Purpose
The purpose of this technical bulletin is to provide an overview of the Workflow Manager utility and to provide instructions on how to set up a new workflow.
The Workflow Manager utility is a Tour de Force Administration Console utility that is used to create and manage workflows. This technical bulletin covers the admin utility, as well as the importance of Activity items in relation to the workflows.
This technical bulletin contains the following sections:
- Overview of Workflows
- Accessing the Workflow Manager Utility
- Creating a New Workflow
- Importing Milestones
- Adding a New Workflow to a Record in Tour de Force
- Relationship Between Activity Items and Workflows
- Best Practices and Things to Watch Out For
Note: Read the documentation completely before using the Workflow Manager utility.
- Overview of Workflows
In Tour de Force, workflows are used to track the time and progress of a project through the use of roles, milestones, and work items. There are three main components that make up a workflow in Tour de Force: Activity items, milestones, and work items.
Before workflows can be used in Tour de Force Activity items need to contain the proper User Defined Fields to be used in conjunction with the workflows. In general the main fields that are used in the workflow are Duration, Billable Type, and Activity Subject. Not every milestone or project is going to billable, so while those fields may be optional, having a field to indicate billing amount, billable type, and whether an Activity is billable or not, is strongly recommended.
Activity items are the only items in Tour de Force that have a direct effect on the milestones in the workflow. Each workflow must have an Activity UDF that links the workflow to the project that is currently being worked on. This UDF could be Activity Type, Billable Type, and numerous other fields. Before enabling the workflow feature in Tour de Force ensure that the Activity item has been properly prepared for use with the workflows. In most cases the Activity item is already going to contain the appropriate UDFs.
The term projects can mean numerous things to many different companies, but a project is typically something related to a larger scale operation that involves multiple people in the company in order to accomplish. For example, a workflow could be created for an Opportunity that the company is attempting to win. However, a workflow could also be used for something simpler such as the creation of new sales literature or preparing for a trade show event.
Workflows are managed in the Manage Workflows utility which is located in the Tour de Force Administration utility. In this utility workflows are created and managed by a Workflow Admin. The Workflow Admin sets up the workflow by creating different milestones and assigning roles to those milestones. Once ready the workflow is saved and can then be used on the record the workflow was created for. In most cases workflows are used in relation to Opportunity records.
Manage Workflows Utility
Before workflows can be used in Tour de Force the Workflow Admin needs to enable the Enable Workflow Management features field in the Workflow Manager utility.
There are four fields associated with the General Settings and section related to the Reminders:
- Enable Workflow Management Features – This field is used to enable or disable the workflow features in Tour de Force. Once this field is enabled then users have access to the Workflows tab after a workflow has been created.
- Select an Activity to serve as a link between TDF Activities and Workflow milestones – This field is used to select the Activity item UDF that is going to trigger the Workflow Manager to update the milestones and the Gantt chart. The UDF selected is going to be entirely dependent upon the company using the Workflow Manager.
- Select the Activity UDF that indicates the “billable” charge amount – This field is used to indicate which field is going to be used to provide the actual dollar amount that is tied to the workflow and milestones. Each workflow, and subsequent milestone, is going to have a quoted or budgeted time and money that is expected for the workflow. The field selected is going to be used to determine the actual money that has been spent or billed for the current workflow.
- Include “weekends” on milestone gantt view – If this field is checked when Saturday and Sunday are going to appear on the Gantt chart located on the Workflows tab on Tour de Force records. This is an optional setting.
- Workflow Reminder Settings – When a milestone has been completed a TDF Reminder gets sent to out to all users related to the workflow project.
- Accessing the Workflow Manager Utility
Use the following procedure to access the Workflow Manager utility:
- Click the Admin Utilities button on the Tour de Force toolbar.
- In the Admin Utilities menu, select Advanced Features Setup.
- In the Advanced Features menu, select Manage Workflows.
- The Workflow Manager utility opens.
- Creating a New Workflow
After the Workflow Manager has been set up, Workflow Admins can create and edit workflows. Click the Edit Workflow Types to display the existing workflow screens. If there are any existing workflows they also display under the Edit Workflow Types section as well as in the grid.
Use the following procedures to create a new workflow:
- Click the Add button.
- In the Workflow Type Name field, type in the name of the new workflow.
For example, this workflow is going to be called New Sales Literature Roll-out which is going to show a workflow process for each user involved in producing and rolling out new Sales literature.
- In the Description field, type in a quick description of the workflow that highlights the goals of the project.
- In the TDF Item Type field, select the record or item type that this workflow applies to.
In this instance the user is going to select Literature as this is a project that only applies to the Literature record in Tour de Force. However, if Global is selected then this workflow is going to be available for every single record in Tour de Force under the Workflows tab.
- In the Activity UDF Link field, select the Activity item UDF that links to this workflow.
