How do Configurable Workflows work?

Before reading this article, we recommend you take a look at An overview of Configurable Workflows first. 

How do Configurable Workflows work? 

Where a workflow assignment has been configured and is active, the workflow engine monitors the values of other work / assignments, to determine if step one (1) of the workflow should execute for the assignment.  The workflow engine considers the values of an assignment at the following times:

• Group Fragment Completion

Note: the workflow only executes on Group Fragment Template Completion, where:

• • If ‘Work Has Group Fragment Template’ value is present in the assignment / work; and
  • If ‘Group Status’ value is ‘Completed’

i.e. the status of the group (fragment identifier) specified in ‘Work Has Group Fragment Template’ must be set to Complete, else workflow will run only on the following updates.

• Assignment Completion (where triggered via Capture);
• Assignment Completion (where force-triggered via Manager or Workflow); and / or
• Assignment Finalisation (where force-triggered via Manager or Workflow).

Where a workflow has multiple steps, the ‘If’ conditions of step one (1) are first and exclusively considered.  If step one (1) conditions are: -

• never satisfied, then subsequent steps do not run;
• satisfied, then the ‘If’ conditions of the next incremental step are considered.

Where an assignment satisfies the step one (1) ‘If’ conditions of multiple workflow assignments, then the workflow engine must successfully execute all steps of one (1) workflow, before it will proceed with the steps of other valid workflows.

Important: It’s critical that: -

• workflows are thoroughly tested, in each tenant, to verify they behave as expected;
• Group Fragment Identifiers, configured in each workflow, match the ‘Group Identifier’ of a published Group Fragment Template within the tenant;
• Team Names, configured in each workflow, match an active Team within the tenant; and
• deactivation of Group Fragment Templates and / or Teams, used in Workflows, is strictly managed, to verify that workflows that reference deactivated teams are themselves set to inactive, or updated to alternative values.

Note: When workflow assignments are set to Completed or Finalised, these values will be validated.  If any issues are identified, an email will be sent to supervisors / members of the ‘WorkFlow’ team within the tenant.

Important: If Group Fragment Templates or Teams, used within a workflow within the tenant, are subsequently set to inactive (within the tenant), when the workflow executes for an assignment, it will determine the workflow is invalid and will not execute, as expected.  When this occurs, an email will be sent to supervisors / members of the ‘WorkFlow’ team within the tenant.  As mentioned above, where workflows are used in a tenant, the deactivation of Group Fragment Templates and / or Teams, used in Workflows, must be strictly managed.  It is recommended that a business process be established, where workflows are used in the tenant.     

To understand what Configurable Workflows are for and how to set them up, check out the two articles below: 

• An overview of Configurable Workflows on Obzervr

• How to set up Configurable Workflows on Obzervr