Building flows
People in the loop
People take part in a flow through human processes. A person can fill in what a run needs, review work and decide its state, or both in one step. While they think, the run waits, for as long as it takes.
Two things a person does
| Step | On the board | The person |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | The human process yields an object it doesn't take. Its link reads Filled in. | Fills the object in: a form with its attributes, or text for an object without any. |
| Review | The human process takes an object and its link back to it lists states. | Reads the object and presses one of the states, optionally with instructions. |
Entry
Press + under a human process (Add an object the person fills in) and the new object is filled in. Every field is required. For a list, the form has Add item and a × per item, kept within the list's bounds. A file attribute can't be filled in by hand, so turn those into text.
Review
Link the object to the human process, then the process back to the object. A human process starts out deciding between all of the object's states; press the pill on the link (Choose states) to narrow them. Processes waiting for a state, such as one that posts the notes once approved, run when the person picks it.
The review dialog
When a human step is reached, its card turns orange and pulses, and a dialog opens for whoever is watching: Waiting for your review, Waiting for your input, or Waiting for Release manager.
- The inputs to read are shown beside the form.
- Instructions (optional) travel with the object to the processes that take it in the state you choose: “Cut the intro to two sentences.”
- There is one button per state. A step with no states to decide shows Done, or Submit when there are objects to fill in.
- Closing the dialog leaves the same form in the process's panel. Set Instructions for the person in the process's settings to tell them what to look for.
Who decides: persons and roles
A person object, such as Release manager or Finance, says who carries out the step. Its name is also a role. An admin gives people roles under Settings → People, and only holders of the role decide the reviews that person handles. Anyone else sees Only Release manager decides this. A review no person handles is anyone's to decide, and admins can decide any. People who hold a role see the flows whose reviews they decide, read-only.
Things to know
- Each decision starts a fresh pass of the run, so a review can send work back as often as the person likes.
- A scheduled flow shouldn't start with a person filling something in: it would wait every time, and later times are skipped while it waits. See Schedules.
Release manager handles Approve.
Approve decides whether Notes is approved, changes requested or rejected.
Enter ticket has a person fill in Ticket.