Workflow - Examples

Examples

The following examples illustrate the variety of workflows seen in various contexts:

1. In machine shops, particularly job shops and flow shops, the flow of a part through the various processing stations is a work flow.
2. Insurance claims processing is an example of an information-intensive, document-driven workflow.
3. Wikipedia editing is an example of a stochastic workflow.
4. The Getting Things Done system is a model of personal workflow management for information workers.
5. In global software development, the concept of follow-the-sun describes a process of passing unfinished work across time zones.
6. In Traditional Offset and Digital Printing workflow is the process, people and usually software technology (RIPs raster image processors or DFE digital front end) controllers that play a part in pre/post processing of print related files. e.g. PDF pre-flight checking to make sure fonts are embedded or that the imaging output to plate or digital press will be able to render the document intent properly for the image output capabilities of the press that will print the final image.
7. In Scientific experiments, the overall process (tasks and data flow) can be described as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). This DAG is referred to as a workflow, e.g. Brain Imaging workflows.
8. In healthcare data analysis, a workflow can be used to represent a sequence of steps which compose a complex data analysis (data search and data manipulation steps).
9. In Service-oriented architectures an application can be represented through an executable workflow, where different, possibly geographically distributed, service components interact to provide the corresponding functionality, under the control of a Workflow Management System.