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Audience
This guide is intended for anyone who wants to understand the features and functions of workflows as well as how to configure them using the Intellect Platform.
Table of Contents
About This Guide .................................................................................................................................... 3 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................................... 3 AUDIENCE.............................................................................................................................................. 3 Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction and Getting Started............................................................................................................ 7 MANUAL ACTIVITY................................................................................................................................... 9 Properties General Tab ................................................................................................................. 9 Properties Advanced Tab ............................................................................................................ 11 MANUAL ACTIVITY EXAMPLE ................................................................................................................... 15 Default Owner ............................................................................................................................... 16 AUTOMATED ACTIVITY............................................................................................................................ 18 AUTOMATED ACTIVITY EXAMPLE .............................................................................................................. 20 DECISION............................................................................................................................................. 22 UNDERSTANDING BRANCHING.................................................................................................................. 24 UNDERSTANDING CONDITIONS ................................................................................................................. 26 DECISION EXAMPLE................................................................................................................................ 27 SUB-WORKFLOW .................................................................................................................................. 29 Properties General Tab ............................................................................................................... 29 Properties Advanced Tab ............................................................................................................ 31 Properties Link tab...................................................................................................................... 32 SUB-WORKFLOW EXAMPLE ..................................................................................................................... 33 SPLIT/JOIN ........................................................................................................................................... 34 Split............................................................................................................................................... 34
Join ............................................................................................................................................... 34 LINK ................................................................................................................................................... 36 Properties General Tab ............................................................................................................... 36 Properties Conditions Tab ........................................................................................................... 36 Next Step ...................................................................................................................................... 37 Pulling it Together ................................................................................................................................ 38 DATA, WORKFLOW AND ACTIVITY TABS ..................................................................................................... 39 How to Create a Workflow ................................................................................................................... 41 CREATING AND UPDATING WORKFLOW ITEMS ............................................................................................. 41 Connecting Workflow Items .......................................................................................................... 41 ASSIGNING ACTIVITY OWNERS ................................................................................................................. 43 SETTING UP DURATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 44 Estimated Completion Date ........................................................................................................... 44 SETTING UP NOTIFICATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 45 How to Modify an Existing Workflow ................................................................................................... 46 WORKFLOW ACTIVITY STATUS WINDOW .................................................................................................... 47 Workflow Reports................................................................................................................................. 49 Work Break down Structure........................................................................................................... 49 History .......................................................................................................................................... 49 How to Access Workflow Activities....................................................................................................... 52 Generating Activity Tables .................................................................................................................... 53 Best Practices ........................................................................................................................................ 56 ROLE-BASED OWNERSHIP RATHER THAN USER-BASED:................................................................................. 56 ADDING INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ACTIVITY PAGES ........................................................................................... 57
Each of these items in the toolbox has its own properties, which can be viewed once the item has been added to the workflow area. To access the properties of any item in the workflow area, mouse over the item and make sure that a blue rectangle surrounds it. You can then right-click with the mouse and select Properties in the menu that appears. A new properties popup window will appear. In the next section, we will review each of the workflow items in greater detail. 7 Workflow | Intellect Platform Users Guide
Manual Activity
The Manual Activity item is used when an interaction between a user and the system is required. In most cases, the Manual Activity represents a form of some kind where one or more users can upload documents, enter data, or provide an electronic approval. To add a Manual Activity, simply left-click and drag it on to the page from the toolbox. Once on the workflow page, a double left-click opens the properties page or right click and select properties. Specific properties of the Manual Activity are explained in greater detail below.
Description
Linked To
Next Steps
This is one of the ways to set what the following step or steps should be. Instead of moving arrows around, you can easily access the next workflow activity in this area.
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For more information on Access Control, please refer to the Access Control section of the Intellect Platform User Guide.
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Estimated Completion Time sets the duration of the activity, the primary goal of which is to notify users of delays and to make visual changes to the workflows. If the activity has not been completed within the estimated completion time, the system automatically sets the status of the activity to Overdue. The Estimated Completion Time is also used by the system to set the Estimated Completion Date based upon the Estimated Start Date and Completion Time. These fields are accessible in the Activity Status window. Simply click on the Activity Status button on the top right corner of an activity page, and it will open at the bottom of the screen. Notification The Intellect Platform has built-in automated email notifications. By default these notifications are turned off. Auto notifications can be set to send when any of the following conditions are met; The activity is initiated (status set to In Progress), The estimated end date shifts due to a previous delay in the workflow, The activity becomes overdue, cancelled or on hold.
