To illustrate the ease of use and flexibility of our workflow solution for SharePoint, we'll step through the configuration and deployment of a Purchase Order workflow from begining to end. NOTE: this workflow and associated form was designed, developed and deployed in only a few days based on the requirements of one of our clients. Your workflow and form will likely be different but the time and effort to discover, develop and deploy your specific workflow will be very similar.
Step 1 - Business Rules and Workflow Participants¶
The first step in developing a workflow is to determine what the criteria are for routing work items through participants, and what information each participant has access to see and alter. In interviewing one of our clients, we discovered the following:
- Purchase Order (PO) must first be approved by the submitter's manager. If the manager approves the PO and its dollar amount is less than $2500 it is approved, otherwise it must go to the department vice president for approval. If the vice president approves the PO and the dollar amount is less than $15,000 it is approved, otherwise it must go the the president for approval. If the president approves it, it is approved.
- If the PO is rejected by anyone, each participant that previously approved it should be notified, as well as the originator.
- If the PO is approved, the originator should be notified and told to order the goods.
- When the goods have been received, accounting should be notified that the associated invoices can be paid.
The discovery of requirements and what needs to be on the form is the most time-consuming task. This process took a couple of hours with participants from Accounting and other representative departments. From these requirements, we use Microsoft's InfoPath to design the PO form. NOTE: only the designer of the form needs InfoPath, ShareVis converts the InfoPath Form into an HTML form when published to the ShareVis enabled SharePoint site.
Step 2: Define the Workflow
This workflow was designed in about 30 minutes.
Each participant in the workflow is assigned a "swimlane" (the rows of the diagram below). Tasks (e.g., "Manager Approval", "VP Approval", "Order and Receive"), Notifications ("Rejection Notify Requestor", etc.) and the beginning and end of the workflow ("Start 1", "Complete") are then dropped into these swimlanes.
Connectors are then drawn between each task and the conditions for the transition are easily configured. The text you see over the lines is the extent of the "programming" for this workflow. Emails are sent out at each step of the workflow notifying participants that they have work to do.
Step 3: Design the Form
Designing the form is as simple as using Microsoft's InfoPath form application (InfoPath is to a form as Microsoft Word is to a document). InfoPath is a standard tool you already have if you have Microsoft Office 2003. This form took about 2 hours to design with feedback from Accounting personnel. Sign-up for our webinar to see this in action.
Step 4: Publish the Workflow and Use¶
Publishing the form and workflow is as easy as clicking the publish buttons in the SharePoint Workflow Designer. To see this or any other workflow in action,
contact us or signup for a
webinar.