Defining Workflows

A workflow is a digitized process in which a logical series of steps define the path that the request follows. Workflow steps can range from reviews and approvals to automatically updating a status or closing a workflow process.

Before you define a request workflow, you must first determine the objective of the business process that you want the workflow to achieve. For example:

• Do you want to design a simple approval process with little oversight or supervision?

• Do you want to design a business-wide bug-tracking system that has intensive oversight and supervision?

Once you determine the objective of the business process, you can begin to define the workflow itself. The basic workflow components are:

• Workflow steps. Workflow steps are the events that link together to form the process.

• Transitions between workflow steps. Transitions between workflow steps represent the outcome of one workflow step that leads to next workflow step. Workflow steps can have more than one transition.

• Security determines who can access a workflow step. Each workflow step includes a list of who can access workflow step. Who can approve a workflow step? Can only one user approve the workflow step? Can one of several users approve the workflow step? Must multiple users approve the workflow step?

• Notification determines who hears about the workflow step and when they hear about it. Each workflow step includes a list of users to be notified about the workflow step.