Work List

10 Feb 2022
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Work List

Updated on 10 Feb 2022
15 Minutes to read
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Introduction

The Work List is the human interface towards processes. Processes creates tasks for roles and users as Work Items and controls if the task is solved or not.

The Work List in combination with executing processes enables a process driven way of interacting with a system. All personal work connected to Processes in Comflow is collected under My Work List.
When a user that is part of a process interacts with a running process, i.e. receives or submits information from/to a process, the tasks in My Work List are used.

Concepts

Task
A task is a general definition of the work that needs to be done. It may or may not have a connection to the actual function and related data in the form of a work reference.

Work Reference
A reference to a function and related data where the completion of a task is supposed to take place.

Work Item
A Work Item is a general description of the task to perform and possibly the related work reference toghether with the assigned role and user that shall perform the task. Via the Work Item the user is guided directly to the work reference and the Work Item holds the status of the task performance.

Ad hoc Work Item
Ad hoc work items contain manually entered work that is not created by a process. It might include a work reference.

My Worklist Features

Open Work Items

The work items displayed in the list are work items that are assigned to you.

Closed Work Items

The Closed tab displays all work items that were allocated to the current user, but are now either completed or canceled.

Claimable Work Items

The Claim tab displays items that are allocated to a role, but not a specific user. A user will see all items that he or she can perform given his or her role. This means that you can see all work items that are allocated to the role you belong to.
To work on a claim item you first need to claim it. You do this by right clicking on the item and selecting Assign me.

Delegated Work Items

The work items for one user can be delegated to another user for a certain time period. During this period the delegated user can perform the other users' work for the time period, even if the actual work item is allocated to the original user. This is useful for example when a user is absent for illness or on vacation. The work item will still remain in the original user's list, but it will also be visible on the Delegated tab of the users it was delegated to.
Any user who has the work item in the Delegated work list and wants to start working on it needs to select Assign me on that work item. The work item will then be removed from the other user.

Quick Settings

The quick settings consist of the filter and the search order settings of the settings view. If you don't use them often you can hide the quick settings, and set the filter and the search order from the settings view instead.
The quick settings are persistent and applies to all the tabs in the work list (Open, Closed, Claim, Redirected).
When Project ID / Process is cleared, they will automatically get a '*' or a '%' to make the filter search all occurrences. You can also use '%' and '?' wildcards as in the generic temporary list filter.
Changes in quick settings take effect when you click the Filter button (Enter).

Filter

Filter what data to be displayed. Enter the desired filter and click Find to display the results. The filter settings are saved. When you log in again the selected filter remains. The filter can be used on Project ID and Process.
You can also filter the results by entering a search word in the different columns.
Search Order
Search order applies to all your work items in the system, in contrast to the generic sort function of the lists which only applies to the current page.
For example, if you have many work items and all cannot be listed on the current list page, only the records on the current page will be displayed when you press Find. If you use sort order, also non visible tasks can get visible and be listed.
You have two search order options, the first is applied first. If this returns a lot of hits, you can apply a secondary sorting within the list. If you select search order on Work Status and the search returns 50 records, you can select a secondary sorting on for example priority.

Actions

Left-click row actions

•Process Info (icon)
Opens the Process Info popup that presents a graphical view of the process and the state of the particular process instance that the work item (the row you clicked) is associated with. A blinking circle around a wait activity shows where the process is waiting for event(s) to be able to continue. A square around work items shows open work items (yours and others) for this process instance.

Right-click menu actions

Action	Result
Open	Takes you to the referenced work area, i.e. the view that the work item refer. If the work item does not have a work reference (if it is just a simple task), then the same generic task view opens as when using Open Task action below.
Open Task	Opens a detail view for the task, without showing any work reference view even if the work item has a work reference.
Re-assign	Takes you to a view where you can re-assign the work item to a new user.
Completed	Sets a work item in status completed (and state closed).
Cancel	Sets a work item in status canceled (and state closed).
Remove (archive)	Sets a work item in state archived. This hides it from all your views (also the 'Closed' tab). It can still be re-opened by a system administrator.
Process Instance Details	Takes you to a read-only detail view for the process instance that the work item is associated with.

Buttons

The following buttons are available:

Planning
New Task
Find - Applies quick settings (and saves) and temporary filter and sort.
Cancel - Closes the work list.
Settings - Takes you to your personal work list settings view.

Read more about Work Item, Task and Work Reference concepts in the general Function Help for the Work List.

