What is Workflow?

Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/

“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com

What is a quality workflow?  How do we develop it?  Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something.  First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage.  Read on and find out!

Stages of Creation Development

Inspiration

How do we find ideas to develop?

• for this task, there are little or no tools required for quality work.
• for this task, the best process would be to take a walk outside or to think about what you would do if you could make changes to something.
• there shouldn’t be a differentiation of quality in ideas because in this stage your just throwing out ideas.
• in this case, the person(s) measuring quality are the people piecing together the ideas.

Intention

How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?

• In this case, the tools that should be used are surveys and would differ based on what you’re trying to create.
• The process would be a system of data gathering to find out what is wanted from the creation.
• Quality would be measured in how closely the intention matches the wants of its audience.
• In this situation, the producers and sub-managers would measure quality.

Pre-production

How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?

• The tools that would be used at this phase would include slideshow programs and shared files for collaborative editing.
• At this stage, helpful processes would include collaboration by a storyboard team and presentation of a storyboard and the ability for it to be rejected and refined.
• The quality would be measured by the effectiveness and extension of the plan.
• A separate judging and production team would judge the quality.

Production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.

• Tools would vary depending on the kind of product being produced.
• I am not very keen to showcase a one size fits all process because there is a lot that could work depending on the kind and type of product being made.
• Again I don’t want to highlight a single form of quality because of the extreme variety of effective forms of quality.
• For this section, I would use alpha testers or closed room public review.

Post-production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project.

• Tools used at this stage would be surveys of the Alpha tester’s opinion and an update of the product.
• The process used at this stage would be reviewing and revising the product.
• Quality would be measured by the popularity of the Beta-testing.
• Beta-testers would be the people to measure the quality of the product.

Presentation/Performance

How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?

• At this stage, the tools used would be advertisements and other sub-products to share the main product with the world.
• The process would be to advertise and spread the word about the product.
• The quality would be measured from how well the product does in the world.
• The quality is measured by the people who provide feedback about the product.

Feedback

How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?

• Online surveys about the product or other feedback gathering methods.
• Using the product or other ways to obtain feedback.
• Quality is measured by the positivity of the feedback.
• The people who provide feedback are the ones who measure quality.