3.0 Understanding Workflows

A workflow is a graphical representation of the steps in a process, made up of activities and connectors, designed to reflect a specific IT policy, as shown in the following figure. When one or more events from a data source match the trigger criteria of a process, Workflow Automation executes the process and initiates a work item.

During execution, a workflow visits activities and traverses connectors in a specific order (called a flow). The Start of Workflow activity is the first activity the workflow executes. If the workflow contains multiple Start of Workflow activities, the workflow can have multiple simultaneous flows, as shown in the following figure.

The workflow can also create multiple flows when it traverses more than one connector from an activity or when the trigger appends a new event to the work item. When there are no more active flows, execution terminates.