All 3 notification types are email macros. To read more about the email macro, please refer to the Business Logic section of the Intellect Platform User Guide. From E-Mail- You can easily turn on any of these notifications by setting the External E-Mail question to Yes.
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For your convenience, the From E-Mail and the To E-Mail fields are pre-populated, as is the subject line. You can change these values and also place your own e-mail body into the Message field.
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Default Owner
Note the Default Owner area. In this case, the Workflow Initiator is the user who submitted the Expense Report. In this step, we wanted the manager of the workflow initiator to be able to access the activity and process it. In the template, there is a field indicating the manager of the user. So in the Advanced Tab of the manual activity, we used the User from field option and selected the Manager field in the data portion of the template to set ownership. Also, an Activity Assignment Notification was set to notify the manager that a new expense report has been submitted and is waiting for approval. These types of notifications are very handy in cases where users do not log in to the system frequently. The From, To, and Subject fields were pre-filled, and we edited the
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Message field.
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Automated Activity
Typically this activity is used for behind the scenes calculations and macro executions. Unlike the Manual Activity covered in the last section, automated activities dont have a page users interact with and no user input is required. The property page only has a General tab with a Label and a button that opens the macro builder.
Label - Use the label to name the activity and indicate the purpose of the automated activity. Try to be descriptive yet concise. The better your labels are, the easier users will understand the purpose of the activity. Macro Create different macros using the Macro Builder. An example is provided below. For more information on Macros, please refer to the Business Logic section of the Intellect Platform User Guide.
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Decision
A decision is required when there are two or more possible directions the flow of work can take. A very simple example would be an approval process. If the item in question is approved, the workflow will go in one direction. If the item is not approved, it may take an entirely different direction. The decision variable, the item that
determines the next direction of the workflow, may be input by a user, or may be determined by an automated activity. As with any workflow item, the properties popup can be accessed for the Decision item by right-clicking the item itself and selecting Properties from the list. The Decision items Properties window has only a General tab with two possible choices: the Label for the Decision, which will appear on the workflow page, and the Branches, which determine the different directions the flow of work can take based on specified criteria.
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Label - Use the label to name and indicate the purpose of the decision. Try to be descriptive yet concise. The better your labels are, the easier users will understand the application. Note that each branch of the Decision will have a label as well. It therefore often makes sense to have the Decision Label be a question, and the branch labels to be the possible outcomes. Again, a simple example would be Approved? as the label for the Decision, and yes and no as the labels for the branches.
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Understanding Branching
Branches Opening the Decision Branches area, you can set different directions for the workflow to follow. There are four columns to specify for each branch. We will cover each in greater detail below. You are not limited to 2 directions. Keep in mind however that simplicity is always best. If at all possible, it is always best to lean toward fewer workflow items on the page in general to reduce a cluttered look and to make the workflow diagram easier to understand. You can insert additional branches by clicking the Insert Decision Branch button. You can also insert branches from the workflow page. To do so, insert a new link from the Toolbox and connect the starting point to one of the nodes on the Decision box. You can insert as many such links as you wish in this manner. (Note: it is possible, and often required, to have multiple links eminating from a common node.) When you return to the properties of the Decision item, you will see that a new branch has been added for each of the links you added to the workflow page. You can then update the conditions by which each branch would be taken. Use the Label to name the workflow link (the actual line on the workflow page) associated with branch of the decision. Try to be descriptive and make sure to add a branch for all possible outcomes. For instance, in our
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previous example, it wouldnt make sense to have an approve/reject decision followed by only an Approved branch. If the manager chose to reject the item, the workflow would have nowhere to go, the submitter would not be notified, and no additional action would be taken by the system.
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Understanding Conditions
Conditions are the core of the branches, so to speak. They define the logic by with the system determines which branch, or branches, to take. Why do we say branches? This is because each Condition for each Branch is checked by the system independently. The system does NOT stop checking conditions once one has been met. In theory therefore, all branches of a Decision box could be activated at once. Although it is possible, it is not recommended to do so. In such a case, a Split item (to be covered later) would be more appropriate. Suffice it to say then that each Condition is evaluated independently. When you click on the Edit Condition button for a particular branch, you are presented with another popup. This popup is the same as you would see when setting a visibility condition for example (please see the Visibility section in the Intellect Platform User Interface Guide). Once you have set your conditions, you simply need to tell the system where to go next when the conditions are satisfied. The Go To field is therefore a pointer to the next workflow item you would like to be activated once your condition has been met. To remove any branches, simply click on the Delete button of the branch.
