Workflow within a work package

Tutorials and guides for the features of Octaved Flow

This tutorial shows how to create workflows in Octaved Flow, how to work with workflows in work packages and the benefits of working with workflows.

What is a workflow?

A simple everyday example of a workflow with two steps is washing dishes by hand. One person washes the dishes in the hand basin and a second person dries the dishes with a cloth. The second step, drying the dishes, can only take place after the first step, washing, has been completed.

A workflow can be used to control activities that are to be processed one after the other (sequentially) by two or more people.

Work packages in Octaved Flow

In Octaved Flow, projects are structured by dividing them into work packages. In many cases, one team member is responsible for the completion of a work package. Other team members can also be assigned. It happens that a work package is to be processed successively by two or more team members. In this case, a workflow can be used in the work package in Octaved Flow.

Project roles as basis for workflows

In Octaved Flow, there are different project roles for different activities on a work package. If multiple team members are assigned to a work package, they can have different project roles. Project roles are for example concept creator or executor.

With the designations of the project roles, a sequential processing of the work package in the sense of a workflow is already obvious. A team member with the project role Concept Creator creates a concept, which is then implemented by another team member with the project role Executor.

Create project roles

If the Concept Creator and Executor project roles do not already exist in Octaved Flow, create the two project roles. Project roles are created in the system settings. Administrator rights are required for this.

If you are testing Octaved Flow in a demo version, you have all administrator rights.

Creating a workflow with two workflow steps

To create a workflow with two workflow steps, for the current example, the project role Concept creator is assigned to the first step of the workflow, and the project role Executor is assigned to the second step of the workflow.

The workflow is saved with a unique name, for example Create and implement concept.

This workflow, once created, can be used for any number of work packages. It does not matter if the workflow is used within one project or for work packages of different projects.

Administrator rights are required to create workflows.

Assign a workflow and the responsible team members to a work package.

The workflow and the responsible team members are assigned to the work package with their respective project role.

With this, a workflow with two steps is created in Octaved Flow for the work package and can be used.

What is displayed in the workspace of a team member?

The work package My Work Package is first displayed in the workspace of the team member with the project role Concept Creator.

When the responsible team member has checked off the creation of the concept in the work package as completed, the work package My Work Package is displayed to the second team member with the project role Executor.

The work package automatically appears in the workspace of the person who has to complete the next work step in the workflow. A work package is considered completed when all steps of a workflow are checked off as completed.

Change between with and without workflow

Switching between processing a work package with and without workflow is possible at any time without loss of information. The assignment of team members with their respective project roles remains unchanged because workflows put the project roles in an order.

Multi-step workflows

With Octaved Flow, multi-step workflows can be created in the same way. The number of steps a workflow can have is limited by the number of project roles created.

Each project role can only be used once in the same workflow. If a work package is to be processed alternately by two team members, it is necessary to create corresponding project roles in Octaved Flow.

Alternatives to working with workflows in work packages.

As an alternative to using a workflow in a work package, separate work packages can be created in Octaved Flow for the individual work steps. These can be planned with project planning with dependencies, so that a workflow results from a sequential order of work packages.

One advantage of this approach is, for example, that the planned effort can be limited individually for each work package.

On the other hand, with each additional work package created in a project, a higher planning effort is generated for the entire project.

More information about workflows

Once a workflow is created, it can be used for multiple work packages, even for different team members, because only project roles are sequenced, not people.

Scheduling is taken into account when working with workflows. If a team member completes the first work step, although the work package should not be started yet by planning, the next team member will only see it in his workspace from the start date of the planning.