A workflow is the organization of company resources to build processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. This article will discuss the importance of custom workflows, the elements that go into building them, and what they mean. We will also talk about Fresco’s workflow builder and how you can use it to build your workflow diagrams.
Why are Custom Workflows Important?
Every business designs and develops its products in a certain way. Hence, they must use a workflow builder that allows them customizability based on their needs. The following are the reasons why businesses need to build their softwares for custom workflow management.
Custom features to prevent miscommunication
Since every business is unique in how they operate, having custom features on its front-end interface becomes critical to reaching its business goals.
For example, suppose you run a manufacturing company and separately classify products under the design and production stages. However, the only option available in your existing software is “In Progress.” This lack of customization may lead to miscommunication, confusion, and misleading progress reporting.
Therefore, a workflow builder that allows you to label tasks with statuses corresponding to your project’s workflows makes it easier to recognize which stage of the process work is in and whether it is proceeding as planned.
A platform that supports every team/department
If the different teams, projects, and departments in your business have distinct workflows? You’ll need a platform that can support them all.
Custom workflows enable everyone in your business to develop workflows in their fashion and evaluate the real-time progress of each task. You can use custom workflows to construct flows for anything from the design stage to product distribution.
The seven steps for creating a custom workflow
Here are the seven steps to creating custom workflows for any business:
1. Identify Your Resources
The workflow resources include the data, documentation, operating procedures, and the process owners that manage the workflows.
Once you’ve identified your resources, you can identify and eliminate redundancies and bottlenecks. It is very important to take feedback from process owners about how you could improve the current processes in this stage.
2. Figure Out the Tasks That Need to Be Accomplished
Workflows have varying path structures depending on their complexity.
Where simple workflows have linear paths, structured and complex workflows have graph-like sequences of tasks that you must complete simultaneously or independently before proceeding to consequent stages.
Understanding the task structure and the data exchanged in tasks is essential before designing an online workflow.
3. Find Out Who Is Accountable for Each Step and Assign Roles
After you’ve decided on your resources and tasks, the following stage is to identify the persons in charge of managing the work.
In addition, take note of all stakeholders, their roles in the process, and the information they need to complete the work quickly. Create specific roles and assign responsibilities for each job based on this.
4. Create Workflow Diagrams to Visualize the Process
After completing the preliminary work, begin the visualization process and draw up your workflow diagrams.
Choose a basic workflow management solution that allows you to design processes using drag-and-drop visual tools at this stage.
Using a user-friendly tool like Freso Online Whiteboard, which is versatile enough to create workflows that are digital counterparts of the paper-based workflow, you can create workflows for any process regardless of complexity.
5. Test the workflow
On the surface, your workflow might appear to be flawless. However, you will never discover its shortcomings until you test it properly. When testing your workflow, you should include the people responsible for managing the workflow. They will assist you in identifying problems faster and determining what works and what doesn’t. Therefore, gather their input and utilize the information to tweak and improve your workflows.
6. Train your team for the new workflow
The most important component of every workflow is implementation. Employees responsible for the tasks might be hesitant to let go of their current practices without proper training. However, a comprehensive training program will give them the confidence to use the new workflow.
7. Deploy the workflow
Finally, once you’ve completed the testing and training phases, your process is ready for automation. Initially, it is best to distribute the process to a small team and test it in real-time. If the workflow is successful, you can proceed and share it with the rest of your business. If not, you can withdraw the workflow for revisions.
How to use Online Whiteboards to build Custom Workflows
Creating a workflow process is straightforward once you better understand using online whiteboards. An online whiteboard is an excellent workflow builder as it allows you to incorporate your entire team and foster an environment of collaboration.
It is not complicated to automate your enterprise workflows. You can automate workflows and plan and build them graphically to imitate or improve current processes by using a drag-and-drop interface to add and organize tasks.
The process is shown statically and evaluated by all stakeholders for accuracy. Once the static design is complete, development on the actual process, including the forms, tasks, recipients, and notifications, begins.
