Introduction

Designing and building out you workflow in sharedo is one of the most important parts of the project. Often when we start a project the business may have some kind of as-is or to-be process models. As part of any implementation a critical part is transforming those business process requirements into the structure for a sharedo workflow. For example mapping out the different triggers you will need, the tasks that are required etc. You can learn how to use the new visual modeller tool under the visual modelling area of this help site however this article focuses on how to map out your processes into an easy to configure format.

Why build out workflow maps?

If there are already some existing collateral in the business around process why build out sharedo workflow maps. These are some reasons why it is a useful process

- It acts as a focus for the business to come together, understand how their new system is going to work and think through in details how tasks or activities raised by the system are going to work

- It provides a forum in which existing processes can be challenged to refine existing business practice into a more effective, effeciant and quality driven structure

- Building out the process flow acts as a bridge between the business requirements and the solution that will be configured. Often when building out these flows it forces you to think about things like alternative paths, how things hang together in reality and what the end user experience is in the system.

- Resource management - building your process map enables the business to think through how their tasks are allocated and look for opportunities to centralised or use the sharedo smart functionality to allocate out work to the most effective resource.

Tools

We use lucidchart to build out process flows - we find this tool easy to use and because its cloud based it is easy to collaborate with our clients. Other tools such as visio can also be used depending on the standards across your organisation.

What information does a workflow map provide?

The workflow map provides the following key information

Triggers - the different triggers that will cause workflow to initiated

Timings - the map will indicate when workflow is due to fire and how long users will have to complete tasks

Allocation - who will tasks be allocated to

Tasks - the different tasks that will occur as part of a workflow including specialists tasks to prepare documents, wait for input, make decisions or provide approvals

Checklists and calls to actions - the workflows map out the checklists that will need to occur on tasks and also the 'call to actions' that will need to occur in the workflow.

What does a workflow map look like?

Workflow diagrams map out the workflow and ensure that all information is provided that will allow you to configure your workflow. They also serve as a validation tool with the business and are extremely useful when trying to maintain, understand or extend any sharedo implementation.

Organising your workflow diagrams

At sharedo we organise our workflow diagrams by work type and we produce a workflow diagram for each trigger point. The example below is for a residential real estate purchase. You can see that there is a folder for the work type 'residential real estate purchase' and then within that there is a diagram for each trigger - in this case the workflow that is triggered at each phase. Often the folder structure for your diagrams will mirror your work type hierarchy as you have defined in the sharedo work type modelling tool.

Although lucid / visio and other tools support multiple diagrams in tabs on their sheets we prefer to create separate diagrams as it makes it easier to understand what workflows have been developed within your system.

Workflow Notation

The workflow notation we use is based on BPMN2.0, a standard workflow notation used by business analysts. There are plenty of tutorials and helpsites on the internet around this notation but these are some of the basics that we use within our workflows.

Trigger

The map start or trigger indicates how the process is triggered. Often this is a phase change or the setting of a key date

Process Step

A square box is used to represent a step in the process. The text in the box indicates the type of task that is created and then the text indicates the name of the task.

Gateway

A gateway is a decision point in a process it is a place where multiple streams in a process can merge or diverge.

Parallel gateway means that the resulting pathways happen in parallel with each other

Exclusive gateway - indicates that either one or the other pathways will be followed

End Point

Indicates the end point of a workflow

Sharedo Specific Notation

In our sharedo workflow maps we want to capture the additional information that we require to actually configure the process in the system.

Each task or action is highlighted in a blue colour. This allows them to stand out from the 'call to action' boxes

For each task in the system we also capture the following information

Task Number		This allows us to uniquely identify any task using a 'process tag' - in the visual modelling tool these are less important but in the legacy execution engine plans it was important for each plan to have its own process id. The process tag is made up of the workflow system name with the task number appended to the end
Allocation Rule Name / Assign To		Each task created in the system should be assigned to a person or team. In general allocation rules should always be used to assign tasks because a fallback option can be specified which will prevent the workflow erroring if no option is available and prevents tasks becoming lost.  Note that allocation rules should be run each time a task is created and not just at the start of a workflow - this allows for times when the allocation on a work item may change in between different steps in the workflow executing Any allocation rules defined in the workflow should be placed in a green 'post it note' and defined at the top of you workflow
Due Date		Each task in the system must have a due date. This provides the offset from the date / time the task is create. WK is working days, CD calendar days. Hours can also be used as well as setting a task due date based on another key date.
Template Name		For any tasks that are of type prep doc, email, notification or SMS a template name needs to be specified in the workflow.  The list of templates for the workflow can then be provided to the document author

Modelling action plan items and calls to actions

On many of the tasks that you want to map out you will want to have check list items and the associated call to action buttons that make your users lives much easier.

In our workflow maps we show action plan lists underneath their associated tasks

Each action plan item is placed in a white box. If the action plan results in a task being created e.g. it will prompt you to prepare a document then the due date, allocation and template are placed underneath the action item as we would do for a template.

In general the format we use is {action category}: {action}. This gives the user a consistent experience across workflows in your organisations

Calls to action are defined in square brackets after the name of the aciton plan item e.g. [edit work item], [Prep Doc]. These indicate to the configurator what action should happen based on the work item.

Summary

Workflow mapping is an important part of your implementation. It ensures that everyone is able to understand the workflow that is going to be delivered and it provides an important journey for the end user base in terms of thinking through how their new sharedo implementation will benefit them. Without these diagrams you are reliant on knowledge in people's heads and working through configuration in the system. The most successful implementation we see have well structured and documented workflow maps.