Configuring workstreams

To create your own workstream, you need configurator or supervisor privileges to gain access to the Configuration page, where you start by configuring your workstream definition.

About this task

At a high level, a workstream definition includes the following elements:

• Activities, which you arrange in the simple sequence that constitutes a workstream.
• People, which are represented by the teams and users who are responsible for the activities. They access specific user interfaces and carry out actions based on the assigned roles.
• Data, which can be configuration or instance data that the workstream operates with, including field labels, names, data types, types of access, and so on.
• Documents, which can be uploaded in support of the sequenced activities, and are handled by the workers who use instances of the workstream for their daily work.

Activity types

In your workstream definition, you can include approval, checklist, and form activities. As you add a new activity to the definition, the user interface adapts to the type of activity you're adding, exposing the appropriate configuration options.

For each activity type, there are two levels of configuration that you can specify: options that you set at definition time, and options that you enable for users of the workstream to configure at start time. By enabling the options for the start-time configuration, you provide flexibility for users of the workstream to adjust the configuration of the workstream instance to their specific business needs.

Table 1. Activity types and configuration options

Activity type	Configuration at definition time	Configuration at start time
Checklist	Add an arbitrary number of checklist items, and make them required or optional. Add data items, and specify their visibility properties (editable, read-only). Assign a team to work with the task. Add instructions for the users, if needed.	Assign a specific user to work with the task, from the team assigned at definition time. Add, remove, update the checklist items.
Form	Add data items, and specify their visibility properties (editable, read-only). Assign a team to work with the task. Add instructions for users, if needed.	Assign a specific user to work with the task, from the team assigned at definition time.
Approval	Add data items in read-only form. Assign a team to work with the task. Add instructions for users, if needed.	Assign one or more specific reviewers. If two or more reviewers are assigned, specify the type of review (sequential or in parallel), and indicate if all the reviewers must approve for the overall approval to be considered complete. Upload documents to be used in the approval. The uploaded documents belong to the workstream and can be accessed by all the activities in the workstream, with the following restriction. Restriction: If you enabled the start-time document upload in the workstream definition, when the approval activity starts, it can access only the documents that are attached to it, but has no visibility into other documents in the workstream. Also, if multiple approval activities exist in the same workstream, documents are not shared between approvals.

As an example, the following procedure describes how to configure a simple form and checklist workstream. Say you want to quickly put together a checklist for an upcoming trip. You need a workstream that allows you to put in some information about the trip (a simple form), and also to make a list of to-do items that you must complete before the trip (a checklist).

To configure your workstream:

1. Log in to Workplace as a configurator or supervisor.
2. From the welcome page, click New workstream on the Workstreams tile, which takes you to the Configuration page.
3. Name your workstream definition and configure it:
   1. Make the first activity (which is already provided) of type Form, add data items to it (for example, information about the traveler, destination, departure and return dates for the trip), make the data items editable, assign a team to use it, enable assignment of users at start time,and, optionally, add instructions for the users of the form.
   2. Add a second activity of type Checklist, and use the UI configuration options in the right pane to configure it. You can add a few checklist items that are relevant to the trip, mark them required, and give users the option to update the checklist items at start time. Select a team to use the checklist, and enable the option for users to assign a specific user at start time.
4. Save the workstream definition to move it from draft to trial status.
   The workstream definition is listed in trial status in the Workstream definitions page. The overflow menu () for your workstream definition has options for you to move the definition to another state.
5. Test the workstream definition.
   Note that when a trial workstream is tested, the tasks are assigned to users in the Testers or Configurators teams. Users assigned when the workstream is launched are also from the Testers or Configurators teams. Only after the workstream is published, the tasks are assigned to the teams that you specified during configuration.
6. Next, select Request publish to get the workstream definition reviewed and approved for publishing.
   You can assign the review to the publishers team or to a specific reviewer in the publishers team.
7. A review task appears in the reviewer's My work list. The reviewer claims the task to work on it, reviews the workstream definition in read-only mode and, if everything looks good, publishes it.