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?

• Tools: Social media, other people
• Process: collaborating with others to find inspiration and to build off of each other
• Measuring Quality: strong ideas and by showing others outside of your group to get feedback
• Who Measures Quality: Audiences, other group members

Intention

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

• Tools: Burndown Chart
• Process: Layout goals in order by difficulty
• Measuring Quality: Looking at how many goals were reached over time
• Who Measures Quality: Yourself and other team members

Pre-production

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

• Tools: Storyboard, Burndown Chart
• Process: discuss with team members on what needs to be done for the film and lay them out in an organized fashion
• Measuring Quality: If the work flows smoothly and a lot gets done
• Who Measures Quality: yourself and your team members

Production

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

• Tools: Camera, Mic, and other tools and burndown chart
• Process: View burndown chart to determine what are the main priorities and get them done
• Measuring Quality: If finished on time and efficiently
• Who Measures Quality: Yourself and team members

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: Burndown chart
• Process: finish up remaining production work then move on to the next items on chart
• Measuring Quality: if on time and getting a lot done
• Who Measures Quality: Yourself and team members

Presentation/Performance

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

• Tools: classroom, Screen
• Process: Show finished product to audience
• Measuring Quality: If practiced and smoothly played out
• Who Measures Quality: Audience

Feedback

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

• Tools: Advising committee and audience
• Process: Show finished project then hear others thoughts and improvements
• Measuring Quality: How much positive feedback
• Who Measures Quality: Audience members, your team and the advising committee