Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides a robust, customizable work environment for users to create, collaborate, and store valuable business information. Windows SharePoint Services now enables you to attach custom business processes to these documents or list items.

Custom business processes are represented by workflows. A workflow is a natural way to organize and run a set of work units, or activities, to form an executable file representation of a work process. This process can control almost any aspect of an item in Windows SharePoint Services, including the life cycle of that item. The workflow is flexible enough to model both the system functions and human actions necessary for the workflow to complete.

Workflows can be as simple or complex as your business processes require. You can create workflows that the user initiates, or workflows that Windows SharePoint Services automatically initiates based on some event, such as when an item is created or changed.

Use the following links to learn more about developing custom workflows to control the life cycle of your documents.

In This Section