On Mar 29, 2006, at 9:57 AM, Gautam Sarup wrote:
I've heard the term used more and more in software. I guess it's part of the general trend in the US (*) culture towards using "important" sounding words rather than simple words that are seen as well, simple (and coherent.)
Workflow has become important in software development as a design consideration well above the level of programming logic, again driven by the notions of how a human being is going to be able to use the software. That's why you hear the term there more nowadays.
This is the same trend that brought us travesties such as ultra- premium and mega optical stabilization.
Those are marketing and brand name terms. They have nothing to do with description other than by association.
Workflow is a precise modern term: a workflow articulates the conceptual steps to be used in completing a task. It is applicable to many many procedural processes of the past that were referred to with more context specific terms. Familiar as those terms might be, they are not as precise in highlighting the procedural concept advanced by the term "workflow". That's why the word has come to be more commonly used.
Godfrey
