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Workflows: Lessons Learned

Workflows: Lessons Learned. NWDUG 2010 Presented by Celeste McCormick With contributions from Tracy Waffle Lewis-Clark State College Lewiston, ID. About your presenter. Manager of Administrative Computing at Lewis-Clark State College I’ve been programming in Envision for almost 10 years

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Workflows: Lessons Learned

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  1. Workflows: Lessons Learned NWDUG 2010 Presented by Celeste McCormick With contributions from Tracy Waffle Lewis-Clark State College Lewiston, ID

  2. About your presenter Manager of Administrative Computing at Lewis-Clark State College I’ve been programming in Envision for almost 10 years In 2008 I completed Datatel’s Workflow Writing Techniques I’ve written several workflows that are actually in use Tracy Waffle is the Coordinator of Admission and she actually uses the workflows.

  3. Proper planning for workflow The goal of this session is to provide a high-level overview of how to plan, develop and test a workflow. You can benefit from our mistakes!

  4. What is workflow? • How it works • Chains a series of screens and tasks together into a virtually seamless process • Lets you stop in the middle if you get interrupted & pick up where you left off • Key benefits • Can enforce requirements and standards unique to your institution • Saves time, clicks and keystrokes

  5. Time-saving benefits “It took me five minutes to enter a prospect manually. It took me three minutes to enter a prospect using the prospect workflow.” “When I enter a prospect manually, using PRSP as the anchor screen, I navigate in and out of (touch… some more than once) 16 screens. When I enter a prospect using the prospect workflow I end up going through eight screens.” -Tracy Waffle

  6. Workflow is a collaborative effort • IT and power users must work together • From IT: an Envision developer • From end user office: a power user knowledgeable in the office’s business processes

  7. Power user responsibilities • Identify a process to adapt as a workflow • Start small and simple • Outline each step • Document the requirements of each step • Identify whether each step will be done by the same person or handed off to someone else • Present the process to IT • Give a demonstration of how it works now • Clearly explain your needs

  8. Developer responsibility • Take Datatel’s training class if you can • You learn a lot of the nuances and get extra tips that you can’t get from the manuals alone • Get familiar with the power user’s business process • Review the diagram carefully • Break it into “steps” • Separate screens from actions/manual steps

  9. The development process

  10. A closer look at linking two screens TIP: treat each screen as a separate step

  11. Define the workflow

  12. Detail on parameters to WFPD

  13. Define each step as you go

  14. Three hooks for each step • Start up: • What fields should be pre-populated • What messages to display to the user about what’s going on with the workflow or this step • Completion: What criteria must be fulfilled to consider this step completed • Action: What happens next in the workflow after this step is completed

  15. Another reason to take the class TIP: each hook uses both Envision Basic and Workflow Basic language

  16. Startup hook • To pre-populate a field: SN.WKL.DATA.NAMES<1,1> = "CONTACT.REM.STAFF.LIST" SN.WKL.DATA.VALUES<1,1> = SN.USERID • To display information to the user: WARNING.OCCURRED = 1 MSG = "You will be prompted to enter a Contact record." MSG<-1> = "At the prompt, type the letter A to add a new record." MSG<-1> = "In the 'Contact For' field on CON, type @ to retrieve the student's ID."

  17. Completion hook Using our example… What do we need to enforce? Make required first, middle & last name plus birth date and gender Allow only HOME, CELL, LOCAL, AD, BUS phone types Allow only INT, LC, WM email types

  18. Completion hook: required fields

  19. Completion hook: allowable values IF NOT(ERROR.OCCURRED) AND VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES NE '' THEN FOR N = 1 TO DCOUNT(VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES,@VM) IF VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES<1,N> NE 'INT' AND VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES<1,N> NE 'LC' AND VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES<1,N> NE 'WM' THEN ERROR.OCCURRED = 1 MSG = "Email type must be INT, LC or WM" NEXT.PROC.FLD = VL.PERSON.EMAIL.TYPES END NEXT N END

  20. Tips about completion hook • It cannot update any data or records • It merely validates any input data • It can use WARNING.OCCURRED and ERROR.OCCURRED; won’t proceed to next step until ERROR.OCCURRED is resolved • Thoroughly test any validation of allowable values for multi-valued fields • EXAMPLE: If this LO email type already exists in the screen, it will fail our validation for WM, LC & INT

  21. Action hook: leads to the next step • Call the next step in the workflow, whether it’s another screen like BIO or a manual step • Can assign the step to the same user or to a different user CALL_WF D01.XAPP.BIO(“NOW”\,”TO:ME”\) • Send an email using communications management EMAIL “TO:ORG.ROLE”\”REGISTRAR”,”FROM:ADDR”\”registrar@lcsc.edu”,”DOC”\”ADMCMP” • Perform an action, such as sending an email or moving to the next step, based on the outcome of a rule IF RULE (“WFMS01”, “ID”\STUDENTS.ID) THEN…

  22. Action hook Using our example… What do we need to do next? • Call the next step in the workflow • Using the following code:

  23. The importance of testing

  24. Test the workflow together • The workflow never works exactly as the user expects • Some desired requirements cannot be enforced • Some requirements get enforced in a way that users do not expect ( and do not want) • Adjustments will need to be made (just expect it) • Unfortunately, some problems are not discovered until after the workflow has gone into production and a variety of scenarios are tried with it

  25. Putting a workflow into production

  26. Set up security classes in UT • Create one security class for each workflow • In the security class, list the mnemonic and each step

  27. Create roles and resources • Resource = an individual person • Role = a job or position (data entry, application evaluator) • Each resource can have multiple roles • Each step in a workflow can be assigned to a different resource

  28. My To Do List

  29. Questions? Celeste: cmmccormick@lcsc.edu Tracy: twaffle@lcsc.edu

  30. Additional information

  31. Manual steps

  32. Put the workflow in the LPR • In Dev package and load workflow into the LPR • In UT  WFMV, define the workflow MOVEINFO record by entering Prefix L20.ADM.XIAPPS and Workflow Definition L20.INTL.APPLICANTS • In UT  CDEC look up and declare MOVEINFO record L20.ADM.XIAPPS_UT, run scan timing, and save the record • In the UT toolkit on CPKG create package L20.ADM.XIAPPS_UT & add L20.ADM.XIAPPS_UT as a Custom Declaration • In Test UT  MSUG install group L20.ADM.XIAPPS_UT

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