I had a great time at IASA Denver last night. My presentation included some great discussion among the group about workflow systems and the various challenges we all face when addressing a “workflow style” problem.IASA Denver is an amazing community and a real example of how a professional group should be run. Many thanks to Paul, Kevin and Tim for starting and leading such an amazing group. If you’re in CO, consider yourself an architect and aren’t an IASA Denver member, you’re missing out.

If you’re interested, I’ve posted the slides from my talk at SlideShare and have embedded them below. You can also get the slide deck and the code from both of my demos at http://github.com/bsatrom/WorkflowSystems

Now to continue a productive week in CO with the Thought Ascent crew!

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading back up to Colorado to do some planning and brainstorming with the Thought Ascent HQ guys and also to speak at the Denver chapter of IASA.

The topic: Workflow Systems.

I spoke at the RMTT back in February about Workflow, specifically Windows Workflow 3.5 (you can still find the slides and code here, btw).

This talk will be nothing like that one.

Different audience, different goals.

Here’s the abstract if you don’t believe me:

Workflow Systems: Myths, Truths and Wishful Thinking

"If workflow is simply about the coordination of work, why is it such a point of contention for most technologists? Do Workflow systems really enable a Business Analyst to change a production process, or are they a waste of time and resources, not to mention a problem that a solid developer could solve with a hundred lines of code? The goal of this talk is to demystify the idea of "workflow," and to discuss what place, if any, a Workflow system might have in your problem domain. We'll discuss Workflow Systems by example with Microsoft's Workflow Foundation tools (3.x and 4.0) and explore popular, low-ceremony options for doing "workflow" (NServiceBus, MassTransit, etc). We'll end the session with an open discussion on workflow tools and collaboratively craft some tactical recommendations on when and why to use workflow in your organization."

So not so much about WF as it is about Workflow in general. The aspects that are about WF don’t make the assumption that WF is a useful tool, or even a good solution, hence the time spent on other options like NServiceBus and MassTransit.

Look for the slides and code to be posted here shortly before or after the talk, along with a couple of follow-up posts (perhaps even a series) that will dive deeper into the main points from my talk.

And if you’re in Colorado, I hope to see you there (click here for meeting details, times and a map)!