Action Restrictions

Work Items created by processes can have restrictions that give warnings that you are not allowed to edit, close or re-assign these work items from generic views. The term "generic views" means views as the predefined work list, the work list planning view etc, all views that are predefined in the platform, and not made for a specific application.
When a process has set these restrictions, it is because the process itself needs to have full control of closure of work items and other operation. It can for example be that the process need to update some extra status values in a legacy system in the same transaction as closing a work item and sending out one or several new work items.
If such work items were allowed to be closed in generic views, the process would not be notified, and the particular process instance associated with these work items might not be able to continue executing.
Example: Can only reach a certain view via a work item. If that work item is removed, that view cannot be reached anymore, and the process cannot continue. Another process might have alternative ways to reach a view (from navigator), in this case, the process may allow closing work items from generic views.

My Work List

An end user uses the My Work List task to work with his or hers work items and notifications.

Selecting the My Work List task will take you to the My Work List main portlet as below.

Figure 109 My Work List task main portlet

Table 71 My work list task main portlet fields

	Pressing this symbol will open a graphical view of the process that the selected work item/notification is part of. A circle around one of the process model objects will indicate where in the process the process instance is at the moment.
Due Date	If a planned end time (see Table 35) has been specified for a work item, that end time will populate the Due Date field
	Priority icon. The color of the icon tells which priority the work item/notification has. Blue – Low priority Orange – Medium priority Red – High priority Work item/notification priority settings are defined in design time.
Work Title	Title of the work item/notification. Defined in design time.
Process	Name of the process to which the work item/notification belongs.
Key	Presentation key. A not necessarily unique business presentation key that facilitates the understanding of a work item or notification without having to look at its details. Defined/associated in design time. The key field could e.g. be associated with the item number in an item master.
Title	Presentation title. A not necessarily unique business presentation title that facilitates the understanding of a work item or notification without having to look at its details. Defined/associated in design time. The title field could e.g. be associated with the item description in an item master.
Changed date	Date of when the work item/notification was changed in any way (on the format YY-MM-DD). A change of a work item/notification is registered when it is assigned, reassigned or moved from one work list tab to another.
Changed time	Time of when the work item/notification was changed in any way (on the format HH-MM-SS). A change of a work item/notification is registered when it is assigned, reassigned or moved from one work list tab to another.
Created Date	Date of when the work item/notification was role/user assigned. On the format YY-MM-DD.
Created Time	Time of when the work item/notification was role/user assigned. On the format HH-MM-SS.

Table 72 My Work List task buttons

Entering a search criterion in an input field and then pressing the search button will result in a list of hits matching the search criterion.

% can be used when specifying a search criterion. A “da%” search phrase will e.g. result in a search result where all hits starts with the letters “da”.

Cancels the operation and closes the view.

Table 73 My Work List task search check boxes

Located in the tool bar of the My Work List main portlet.

When sorting on a specific field all visible records will be sorted. Should the list consist of several pages only the first page, the visible one, will be sorted.

When checking Search on Due Date and pressing “Search” all records in the list will be sorted on due date, not only the first page.

Located in the tool bar of the My Work List main portlet.

When sorting on a specific field all visible records will be sorted. Should the list consist of several pages only the first page, the visible one, will be sorted.

When checking Search on Priority and pressing “Search” all records in the list will be sorted on priority, not only the first page.

The My Work List task main portlet has three global tabs:

All work items that has been sent to a specific user are sent to the “My Work Items” list.

Work items that are sent to a role in which several users can act will end up in the “Work Items to Claim” list. This list can be regarded as a global inbox from which users belonging to the same role can assign, or get assigned to, different work items.

When a specific user has been assigned to a work item, that work item will be removed from the “Work Items to Claim” list and sent to the “My Work Items” list of the assigned user.

All notifications will end up in this list.

Figure 110 My Work List task main portlet tabs

My Work Items tab

All work items that has been sent to a specific user are sent to the “My Work Items” list

Figure 111 The My Work Items tab

Table 74 My work items sub tabs

All new work items sent to a user will be put in the list of new work items (the New tab).

The user decides if the work item should be handled directly or put in either the ongoing or later list of work items.

Work items can be sent to the list of ongoing work items by a user. This is done either by right clicking the work item and choosing “Put in ongoing” or by checking the work item and pressing the “Put in ongoing” button

Work items can be sent to the list of later work items by a user. This is done either by right clicking the work item and choosing “Put in later” or by checking the work item and pressing the “Put in later” button.

Typically work items that are put in the list of later work items has lower prioritization than other work items.

Table 75 My work items buttons

	Will select/check all work items.
	Will send the work item to the list of “ongoing” work items.
	Will send the work item to the list of “later” work items i.e. work items to be handled at a later time.

