First Steps into Workflows
A workflow is the way to describe once how a job is done —which tasks make it up, in what order, who does each one, and what's delivered— so you can instantiate it hundreds of times.
What a workflow is
A workflow breaks a process into a sequence of tasks, each with its status, estimated duration, planned date, and responsible team. Each task can ask for anything from reporting a simple activity to filling in a form, uploading files, completing a checklist, or approving a quotation.
Examples: finding a site candidate, civil construction and tower assembly, installing an FTTH box, or obtaining permits and licenses.
The three levels
It helps to separate three things that get called the same day to day:
- Template: the process design. It runs nothing. Lives in Settings → Workflow templates.
- Version: a frozen snapshot of the template. Each template has a version in edit and an active one.
- Workflow: the real instance, hung off a project, with its tasks, dates, and progress.
Editing the template doesn't touch workflows already created: each workflow is tied to the version it was born with. Changes apply to new workflows.
What they solve
- Standardize: the same process, always the same. The system creates the step, not the person.
- Plan: durations and dependencies become dates, a critical path, and a baseline.
- Assign: work lands in the right inbox on its own (by role, person, or supplier).
- Automate: tasks that complete when their requirements are met, and branches that appear only when relevant.
How to create a workflow
Like every object in Sytex, a workflow is created from the + sign (or from the workflow-specific windows). Sytex asks for a few minimum details: template, project, site or network element, and plan date.
Workflow statuses
They are Active, On hold, Completed, and Cancelled.
- Active: generated automatically when the first task in the flow starts.
- Completed: closed automatically when the last task is completed.
- On hold and Cancelled: you set them manually.