I use photoshop CS3 and here is the process I generally use.
I use Camera Raw first and make adjustments to:
white balance
exposure
recovery
fill light
blacks
The clarity slider gives real pop to the shot.
I use the tone curve to adjust the contrast
In CR I love the little squares in upper left and right that when highlighted show the clipping in shadows and highlights.

I then open in PS.First I do a crop and clone out any problems.
Here I have the 2 Nik pieces of software called Viveza and Sharpening Pro. I also have colour efex but only use it for special tasks
I find, unless some special problem exists that I can make most of my adjustments to saturation, colour, sharpness etc here. Of course, the sharpening comes last.
Lastly I will size the shot if the crop hasn't already done that for me. Then convert to 8 bit and save in two locations as a tiff.
Reijo