Approval Workflow Overview

A Workflow enables you to use statuses for work items, so you can track their progress through stages from creation to completion.

For example, you may need work items created by one user to be reviewed by a second user. Using a workflow with approved and rejected statuses, the reviewer can set a status on the work item as appropriate.

Prerequisites 

You must select the Work items use a workflow option when you create or edit a work group.

Overview

Workflows define a series of stages through which a work item progresses, from creation to completion. The current stage of a work item, the work item status, is displayed on the work item's details pane. The work item status enables your users to monitor and update the progress of a work item through the workflow.

If a user often creates work items that require approval, you can create or edit a work group to enable workflows. All users assigned to that work group can then update the status of new work items.

Workflows enable you to assign a status tracking process to work items of specific work groups. This enables your users to monitor and update the status of work items using a set of predefined statuses:

  • Pending — Work item is awaiting an Approved or Rejected status
  • Approved — Work item is approved
  • Rejected — Work item is rejected

All users can update the status of a work item at any time. When a new work item is created, the status is set to Pending by default. If a user opens a new interview in a work item that has already been Approved, the status of the work item will return to Pending to reflect the state of the new work item version.

Common Tasks

Among others, workflows enables you to perform the following common tasks:

Process

To enable workflows, you create or edit a work group.

To create a work group with workflows:

  1. In the Administration section, select Manage work groups .
  2. Select Create a new work group in the upper-left corner of the screen.
  3. Under workflow, select the Work items use a workflow setting.

To enable workflows in an existing work group:

  1. In the Administration section, select Manage work groups.
  2. Select the work group you want to edit.
  3. Select Edit in the details pane.
  4. Under workflow, select the Work items use a workflow setting.

Access Permissions

When you create or edit a work group, you can assign workflows to the work group, enabling your users to update the status of new work items.

Common Reference Topics

Among others, the following reference topics may relate to this conceptual area: