Adding Steps to Workflows

Workflows consist of a series of steps that mark each primary part of the workflow process. For example, a step can represent a single person's review and approval within a chain of reviews that must happen in order (peer review, team leader approval, and department or higher level approval). Each step contains one or more actions that indicate something that an action owners needs to complete to accomplish the step. Each action includes an owner and a time frame, and can contain other details.

Add multiple actions to a step to enable several people to work on the deliverable at the same time.

Workflow actions can also include conditions that determine if they are included within the workflow in a project based on metric values with the project. See Adding Conditions That Determine Workflow Actions Availability for more information.

To add manual steps to a workflow:

After creating the workflow, click the Steps tab, click Add Step in the lower right corner of the page, and complete the following information to identify the manual step:

Field	Description
Step Name	Enter a name that identifies the workflow step. This name displays to users in the project.
Step System Name	Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow step. The system name must be unique across all workflows.
Proceed after 1 Decision	Select this check box if the first approval or "reject but continue" decision in a multi-action step moves the workflow forward to the next step without waiting for other reviews. If this check box is not selected, the workflow does not move to the next step until all reviewers in a multi-action step have responded. The first decision to reject and send the workflow back sends the workflow back to the step that the reviewer selects whether this check box is selected or not.

Field

Description

Step Name

Enter a name that identifies the workflow step.

This name displays to users in the project.

Step System Name

Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow step.

The system name must be unique across all workflows.

Proceed after 1 Decision

Select this check box if the first approval or "reject but continue" decision in a multi-action step moves the workflow forward to the next step without waiting for other reviews.

If this check box is not selected, the workflow does not move to the next step until all reviewers in a multi-action step have responded.

The first decision to reject and send the workflow back sends the workflow back to the step that the reviewer selects whether this check box is selected or not.

Add action details necessary to complete the step:

Field	Description
Action Name	Enter the name of the action performed during this step. Workflow steps must have at least one action. To add additional actions to a step, click Add Action.
Action System Name	Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow action. The system name must be unique within the step.
Description	To add additional details about the action in a step, enter any additional notes.
Function	(Optional) Select the job function that the owner of this action should have. To enforce user selection based on function for all deliverables, activities, workflow actions, and gatekeeper selections, use the Enforce on user selection option for the model available on the Pages & Layouts tab within the model editor. Select this check box to limit the selection of users to those who have the function defined. Selecting this option disables the ability to change the function for the workflow action and is enforced even if the function is inactive. See Defining Project Pages and Display Options for more information.
Owner	(Optional) Click to select the user who owns this action. To filter the list of users, enter one or more search criteria to filter by name, login name, email address, function, or extended field. More... Clicking Select current user will assign the role to the current user (if they have the appropriate rights). Selecting a Function in the drop-down will display available users that are assigned to the function. The current selection defaults to the function to which you are assigning a user, however depending on the project configuration, you can assign any user. Clicking the Show advanced filters check box displays or hides the additional filter options. Clicking Clear removes the current user assignment and displays [None] to indicate that no user is assigned. If an action has no owner, no replacement owner can be selected for the action in the project after the workflow has reached the step containing that action. However, if an action does have an owner selected, a different owner can be selected for the action even after the step has started. Changes to the Owner field are not propagated into existing projects and can only be made by the deliverable owner, Project Manager, and Process Manager at the project level for workflows in existing projects. Only users assigned the Document Reviewer role are available for selection as an action owner.
Permissions	Select what the owner can do in this workflow step: Can Edit and Publish - The owner can upload and publish a version of a deliverable or activity associated with the workflow for other Accolade users. Can Edit - The owner can upload, but not publish, a version of a deliverable or activity associated with the workflow. Can Approve - The owner can approve the action in the step for the workflow to move forward, but cannot upload or publish a deliverable or activity. Select the Can Skip check box if the action can be skipped when there is no owner assigned. If the step contains a single action with no owner, the step is skipped as soon as the step is reached in the workflow process. If the step contains multiple actions, some of which contain owners, the step is not skipped immediately, and the deliverable owner is able to select an action owner during the step.
Auth Req	Select this check box if the owner of this action must enter authorization credentials to enter a decision on the action.
# Days	Enter the number of days from the start of the step until a decision is due. A notification email is sent to the action owner after this time has elapsed. Document owners, Project Managers, and Process Managers can update the number of days within the workflow in a project. In the project, a step lasts until the required decisions have either sent the workflow to the next step or returned it to a previous action, step, or the deliverable owner. Changes to the # Days field are not propagated into existing projects and can only be made by the deliverable owner, Project Manager, and Process Manager at the project level for workflows in existing projects.
Conditions	Click to add metric conditions that determine if an action is included within the workflow in a project.

