Managing Workflows in Projects

A workflow is a design for how several people can cooperate to create and review a document. Document Owners, Project Managers, and Process Managers with Manage Process rights manage the workflows process, including:

• Assigning action owners.
• Starting the workflow.
• Stopping the workflow.
• Skipping workflow actions.

Workflow details can also be accessed directly from the Stages page by displaying the Has Workflow column, and clicking to link directly to the workflow details.

Assigning Workflow Action Owners

The owner of a specific workflow action in a project can be assigned or changed either directly within the project deliverable or activity or using the Work pod (available on the All My Work page). Action owners do not need to be members of the project team, but they must be assigned the Document Reviewer user role.

To assign an owner to an individual workflow action:

Location	Procedure
On the deliverable or activity	Display the project and select the Stages page to display all deliverables and activities in the stage. You can also access all deliverables assigned to you across multiple projects using the All My Work page available on the Workspace menu. Click the name of the deliverable or activity that contains the workflow. In the Contents tree, click the workflow to display its details. In the Owner field, click to select the user for the 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. Click Done to exit the dialog. Click Apply to save your changes. A setting in the workflow definition determines if you can assign the same user to multiple actions within the same workflow.
Work Pod (available on the All My Work page)	From the Workspace menu, select All My Work. Ensure the Work pod is set to display deliverables and activities. You can configure the Work pod to filter for deliverables and activities that have workflows by clicking and applying a filter. View the workflow by clicking . If the workflow is in progress, click to view the workflow. In the Owner field for the workflow action you want to modify, do one of the following: If an owner is not assigned, click [None]. If an owner is assigned, click the existing owner's name. Select the user you want to make the action owner. 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. Click Done to exit the dialog. Click Apply to save your changes.

Directly assigning an owner to a workflow action only assigns the user to a specific action in that particular workflow. If a user needs to be assigned to all workflow actions that are related to a function, the assigned project manager (or a Process Manager with Manage Process rights) can assign ownership through the project's Team page.

Note:  Changing an owner on the Team page assigns that user as the owner of every action that currently has the function and owner that are shown in the row. For example, if you change an individual action owner in a workflow, that user would not be replaced when you replace the user shown on the Team page because the function/owner combination is different in the workflow than on the Team page.

Workflow actions that are complete, or in a deliverable or activity that is complete, are not assigned the new owner if the update is made on the Team page.

To assign an owner for all workflow actions that are related to a specific function:

The options and display order on the Team page may differ between projects, based on the process model configuration. The procedure below follows the default configuration.

1. Display a project and select the Team page to display the current team members assigned to the project.

If necessary, select Detail View.

You can configure each section in the Team page to filter what displays, for example by stage or by function, and select which columns to view within each section. Save your selections to display each time you display the page.

2. In the Workflow Action Owners section, locate the function you want to assign a user to and do one of the following:

• If an owner is not assigned, click None.
• If an owner is assigned, click the existing owner's name.

3. In the Select a User dialog, select the user you want to make the action owner.

Note:  Depending on how the workflow is configured, the workflow action owner may be restricted to users with a matching function assignment.

4. Click Done to exit the dialog.
5. Click Apply to save your changes.

Starting Workflows

When a deliverable or activity is ready to have its assigned workflow started, the owner assigned to the deliverable or activity, the assigned project manager, or a Process Manager with Manage Process rights starts the workflow. Once a workflow is started and contains active steps, the workflow action steps display in the Work pod for action owners and project team members. If an automated step is the first step in the workflow, the automated step completes when the workflow is started.

Starting workflows is dependent on the following conditions:

• All actions that cannot be skipped must have an owner assigned.
• If the workflow is defined to have start conditions, metrics within the project must meet the defined conditions before the workflow can start.
• Depending on a setting in the model, a deliverable workflow may not be able to start unless all of its activities are set to Completed or Not Required, and an activity workflow may not be able to start while the parent deliverable has a status of Workflow in Progress or Completed. To start a workflow that is blocked by the status of another document, you can change the status of the blocking document (if it is not in a workflow), or allow the workflow to complete (if the document is in a workflow), or stop the workflow and then change the status.

To start a workflow:

1. Display the project and select the Stages page to display all deliverables and activities in the stage.

You can also access all deliverables assigned to you across multiple projects using the All My Work page available on the Workspace menu.

2. Click the name of the deliverable or activity that contains the workflow.
3. To start the workflow, do one of the following:

• In the Contents tree, click the workflow to display its details and click Start Workflow in the lower right corner of the middle pane.
• Click Start Workflow in the right workflow pane.

Stopping Workflows

A workflow might need to be stopped, for example, if the document is no longer needed at the gate meeting or if the workflow needs to be completely reorganized for successful completion. When a workflow concludes successfully, it stops automatically. The owner assigned to the deliverable or activity, the assigned project manager, or a Process Manager with Manage Process rights can stop the workflow.

If a workflow is stalled due to a team member's unavailability, consider delegating the workflow action instead of skipping it.

To stop a workflow:

1. Display the project and select the Stages page to display all deliverables and activities in the stage.

You can also access all deliverables assigned to you across multiple projects using the All My Work page available on the Workspace menu.

2. Click the name of the deliverable or activity that contains the workflow.
3. To stop the workflow, do one of the following:

• In the Contents tree, click the name the workflow to display its details and click Stop Workflow in the lower right corner of the middle pane.
• Click Stop Workflow in the right workflow pane.

Skipping Workflow Actions

If an action for a workflow is not required for a particular deliverable or activity, the action can be skipped to move the workflow forward. Only actions defined as being able to skip within the workflow definition can be skipped, and if the action has no owner, the action is skipped automatically.

The workflow action owner cannot skip an action that they own. However, they can decline the review to move the workflow forward.

To skip a workflow action:

Location	Procedure
On the deliverable or activity	Display the project and select the Stages > page to display all deliverables and activities in the stage. You can also access all deliverables assigned to you across multiple projects using the All My Work page available on the Workspace menu. Click the name of the deliverable or activity that contains the workflow. In the Contents tree, click the workflow to display its details. Click Skip in the appropriate action row.
Work Pod (available on the All My Work page)	From the Workspace menu, select All My Work. Ensure the Work pod is set to display deliverables and activities. You can configure the Work pod to filter for deliverables and activities that have workflows by clicking and applying a filter. Navigate to the appropriate deliverable or activity, and click to skip the workflow action. Click Apply to save your changes. The skipped action displays after you apply your changes.

Notes:    An assigned document owner has the right to replace action owners while the workflow is in process, but not to upload a new version of the document while the workflow is in process (unless the owner also owns the current action). If a workflow was added to a document in the model, the workflow must be completed before the document can be assigned the Completed status. If the workflow was assigned to the document in the project, the document can be assigned the Completed status without completing the workflow. Collaborative Workflow is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support.