e-Forms vs. Workflow

Given potentially overlapping functionality, how can you select the correct tool for each requirement?

 

To some extent it is true that e-Forms and Workflows offer overlapping technology, and therefore present you with a decision about which one is the best to use for each requirement. But with experience there are only a few factors that you need to consider for simple cases.

How much is the metadata going to vary?

A form based workflow gives you complete freedom in designing not only the forms, which in many cases are quite complex, but also how they change during the different status points of the form. So if you think you need to collect a lot of data about an issue – e-Forms is a good place to start.

How document-centric is the requirement?

If users are asking for a document itself to move around the system, on a time or user decision basis, then probably document workflows are the solution.

A practical consideration is the complexity of setting up an e-Form – their power and customisation does mean that they talk proportionately more effort to set up than even a complex workflow.

The complexity arises precisely because of the power of e-Forms in that they too can interact with documents – in three main ways.

a) Documents can be attached to an e-Form. This is most applicable when we need to reference some fixed data relevant to the e-Form issue – for example if the e-Form is a help desk, then the attached file may well be a screen shot of a bug.

In this case clearly the power of e-Forms is what produces the help desk functionality, with all its routing, notifications, SLAs and form changes as the flow continues to ultimate resolution. It would not be possible to code anything so powerful using a document workflow starting on a folder into which users dropped screen shots of problems.

b) Documents can be referenced from within an e-Form. In this case the document is remaining in the version control system, and can be worked on as the e-Form itself continues from state to state.

In this case the power of the form is to put the document in some sophisticated context, allowing successive notes, comments and completion of metadata. Such forms might be used to control the progression of a document to approval, in exactly the same way as a document workflow can. The different emphasis is therefore the collection of the comments and metadata, as opposed to changes just within the document itself.

What if I really need both complex and changing metadata, as well as a document centric requirement?

c) Documents that are in a workflow, can themselves be referenced from an e-Form!

In this case you can benefit from the simplicity of the document workflow, but allow other users to see that document throughout the process, by reference from a changing e-Form.

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