There is now the WorkbenchWorkbench module in D7, for Drupal 7. I answered on a similar topic here:
Workbench provides overall improvements for managing content that Drupal does not provide out of the box. Workbench gives us three important solutions:
a unified and simplified user interface for users who ONLY have to work with content. This decreases training and support time
the ability to control who has access to edit any content based on an organization's structure not the web site structure
a customizable editorial workflow that integrates with the access control feature described above or works independently on its own
