Workflow is a comprehensive term to explain a process by which members of an organization complete complex tasks. Whether your organization uses formalized or ad hoc workflows, there is a process or pattern by which work is accomplished. One employee begins a task and passes it along to someone else for review. That person gives the project to yet a third person to finalize and then it goes back to person number two for final review, and so on. Workflow software can automate workflow by providing automatic notification of responsibility, by presenting only appropriate options at each step in the process, and by assuring that items are acted upon in a timely manner.
The most difficult part of designing a workflow process is deciding what you want to control and how you want to control it. Once you have determined your needs, StarTeam Workflow Extensions along with StarTeam give you all the tools you need to create customized workflow models that meet the unique requirements of your organization.
In this guide, the term workflow is used to denote a .Workflow.xml file that indicates step-by-step how items of a particular type will be processed.
You can create a workflow to control any item type within StarTeam, such as files, change requests, requirements, tasks, or topics. Because teams commonly control processes using change request statuses, the change request management system offers a simple, built-in workflow pattern based on the Status property. It requires a change request to proceed sequentially through a specific number of ordered steps and notifies team members of their responsibilities at each stage of the change request life cycle. This workflow pattern meets the needs of many organizations. (For complete information on the built-in workflow capabilities, see the StarTeam Help.)
For some organizations, however, the built-in workflow model is too much. Their workflow models do not require that many steps or that many choices. For other organizations, the built-in workflow model is not enough. They have requirements for complex workflow patterns that may include a time-dependent response from the team member who is responsible for a specific step or may require redirection of the workflow based on specific conditions.