Using the Step Workflow Accelerator

Challenges

There is a running ActiveVOS workflow process for every item in a workflow in Product 360. When a user selects “Finish” for an item in a task, the item is removed from the task, and a message is sent to ActiveVOS. Based on business rules ActiveVOS determines if the item needs to go back into the same task or if it moves to the next one. The workflow processes are visible in a browser. This allows for a developer or support person to find the workflow in AVOS and determine exactly where an item is in the workflow and why it is in that spot. But it comes at a price. With high volumes of data this approach becomes unmanageable. For example, assume that 20,000 items are being added to a task. This means there will be 20,000 processes for each item. That is a lot of maintenance. This is where step workflows play an important role.

Description

Step workflows make it easy to create new workflows for Product 360 based on XML files. The step workflow project which is part of the accelerator package is a framework to create BPM workflows for Product 360. This framework allows for anyone to design a workflow without being an ActiveVOS expert. The step workflow samples enable rapid design of business-case-specific workflows with workflow tasks, Flex UIs, data quality checks and approve tasks based on simple XML definitions. The accelerator package also includes an example project with XML definitions of both simple and more complicated workflows. These examples can be used as a starting point for project-specific process designs in production environments.

Benefits of Using Step Workflows

Development: Development is more structured, easier to troubleshoot and there is no need for an AVOS expert to create standard workflows.

Few Running Processes: This greatly reduces the size of the database, gives better performance for viewing processes in the browser, provides for easier maintenance and allows for immediate changes.

Batching: Tasks are finished up to 5-10 times faster. This reduces the number of messages and maintains efficient Data Quality executions.

Summary

Basic Step Workflow was designed to create tasks and run data quality rules. ActiveVOS runs the rules and based on results moves items from one task to the next. The ActiveVOS developers need to be able to write custom code if the out-of-the-box workflow doesn’t handle all their use cases. The sample codes maintain a list of items that makes it easier to customize the workflow to specific business needs.