope for errors.
       Where, coming with a well designed automated workflow could serve you the same with a lot of ease and error free saving lot of process time and enhancing the quality of the decisions and finally resulting an effective perfomance of a bussiness process.
Some of the examples where we could implement workflows are:

1. Routing a document or a form to a section of designated personnels for their approval
2. Collecting feedback form from a group of organisations etc

        Like the above scenarios we could implement workflows in a wide range of bussiness processes with its own behaviour.
In the next post we shall discuss the different types of workflows and some examples where we create simple workflows.