Hi again :),

We all have been asked by so many Clients, User, Managers etc, the same question.  what is Workflow? how it works in SharePoint. To brief a general User about a workflow, i usually share a power point presentation.

But in order to visualize a workflow,  a user need a tool to brief the SharePoint Developers or a Power User how they want to automate the process. Some time user give you a flowchart or Microsoft Document that describe about the process. But the flowchart or a document that is submitted not fit to the actual SharePoint notations or Actions.

Now with Visio 2010, the User can actually submit the Detail Diagram of Workflow exactly as the notations or actions of SharePoint Workflow understand.

Example:

The user wants to get the Share Document field Title updated as (Greater than 1 MB) when the document size will be above 1 MB or below  as (Less than 1 MB).

Now User who is familiar with Microsoft Visio, opens the Visio 2010, select the Microsoft SharePoint Workflow template, User can notice SharePoint Workflow activity grouped together as  SharePoint Workflow Action,SharePoint Workflow Conditions and SharePoint Workflow Terminators.

By dragging and dropping different activities from the panel, user formulate a Visio Diagram

now the user can check the Digram validity, by clicking  on the Check Diagram in the process tab of Visio ribbon options.

now you can export your diagram into a Visio Workflow Interchangeable format(.vmi) so that it can be handed over to SharePoint Developer or a power user so that it can be implemented in SharePoint Designer.

in my next blog i will elaborate how this .vmi file import into the SharePoint Designer and publish onto the SharePoint 2010.