About workflows vs. work items

A workflow is a single execution of a workflow definition. In its most simple form, it might have a single work item that progresses through the series of steps.

A slightly more complex workflow can have steps that are processed by more than one participant, and branches that execute in parallel. In the illustration below, the workflow branches at the Rev step, depending on a user response. If the answer is 'No', it goes to Rework; if the answer is 'Yes', it goes to both Art and Content.

When this workflow is running, there would be one work item until the Rev step. If the work progresses to Art and Content, there would be three work items simultaneously—one for Art and two for Content. When all three participants at Art and Content complete their work, the work items advance to Continue, where they re-join into one work item.

workflow definition with multiple work items

The root work item

When you view workflows rather than work items, Process Administrator displays only the root work item. The root work item is the first work item created for the workflow; it does not reflect changes made during subsequent steps, so the displayed field values are often outdated.

TIP The only way to see the current values of each work item is to view work items instead of workflows.

Depending on the workflow definition, the root work item can complete before other work items belonging to the same workflow. When this occurs, the workflow no longer displays in the workflow view; however, the remaining work items that make up the workflow display in the work item view.

Locking a workflow vs. a work item

When you attempt to modify a row in the search results, Process Administrator must lock the associated work items before you can make the changes. If you have searched for work items, each row corresponds to one work item. If you have searched for workflows, each row corresponds to one workflow, which can have many related work items, and Process Administrator must lock each one. You can explicitly lock work, or Process Administrator will prompt you to do so when necessary.

Modifying a workflow vs. a work item

You can modify a workflow or a work item. When you modify a workflow, Process Administrator applies the changes you make to all of the work items that make up the workflow. This can be an advantage when you want to make a single change to an entire workflow, but a disadvantage when working with workflows that have many participants, and therefore many work items. As the number of work items increases, the likelihood of being able to lock all of the work items without conflict decreases. In some cases, you might find it easier to make your changes to each work item instead of to the workflow.