Splitting large workflows

You should consider splitting large or complex workflows into sub workflows when a workflow process has become overly difficult to view, contains multiple approval stages, or is running into issues or errors when publishing or exporting. The sub workflows can be inserted in another workflow using the action.

Larger workflows can take longer to publish or run. If a workflow is taking longer than a minute to publish, it is the first indication that the workflow is getting large. In many cases, the only option is to redesign the workflow into smaller, connected sub-processes.

We use a simple example to show you how a workflow can be split to include a Start workflow action which will start another workflow. The image below shows the example workflow that has two approval stages for manager approval and CEO approval. The workflow can be split to have another workflow for the second approval stage, which is the CEO approval.

To split the workflow, you have make a new workflow for the CEO approval, and use the Start workflow action in the original workflow to start the second workflow.

  1. Open the Designer and create and save a workflow for the second approval stage (CEO approval) of the workflow as shown in image below.

  1. From the Workflow Gallery, open the original workflow that has both approval stages. The workflow opens in the Designer page.
  2. Replace the second approval stage action with a action.

  3. Configure the Start workflow action to start the second workflow created for CEO approval. The final workflow will be as below:

Advantages

  • Avoid the repetition of a long, complex process

    • In a complex workflow process, errors may occur for unexpected reasons and will require the workflow to be restarted from the beginning. This can potentially lead to a workflow that was nearing completion but failed during its last set of actions, resulting in the workflow to start from the beginning. In such situations all the actions in the workflow including any approval tasks must be repeated, resulting in a waste of resources.

    This can be avoided when a workflow is split into several sub workflows. The entire workflow process will not have to be repeated and only the sub-workflow that failed can be started manually. This not only saves time, but ensures if an unexpected issue does occur it will have the smallest impact possible.

  • Ease of troubleshooting

    • Smaller workflows have the advantage of being much easier to diagnose and troubleshoot. If an error occurs in a workflow with hundreds of actions, the first step may be to reproduce the error. This can be very difficult and often is a process of running the workflow manually and editing it part by part to determine which actions are causing the issue.

    A workflow with fewer actions is much easier to manage and to determine which section or action is causing an issue.

Disadvantages

Ability to understand your process at a glance

Splitting up a workflow means you will no longer be able to see your entire process in one view.