Workflow Builder

Overview

The Workflow Builder lets you create end-to-end workflows that map your real processes, assign tasks and responsibilities, and track progress across multiple stages. It builds on the capabilities of Automations while adding visual stages, conditional logic, and progress tracking, giving you greater control and flexibility. This feature can be used for incidents, contracts, suppliers, risks, and other workflows across your organization.

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What's new: Workflows vs. Automations

The Workflows module has been renamed Operations, and Automations are now called Workflows. However, you can continue to create and customize automations in this space, as before.

 

• Create a new workflow: Navigate to Workflows, and click on + Add Workflow. Like with automations, you can choose to create one from scratch or use a template.

If you're creating a workflow from scratch, add a name, description, or optionally specify a folder, and enable the workflow either immediately or after creation.

• Customize your workflow: Workflows can now be organized into stages, each with its own set of actions, tasks, and responsibilities. To do that, click on + Add Stage.

  For example, you could organize your workflow into any of these stages: detection, triage, response, communication, recovery, reporting to authorities, and post-incident review. In each stage, you can decide what actions, events or conditions have to happen before the workflow moves to the next stage.

   

  You can also add descriptions to stages to clarify their purpose and ownership. This is a flexible builder, so you can adapt it to your regulatory or business operations needs.

• On top of the existing functions that you are familiar with from automations, we introduced the ''wait for'' function/node. This lets you pause a workflow until a specific event occurs or a condition is met. For example, in incident management, you can wait until a task is completed and the incident is acknowledged before moving to the next stage. Again, this can be adapted to any scenario you need.

  To add this, click on ''+'' and choose wait for.

 

At the moment, you can only add a wait for condition for: a task is completed, and questionnaire response is completed.

After you choose the wait for condition, you must select a value. Keep in mind that a task or a questionnaire must exist in your workflow, before you can use them in this function.

If you have created many tasks in your workflow, a good way to keep track of them is to look at the numbers in front. The numbers help you get an overview of the functions/nodes in your workflows. And by looking at the symbols you can also determine which function that is.

• Action: lightning strike 
• Condition: branching arrows 
• Wait for: hourglass 
• Loop: looping arrows 

So, if we take the example below, we are looking at Action number 2. This means it's the second action in my workflow, so this refers to my previous action to create a task.

After you select the value of your "wait for" function, press Save.

Let's take a look at another example below. In my workflow, you can see I added a ''wait for'' condition. This means that a pre-requisite to starting the Resolve phase, is the completion of a task. If that task is still pending, the workflow won't continue to the next step: update incident.

Once you've mapped out all your stages and action steps, press Save and make sure the workflow is enabled.

• If you're unsure if a step or phase has completed or not, check out the Runs tab inside Workflows. Here you can also see if a workflow has failed, and why, so you can amend it.

Click on Details, and you'll see the complete account of what has run so far in your workflow and the current status.

 

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Workflow Progress

From the detail page of an Incident, Evidence, or Resource, you can view the status and progress of workflows that were triggered by that specific item. For example, if a workflow is triggered when an Incident is created, it will be visible on that Incident’s detail page, but not on related Evidence or Resources.

The workflow overview shows:

• name,

• creation date and time,

• stage progress and status,

• steps history.

This overview gives a clear picture of all active and completed workflows triggered by the item.

If you have any completed workflows associated with this incident, toggle on (Show completed) and you will see them all in this overview.

 

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Using the Workflow Builder in practice

 

The workflow builder is a very flexible functionality, and can be adapted to a wide range of needs. Below are some of the most common scenarios where it’s particularly useful.

• In Incident Management, you can map the full process from first reporting to exporting reports for authorities, while keeping track of deadlines and responsibilities.

• For Contract Management, you can visualize the contract lifecycle, assign tasks at the appropriate stage, and manage the process without juggling multiple automations.

• Supplier Management allows you to send questionnaires, assign responsibilities at each stage, and track risk levels connected to each supplier.

• In Risk Management, the builder enables you to map and track cross-departmental processes, ensuring all tasks are completed on time.

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Good to Know

1. All your existing automations are now automatically converted into workflows and wrapped in a single stage, called "Main''. This means you can start using the new builder immediately, adjusting or refining it using the new capabilities.
2. If you're removing a step all subsequent actions and stages will be deleted. This will be remedied in a future update.
3. At the moment, the ''wait for'' function/ node uses only ''and'' logic.
4. In the coming months, we will be adding more functionality to the workflow builder such as: deadlines, ability to branch out and merge back into one branch, and others. If you have a special need or general feedback, you can submit a feature request at this link.
   

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by Elisa Roata, Product Communications Manager

We hope this article was helpful and that you now have a clear understanding of how to set up and use workflows.

For any additional support, you are welcome to reach out with any questions by email, at support@formalize.com.