About steps

A step is a stage in a workflow where a distinct, well-defined kind of work is performed. Each step on a workflow map represents a specific activity or task in the business process you are defining.

Steps on main map and submap

Process Designer provides palettes of pre-defined steps in the Step Palette area that you add to the workflow map to represent different types of activities. Each type of step provides an appropriate interface where you define the parameters for processing that step.

Your IBM FileNet license agreement determines the level of functionality that you see in Process Designer. As a consequence, some of the options described here might not be available for your system. See your system administrator for more information.

Your system might have custom palettes supplied with expansion products, such as FileNet Web Site Manager.

There are two types of steps that Process Designer automatically adds to a map when necessary. These steps are not on any step palette.

In defining a workflow, you drag a step of the appropriate type from a step palette, and position the step wherever you like on a workflow map. See Add a step for additional information. You can reposition one or more steps, and their connected routes by dragging them. You can also change one type of step to another (for example, change an activity step to a submap step) by right-clicking on the step, and selecting Change Step Type from the menu.

In additional to FileNet-provided step palettes, you can also define your own custom palette, My Palette, to include any steps you want either from other palettes or from a workflow map. See Step Palette for additional information.