This field is used to select the Activity item UDF that is going to trigger the Workflow Manager to update the milestones and the Gantt chart. The UDF selected is going to be entirely dependent upon the company using the Workflow Manager. The UDF selected in this field is going to contain the values that are going to be selected in the UDF Value field related to each milestone.
- Click the Save button.
Once the workflow is saved the Roles and Milestones tabs appear on the right side of the screen.
- Click the Roles tab to move to the Roles screen.
- Click the Add button.
- In the UserType field, select the type of user needs to be added as a role. There are two options available:
- TDFUser – This option is used to indicate that this role is a registered user of Tour de Force.
- TDFContact – This option is used to indicate that this role is a Contact record in Tour de Force but may not be a registered user. In this example, an external role may be a company that is used to proofread the Sales literature.
- In the Name field, type in the name of role.
- In the Description field, type in a short description of the role. This could include the goals of the Role or the expected workload this role needs to perform.
- Click the Save & New button to save this role and create a new one, or click the Save & Close and to return to the roles screen.
- Click the Milestones tab.
- Click the Add button and select Add Milestone to add a new milestone.
The Add Milestone screen contains ten fields that need to be noted and filled out:
- Name – The name of the milestone.
- Role – This field displays a list of the roles expected to contribute to the completion of the selected milestone.
- Duration (Days) – This field is used to set the number of expected days the company expects the milestone to take to complete. This field affects the Gantt chart.
- Due Date – This field is used to set the number of days, based on the Offest Type set that company expects the miletone to be completed. For example, if the Offset Type is set to the Start Date field, and the Due Date is set to 10 then that means the milestone is expected to be completed ten days after the milestone has been started. This field affects the Gantt chart.
- Offset Type – This field is used to choose the offset of the miletsone and when the milestone is expected to be
- Depends On – This field is used to indicate what other milestones need to be completed before the selected milestone can be started.
- Quoted Rate – This is a numerical value field that is used to indicate the quoted or budgeted amount for this milestone. This is not the actual money value.
- Quoted Hours – This is a numerical value field that is used to indicate the quoted or budgeted amount of time this milestone is expected to take. This is not the actual duration value.
- Quoted Price – This field is the Quoted Rate x Quoted Hours fields, but is not the actual price of the milestone.
- UDF Value – This field is used to select the UDF value of the UDF selected in the Details section of the milestone. This is the value used on the Activity item that is going to notify the workflow to update the corresponding milestone.
- After a new milestone has been created, new work items need to be created for that milestone. These work items are the steps that make up the milestone and have an impact on the reminders that get sent out to the users associated with the workflow.
In this example each sales stage is listed as a milestone and the work items are the steps that need to be completed in order to mark that milestone as completed.
- Select the milestone that needs the new work item added. Click the Add button and select Add Worklist Item.
- In the Name field, type in the name of the work item.
- In the Description field, type in a short description for that work item. This field is optional.
- Once finished click the Save & New button to save the work item and create a new work item, or click the Save & Close button to save the work item and close the Add Work Item screen.
- Continue adding as many milestones and work items as needed to the workflow. Once finished close the Workflow Manager utility.
- Importing Milestones
On the milestones tab, Workflow Admins have the ability to import the milestones based on the UDF selected in the Activity UDF Link field. The Import feature looks at that UDF and then adds every single value as a new milestone in the Milestones tab. For example, if the Activity UDF Link selected is the Billing Type field, then every single value in the Billing Type field is going to be added as a milestone. The Import feature is useful for any company that has Activity item UDFs that already contain the values they would like to see as milestones for a workflow.
Use the following procedures to import milestones from an Activity item UDF that has been linked to a workflow:
- In the Activity UDF Link field, select the field that contains the values that need to become milestones for this workflow.
- In the Milestones tab, click the Import button and select From Activity UDF.
Observe the dialog window that displays. Click the Yes button when finished.
- All of the values located in that field now become milestones for that particular workflow. Note that certain fields get automatically filled out, such as the UDF Value field.
- Work items can now be added to each milestone.
- Adding a New Workflow to a Record in Tour de Force
After a workflow has been set up in the Workflow Manager, that workflow can then be added to the associated record. Once a workflow has been added that workflow can then be used by users of Tour de Force to track their progress in relation to that specific project. This section covers how to add a new workflow to the Workflows tab.
Use the following procedures to add a new workflow to the Workflows tab in Tour de Force:
- Click the Workflows tab on the record that needs to have a new workflow.
- Click the Add New Workflow button.
- In the Workflow Name field, type in the name of the new workflow. The Workflow Name field defaults to the value typed in the Subject field of the record being used.
- In the Workflow Description field, type in a short description for the workflow. This field is optional.
- In the When does this Workflow start field, select the start date of the workflow.
