Workflow for the Information Worker

Workflow technology has a clear application in the domain of highly repeatable business processes. There is, however, a large body of business activity that so far has proven difficult or impossible to support with production workflow systems. Information workers find that the objects of their work change form substantially from case to case, and that the procedures that they use are highly dependent upon the details of the current case. Because of its non-routine qualities, this work is often an organization’s most important and most costly. While more and more of the routine work is becoming automated, we find more people doing less routine activities; organizations are finding an increasing part of their workforce performing information work. This paper considers the needs and requirements of information workers in order to best support, if not automate, their daily activities, and how these requirements differ from those for production workflow.