Challenges for Workflow Management in Lack of Adequate Support for Knowledge Workers:

In contrast to many developments in software architecture and technology,
workflow management systems have massive effects on the daily work for their
users. The method of data storage and whether the program was developed
with a procedural programming language or an object oriented programming
language are relevant only for system designers and developers; these implementation
aspects do not matter for the users of these systems. Therefore,
special care has to be taken in the rollout of workflow applications; early participation
of users in the design of these systems is important to avoid user
acceptance issues.
Workflow management systems represent not only processes but also the
organizational environment in which these processes are executed. This means
that persons are represented by their skills, competences, and organizational
positioning. This information is used to select persons to perform certain
activities. The active selection of persons by the workflow management system
has not been considered appropriate, since human workers felt that a machine
burdened them with additional work. This feeling might also be due to crude
interfaces of early workflow management systems.
The role of knowledge workers is another area where traditional workflow
management systems scored low. Workflow models prescribe the process flow,
and a workflow management system makes sure that the workflow is performed
just as it is described. This also means that there is little room for creativity
for the knowledge worker. Any process instance that has not been envisioned
by the process designer cannot be realized. This might lead to situations where
certain parts of the overall business process are not handled by the workflow
management system. Sometimes, even paper-based solutions were used by the
knowledge workers, leading to inconsistent states in the overall process.