Best Practices #2: Design a simple workflow

“Day-off Request” example

(Prerequisite: For better understanding, it would be useful to read first the Comidor help article “How to create a workflow”.)

One of the most typical examples of business processes is the “request for a day-off”.

Comidor allows you to create a workflow - an automated pattern - in order to cover

regularly repeated and quite important business process.

Our process will be a simple example with 3 steps:

a) The User submits an issue asking for a day-off,

b) The Leader of the employee’s department is requested to approve it and

c) The HR Department is requested to verify it.

Analyze the Process: A workflow is efficient when it mirrors accurately the actual

business process steps. In order to avoid reengineering, capture carefully all the steps

of the process and draw an accurate diagram. Try to keep your design simple and

neat. A complicated diagram will simply cause more bureaucracy and delay. Adding

check-steps is good, but loops usually should be avoided.

The diagram of our example is the following.

Design the workflow: Let’s try to build our diagram into Comidor. Following the

respective manual, you are in position to create the following workflow, which you can

name “Day-Off Request”.

1

User Request

2

Leader Approval

3

HR Verification

1

2

Run the workflow: Now, every time a user connects an Issue with the Workflow “Day-

Off Request”, the workflow is automatically passing the information (usually a

verification question) from one department (or user) to another department (or user).

3