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Decision Example
Here is an example of the Decision item. This decision occurs right after the manager, in the example above clicks on Next Step after having made her decision to either approve or reject the reimbursement request. The properties of the Decision and the branches look as follows:
Note that in this example, the manager either approves the Expense Report or rejects it. So there are two possible outcomes, meaning two branches are needed. If the managers decision is to approve, the user is notified along with the finance department. If not, only the
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user is notified.
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Sub-Workflow
Many business processes are not simple. This means that there are many steps, decisions, branches, automated activities, etc. and the final workflow diagram can become unwieldy. To make matters worse, we are constrained to the size of our computer screens. To compensate for these challenges, the Sub-Workflow item allows users to group pieces of a workflow together, and to then store them inside of one box on the screen. This one box, the Sub-Workflow, can then be expanded at any users discretion to display its contents. Therefore, the SubWorkflow item is primarily a visual tool, though it does have some advanced features that will not be covered in this document. When you group workflow elements, be aware that the sub-workflow, just like the workflow, has one input and one output. This means that you must consider this limitation in your initial design. You can however connect a workflow element inside of a sub-workflow to another element outside of that sub-workflow. In this case, the line will appear dashed to indicate that it is not one of either the input or the output.
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Description Use this field to give a more detailed description to this part of the workflow. This description only appears in the properties page.
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Sub-Workflow Example
We used Interneers Expense Management application to show you examples for manual and automated activities and also for decisions. The workflow for the Expense Report looks as
follows:
As you can see, this workflow doesnt contain a lot of activities, and no sub-workflow was necessary. However, you may find cases with many more activities in a workflow. It is often the case that these activities may be owned by different departments. Under such circumstances, it is highly recommended to group certain activities and place them into sub-workflows. The concept is similar to, for instance, grouping files under folders.
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Split/Join
The Split/Join item has two primary purposes: 1) to split a single incoming process step into multiple, simultaneous process steps, or 2) to determine whether any single previous process step or all previous process steps must be completed prior to moving past the join point. Each of these will be briefly described in greater detail next.
Split
Split A split item allows one activity or process step to kick off multiple activities (process steps) simultaneously. For example, the first step in a process may include filling out some basic information for a request: who is submitting it, reason for request, date of requested completion, estimated costs, etc. Once this intake step is completed, we may wish for this information to be sent to two different people simultaneously perhaps to get financial and technical approval separately for example. In this example, the split item is a simple way to direct the flow of work in two (or more) directions.
Join
Join Taking our previous example one step further, lets assume that before a manager can make a final approval for the request, that the approvals from both the technical AND financial sides must be received. In this case, we need to use a join item to specify that both approvals must be received before moving to the final step. In the Properties of the join item, there is only one tab with two possible choices to make. Selecting And requires that EVERY
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previous activity be completed before the next activity is triggered. Selecting Or implies that the completion of ANY of the previous activities can push the workflow forward to the next activity.
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Link
Linking the different elements determine the order of the activities.
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Next Step
If there are multiple options for the owner to advance an activity, the next step button on the activity page comes with a drop down list where the user can choose the Next Step to follow. Every option in the Next Step dropdown corresponds to a workflow link originated from this activity. Setting up a visibility condition for the link defines when the corresponding drop down option appears in the next step list.
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Pulling it Together
In the previous section, we introduced the building blocks of the workflow and their properties. This section covers how to design and develop a workflow utilizing these building blocks. Workflows are created from the properties of templates. By default, workflow is not turned on for any new template. To add a workflow to any template, we need to turn on the workflow property located under the Advanced tab of the property window for that template. Remember, you need to have the Edit Mode turned on to go to the properties of the template. Upon selecting Yes for the workflow property, two tabs appear at the top left corner of the content area. These include: The DATA tab, which remains as the workspace for all the data elements of the template, and The WORKFLOW tab, which shows the workflow of the template.
