Editor's note: As has become our annual tradition, before we bid adieu to 2012, we'd like to take a few moments to reflect on some significant events from the past "Year in Bamboo" ... and to offer a glimpse into what the future may hold for our customers. We get the series underway with the perspectives our three product managers, with each of them offering considered thoughts on the products they oversee, and we'll wrap up with the view from Bamboo's Solutions Center.
Workflow Conductor is your signature product, and this year saw several key releases, which included (among a wealth of new features) increased integration with complementary products in the Bamboo portfolio. Tell us more about the nature of the integration points.
One of the primary reasons we built Workflow Conductor in the first place was to be able to add business logic and process automation to our existing portfolio of products. In turn, we also integrate with other Bamboo products to extend what can be done with workflows. For example, we've built custom workflow templates that extend the functionality of some of our larger applications like PM Central and our Knowledge Base applications. We have also made sure Bamboo products like our Bamboo Custom Columns are compatible with Workflow Conductor, and can be read from and written to just like a SharePoint column can be. We've also extended the features of some Bamboo products to make workflows more powerful. One of my favorite enhancements was to our Alert Plus product, which allows users to easily define complex criteria for alerting, such as "When field x changes from value a to value b." In addition to sending alerts, that same business logic can now be used to start a workflow. Instead of a limited number of workflow triggers, the possibilities are now endless.
Is the integration of process automation via Workflow Conductor with other Bamboo properties something we can expect to see more of in the year ahead?
Absolutely. We are always looking for smart opportunities to integrate in ways that will help customers do more with our products. We have some interesting things already planned in the way of integration, but we're always happy to hear from our customers directly as well. If anyone has a particular workflow integration wish list item, please let us know!
Workflow Conductor reached a new milestone just last month with the 3.0 release for SharePoint 2010. What's the early reception from users been like? Which new features have been the most buzzed about to date?
We're really proud of what we have built so far, and our users seem really pleased with all of the new features. With the release of Workflow Conductor 3.0, they can do more with SharePoint and workflows than ever before. We've added so many features in the last year, it's getting hard to keep track of all the new things users can do, but if I limit the feedback to 3.0, I would say conditional delays seem to be pretty popular. It has always been easy to pause a workflow for a set amount of time, or until a certain date, but now it is just as easy to pause a workflow until some custom condition has been met, without the need for confusing looping or reversing the logic of the condition ((e.g., "repeat (nothing) while condition is not met."))
When can we expect to see Workflow Conductor for SharePoint 2013 arriving in the Bamboo store?
We're almost done with development now and are already putting it through the paces in testing. It should be out early next year.
There have been some Workflow Conductor-like enhancements to the process automation features available out-of-the-box in SharePoint Designer 2013. What effect will these changes to the platform have on future releases of Workflow Conductor?
Microsoft has definitely made strides with the workflows in SharePoint Designer for 2013, but there are still a lot of shortcomings in the interface and capabilities. While there are certainly a few new functions we will need to add to Workflow Conductor for 2013, there are still plenty of advantages to using Workflow Conductor, including a completely browser-based application with no need for client applications, a built-in drag-and-drop workflow creation interface, extensive workflow reusability, centralized workflow management, and a lot of additional activities, to name just a few.
You were a member of the Bamboo team that attended SPC this year, representing Workflow Conductor in person. What questions or comments did you field most regularly from visitors to the Bamboo booth?
First, I'd just like to say how great it was to meet so many people at that show. As a product manager, I can't tell you how valuable (and fun) it is to have that much one-on-one time with customers. It's a pretty unique setting, and I walked away with a lot of new ideas and some good confirmation on existing plans. A lot of questions were related to specific features and what we had in the works. I would say the most frequent question was around Office 2013 and whether we would support it (We will!), and when (Very soon!).
You've made two trips to Vietnam, and to Bamboo's Research & Development Center in Ho Chi Minh City, this year. What effect does working (and socializing) face to face with the Vietnam-based Workflow Conductor team have on the product development process, as opposed to your more standard online and on-the-phone collaboration?
I've been extremely fortunate to have been able to meet face-to-face several times over the last few years with our Vietnam team, both here in the U.S. and over in Vietnam. In fact, I just returned from visiting with them in Vietnam again for first two weeks of December. I wish I had been able to spend even more time with all of them, but the meetings I was able to take have helped immensely. While we talk regularly through discussion boards, email, and on the phone, nothing is quite as good as being in the same place at the same time. Ideas can be exchanged so much faster in person. I can accomplish things in a 2-3 hour meeting face-to-face that might take weeks online. In addition to the work, it's also great to spend time bonding together as a team. They're a great group of people, and I'm very fortunate to get to work with them.
Other than the SharePoint 2013 release, what's in store for Workflow Conductor in the coming year?
While SharePoint 2013 is first on the to-do list, we've still got some great features in store for 2010 as well. I'm still firming up the exact feature sets right now for the various releases for next year, but I'm really excited about some of the new features we're already planning to add. If we can fit in all (or even half) of the things we're hoping to, it will be another very good year for Workflow Conductor. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work on the plan. Thanks!