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Working with Workflows in P6

Use workflows to route business processes such as project initiation requests through your organization to gather information and visibility before a go/no go decision is made. Template data, routing designators, and approval rules can be set for each stage of a workflow. To illustrate these options, pretend we have a workflow involving five key approval managers. You can define the workflow such that all five must approve and even specify a particular sequence, if any. A much more relaxed approval rule would require only one out of the five to approve.

Workflows begin in BPM where your administrator defines the actual workflow tasks involved and assigns them to specific users, roles, or groups. Then, in P6, an actual business need kicks off a separate instance of the workflow and its required tasks are automatically routed to their users, roles, or groups.

When a specific user or any user assigned to a role or group logs into P6, the Workflows portlet on their dashboard will display their relevant tasks at this stage of the workflow, as authenticated by BPM. As a workflow participant, you can select a task in the workflow instance and claim ownership for it. This means you will be responsible for performing the task. The application refreshes itself to show only the actions permitted for this particular stage of the workflow for you (the currently logged in user).

Workflow screen elements

Table 1 of 2: Key Workflow Screen Elements

Item

Description

item one

Setup and Configuration: After your administrator sets up BPM, configure a dashboard to display the Workflows portlet.

item  two

Action Required Tab: This tab shows the tasks that are important to you (the currently logged in user).

item  three

My Workflows Tab: This tab enables you to view all workflows according to role and status filters you can set.

item  four

Initiate a Workflow: Click "" Initiate a Workflow to start a new instance of a workflow based on a predesigned template.

Workflow screen elements

Table 2 of 2: Key Workflow Screen Elements

Item

Description

item one

Workflow Form: Most workflows include forms which enable you to update the progress of each task. In general, possible actions you can perform on a task during the routing of a workflow include: escalate, suspend, purge, delete, withdraw, submit, reassign, claim, approve, and reject. For workflow tasks with no associated form, this icon is disabled. To perform an action on a workflow task with no associated form, log into BPM and use the available menus, buttons, and other options on the form. It is also possible to design a solution using the P6 Integration API.

Note: If using BPM 11g (which always uses secure sign-on or SSO authentication) or if using BPM 10g with SSO configured, you will see the form in a new window. If SSO authentication is not configured with BPM 10g, you must log into BPM in the resulting window, close that window, and then return to P6 and click "" View Form again. This procedure is required whenever your BPM session expires.

item  two

Workflow Status: The Workflow Status image is accessible from either tab in the Workflows portlet. It shows the sequence of events in the workflow. Items shown with a colorized border indicate the furthest level of progress within the workflow. The current status of the workflow corresponds with the last item to receive the special coloring. BPM 10g integrations show status using red, while BPM 11g integrations show status using green.

item  three

Sample Workflow: A basic workflow image with tasks for an engineer, a second task for an assigned role, and a third task for a manager to complete the workflow. The current workflow task is Third User Task because it is the last item in the sequence that has a green outline.

item  four

Workflow History: View a chronological sequence of all the previous activities, users, and stages in the current workflow.

Related Topics

Working with Dashboards

Creating Dashboards

Customizing Dashboards


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