Hello everyone. New member here. As part of my PhD studies, I’m currently conducting a literature review focused on the differences between sequential and parallel workflows in project management.
There’s ample information available on-line, for instance this highly detailed web page:
When I tried to find a more authoritative source such as a textbook or a scholarly paper, I drew a blank. I went through the dozens of recently published works at my university library: no joy. To my utter surprise, the term 'workflow' is not even included in their indexes.
Two questions:
- I suspect that I need to map this idea to another concept that is specific to project management. Unfortunately, I’m still in the dark. Is there anyone in the forum who could tell me what I actually need to look for?
- Is there anyone who can signpost an authoritative source detailing the differences between sequential and parallel workflows? It must be a peer-reviewed journal article, conference proceedings, a book from a scholarly publisher. Blogposts or webpages are unlikely to make the cut with the supervisory team.
Many thanks in advance. Any help to be gratefully received and duly acknowledged.
Alessandro Saving Changes...
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Vijay SuryavanshiProject Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft SeatingPlantation, Fl, United States
An activity diagram is basically an extension of the workflow diagram. It describes the dynamic aspects of the system and is considered one the most important features of UML. Activity diagrams represent the flow of one activity from another.
A workflow process is a set of steps or tasks that are followed to complete a specific process or job within an organization.
(Industry using the words workflow and activity interchangeably is what causes confusion.)
If it is for project management related to see sequential and parallel, work activity is the right word to use than work flow. Work flow is more for process flow or flow charts for processes.
Sequential activities are usually dependent activities. That means new activity cannot be started until another previous activity is complete. Parallel acitvities on the other hand are not dependent (on each others completion) and can be done parallel. The sequential activity in a detail project plan helps determine the critical path which is the longest sequence of activities that must be completed on time in order for the project to be complete.
Vijay has provided one perspective at the activity level. A different perspective is at the phase or even project levels. For example, a traditional predictive lifecycle would have sequential phases (e.g. requirements - design - develop - test) whereas an adaptive lifecycle might have parallel phases. And projects within a program themselves could be sequentially executed (e.g. project A then project B) or in parallel.
Other than the PMBOK Guide, I would suspect any comprehensive, foundational PM textbook would cover this to some level of detail.
Although this might sound unusual, I would look into distributed computing system algorithms as part of your PhD research.
Distributed systems break problems up into pieces which are performed by different nodes on the network and then recombined to form the solution. If you look at the different functions, it mirrors many of the same functions of PM following a set of logical rules.
How one controls and combines the sequence of activities so that the pieces come together at the right time to support dependencies while allowing multiple nodes (people in the case of PM) to work their parts concurrently is critical to how the systems function.
Although PM is not governed by a set of defined algorithms, the rationale for why those sequencing algorithms are required can provide insight into why we use both explicit rules and heuristics to perform a very similar function in PM scheduling. Saving Changes...
Vijay SuryavanshiProject Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft SeatingPlantation, Fl, United States
Thanks Kiron for clarification with an additional perspective. Don't disagree the phases or even milestones that go hand in hand with detailed activity planning. Saving Changes...
hi, for a good source on activity diagrams / scheduling guidelines please refer to the Practice Standard for Scheduling - Third Edition from PMI. As a PMI member you have free access as well.
Let me know if I can be of further help. Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
Thanks Kiron for clarification with an additional perspective. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Allessandro,
indeed project management theory was developed from network diagramming in the 1950s, which includes sequential and parallel, and in some instances even circular dependencies.