Before the workflow is activated, the template only consists of the Data section and no tabs are present.
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the end of the link as soon as you see the blue frame around the item and then start dragging the item.
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Setting up Durations
The duration of each manual activity can be set from the advanced tab of its properties page. The field name is Estimated Completion Time and it accepts calendar days. The duration determines the number of days an activity status remains In Progress before being marked as Overdue by the system in its nightly processes. The durations are also used to calculate Estimated Completion Dates of activities.
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Setting up Notifications
There are two locations to set up E-Mail notifications in the workflow. The first is in the automated activities. Mail Macro, used with other macro functions, allows the configuration specialist to set notifications under various conditions. To read more about the email macro, please refer to the Business Logic section of the Intellect Platform User Guide. Manual activities have the functionality to send out auto notifications under certain conditions as well. These conditions are Activity Assignment, Date Slippage and Negative Status Change. They are all set from the advanced tab of the properties page as demonstrated previously. To activate these e-mails, click on the Browse button of the Notification type, and in the pop up window, select Yes for External E-Mail ?. Activity Assignment: This Notification triggers when the activity status changes from Not Started to In Progress by completion of its predecessor. The default receiver is the owner of the activity, but other receivers can be set or added. Date Slippage: As mentioned in the Setting up Durations section, estimated completion dates of activities are driven by the estimated start dates or the actual dates. In the case of a delay in the completion of an activity, date Slippage notifications will be sent out. Negative Status: This notification, once set, will send out email notification if and when the activity status turns to Overdue, On Hold or Canceled.
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This field cannot be updated. The estimated start date is one day after the estimated completion of the previous activity. Estimated Completion: The Estimated Completion date is calculated by adding the duration to either actual start date or estimated start date of the activity depending on the status. If the activity is in Progress, the estimated and date is driven by the actual start date; while if the activity has not started yet, estimated completion is driven by the estimated start date. Actual Start: This is the date when the activity changes to in progress. Actual Completion: The date when the activity status is set to Complete by clicking on Next Step.
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Workflow Reports
On the workflow tab, the workflow views button located on the top right of the content area provides a variety of views of the workflow for monitoring purposes.
History
The History view keeps the log of changes to the activity statuses. Each row in the history view represents an update to an activity and the values in the row shows the final status of the updated activity.
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Tasks by Status: This is a view of all the activities in the workflow grouped by the status field. The report opens up on the personal navigation area and each activity label serves as a short cut to access to the activity page. Schedule: This is a Gantt-Chart view of the workflow. The timeline shows start and end dates of the activities. The bars on the time chart also serve as shortcuts to the
activity pages.
Turn Grid Off: This is a toggle switch to turn on and off the grids on the workflow pane. Microsoft Project: This is to export the workflow to an MS Project Document.
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1. From the Toolbox, open the Table bar and select Workflow Activity to start the Table Wizard. 2. Select Reporting Table as the Table Type 3. Select the From Query window to set the query for the table.
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4. Set the Status to is not Completed, Cancelled or Not Started, to see only the activities in Progress or Overdue. 5. Set the History to No.
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Best Practices
Finally lets talk about some best practices, tips-n-tricks, and common mistakes.
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Common Mistakes
Decision Boxes One of the most common mistakes working with decision boxes is not covering all the possible scenarios while setting up decisions in the workflow. This is a major issue since if the workflow comes to a decision point and doesnt know which way to proceed; the process will stop moving forward with a message stating that no condition has been met. Owner of First Activity Another common mistake may occur while setting up the owner for the first activity in the workflow. If the workflow is turned on for a template, the system automatically kicks off the first activity in the workflow when a new instance is initiated. If the first activity is assigned to a user other then the user who is inserting the new instance (Workflow Initiator), the system will create the instance without allowing any input from the initiator. Although this might be acceptable on some instances, it causes confusion for the initiator most of the time. Therefore it is always a good practice to assign the first activity to the workflow initiator.
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Conclusion
Now you have a basic idea of some of the things you can do with workflow. Need more ideas? Want help with configuring workflows, sub-workflows or setting up email notifications? Let Interneers team of professionals assist you. Dont hesitate to contact our Professional Services
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Platform. Business Logic Details how to use macros in the Intellect Platform. Describes how to integrate the Intellect Platform with non-Intellect Platform applications. Also included: Intellect Platform Web Services.
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