Heuristic Workflow Redesign

Abstract

In this chapter we will give an overview of heuristics that can be used to improve a workflow. The character of the chapter is rather informal. We will not try to prove or quantify in general terms the superiority of the design measures we dis- cuss. Instead, we will illustrate a heuristic redesign of workflows by presenting a realistic example workflow to which we will apply these measures. A heuristic redesign of a workflow contrasts rather sharply with the product-based workflow design approach that we have discussed in Chapter 3. We characterized the latter as an analytic and clean sheet approach. The approach of this chapter takes an existing workflow as starting point. The heuristics that we apply are also typically on a check-list of a team that redesigns a workflow in a participative way.