It's ok to be Ad Hoc

Content management systems let us go wild with process.  We can automate notifications, reviews, expiration, escalation, assignment, multi-level approvals and on and on.  Business units often get starry-eyed over how much process they need and want, until they actually use it, that is.  A common thread in almost every Percussion Rhythmyx User Group meeting I have been to is "too much process" (too much e-mail going out, too many approvals required, etc.)  It's easy enough to back out most of the process rules you build, but a dose of experience may help you avoid them in the first place.

It so happens that I'm also an end user of a content management system (we use Rhythmyx in house at Percussion, including this Blog).  You want to know the most common "workflow" we use for creative content?  Here it is:

• Draft - I edit and save content until I'm done.
• Review - I simply "submit" and the content goes to a review state.  Guess what, NO e-mail is sent to anyone at this point.  They don't want e-mail, not from some automated server at least.  
• I "copy URL to clipboard" (from the Action Menu) and then go back to my e-mail client and pasting it into an e-mail to the reviewer I want along with the the text "Can you review this when you get a moment?"  Sometimes that text reads "This one isn't that important, but when you can get to it." And other times it says "you really need to review and publish this TODAY."
• The reviewer clicks the link in their e-mail, and hits "approve" (if need be) and the item goes live.  If they don't like something, they e-mail me back.  I make the edit (I still have rights to items in the review state) and we go back and forth from there.

This may seem like extra work, but think about it. For 90% of my edits I just: submit, copy URL, leave the browser and paste into an e-mail and never see it again.  It's not "extra" work, it's the CMS not getting in the way of how I want to work.  Also, I can make every review different, all from the same basic "submit" process.  I never have to sit there wondering what the difference might be if I push "review," "immediate review," or "rush review."  And the personal touch goes a lot further than yet another automated e-mail from some vast library of possible notification messages.