3.1 Understanding Workflow Activities

The following table provides information about the symbols used in the Operations Console. For more information about viewing a work item’s workflow, see Viewing a Work Item’s Workflow.

The Workflow Designer provides the following basic activity types Process Authors use to build workflows. The icons for each activity are defined by the Business Process Management Initiative. For more information about the Business Process Management Initiative, see www.bpmi.org.

	Start of Workflow	Starts the workflow when its associated triggers match incoming events from a data source. A workflow can have multiple Start of Workflow activities that create more than one flow at the same time.
	Task	Performs a specific task, such as collecting user input or sending an email, before proceeding. An associated piece of code, or module, performs the task. Workflow Automation provides several activity libraries that group Task activities according to function. Each Workflow Automation adapter, such as the AppManager adapter or the Secure Configuration Manager adapter, provides its own library of product-specific activities. Task activities in an Workflow Automation or adapter library have an icon that represents their functions, such as the Send Email activity.
	Join	Allows the process to split into multiple parallel flows or combine two or more parallel flows into one.
	Wait for New Email Message	Waits for an incoming message that matches the defined filter. If a matching message does not arrive in the specified time frame, the process continues.
	Pause for Specified Time	Waits for a specified period of time or until a specified time before continuing.
	Capture Workflow Errors	Waits for errors to occur in the workflow. This activity sits outside the main flow. When an error occurs, the flow “jumps” to this activity and proceeds down an alternate flow that handles the error before rejoining the main flow.
	End of Workflow	Marks the end of the process. A workflow can have multiple End of Workflow activities, depending on the number of sub-flows. If the workflow has multiple flows but only one End of Workflow activity, a Completed icon displays when the first flow terminates, even if other flows are still active.