SharePoint 2010 Workflow Models and Development Tools
SharePoint workflow models and tools for workflow development available in SharePoint 2010 provides more choices and control in tooling to better fit the needs of those creating and maintaining workflow models. The tools for workflow development include Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, and Visio 2010. SharePoint 2010 requires.NET Framework 3.5. SharePoint Designer 2010 also has a new graphical workflow designer for designing workflows and deploying them directly to SharePoint. It can also be used as a prototyping tool before workflows are further developed in Visual Studio 2010.
Take advantage of SharePoint Workflow Models and other useful features of SharePoint 2010 hosting, SharePoint Foundation hosting or SharePoint Server 2010 - with shared or dedicated hosting by a SharePoint 2010 hosting provider.
Latest Workflow Models in SharePoint 2010
Site Workflows
Site workflows release workflow developers from requiring a list item or document item to run workflows against. This is useful when the process that the workflow is implementing does not start as a result of a list item or document. This is such a common scenario that developers will create dummy lists and items in order to just to add workflows. In Visual Studio 2010, you simply pick Site Workflow when creating the workflow project item.
Reusable Declarative Workflows
In SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create reusable declarative workflows. In SharePoint 2007, a workflow model created in SharePoint Designer could only be associated with one list. These reusable workflows do not rely on a specific list but can be associated with any list. The workflow design can be reused and associated with multiple lists.