Understanding Workflow Tools

You create and use workflow applications using several tools:

• Worklists are prioritized lists of the work items that a person (or group of people) has to do. A worklist is a standard PeopleTools grid; therefore, the user can use grid personalization features to order and sort columns. When work is routed to a PeopleSoft user, it is put in the user’s worklist. To work on an item, the user selects it from the worklist and is presented with the appropriate page to begin work. Users accessing worklists through a browser see worklist entries prioritized in a predefined order (set on a properties page). For example, worklists for accounts receivable clerks can be sorted by days overdue, amount overdue, or credit class.

  Note: The URL/ID field in the worklist grid is an HTML area which cannot be sorted and will not download into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

• PeopleSoft Application Designer includes the tools that you use to design and build business processes, including the workflow rules and routings.

• PeopleCode functions detect when a business rule has been triggered as users enter data into a PeopleSoft application. These functions evaluate who should act on the new work instance (the role) and route it to the appropriate employee (the routing).

• PeopleSoft Workflow Administrator enables you to access, monitor, analyze, and control workflow in your organization.

At the center of a workflow definition is a set of business events and the routings that are associated with those events. A business event is a condition that tells the system that an activity is complete. For example, a new record has been created, a record field has a particular value, or a due date has passed. A routing is an instruction that tells the system to forward information to the next step in the business process. It specifies what information to forward and where to forward it.

When a user saves a page, the system determines whether an event has occurred and triggers the associated routings. For example, suppose an employee enters a change of address from an online page. An agent determines that the database has been correctly updated and may then add an item to the benefits administrator’s worklist to notify the insurance provider of the correct address.

In addition to adding work items to worklists, routings can send email messages.

Workflow routings are initiated by Workflow PeopleCode. The PeopleCode is assigned to pages and, when you save a page, it triggers a business event and its related routings.

Any process that can trigger PeopleCode can trigger a workflow event, including:

• Users working in PeopleSoft pages.

• Third-party applications sending information to a PeopleSoft component through a component interface.

• Batch programs or queries sending information to a PeopleSoft component through a component interface. Batch workflow processing uses these tools in addition to the standard workflow tools:

  • Application Engine programs run queries behind the scenes and pass the results to a component interface.

    You can use PeopleSoft Process Scheduler to run these programs on a regular schedule.

  • A component interface accesses the component and its PeopleCode to trigger a business event, thus initiating a workflow.