What’s the difference between workflow and lifecycle?

One of the most asked questions I get asked (other than where is the best place to run DQL on 130,000 documents?*)is the headline of this post.

So in order to flesh it out, here you go….

• Workflow is the means to an end, it involves the movement of an object among different places and people in order for it to progress along it’s life cycle.
• Lifecycle is the process of a document’s life usually involving the end of a workflow or an approval route. They are the milestones in an objects existence.

For instance you could determine an entire university course a workflow that leads to a graduation lifecycle event.

*For EMC|Documentum users, every signle forum search arrives with this post as the top result, even though it’s useless