Viewing and Completing Your Workflow Actions

When the workflow reaches the step that contains your action, learn what your action involves and determine the current state of the deliverable or activity. When you complete your action, you can enter a decision about whether the workflow should continue to the next step or be sent back to a previous step. After all reviewers complete and approve their steps, the workflow status is set to Completed.

Note:  If conditions dictate that no actions are needed to complete the workflow, the workflow automatically runs to completion and displays in the associated deliverable and workflow history as Completed.

Use the Work pod, available on the All My Work page and in others areas of Accolade, to view the active workflow actions assigned to you or part of projects to which you have visibility. Workflow actions display on this page when workflows associated to projects are currently in progress. This page allows you a single place to view and provide general updates to your actions.

What you can do from the Work pod is based on your security settings, roles, and rights within the system. Depending on your security settings, you can do the following from the Work pod:

• Review deliverable documents or prototypes part of workflow actions.
• Enter a decision on workflow actions you own.
• Change workflow action owners and change or set review deadlines.
• View the project, stage, and deliverable or activity containing the workflow(s).

Additionally, you may be set as the action owner with edit rights. This role grants you the following additional rights within a workflow and the deliverable or activity to which it is attached:

• Upload versions of the document in the workflow. To publish a version, an action owner in a workflow step must have publish rights to publish a version of a deliverable or activity within the workflow step.
• Delete deliverable or activity versions (if the model allows it).
• Enter deliverable or activity status notes.
• Enter data in the deliverable or activity quick grid.
• Upload related documents associated with the deliverable or activity.
• Add an activity to the deliverable and upload activity versions (as action owner of a deliverable workflow).
• Change the new activity's description, status, and status notes.
• Select a different user as the owner of your action.

To view your workflow actions and components:

1. From the Workspace menu, select All My Work.

Your current workflow actions display for any deliverable and activity based on any filters set if you have customized the pod. You can configure the Work pod to filter for deliverables and activities that have workflows by clicking and applying a filter.

2. (Optional) Access the project, deliverable or activity, and stage containing the workflows listed from this page. More...

   • To view the workflow, click . If the workflow is in progress, click to view the workflow.
   • To view the project containing the workflow, click the project name.
   • To view the deliverable or activity containing the workflow, click the deliverable or activity name.
3. (Optional) If you have the editing rights to do so modify an action owner or a review deadline. Begin by opening the workflow and then do one of the below. More...

    

   Action	Procedure
   Modify Action Owner	Click the user name in the Owner column for the workflow action you want to modify. In the Select a User dialog, 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 close the dialog. Click Apply to save your changes. Note:  Changing an action owner directly in the workflow on this page only changes the owner for that particular action in that particular workflow. To modify or assign an owner for all actions with a specific function, see Managing Workflows in Projects.
   Modify Review Deadline	Click the workflow action in the Review Deadline column. Select a date.

4. Click Apply to save your changes.

To complete your action in a workflow:

You can complete a workflow action assigned to you in two different locations. Follow one of the procedures below to complete the action.

Location	Procedure
Work Pod (available on the All My Work page)	From the Workspace menu, select All My Work. Workflow actions display for associated deliverables and activities. Review the status and pending decision for each workflow action. More... - A decision has been made to approve the deliverable. - A decision has been made to decline the request to review the deliverable or document. - A decision has been made to reject the deliverable. Click for the workflow action you are completing and select a decision. See below for decision type explanations. To skip a workflow action and move the workflow forward, click . Only actions defined within the workflow definition as being able to skip can be skipped. If the action has no owner, the action is skipped automatically. Once a decision is made and the workflow moves to the next step, your action is removed from the card.
Individual Project Deliverable	Display the project and select the Stages page to display all deliverables and activities in the current stage. You can also access all documents 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. Use the Workflow sidebar in the deliverable or activity details to view the current workflow status, including any items that require approval. Enter a decision here using the icon. If you have the right to upload document versions, make sure you upload your final version before you enter your workflow decision. In the action you are completing, click Enter Decision, and select a decision. See below for decision type explanations. If authentication is required, enter your password in the Set Decision dialog box. Click Apply to save your changes.

Workflow decisions determine whether the workflow continues to the next action or step, or whether it moves back to a previous action.

Select from the following decision options to complete your workflow action:

• Approve deliverable - A decision to approve the document takes effect after all action owners in the step have approved it or declined unless the step is labeled Proceed after 1 decision, in which case the first approval sends the workflow immediately to the next step.
• Decline request to review deliverable - A decision to decline means that you have chosen to not complete your action. When there is only one action in the step and the action can be skipped (set in the workflow definition), the workflow advances to the next step. When there are other actions in this step, the other action owners enter their decisions, and your declining does not affect whether the deliverable is rejected or approved on this step. If there is only one action and it cannot be skipped, you cannot decline, and another owner must be selected for the action.
• Reject deliverable - A decision to reject the document and send it back takes effect immediately in every case, even if other action owners in the step have approved. Also select the rejection type. More...

  • Select Continue to record your rejection but allow the document to continue through the workflow. This option does not allow the document to be completed unless you withdraw your rejection. This option does not take effect until all action owners in the step have either approved or also selected to reject but continue.

  To successfully complete the workflow, a document that has been rejected but continued must be rejected by a later reviewer and returned to the person who rejected it originally. If the original reviewer accepts it, it can complete. But if the rejected document finishes the workflow without being sent back to change the original rejection, the document's status is reset to Not Started. In effect the document has been rejected.

  • Select Back to (deliverable/activity) owner to stop the workflow and return control to the document owner.
  • Select a previous step or action name to send the document back for rework or recheck by a previous owner.

  If there is only one action in the previous step, there is no difference between selecting the step or the action. If there are two or more actions in the step, and you select an action, the deliverable is sent back to that action owner only.

Enter an explanation if you selected Decline request to review deliverable or Reject Deliverable. The explanation displays and allows other action owners, document owners, or project team members to share insight into why the decision was selected.

A decision to reject the deliverable or activity and send it back causes the workflow to go back immediately in every case. A decision to reject the deliverable or activity and continue, or a decision to approve the deliverable or activity does not immediately move the workflow forward when there are multiple actions in a step, unless the Proceed after 1 decision label is displayed or the decision is the last one to be entered in the step.

Notes:    An activity workflow may not be able to start while the parent deliverable has a status of Workflow in Progress or Completed. This change applies to open projects if a workflow is currently stopped. As the Project Manager for the project or your manager directs, enter the time you spent working on your workflow actions using the Timesheet Entry screen. Time Tracking is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support. Collaborative Workflow is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support. If auto migrate on workflow completion is turned on you may be notified when the workflow begins migrating the project and when the migration completes and will be provided with information about the migrated project.