Workflows determine how an agency’s inspection reports or maintenance items move through the approval process. Every agency has different workflows for their reports and maintenance items, and AssetWise Inspections’ Manage Workflows page allows the agencies to create workflows to meet their specific needs.

The AssetWise Inspections User Manual explains the controls and process of creating a new workflow, but users who would like more information may find this walkthrough example helpful. Step by step instructions are provided below on how to create the following workflow:

Note: The goal of this walkthrough is to quickly guide users through the most important aspects of creating a new workflow. Certain controls will not be discussed.

Step 1: Plan Out the Workflow

Before beginning on the Manage Workflows page, plan out the overall workflow and each of its steps. This will help you to visualize the workflow path and simplify the steps to completing the workflow. Be sure to plan out both the Pass and Fail actions for each workflow stage.

Admins should also have a plan in place for role security, as establishing the proper role permissions is important to the usability and accuracy of the workflow.

Step 2: Create the New Workflow

Open the Manage Workflows Site Configuration page.

Click the New Workflow button.

Use the Workflow textbox to name the workflow “Routine.”

Use the Workflow Type dropdown to select “Inspection Reports.”  

Click the Save button.

Step 3: Create the Workflow Stages

Once the new workflow has been created, the various workflow stages of the workflow must be created.

For this example, we need the following workflow stages: In Progress, Inspection Team Review, Leader Review, ER Review 1, ER Review 2, and Approve Final Report.

Because In Progress and Approve Final Report are already included in AssetWise Inspections, they do not need to be created. To create the other workflow stages, select the Workflow Stages tab and click the New Workflow Stage button.

Use the Workflow Stage textbox to name the stage “Inspection Team Review.”

Click the Save button.

Repeat this step until all of the planned workflow stages have been added.

Step 4: Set the Workflow Stage Security

Still on the Worfklow Stages tab, click the  icon for the Leader Review workflow stage to set its workflow stage security.

For this example, only users within the Manager and Administrator roles will have access change values of a report in the Leader Review stage, therefore those roles will be given “Full Control” in the Report Access Level dropdown, and all other roles will be set to “Read-only.”

Similarly, only users within Manager and Administrator roles will be able to have a report in the Leader Review stage assigned to them, therefore those roles will have their Can Assign To checkbox checked.

Close the popup when finished.

Note: By default, all new stages will give full permissions and access to all roles. The security only needs to be changed if the access levels will be different for different roles.

Step 5: Create the Workflow Actions

Workflow actions determine how a report moves through the different workflow stages. Pass and Fail come built-in to AssetWise Inspections, and in most cases these actions are sufficient.

If new workflow actions are needed, select the Workflow Actions tab, click the New Workflow Action button, and complete the information.

Step 6: Add the First Stage to the Workflow Path

Once all of the necessary pieces of the workflow have been created, the workflow path can be established.

Return to the Workflows tab and click the  button to add a stage to the workflow path.

The first stage is always In Progress. Therefore, the first stage being added is actually the stage that follows In Progress. For this example, that stage is Inspection Team Review.

Use the Workflow Stage dropdown to select Inspection Team Review.

Use the Workflow Action dropdown to select Pass. The action from the In Progress stage will almost always be Pass because In Progress is the first stage (there is nowhere for it to go if failed).

The Role Security checkboxes determine which roles can perform the action on the selected stage. So in this case, all roles will be selected because all roles need to have the ability to move the report from In Progress to Inspection Team Review. If a role is not checked, the selected workflow stage will not be visible to them when performing the action.

Click the Save button.

Step 7: Complete the Workflow Path

The same process as explained in Step 6 must be completed for every workflow path option until the entire workflow is represented in the path. However, it’s important to remember that in every stage except for In Progress, a Fail action should also be included.

For instance, if we look at a section of the example workflow, we can see that an inspection report using this workflow will move to the Inspection Team Review stage after passing the In Progress stage. However, once in the Inspection Team Review stage, the inspection report is not guaranteed to pass to the Leader Review stage. If the Inspection Team Review finds the report to be unsatisfactory, the report can Fail and be sent back to the In Progress stage:

The process of completing the workflow path is slightly different than adding the first workflow stage to the path as shown in Step 6. The  button goes away and is replaced by the Workflow Stage dropdown:

This helps indicate which stage is currently selected for editing. The currently selected workflow stage will also be the only stage with a  control included in its box. To add to/edit the workflow stage, click the  icon and complete the information as shown in Step 6.

The following workflow path chart displays how each stage’s path actions were set up to complete the final workflow:

Notice how Leader Review and ER Review 1 have two potential Pass options. This is because, when performing a submittal action on an inspection report, the user gets to choose which stage to move to out of the eligible stages. This is true of both Pass and Fail options. Users are not limited to one Pass or Fail option at each stage; they are only limited to what is eligible. Therefore, if a stage has 4 different Pass options available for various reasons, the user will be able to choose any of those four options when selecting the Pass action.

There are a few other controls available from a workflow stage’s box:

To edit the workflow path security of a specific stage, click that stage’s  icon.

To delete a specific workflow stage from the path, click that stage’s  icon.

To select a specific workflow stage to edit its path actions, click that stage’s name hyperlink. This is the same as selecting the stage from the Workflow Stage dropdown.

Once all of the Pass and Fail actions have been established for each of the workflow stages, an overview of the entire workflow can be viewed using the  button.

Note: This is a Pass-action-only view of the workflow.

Step 8: Put the Workflow to Use

Once the workflow is created, it must be linked to a report type in order to be used. Navigate to the Administration > Site Configuration > Manage Asset and Report Settings page and ensure that Report Types is selected from the Configure dropdown button.

All of the report types listed, as well as any new report types that are created, must be linked to a workflow. Each report type can only be linked to one workflow at a time, but multiple report types can share the same workflow. To change the workflow linked to a report type, open the desired report type:

Use the Workflow dropdown to change the workflow. All inspection reports of the selected report type will now use the selected workflow.