Responsibility of Workflow

[aaron_morden2]

Hello all,

There has been some discussion at my company as to where the responsibility of creating Workflows resides. One group believes that it should be done by the Developers, where as the other group believes it should be done by the Business Process Experts.

I am just looking for feedback on where the responsibility resides in other companys and reasons for either way.

Thanks!

[KKilhavn · Accepted solution]

>

> There has been some discussion at my company as to where the responsibility of creating Workflows resides. One group believes that it should be done by the Developers, where as the other group believes it should be done by the Business Process Experts.

That depends entirely on what you mean by

> the responsibility of creating

Business Process Experts (BPEs) are not developers. If you meant 'who will develop/change' it is not even worth considering making non-developers responsible. They would do more harm than good. There's always a program providing the functionality that workflow is built on, whether that is a BOR object's implementation program, or a function module which identifies agents.

If what you mean is 'who will ensure the requirements are met' it becomes more blurry. I would say that is the responsibility of the BPEs whether it is a workflow solution or an interface or a report. So the BPEs will have to provide some form of specification/requirements, and the BPEs will have to ensure that the solution is tested.

If all that is needed is customizing a BPE may do a better job than a developer. However, I find that rarely is customizing all that is needed.

Most importantly the BPEs should (in my opinion) specify who the possible agents are for the various tasks. This they can either take full responsibility for, or specify for the developers.

My experience is that some BPEs look at workflow as something entirely different from a report, and workflow ends up being neglected. In those situations I find myself talking directly to the end-users (well, not all of them) and end up learning quite a bit about the business process as well in order to translate the requirements as specified by the business into requirements for the solution.

[aaron_morden2 · Accepted solution]

That depends entirely on what you mean by
the responsibility of creating

Sorry, by creating I mean setting up the workflow via the Workflow Builder (Transaction SWDD).

I would like to here several more opinions before I close the thread. Thank you!

[KKilhavn · Accepted solution]

Would anyone dream of asking a developer to set up the entire FI module (customizing)?

Edited by: Kjetil Kilhavn on Jan 31, 2008 4:13 PM:

I'm sure I could manage to customize a working FI module - but I am also quite sure it wouldn't work the way it should. Likewise, I am (quite) sure a Business Process Expert (at least some of them) can create a workflow definition that does not have syntax errors. But as every developer knows, there's more to development than getting rid of the syntax errors. Sort of like there's more to art than splashing some paint on a canvas .... or, wait a second ... !

[martin_nooteboom · Accepted solution]

Hi Aaron,

In my opinion the creating of the workflow should be done by the person who knows how to develop a workflow. By this I mean someone who has studied workflow preferably by the SAP courses or by self study with the SAP 'bible' or the SAPHelp. It is also preferable to have ABAP knowledge and to be able to think logical. This person could be a developer, but it also could be a process expert.

Regards,

Martin

[former_member184112]

Hi,

responsibility of creating Workflows resides

Developers will do workflow develop

BEP will do business specification study to help on developers

Thanks and Regards,

Prabhakar Dharmala

[Former Member]

It generally resides with the Business Process experts if you consider of creating responsibility. However, this job can be done by the developer also but the Business Process experts only knows which Company Code(Container element for Rule suppose) is for which Country. In some projects the BPE creates the configuration sheet and the developer does the configuration.

Please note that the rule generally is created by the developer as this should be used in the Workflow. Yes he should intimate the BPE also regarding this.

Create Rule and maintain Resp

PFAC

OOCU_RESP

Thanks

Arghadip