Critical Success Factors in Workflow Implementation

Workflow Systems offer many potential benefits to organisations. However, to achieve these benefits, the implementation of workflow must be successful. The purpose of this research is to examine variables thought to be important to successful workflow implementation. Variables were identified from a review of literature, then a case study was undertaken to increase understanding of these variables in the workflow context. Once the variables were identified, a survey was undertaken. This research reports the findings of that survey. The findings of the research indicate that workflow projects are mostly initiated to improve organisational performance. The earlier phases of a workflow project are more critical to the overall success of the project; and most problems that occurred relate to end user and process design issues. The need to ascertain expected benefits prior to undertaking workflow projects was also identified, as many “successful” projects seemed to experience difficulty justifying their contribution due to a lack of pre-determined benchmarks for outcomes. The three most significant individual success variables were found to be management commitment to the project, communication, and participation by end users. A set of eight factors was extracted from survey data, which may assist with further exploration of this research area.