Martin Roberts on Workflow versus Process Automation: "When a Process fails where do you need to route the fault to? Normally a human - so why do most tools make this a cumbersome task? Why do these so called next generation tools find dealing with people such an alien idea? I believe the answer lies in the fact that most of these emerging tools have been built by people used to handling classes that rarely touch humans directly. They tend to be focused on the J2EE/.Net like frameworks which are low level in the inspirations and have failed to take into account the gains of the 4GL world of the early 1990's."

Jon Udell comments: "I met Martin at XML 2003 and we had a fascinating hour-long conversation. The point he makes here -- that humans are the exception handlers in automated systems, and that we need to design accordingly -- is one I've made too."