Key functions of the Workflow module
- Parallel Activities - enables two or more Activities to be in progress at the same time.
Parallel or concurrent Activities mean there is also a concept of a critical path.
- Decision Branching - Activities can have a range of different results.
Depending on the result, the Workflow may take a different route through subsequent Activities.
- Skipping Activities - Activities may have conditions attached to them that are not met during the Workflow progress.
If it is set up, you can skip these Activities, which will allow the Workflow to progress regardless.
- Decision Looping - you can use decision branching not only to determine which path a Workflow process will continue on but also to roll back the Workflow to a previously completed Activity.
An example is a draft loop. In this example, the first Activity is to create a draft of a document and the second Activity is to approve the draft.
If the draft is not approved, the Workflow needs to be rolled back to the first Activity for the Assignee to do more work on the draft. On completion, the draft will again need to be approved.
You can set up a special type of result in an Activity that will cause the Workflow to be rolled back to a particular Activity.
Content Manager sets all Activities from the just completed Activity back to and including the specified Activity to roll back to a state of incomplete.
Content Manager adds notes to all Activities that are rolled back indicating which Activity and user caused the roll back.
Content Manager adds additional notes with the reason for the roll back to the specified Activity to roll back to and the Activity causing the roll back.
- Graphical view - to make increased more workable, the Content Manager Workflow module provides a graphical view of the workflow, where Activities are represented by notes in a window and dependencies, conditions and parallel situations are reflected by connecting lines.
You can customise this flowchart type pictorial view to select overdue items, critical paths and other relevant attributes that need attention.
- Resource Management - the Content Manager Workflow module enables staff or more generic Locations to be assigned Activities.
In addition, each Activity can have a supervisor who has permissions to reassign or complete Activities on behalf of the Assignee.
You can email notifications of Activities due to start or Activities that have become overdue automatically to the Assignee and/or supervisor of the relevant Activity.
- Open interface - the Content Manager Workflow module has been designed to enable you to access Workflow elements directly with their own software tools.
Workflow comes with a fully functional object-oriented COM interface to enable you to use powerful 4GL tools such as Microsoft Visual Basic to further enhance your solution.
The Content Manager Workflow module viewer is written using this interface, which gives an indication as to the power of the programming model.