Executing Workflows

Workflow objects automate the execution of multiple tasks. You define the Workflow logic through parameters, conditions and dependencies both in the Workflow and in its tasks. Manual intervention is only necessary if you define it so.

To understand how Workflows behave, read the following chapters first:

This page includes the following:

Overview

When you design a Workflow, you establish the basic logic by inserting tasks in a specific sequence and by linking them. However, there are many more parameters that allow you to fine-tune this logic and create complex, intelligent structures.

When a Workflow is activated, all its child tasks (also the children of embedded Workflows) are activated one after the other. The time at which the child tasks are generated, however, depends on the following factors:

PromptSet Evaluation

PromptSets are evaluated short before a task is generated. The time at which a task is generated depends on its Generation Settings.

Usually, there is no need for user interaction to populate the PromptSet forms because their default values can be defined on the PromptSets Tab. However, it is possible to change this behavior and force PromptSets to be displayed on screen for users to populate them. The exact time at which they pop up depends on what is selected in the task properties (General tab).

For more information about setting dependencies, see General Tab.

Accelerating Workflow Completion

Administrator users can configure the system to speed up the execution of certain Workflows.

Usually, tasks are included in more than one Workflow. The Workflows that contain those tasks can start at about the same time. This means that those Workflows share the resources of the Agent or Agent Groups on which the common tasks run. The default behavior of the system is for Workflows to execute the first task, then the second, then the third, and so on. The result is that they often have to wait for Agent resources. The system allocates resources based on the following parameters:

  1. Automation Engine Priority assigned to the task
  2. FIFO (a first in - first out) mechanism

Administrator users can optimize this behavior in the WF_COMPLETION_ACCELERATION key in the UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS system variable. By setting its value to ABSOLUTE, the system considers an extra parameter after the priority and before the FIFO mechanism. Workflows that contain the higher number of already completed tasks are preferred when allocating resources. With this function, the order of execution is based on the following parameters:

  1. Automation Engine Priority assigned to the task
  2. Task completion rate
  3. FIFO (a first in - first out) mechanism

For more information, see UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS - Various Client Settings.

Scripting Error Impact

The impact of scripting errors depends on their generation time:

Monitoring or Modifying a Workflow

You can view and modify the execution of a workflow in the Process Monitoring perspective, both in the Tasks table and in the Workflow monitor.

Workflow modifications are valid for the ongoing execution. The general definitions in the Workflow object remains unchanged.

Blocked Tasks

If a task is blocked, the processing of the current branch does not continue from this object onward. Manual intervention is required (for example, unblock task, cancel or start next task). Other branches continue processing. If there are no other branches or if they have already been processed, the status of the Workflow is Workflow is blocked.

See also: