Workflow

Workflows are a set of rules that comply with processes of an organization. A rule on granular level is made up of conditions and actions. The system monitors the ticket activities and evaluates them against the list of workflows. When a ticket matches with the conditions of any workflow, the system applies the actions defined for it.

Workflow Characteristics

The characteristics of the workflow are:

• Different set of workflows for Request, Problem, Change, Release, Asset, User, Task, and Admin modules.
• Interactive graphical representation of workflow for clear understanding of AND and OR operators.
• Virtually unlimited set of if-else/and-or conditions in a workflow.
• Positive and negative evaluation of conditions i.e. applying different actions when the set of conditions are True or false.
• Enable or Disable the workflow in real-time.
• Periodic workflows that run at specific intervals of time.
• Workflow ordering to manage its priority in case of conflicts.

Types of Workflow

There are two type of Workflows: Event and Periodic.

• The event workflows are triggered on events like: something changes or users perform some action.
• Periodic workflow does not require a trigger and are automatically executed at given intervals.

Levels of Workflow

The workflow can be defined in different levels based on their type.

• In the Event type, the workflow can be both 2 levels and three levels.
  • A 2 level workflow uses only conditions and actions. Here, the triggers work as conditions.
  • A 3 level workflow uses a trigger, a set of conditions, and a set of actions. Here, you can define when to execute the action i.e. when conditions are true or when they are false.

• In the Periodic type, the workflow can be a 3 level workflow.
  

  • The 3 level workflow uses the time period as the trigger, conditions, and actions. Defining conditions are mandatory here before defining the action.

The Working of Workflow

The workflow is an independent module but evaluates the values in the ticket (that are defined in other modules). For example: A workflow may have a condition for ‘assignee’. For such a workflow, ‘Technicians’ should be present in the system.

When someone does any activity on a ticket, the system compares the values of the ticket with the conditions in the workflow. If the condition matches, the system reads the action, and applies on the ticket.

The system uses a reverse chronological order while comparing with the workflows with the ticket. You can understand this using the following example:

• Workflow 1 has the following definition: If status = ‘Open’; set assignee to ‘Jerry’.
• Workflow 2 has the following definition: If status = ‘Open’ && impact = ‘Low’; set assignee to ‘John’.
• The order of workflow 1 is higher than workflow 2.
• When you create a request with the following values: status = Open; impact = Low, and leave the assignee as blank.
• The system will compare the ticket with the workflows one by one i.e. first workflow 1 will be compared and then workflow 2 will be compared.
• Since the conditions of workflow 1 matches (status = open), the system will execute the action, and set assignee to ‘Jerry’.
• The system will again compare the ticket with the remaining workflows. Now, workflow 2 will be compared.
• Since the conditions of workflow 2 matches (status = open and impact = low), the system will execute the action, and set the assignee to ‘John’.