What is Workflow?
Turkish: İş Akışı
A workflow defines which tasks happen, in what order, by whom, and under which rules to reach a business or system goal.
What Is a Workflow?
A workflow defines the sequence of tasks, owners, decision points, and completion rules needed to reach an outcome. A purchase request moving to approval, an invoice being checked and posted to accounting, or a support ticket being routed to the right team are all workflows.
A well-designed workflow does more than list steps. It defines who receives a notification in each case, which data is required, what happens when a step is delayed, and when the process is considered complete. This reduces manual follow-up around the question “who has it now?”
Types and Examples
Workflows can be sequential, parallel, conditional, or approval-based. In workflows with human steps, task assignment and reminders matter. In system-to-system workflows, API calls, webhooks, queues, or scheduled jobs may be involved.
Business Use
Sales quote approval, hiring, leave requests, stock replenishment, customer support escalation, and report generation are common examples. As process complexity grows, BPM can be used for modeling, and automation can handle repetitive rule-based steps.
Related Terms
BPM manages business processes by mapping, measuring, improving, and automating workflows so operations run consistently.
AutomationAutomation is the use of software or technology to perform repetitive business processes automatically, without human intervention.
Workflow EngineA workflow engine defines and executes process steps, business rules, task assignments, and state transitions.