Last week in Dubai I received multiple questions from companies regarding what the limitations are regarding workflow in WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. As many people start to know, I am a big fan of the 'SharePoint as a developer platform' message. So I am advocating in my trainings that in the real-world, the custom workflows you get with WSS and MOSS are not going to be good enough. Sales people should not sell the message that creating custom workflows for the real world is an easy task. It is not. WSS 3.0 is giving you a good platform to work with, but a lot of work will come from you.
The SharePoint Designer can help, but the workflows created with the SPD are a one-shot thing and not meant to be a re-usable type of workflow. If you stick with the Microsoft products, you're only option is going to be to build custom workflows with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2005, enhanced with the workflow extensions for WF and the the additional layer for MOSS 2007 provided by installing the Office Server SDK. Be aware though that creating workflows this VS.NET way will involve a lot of studying and learning since WF is not an easy topic. You can find plenty of samples and tutorials on wf.netfx3.com but basically it is not your day-to-day programming and many of the mainstream .NET developers within companies are not up-to-speed on it yet. Therefore, products coming from partners like K2, Captaris, Skelta, Nintex, and many others are still a viable solution for many organizations because they offer a layer on top of the WF that make it more accessible for everybody. Each of them have an offering that you should have a look at closely since they differ in their approach. The SharePoint conference in Berlin is going to be extremily interesting since many of them will show their latest offering.
In an upcoming BIWUG meeting (BIWUG = Belgian Information Worker User Group), we plan to cover workflow from all angles. The meeting is at the 8th of February, starting at 18:30 in the Microsoft building @ Microsoft. The agenda has, in my opinion, very interesting topics. First, there will be a more sales oriented session discussing what I wrote down above. One of the partners, AgilePoint, is going to talk about their latest products and then there will be a more technical talk about how to get workflow done in MOSS 2007. BIWUG has entered a new year with a lot of good intentions. Hopefully you'll support us. The group is driven by a lot of people working daily with the latest Microsoft technologies in the real world (having all a very very busy agenda but trying their best to get a community up-and-running around IW in Belgium), so you should come and register for the meetings. They are free thanks to our sponsors and Microsoft and there is a lot to learn. I would like to be there as well, but, it should not surprise you, I am Cape Town that week. Back to the sun actually. Yesterday I was enjoying a Cyprus coffee at a terras in Limassol at 9 AM in full sun, enjoying every minute of it. Now, I am Zurich 25 degrees less than yesterday... life can be strange. Now, which one do I prefer best? Yeah right ..
But it is going to be good here in Zurich this week. Full house for the 5-day dev course and lots of snow. Actually, my oldest daughter is also here in Switserland with her school on a skiing trip. Maybe I should visit her :). Although, I am pretty sure she is not going to like her dad visiting her! I would have not liked it when I was young :)