Pre-design Questions Planning a Workflow

Managing Workflows 4-7

4.1.4 Workflow Participation

When participating in a Basic workflow, email is sent to the contributors who need to check in the designated content. Email is also sent to reviewers who are involved in the different steps of a workflow. The Workflow Content Items page identifies the actions to perform in the workflow. This can be accessed via the Content Management tray, under Active Workflows. Reviewers can review content, reject or approve content, and view information about the content and the workflow. If the content is rejected, the Reject Content Item page is displayed. Reviewers can enter a message explaining the reason for rejection. That message is sent to the reviewers assigned to the last step allowing a contribution. Those reviewers can then check out the content, edit it and check the content back in. On the Content Check In form, the reviewer should check the Revision Finished Editing box. The content then goes to the next step in the workflow. If the box is not selected, the content remains in Review status and must be approved before moving on through the workflow. It is good practice to discuss workflows with the people involved so they are aware of the responsibilities they will have in the process. More information about workflow participation is available in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Content Server.

4.2 Planning a Workflow

This chapter describes the steps you should follow to choose a workflow type and plan the workflow. The following topics are discussed: ■ Pre-design Questions on page 4-7 ■ Choosing a Workflow Type on page 4-8 ■ Designing a Workflow on page 4-9

4.2.1 Pre-design Questions

Before beginning to design a workflow, evaluate how your processes already operate. You may be able to adapt current processes into the workflow. For example, if you already use email loops to manage information between users on a project, can you incorporate that type of scenario into a workflow design? Is the workflow being used to validate information? Or is it used for collaboration? What specific problem is it addressing? Once you understand the current processes PENDING NA The content item has completed all the workflow steps, but other content items in the workflow are not finished. This status occurs only when the workflow includes more than one content item. DONE The content item in the workflow is finished. All of the content items in the workflow are finished. GENWWW The content is being converted to web-viewable format. The content is being converted to web-viewable format. RELEASED The revision is available in the content server. The revision is available in the content server. Status Criteria Workflow Basic Workflow 4-8 Application Administrators Guide for Content Server and their shortcomings, you can make certain to design the workflow to solve the problem. Ask yourself the following questions when you start to design your workflow: ■ Who should be involved in the workflow? What users will receive notification that an item is ready for review? Who will have edit permissions on an item? Who will have final sign-off on an item? Equally important is to ask who should be left out of a workflow? How will you train the people who are involved in the workflow? ■ What happens when an item is in the workflow? What action will be taken when an item is approved, rejected, or updated? What should occur when an item stays in a workflow too long? ■ When does an item need to be escalated to the next stage of a workflow? What is the criteria for determining when a workflow is completed? ■ Where do users go to participate in a workflow? Will it be done via a Web interface or some other interface of your design? ■ How are approvals and rejections handled? Will you store audit information? Do you need to make provision for approval authentication a digital signature?

4.2.2 Choosing a Workflow Type