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?
- Look for everyday things in life to provide inspiration or find the projects of other people and groups
- Analyze what sparked your interest and invest time into exploring areas related to it
- Share your general ideas and topics for the project
- Have the team share all their ideas and communicate together on what idea will be the most quality
Intention
How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?
- Use any formatting necessary to organize goals
- The team will communicate on what ideas and goals work well
- Keep coming back to your organized notes and check if it needs revision
- Change existing ideas or add new ones if the team comes to a conclusion
Pre-production
How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?
- Create visual organization ideas
- Consider everyone’s ideas before discarding
- Continue to revise plans based on the realism of the goals and time span
- Team members will call to change plans based on new information and ideas
Production
How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.
- Create a schedule and use timers to maximize proficiency
- Have team members each work on their assigned aspects of the project
- Come together to find out the amount of work finished and help those who need it
- Team members will help one another if a task is too much or a new problem arises
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.
- Collect all the important details of your project and what you found, did, etc…
- Format and present your work cleanly, and precisely before publishing
- Read through your paper/findings multiple times before publishing
- Have the team analyze and revise and then publish
Presentation/Performance
How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?
- Make a visual presentation along with a verbal one
- Analyze what aspects of the project should be included or left out
- Practice presenting to achieve confidence
- Present to peers not associated with the project to give outside criticism
Feedback
How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?
- Record all feedback you recive even if it seems useless
- Compare the feedback with your project and record what aspects you could have changed about it
- The team comes together to discuss what went well and what didn’t
- Make a finale conclusion together as a team