Figure 112 My work items right click options

There are six different right click options when working with your new work items:

Work on… (available for the tabs; new, ongoing and later)

Re-Assign… (available for the tabs; new, ongoing and later)

Work Item Details… (available for the tabs; new, ongoing and later)

Process Instance Details… (available for the tabs; new, ongoing and later)

Put in Ongoing (available for the tabs; new and later)

Put in Later (available for the tabs; new and ongoing)

The Put in Ongoing and Put in Later right clicks will only move the work item to other work item lists and will not be dealt with any further. The other right click options will be presented below.

The Work on… right click – By example

Suppose that a user has an “AddPurchaseInfo” work item in the work list and wants to work on it.

Right click the “AddPurchaseInfo” work item and choose Work on… as in Figure 113.

Figure 113 Work on ”AddPurchaseInfo” work item

This will take you to the selected work item (here AddPurchaseInfo) where the work can be performed. Figure 114 below shows the details of the AddPurchaseInfo work item.

Figure 114 Adding purchase price information to the AddPurchaseInfo work item

Specify the purchase price and presses update.

When the work item has been handled it will be removed from the list of work items!

The Re-Assign… right click – By example

If you for some reason want to reassign a work item to another user acting in the same role you just:

Right click the desired work item and choose Re-Assign… as in Figure 115 where the “AddPurchaseInfo” work item is about to be reassigned.

Figure 115 Reassignment of the AddPurchaseInfo work item

To assign a new user just click the desired user in the list of available users. Should the list of users be very long it is possible to search for a specific user by entering the user name in the “User” field and pressing the Search button. After the search result has been presented just click the desired user.

Figure 116 Reassign a work item to another user

The Work Item Details… right click

Right clicking a work item or a notification and choosing Work Item Details… will result in a view such as the one in Figure 117.

Figure 117 Work item details

From here it is possible to study detailed information about a work item.

Table 76 Work item details portlet fields

ID	Auto generated work item/notification ID
To Role	Role associated to the work item/notification.
From Role	Role associated with the work item that precedes the selected work item.
From User	User that handled the work item that precedes the selected work item.
Created Date	Date of when the work item/notification was created. On the format YY-MM-DD.
Created Time	Time of when the work item/notification was created. On the format HH-MM-SS.
Work Title	Title of the work item/notification. Defined in design time.
Notification Text	Notification text. Defined in design time.

The assignment history provides historical assignment information for a specific work item or notification.

Table 77 Work item details – Assignment history segment fields

ToUser	Work item/notification assigned user
Created date	Date of user assignment/reassignment. On the format YY-MM-DD.
Created time	Time of user assignment/reassignment. On the format HH-MM-SS.
Created by	User that assigned/reassigned the work item/notification.

Table 78 Work item details handled information segment fields

Handled date

Date of when the work item/notification was handled. On the format YY-MM-DD.

Empty if not yet handled.

Handled time

Time of when the work item/notification was handled. On the format HH-MM-SS.

Empty if not yet handled

Work item state

-1 (new; in the new tab in the work list)

0 (ongoing; in the ongoing tab in the work list)

1 (later; in the later tab in the work list)

2 (claim; in the claim tab in the work list)

99 (handled; in the handled tab in the work list)

Table 79 Work item details buttons

Back to previous view.

The Process Instance Details… right click

Studying process instance details is typically an administrator task, seldom enabled for end users. Please see chapter 2.2 for detailed information about the Process Instances segment.

Work Items to Claim tab

When a specific user has been assigned to a work item, that work item will be removed from the “Work Items to Claim” list and sent to the “My Work Items” list of the assigned user.

Figure 118 The Work Items to Claim tab

Figure 119 Work Items to Claim right click options

When right clicking a work item from the “Work Items to Claim” tab a user has five different options:

View… (this will show the user the selected work item)

Assign…

Assign Me

Work Item Details… (please see chapter 3.1.1.3)

Process Instance Details… (please see chapter 3.1.1.4)

Choosing right click Assign Me will immediately assign the work item to the user performing the operation. Doing this the work item will be moved to the “My Work Items” list in the “My Work Items” tab of the user.

The Assign… right click – By example

Choosing right click Assign…gives a user the possibility to assign another user acting in the same role to the work item i.e. move the work item to the “my work list” of that user.

Right click the desired work item and choose Assign… as in Figure 120 where the “AddPurchaseInfo” work item is about to be assigned.

Figure 120 Assignment of the AddPurchaseInfo work item

To assign a user just click the desired user in the list of available users. Should the list of users be very long it is possible to search for a specific user by entering the user name in the “User” field and pressing the Search button. After the search result has been presented just click the desired user.