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I received a conference promotional pamphlet from the TWDI (The Data Warehousing Institute) this week.  Inside was an interesting analogy that caught my eye, here is an excerpt:

“Are You Purple? People with solely business skills are red people.  People with only technical skills are blue people.  But those who combine both sets of skills are…purple people! Purple people bridge the knowledge and communication gaps to contribute to the success of your BI programs and projects.”

This analogy can be applied to Workflow administration as well.  Workflow will not succeed if you are not Purple. 

At Sungard Summit 2006, I noticed that several institutions were struggling to implement workflow and get it off the ground.  Several factors are contributing the slow or no implementation of Workflow including lack of product knowledge, resistance and fear of change, however, in my opinion, the biggest three factors are:

1) Institutions trying to run before they’ve learned to walk.

I had two people approach me at Summit 2006, who were in the process of trying implement Workflow as they were in the process of a conversion and initial Banner implementation, wondering if they should start the business process analysis phase of workflow while conversion and implementation was occurring at their institutions. 

You cannot analyze your business processes fully as are you are in the midst of a conversion, inevitably your processes will change.

2) Executives promoting Workflow as a solution to replace people. 

I’ve worked in higher education for 19 years, at four different institutions, both public and private institutions, both large and small.  Higher education is and will always be under-staffed.  Subject to popular belief, information technology creates jobs, it does not take them away.  The same can be said for workflow.

The skill set of the staff have changed drastically in the last 20 years, but this has happened normally through attrition - at least in higher education it has.  I have seen some people forced into retirement earlier than they would have preferred, supplemental staff and temp positions not refunded or extended, however, I haven’t seen less staff as a result of technology, just a more technically versed staff have evolved. 

Workflow, in higher education, does not replace people, it adds value. It offers a solution that will allow for additional customer service, business tracking, and database logging to existing processes.  And thank God for this solution, given the ever increasing demands to rank in US News and the expectations that go with that to serve our customers. 

If you are promoting Workflow as a people replacement option, you may not get very far in higher education. Focus on Value Added ROI!

3) You are not purple. 

If you are going to hire a workflow administrator, make sure they have both a strong business background and a strong information technology background.  If you hire someone not versed on both sides, i.e. someone who isn’t purple, workflow will not be able to get off the ground.

Additionally, if you have created islands at your institution and do not have regular meetings with both business and technical staff and don’t have strong relations between both business staff and technical staff, you will go no where with workflow and will never be able to use it to it’s potential. 

At PSU, the bond between business side of the house and the technical side of the house is the strongest I’ve ever witnessed at any institution I’ve worked at.  Project oriented teams, regular meetings, and constant communication, without getting bogged down in analysis paralysis, result in technology being implemented successfully and at a rapid pace. 

As a result of being Purple, in the last 14 months, I along with the many talented business and technical staff I work with, have currently moved 11 workflows in production, the 12th expected to go into production this week, and no end of workflow requests and workflow projects in sight! 

Smooth sailing….

tags: analysis paralysis, are you purple, bpa, business process analysis, sungard workflow, sungard workflow implementation, workflow, workflow deployment, workflow goddess, workflow implementation

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