What Is a Workflow? Meaning, Examples, Workflow Systems, Orchestration and How to Improve Workflow Efficiency

A workflow is the sequence of steps, people and tools needed to complete a piece of work from start to finish, for example: request submitted → reviewed → approved → processed → confirmed. A workflow system is software that defines, runs, tracks and automates those steps, and workflow orchestration coordinates many automated steps and systems so they run in the right order with error handling and visibility.

Every organisation runs on workflows, whether they're written down or not: approving expenses, onboarding customers, publishing content, handling support tickets, processing invoices. When workflows live in people's heads and inboxes, work gets stuck, duplicated or forgotten. This guide explains what workflows are, their components and types, workflow systems and orchestration, how to design efficient workflows, and how to automate them.

What does workflow mean?

Workflow = "the flow of work": the defined path a task or request follows through a series of steps until it's done. It answers:

• What needs to happen?
• In what order?
• Who does each step (or which system)?
• What information moves between steps?
• What rules decide the path?

Is workflow one word? Yes. "Workflow" is written as one word in standard English (not "work flow" or "work-flow").

The components of a workflow

Types of workflows

Workflow examples by department

• Sales: lead captured → assigned → contacted → qualified → proposal → closed (see How to use a CRM)
• Marketing: content idea → brief → draft → review → publish → promote (see What is content automation?)
• HR: job requisition → approval → posting → screening → interviews → offer → onboarding
• Finance: purchase request → approval → PO → invoice → match → payment
• Customer support: ticket received → categorised → assigned → resolved → survey
• IT: access request → manager approval → provisioning → confirmation
• Operations: order received → picked → packed → shipped → delivered

What is a workflow system?

A workflow system (or workflow management system) is software that lets you:

• Design workflows (often visually, with drag-and-drop)
• Run them: assign tasks, send notifications, route items according to rules
• Integrate with other apps to read and update data
• Track status, deadlines and bottlenecks
• Report on volumes and cycle times
• Audit who did what and when

Examples range from simple task tools (Trello, Asana, monday.com) to workflow automation platforms (Zapier, Make, n8n, Power Automate) to enterprise process platforms (ServiceNow, Pega, Appian). (Enterprise end-to-end automation: What is digital process automation?)

What is one tool that visualises features representing a workflow?

A flowchart (or process map) is the classic tool for visualising a workflow; BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is the standard notation. Tools like Lucidchart, Miro, Microsoft Visio, draw.io and Whimsical are used to draw them, and Kanban boards (Trello, Jira, monday.com) visualise work moving through workflow stages.

What is workflow orchestration?

Workflow orchestration is the coordination of multiple automated tasks, services and systems into a single workflow, managing:

• Order and dependencies (step B waits for A)
• Data passing between steps
• Scheduling and triggers
• Retries, error handling and alerts
• Monitoring and logs

It's especially common in data and IT (e.g., Apache Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, AWS Step Functions, Temporal) and increasingly in AI, where orchestration coordinates models, tools and agents (see What is AI orchestration?). Related: What is workload automation?

Automation vs orchestration: automation makes a single task run by itself; orchestration makes many automated tasks work together as one reliable process.

How to create an efficient workflow

1. Define the outcome and when the workflow starts and ends.
2. List every step as it happens today, including hidden ones (chasing, re-typing, searching).
3. Map it visually with swimlanes for each role or system.
4. Identify waste: waiting, duplicate approvals, re-entry of data, unclear ownership, rework.
5. Simplify: remove unnecessary steps, combine approvals, set thresholds ("auto-approve under $100").
6. Standardise: templates, checklists and clear definitions of done.
7. Assign clear owners and deadlines (SLAs).
8. Automate repetitive steps: notifications, routing, data transfer, document generation.
9. Make status visible with a board or dashboard.
10. Measure and improve regularly.

10 ways to improve workflow efficiency

1. Eliminate unnecessary approvals or set approval thresholds
2. Stop re-typing data: integrate systems (see How to integrate data from multiple sources)
3. Use templates for recurring documents and messages
4. Automate notifications and reminders
5. Run steps in parallel where possible
6. Batch similar tasks to reduce context switching
7. Use self-service forms instead of email requests
8. Set WIP (work-in-progress) limits to reduce multitasking and bottlenecks
9. Track cycle time and bottlenecks and fix the slowest step first
10. Add AI for drafting, classification, extraction and summaries (see How to automate tasks with AI)

Workflow metrics

• Cycle time: start to finish
• Throughput: items completed per period
• Wait time vs work time
• Bottlenecks: where items queue
• Error and rework rate
• SLA compliance
• Cost per item

Workflow automation tools

How AI is changing workflows

Traditional workflows follow fixed rules. AI adds steps that handle unstructured information and judgement: reading emails and documents, deciding which path to take, drafting responses and summarising. Agentic workflows go further: AI agents plan multi-step tasks and use tools, with humans approving key decisions. The best results come from combining deterministic workflow steps (reliable, auditable) with AI steps where flexibility is needed.

Frequently asked questions

What is a workflow?

A workflow is the defined sequence of steps, people and tools needed to complete a task or process from start to finish, such as submitting, reviewing, approving and processing a request.

What does workflow mean in business?

In business, workflow means how work moves through an organisation: which steps happen, in what order, who is responsible and what rules apply, often managed and automated with software.

What is a workflow system?

A workflow system is software for designing, running, tracking and automating workflows: assigning tasks, routing work by rules, sending notifications, integrating with other apps and reporting on progress.

What is workflow orchestration?

Workflow orchestration coordinates multiple automated tasks and systems into one workflow, managing order, dependencies, data handoffs, scheduling, error handling and monitoring.

How do you create an efficient workflow?

Define the outcome, map current steps, remove waste and unnecessary approvals, standardise with templates, assign owners and deadlines, automate repetitive steps, make status visible and measure cycle times.

What is an example of a workflow?

An expense approval: an employee submits a claim, the system checks the receipt, the manager approves, finance reviews claims over a threshold, and the accounting system schedules reimbursement.