Simon Willison’s Weblog

Why workflow?

I’m having trouble understanding the importance of workflow in a CMS. As I see it, managing content assets and controlling which assets are ready for publication can be thought of as two very seperate processes. After all, content can and should be deployed in a whole variety of ways. A piece of content that is not yet ready for publication in a brochure may well be ready for publication on a web site (or may be fit a site aimed at one audience but not yet ready for a site targetted elsewhere). Why tie the publication readiness of an item of content directly to the content, when it would make more sense to attach it to the place where the content will be published—so a site editor can decide when content is ready for publication without permanently altering the status of the content. Or have I completely missed the point?