Workflow Manual

Create and configure a Workflow for your project

State: Open / Active / Closed - A workflow moves through these states. 

Status: Open / Preview / Review / Done - A step within a workflow moves through these statuses. 

In the following, the use and advantages of the workflow are shown.

To create a workflow you have to navigate to the corresponding button of the settings on the left-hand menu. 

There you find the button “Create Workflow” on the top of the right corner. 

After selecting the button you are asked to choose a name and a run name (acronym) for the workflow.

In the following step, you enter the names of the desired scenarios, which are relevant for the specific workflow.  The scenarios need to be entered comma-delimited. No technical limit for the number of scenarios exists, but a maximum number of 10 is suggested due to usability.

After leaving the "scenario names" field, named scenarios will be outlined in the following layout.

Now that the workflow is created you find it under the listing of "open" workflows. To configure the individual steps you select the workflow and find the button “Configure Steps”.

You will find the following page empty because there was no workflow step created before. Therefore, select the button “Create Workflow Step”. Creating a workflow step needs several inputs:

1. A workflow step name with an optional description                                                                                                                                                
    
    Be aware that you need to start step names numerical (1., 2., 3., ...) or alphabetical (A, B, C, ...) in order to get a sorted step list.
   
   

2. The associated workspace. As a best practice, you should choose different workspaces for each step.

3. The input shows if the step should be based on the input of a previous step. The input row shall therefore not be used until the first step is created.
   

   

   
   The second step shows the permission configuration

4. Each of the 4 existing steps can be assigned to different users and groups. Only they can promote the steps.
   

   

AVAILABLE SINCE 5.3.0

Basic Users

Basic Users are also enabled to receive permission rights for the states a Workflow moves through.

This enables them to promote/demote Workflow steps.

Save the configuration of your step and continue until you generated all desired steps.

Your workflow now contains the desired steps with the individual user rights. You will find it in the "Open" workflow state of the respective section.

To start working with it, select the "Option" button and "Start" the workflow and navigate back to the scenario manager.

Choose the workspace which is the associated workspace for the first step. It is important that you first create a scenario(s) with the name(s) you chose in the step before. Afterwards, you create your measures and assumptions as usual and activate them selectively for the desired scenarios.

Then you select the "Workflow" button. By promoting all the updated scenarios, following by submitting the selected, you achieved the first step. 

To be able to promote and demote Workflow submissions, Users need to be assigned permission rights (described in the step-approach above) for the states a Workflow step moves through. 

Relationship between Promoting and Submitting

Once you promote the status of a step to "Review" you are able to "Update" the data in the workspace of the following step. However, from there on you are not allowed to submit any further until the status of the previous step is changed to "Done".

Now you can move to the workspace which is associated with the second step.

Again you select the "Workflow" button, but this time you choose the "Inputs & Review" field.

Your goal is to update the workspace with the submitted data of the previous step. To do so, you first need to create the respective scenarios again. By "Update Selected" all the assumptions of the previous step are shared in your workspace. 

You are only able to submit data for the next step if the status of the previous step is changed to "Done". Therefore you need to make sure that all people involved constantly check for changes and promote/demote them, depending on their position.

Depending on how many steps you created for your workflow, you repeat this flow of submitting (and with that promoting). So your next task would be to check the shared scenario

• If you think the numbers are alright, you make your desired adjustments with your own assumptions and choose "Submissions" and promote your respective step to done and then submit it. 

• Again be aware to create all workflows depending on scenarios before and make sure that you select your own assumptions before submitting them.
  
  

If the status of the last step is promoted to "Done" you select the "Workflow" button. You will find your workflow in the "Active" listing. By choosing the menu you can "Complete" your workflow, therefore it moves to "Closed".

Now and in general you can select the workflow, find all existing steps and by selecting one of the steps you find the history of all changes that were performed, when and by whom. Additional you are able to write a comment during the whole process.

You will find the history of all changes which were performed, when and by whom.

Email notifications

There are events that trigger e-mail notifications.

These events include:

1. A new comment has been submitted on a step

2. Data has been updated

3. The status of a step changes (promoted or demoted)

The recipients of these e-mails are all users that have a status right on the step or are listed as 'watchers'.

The one who triggered the action will not be notified.