Creating Workflows

Administrators and Process Designers can create workflows to design how several people can cooperate to create and review a deliverable or activity. Steps and actions within steps can be added to the workflow for each primary part of the workflow process.

Note:  Users with the user roles listed to the right must also have the Template Access user role.

To create a workflow:

1. From the System menu, select Process > Workflows.

To narrow the workflow list, search by the workflow name or system name.

2. Do one of the following:

• To add a new workflow - Click Add New in the upper right corner of the page.
• To edit an existing workflow - Click the name of the workflow to open it for editing.

Edits made to an existing workflow are applied to the workflow in a project if the workflow has not started, or when a workflow in progress is stopped.

3. Complete the following information to identify and describe the workflow:
   
   Required fields display with red text and an asterisk * if the field is empty.

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name, up to 64 characters long, which identifies the workflow.
System Name	Enter a unique, shorter name that identifies the workflow in queries, reporting views, field codes, and other places in Accolade. The name must be unique among workflows and can contain only letters (English alphabet), numbers, and the underscore.
Description	Enter a description of the purpose or nature of the workflow. This description helps other users identify the workflow throughout the system.
Category	Enter or select the group to which this workflow belongs. More... Use categories to organize like workflows together. For example, you may choose to group all the workflows used for financial approvals, in order to separate them from workflows that are used for different purposes. Leave this field blank to add to the Default category. To define a new category, select New Category and enter the category name. To delete a category, remove every item from the category. Empty categories are deleted automatically.
Active	Select the check box when the workflow is ready to use in projects.
Users cannot own multiple actions	Select the check box to ensure that a single user cannot be manually assigned to multiple actions in a workflow. If a user is assigned to an action, their name is not available for selection as an owner for other actions within the workflow. Note:  Existing repeated workflow action assignments are not affected if you select this setting after a workflow is created. Assignments for workflow actions on the Team page of a project supersede this setting.
Start Conditions	Click to add metric conditions that determine when a workflow can start. More... Using start conditions helps to ensure that an approval flow does not start before the defined conditions within a project are met. The Start Workflow option within the project is disabled until the project's metric settings meet the defined conditions. Click , select a metric to include as a condition, and click Select. Use the Category and Search options to refine the list of metrics. For the added metric, select or enter the value the metric must meet within the project before the workflow can start. Add additional metrics, as necessary.
Migration Map Rules	Click to add metric conditions that determine if a project migration occurs using the selected map when the workflow is completed.

4. Click Create to create the new workflow or Apply to save changes to an existing workflow.
5. On the Steps tab, add manual or automated steps to the workflow process, for example, to create PDFs or to set gate dates automatically.

You can also add conditions to determine workflow actions availability or set up automatic project migration after a workflow is completed.

6. (Optional) On the Security tab, follow the instructions listed in Restricting Configuration for Workflows to configure access group restrictions.
7. (Optional) On the Security tab, click Process Model Usage to see the list of process models that the workflow is associated with. The list includes all process models the workflow is included in, as well as links to the process model's component tree pages you have Edit access to.

Notes:    See Adding Steps to Workflows for information about adding conditions to actions within workflow steps for Smart workflows. Collaborative Workflow is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support.