Manage workflow template activities

Inspire provides you with a template for the processes of getting reviews for content or developing content. If you want a workflow that contains different activities, you can update the template. You can also change the order of activities or just update the existing activities in the default workflow.

You must have permission to work with workflow templates.

  • By default, only users with the following permissions can create project workflows and assignments:
    • Administrator permissions
    • Access to the Project Module with the Create permission
  • Even if you don't have these permissions, you can be granted a special permission to create workflows and project assignments after a project is created.

The workflow editor uses visual elements to help you create the workflow.

  • A square represents an Activity.

Inspire workflow templates are designed around an Activity.

  • Each action step is an activity. For example, Review.
  • Activities are connected by transitions. For example, Send for Review.
  • By default, Inspire provides the following activities:
    • Write
    • Review
    • Edit
    • Approve
    • Publish

You can also create your own activities in a workflow if necessary.

Each activity includes the following information:

  • Name: Identifies one task to be completed in the larger workflow (for example, Second Review)
  • Status: Identifies the progress of the task (for example, Writing, Reviewing, Publishing)

    You can define your own Status when you create a new Activity. Manage activity status in a template.

  • Project Activity: Identifies the larger goal in a project (for example, Write Content, Approve Content, Edit Content)

    Project Activity is a required field and cannot be left blank. Although this field is not marked with a red asterisks, and you can create a new Activity without selecting a Project Activity, if you leave it blank, the Save and Submit options are not available until you correct the errors in the workflow template.

    • If there is an error in the configuration of the Activity, you see the Activity name in red.

      You must correct any errors before you can Save or Submit the workflow template.

    You can define your own values for Project Activity. If you are an administrator, follow the steps in: Manage project activity configurations.

  • Initial or Final: Identifies the activity as the first in the workflow or the last.

    Only one activity can be marked as Initial or Final, so these checkboxes may be unavailable if an activity is already designated as one of these values.

  • Duration: Sets a deadline for the activity to be completed (in minutes from 0 to 525600 which is 1 year)

    By default, the user is given a Duration of 0 minutes to complete the activity, so you will need to set your own duration.

    Tips and tricks

    • When setting a duration in minutes, you can refer to these values:
      • 1 day = 1440 minutes
      • 2 days = 2880 minutes
      • 3 days = 4320 minutes
      • 4 days = 5760 minutes
      • 5 days = 7200 minutes
    • When starting a project workflow, the initial project assignment Due By date is set by adding the duration of the first activity to the current date.
    • As the workflow progresses and new assignments are created, each assignment gets its Due By date from the activity Duration.
  • Claimable: Specifies that this activity can be set to a State of Ready to Claim. In this case, the activity is not assigned to one user but to a list of users who are notified that an activity can be claimed. The first user to claim the assignment completes the work.

    For more details, read:

  • Workgroups: You use these collections of users to identify a list of participants with a common skill or job title.

    Inspire provides the following workgroups:

    • Writer
    • Reviewer
    • Content Owner
    • Publisher

You can manage activities in the following ways:

  • Add a new activity
  • Copy and paste an activity
  • Update an activity
  • Move an activity
  • Delete an activity

Before you begin

  • The changes to an Activity will be applied to all new workflows that are started using this template.
  • For workflows that use this template and are in progress:
    • If the Activity you are updating has not occurred yet, the changes will be applied when the workflows moves to the updated Activity.
    • If the Activity you are updating has already been completed, the changes will not be applied.

If you want to add an activity to automate the process of creating a review in a Topic workflow, follow the steps in Add a Create Review Action to a topic workflow template.