Participate in a workflow

As a participant in a workflow, you process work that is assigned and routed to you. You might also retrieve and process work that was routed to a work queue to which you have access. When you complete a work item, the system routes the work to the participant assigned to process the next step in the workflow. The collective efforts of all workflow participants continue until all work specified in the workflow definition is complete.

Open assigned work

Work assigned to you appears in your Process Inbox and, conditionally, in your Tracker and Milestone Tracking queues. In Workplace, you select the Tasks mode to access your Inbox, Tracker queues, and Milestones.

Inbox: The work items in your Inbox correspond to steps in a workflow that are assigned to you for processing. When you open a work item from your Inbox, a step processor displays instructions, data, attachments (documents or other items), response choices, status, and other resources that you need to complete the work.

Tracker items: The items in your Tracker queue indicate that you are an assigned tracker for a workflow. You receive one tracker item at the start of each workflow that you are assigned as a tracker. When you open a tracker item, the current state of that workflow displays. You can examine the workflow history, step information, and milestone information, and you can change accessible fields.

Milestones: The items in Milestone Tracking correspond to workflows you launched which contain at least one level 1 milestone. Open an item to see the name, message, and time the milestone was reached.

You can optionally configure your user preferences to notify you with an e-mail message when various workflow events occur, such as a new work item or a reminder of a step deadline. You can open a work item directly from the e-mail message; the effect is the same as opening the work item from your Inbox or Tracker folder.

Open unassigned work

Some steps in a workflow are assigned to work queues, rather than to a specific participant. If you have access to a work queue, you can select and open work items.

When you open a work item from a work queue, a step processor displays instructions, data, attachments (documents or other files), response choices, and other resources that you need to complete the work.

For additional information about opening and processing work items see Work with Tasks.