What sort of workflows can I build?
Workflows allow you to set up actions and notifications that can be automatically triggered, based on conditions that you choose.
You can view, edit, copy or add new workflow items using the Workflow view on the Admin tab, as illustrated below from this Results Engine site for our fictitious company "Sangster".
The Workflow capability is split into two parts:
- Workflow items that you can configure in the system.
- Workflow As A Service, which allows you to call upon Imaginatik to tailor a workflow item specific to your needs, and have us put it into the Results Engine for you.
Configuring Workflow Items
You can currently configure the system to send emails or to create actions.
Example 1 - Configuring email notifications.
1. Click the Add New Work Item link
This example will send an email containing all projects that are at the Launch stage.
2. Determine timing and targets.
Next, choose when the work item will run. Scheduled triggers run daily, weekly or monthly. Event triggers run every 15 minutes and look for content that has been created or changed.
Choose which item the work item should use. The selected target will form the basis of the data to operate on. Choosing "Project" will produce a collection of projects within the system.
3. Filters
Add filters to the work item to pinpoint the exact data required. Below, a filter has been added that looks for Projects where the stage is "Launch".
4. Sorting
Apply sorting to ensure the data is ordered correctly
5. Define what the work item should do
Select "Email" from the drop-down list, then select the recipients using the "To" and "Cc" fields and include an email subject. The recipient groups that you can choose from here are determined by the name fields on the item you're working with - for the Project Form that would typically be the Owner, Sponsor and Team groups, plus any other name fields you may have added.
The body of the email is defined using a Rich Text editor. Field values from the Projects returned by the Filters can be referenced in the email, as well as links to the projects themselves.
Below, a title field has been added to the body of the email. You can use the "Add Field" drop-down box on the Rich Text editor to choose which piece of information should be included.
6. Building Reports
If your email is likely to include more than one item (maybe you want to build a weekly report of projects in a certain state to be emailed to you) then a table can be created to contain a row for each item. Place the fields you would like to include in their own columns, and a row will be added for each matching item in your report, each time the email is sent.
7. Including Links to Items
You can select some text or one of the field names you've added to your email and then click the link button in the Rich Text Editor. That will bring up the dialog shown below. Simply enter "[url]" in the Link URL field and the selected text will link directly to the configured item in Results Engine.
Example 2 - Configuring actions.
The scheduling, conditions and sorting options are all offered for actions too.
Actions can only be created when you're targeting Projects (unlike Emails, which can be generated for events that occur for all processes and projects, as well as any actions, forms, wall posts or ideas that are added to your projects).
In this example we've used a more detailed set of filter conditions. We're looking for any project in the Scoping stage that has SponsoringGroup1 as the sponsoring group, and that does not yet have any Scoping Actions created for it. Clicking the calculator icon will allow you to configure count and other numeric conditions.
Below, the Project Creator has been set as the creator of the action, which will be assigned to the Project Owner (the project owner is configured on the project form, so these actions will always go to the applicable people, no matter which projects they run for). A title, description and due date for the action has also been set, and an alert has been set to run in order to notify the owner.
In this example, you may want to create a related email action that informs the Project Owner when any "Project Scoping" actions are completed in the system, so that other downstream activity can be initiated.
After the workflow item has run, you can see the auto-generated action below.
Workflow As A Service
Some workflow items that you may wish to create may not fit into the Email or Action options provided in the current version of Results Engine. Some workflow items may be so particular to your needs that it's simply not practical to build a configuration screen for them!
Future releases of the Results Engine will bring new configurable work items. Until that time, and to cater for particular needs that arise now or in the future, Imaginatik offers "Workflow As A Service", which gives you the option of asking your Innovation Consultant for a Workflow item to be built by the Development Team and added to your Results Engine. These items will run Code Actions that meet your selection and action criteria, and offer a great scope for helping to power up your processes. Some examples of Code Actions that Imaginatik could create for you are:
1. Update fields on the original idea, so that people can follow the status.
2. Create documents, such as custom forms, at specific stages of the workflow.
3. Update fields on the project as other fields change, for example:
Date1 = 12 Feb 2015
Date2 = Date1 + 7 days
Date3 = Date2 + 14 days
Your Workflows
Please think about the workflows you could create to help run your current project portfolio more efficiently. The capability may also make the Results Engine the right solution for other types of processes that depend on some automation and alerting. Imaginatik's Innovation Consultants are here to help you get the maximum from the Results Engine .