Repeat steps to add additional steps to the workflow.
Click Apply to save your changes.

To add automated steps to a workflow:

Note: Automated workflow steps should follow the step that activates the automation upon completion. If an automated step is the first step within a workflow, it activates when the workflow starts. If an automated step is the last step within a workflow, the step completes the workflow.

After creating a workflow, click the Steps tab, click Add Automated Step in the lower right corner of the page, and complete the following information to identify the automated step:

Field	Description
Automated Step Name	Enter a name that identifies the automated workflow step.
Automated Step System Name	Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow step. The system name must be unique across all workflows.

Add action details necessary to complete the step:

Field	Description
Automated Action Type	From the drop-down list, select the automated action that occurs during this step: Set Gate to Today's Date - Select this option to automatically set the gate date to the current date when the previous step within the workflow is completed. If the workflow is in a stage that does not have a gate, the automated step is skipped. Generate PDF from Template - Select this option to automatically generate a PDF that is published as a deliverable or activity version. A deliverable or activity can contain a template assigned to the deliverable or activity, or a template that is assigned specifically to use for generating a PDF from a workflow step. Select which template to use for the PDF generation. Set Gate Decisions - Select this option to automatically set the gate decision for the upcoming gate based on the calculation of metrics set in the project. Publish Latest Document Version - Select this option to automatically publish the latest version of the deliverable or activity, thus updating metric values on the project, which provides gatekeepers visibility into the approved metrics. The automated action updates metrics based on the update rights of the previous workflow action owner. If there is no version available, the workflow history indicates no action was taken.
Automated Action System Name	Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow action. The system name must be unique within the step.
Conditions	Click to add metric conditions that determine if an action is included within the workflow in a project.

Field

Description

Automated Action Type

From the drop-down list, select the automated action that occurs during this step:

Set Gate to Today's Date - Select this option to automatically set the gate date to the current date when the previous step within the workflow is completed. If the workflow is in a stage that does not have a gate, the automated step is skipped.
Generate PDF from Template - Select this option to automatically generate a PDF that is published as a deliverable or activity version. A deliverable or activity can contain a template assigned to the deliverable or activity, or a template that is assigned specifically to use for generating a PDF from a workflow step. Select which template to use for the PDF generation.
Set Gate Decisions - Select this option to automatically set the gate decision for the upcoming gate based on the calculation of metrics set in the project.
Publish Latest Document Version - Select this option to automatically publish the latest version of the deliverable or activity, thus updating metric values on the project, which provides gatekeepers visibility into the approved metrics. The automated action updates metrics based on the update rights of the previous workflow action owner. If there is no version available, the workflow history indicates no action was taken.

Automated Action System Name

Enter a unique, internal name the system uses to identify the workflow action. The system name must be unique within the step.

Conditions

Click to add metric conditions that determine if an action is included within the workflow in a project.

Click Apply to save your changes.

Notes:

To reorder steps in the workflow, click on the arrows next to the name to move the step up or down.
To delete a workflow step, delete all the actions within the step using the next to each action. To delete an entire workflow, display the workflow, ensure that is currently inactive, and click Delete.
Updates to a workflow such as adding steps and actions and making changes to Permissions and Can Skip fields are not copied into the project if a workflow is in progress, but are added when the workflow is stopped and restarted.
Collaborative Workflow is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support.

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