Workflow Document Management Software: How to Setup an Workflow
- FAQ
The following FAQ covers the basics for how to setup a workflow.
This applies when initiating a workflow or setting up a workflow template.
Additional articles explaining how to configure review / approval activities
and workflow's are referenced throughout this article.
What is the relationship between workflow and review
/ approval activities?
Workflow's (either templates or ad-hoc workflow's) consist of a series
1 or more of review or approval activities along with settings specific
to the workflow.
What are the different settings of a workflow that
initiators can configure on initiation?
The settings for the workflow do not provide an outline of the tasks to
be completed. Information on tasks, participants and due dates are covered
by the activities themselves. Instead the workflow acts as a container
for activities indicating which activities are to occur in what order.
The following screenshot is from the top portion of a sample initiate
workflow form and shows all of the workflow specific settings. Beneath
this section of the form you would expect to see one or more activities
as defined by the library administrator. Each setting will be discussed
in more detail at the bottom of this section.
- Template Name - in the screenshot the name of the
template is 'Expense Report Approval'. The workflow name can only be
set by the library administrator when creating the workflow template
and cannot be modified by a workflow initiator at time of initiation.
- Description - this is the description of what the
workflow is designed to accomplish. This is usually set by the library
administrator.
- Initiator - this is the name of the person initiating
a workflow for the document.
- Document Name - the name of the document associated
with the workflow instance.
- Observers - the list of designated users that are
allowed to observe the workflow as it proceeds. Observers will be able
to view the ongoing status of a workflow from their status report. These
users are not participants and therefore are being assigned tasks to
complete. All tasks to be completed in the workflow are only done by
activity participants.
- Hide This Version of the document until it is approved setting
- this setting will only appear active in the workflow if the workflow
contains at least one approval activity. This will prevent any users
that are not involved in the workflow that have access to previous versions
of this document from seeing this version until it is approved. Use
the following link to lean more about how to hiding
document versions until they are approved.
- Activities 1-n- next (not shown above) to appear
would be a listing of all act ivies associated with the workflow. Note
the above screenshot does not show any activities with it. Use the following
link to lean more about how to setup
a review activity or to setup
an approval activity
Why can't I configure some properties of a workflow?
When defining the workflow template the library administrators determine
which workflow properties the initiator can configure at time of initiation.
In some cases all properties may be pre-defined therefore the initiator
cannot configure any properties. Use the following link to learn more
about how to setup a workflow template.
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