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?

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • You can pull from your own experience, utilizing memory as a tool.
  • You can observe media to try and pick up on common themes you might try to build upon.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • A brainstorming chart, collage, or any other way to compile and organize components of your idea.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • Depth itself is not an apt way to judge the quality of an idea, the solidity of what you will do with it is far better. It is not so much about having a place to start, as it is having a place to end, in which the meat of the center may be built upon.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • In the idea department, you should be the one who has judgement on whether or not it is good, unless someone is asking you for your idea, in which case it’s them who measures quality.

Intention

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

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Other people working on the project, wise friends, and your own inspirations are good tools for intention.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Ask yourself the intention behind your idea which started the process.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • It depends upon the intention, maybe it’s an emotion or message, in which case the audience’s retention of the ideas is how you can measure it.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • Your audience will determine the quality, since they can tell you if your intention came through.

Pre-production

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

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Your other team members, Trello, computers and paper.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Trello and text to work out a rough schedule with your team mates.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • Being able to check off everything you wanted to accomplish in planning.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • You and your team.

Production

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

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Necessary equipment, logging sheets, communication tools.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Meet up with everyone you are working with, check equipment, then use it to do what you need to, and finally log what you did.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • Your ability to pave the way for post-production, and leave no work to do beforehand in a timely fashion.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • Those who work on post-production will measure your quality, and you will too.

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.

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Editing software, your team’s wisdom and the project director.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Use the logs to organize your content, then sculpt it into the intentions set in pre production and before that.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • The refinement of the final product compared to it’s state in production.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • Your intended audience.

Presentation/Performance

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

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Festivals, galleries, online forums and spaces in which it can be published.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Prepare to present your creation, know what you are going to say.
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • The reaction of the audience.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • The audience you present your work to.

Feedback

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

• WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Recording device to record feedback, be it digital or pencil and paper. Also, a little humble pie.
• WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
  • Be patient, consider each opinion which reviews you
• HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
  • You can measure it by the composition of the feedback. For example, feedback that explicitly references parts of the project is more valuable than a blanket statement.
• WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
  • The quality of feedback is measured by you and anyone else working on the project.