A target completion date can be set in the What is the target completion date field, but is optional and not a requirement for a workflow.
- In the What type of Workflow is this field, select the workflow that needs to associated with the workflow being created.
- Click the Next button.
- Assign users to each role associated with the workflow. Click the Assigned User field and select the user that needs to be assigned to that role.
- Once all of the users have been assigned to their respective roles, click the Next button.
- The next screen shows all of the milestones and their corresponding start and due dates. As of the writing of this technical bulletin users do not have the ability to automatically adjust the dates based on the Offset Type and Due Date fields set in the Workflow Manager utility. This means that the Adjust Due Dates button does not work properly and the start and end dates for each milestone must be set manually.
- After setting the start and end dates for each milestone, click the Next button.
- The Milestones tab now displays all of the milestones, and creates a Gantt chart based on the start and end dates set for each milestone. The workflow can now be used by users to enter in new Activities related to milestones and track the progress of the project.
- Relationship between Activity Items and Workflows
After a workflow has been set up, users can then begin to use the workflow to keep track of their progress and view the Gantt chart related to the project. However, when a user is creating an Activity item related to a workflow, the user needs to create the Activity item from the Workflows tab. This section covers the relationship between Activity items and the workflows that have been set up. This section also provide instructions on how to link Activity items to a workflow and milestone in Tour de Force.
Activity Item UDF Links
When creating a new workflow, the workflow needs to know what Activity item UDF is going to trigger the update to the milestone and update the work item and Gantt chart. Without an Activity UDF link the actual time and actual dollars spent on a milestone, and the project as a whole, is not going to be tracked by the Gantt chart and Workflows tab. TDF Reminders are also not going to be sent to users if the Activity UDF links have not been used or set up properly.
Here is an example of an Activity item UDF link and a milestone link:
In the screenshot below the linked UDF for the workflow is the Activity Type field that has been added to the Activity item.
The Milestones tab shows all the milestones related to that workflow. The important field to note on this screen is the UDF Value field. Each milestone is linked to the one of the values located in the Activity Type field.
That means when a user creates a new Activity item from a milestone on the workflows tab, that field is going to pre-populate the Activity Type field with the appropriate value. This allows the Workflow Manager to know that the user is still working on that milestone and has just performed an action related to that milestone.
Creating an Activity Item from a Milestone
Activity items are used to notify the Workflow Manager that a milestone is currently being worked on. However, because every Activity item created is not going to be related to a workflow, the Activity items need to be created from a milestone in order to be linked to that milestone. As of the writing of this technical bulletin there is no way to manually link an Activity item to a milestone. Workflow Admins need to instruct users on the following steps in order for an Activity item to link to a milestone.
- After a workflow has been added to a project, the Milestones tab gets populated with the milestones associated with that workflow.
- To create a new Activity item from a milestone, the user needs to right-click on the milestone the Activity item needs to be applied to, and select New Activity from Milestone.
- Best Practices and Things to Watch Out For
- The reminders that get sent out for the milestones are TDF Reminders, and get sent out to everyone related to the milestone
As of the writing of this technical bulletin the Workflow Reminders do not contain the logic to limit the number of people who get sent reminders. For example, if a workflow has 10 milestones, and certain users do not come into play until milestone 9, those users in milestone 9 are still going to get sent reminders if milestones 1-8 are completed.
- The Auto-link button can be used, but only if certain conditions are met
Admins have the ability to copy and paste milestones into the milestones screen from an excel spreadsheet which auto create milestones. However, no UDF Values are associated with those milestones that have been pasted in, but the auto-link button can automatically add UDF values if the Activity UDF selected contains the same values as the milestones currently pasted into the milestone screen. Tour de Force currently does not recommend using this option as of the writing of this technical bulletin.
- External Contacts are not going to receive the reminders related to a completion of a milestone
If an external contact has been selected as a role in a milestone that contact is not going to get sent an email or receive a TDF Reminder that the milestone has been completed. To work around this issue it may be a good idea to put in the description or name of the work item to notify the external contacts so that en email can be sent to those contacts that they can start on their portion of the milestone.
- What does it mean for an Activity item to be properly prepared for the workflows?
The Activity item is an important piece of the workflow feature and if the Activity item is not properly set up then the workflow feature is not going to work properly. However, what does it mean for an Activity item to be properly set up? In the case of the workflow feature this means that the Activity items contain the proper UDFs. What are the proper UDFs? For workflows the three most commonly used fields are Duration, Billing Type, and Billing Amount. In most cases these fields are default Tour de Force fields that have already been set up on the Activity item. The only required field for the workflows is the Duration field. However, most workflows are going to need to track some kind of billing amount and billing type, and that is why Billing Type and Billing Amount fields are also recommended to be set up on the Activity item.
Version: 6 Technical Bulletin 6524
©2014 Tour de Force CRM
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