Nintex Workflows for Project Server 2010

Without any doubt the one of the most exciting feature of Project Server 2010, at least to me,  is the Demand Management Process. The Demand Management let you automate your Project life cycle with great control and visibility, and let you capture your project rite from its inception stage till the closure stage. In Project Server, server settings the new section has been added 'workflow and project detail pages' that consist of EPT, Phases, Stages and Project Detail Pages. Using all of these options together can give you a great leverage of creating a Project workflow.And the more great deal about this is that you can automate more than one Project life cycle process, to fulfill the demand of different processes within one organization, by creating different workflows and associating them with the different EPT. And further filter them on the basis of Departments (another awesome feature of the Project Server 2010, will discuss in my future post) to be available only for the target audience.

Now this is not the only reason i am writing this post, because there is already a lot of excellent material available related to Demand Management capabilities. The feature has also led this misconception among the users that they are going to get the workflows also as an OOB features of Project Server 2010. And that they will be able to use it straight away by simply configuring the workflow section available within the server settings of the Projec Server. Or the workflow is something which they can download from the internet and use it, thanks to the dynamic workflow available in the solution starter kit :). The conclusion is based on my personal experience and often i have to work really hard in clearing this wrong concept from the customers head.

And this, developing a workflow, requires effort and expertise. As they say that not all the ease can come without small amount of pain :). The fact of the matter is that  Project Server 2010 workflow cannot be built using Sharepoint designer and thus leaves the customer with only two options:

1. Leverage the Dynamic Workflow Solution Starter, a Microsoft released tool that enables simple approval type linear workflows to be built from within a web page without any code; or
2. Get a .net developer to use Visual Studio 2010 to design, develop and test a  workflow that meets all the organizational requirements.

However, now there is a third option available i.e Nintex Workflows for Project Server 2010, an extension of the popular Nintex Workflow 2010. The new NWFPS 2010 brings a simplified drag and drop interface for building workflows and integration into the Project Server workflow components to users via the web browser. The tool is looking promising. and the deployment and its integration with the Project Server is seamless.

Unfortunately i was not getting much time to explore its capabilities, but look for my next blog where i will write in more detail about the usability and capability to create a workflow using NWFPS 2010.

Posted in: Project Server 2010 - Demand Management