Workflows in BIMcollab Twin

Workflows in BIMcollab Twin

Workflows are designed to translate the various document coordination processes within a project into an automatic sequence of tasks. They can be added at either location, project or project phase level by the space administrator who is also responsible for defining the workflows themselves. Workflows are triggered to start the moment a team member uploads a new document which meets particular predefined conditions.

Add a Document Workflow

As an administrator, start by navigating to the Space Settings page and then to the Workflows module. Here, you can see all the all the workflows that exist in your space, including information such as whether a workflow is active or not (1), name (2), order (3), description (4) as well as what level within the spatial structure of a project it is attached to (5).


      
To add a new workflow, follow these steps:

      1. Click on the "Add" (6) button.

      2. First select the relevant location, project or project phase to add the workflow to.
             
                  Click on "Save".

      3. On the next page, enter the workflow information including required fields "Name" and "Order". 
            
The order number determines the ranking of the workflow and when it should be triggered compared to others, therefore each workflow needs a unique order number. For example, a workflow with order 0 means this workflow will occur first, and only once it is complete will the subsequent orders occur (1, then 2, then 3, etc...).

      4. Then enter the conditions the document requires to pass in order to trigger the workflow by selecting from the dropdown lists. For each property, multiple values can be added.
            
            The combination of following properties can be used:
  1. Document number regex - This refers to a specific document number which may consist of a combination of numbers, letters and special characters. If using a document naming convention for a project phase, the document number regex will look at the free field identifier at the end of the document name.
  2. Spatial structure - Refers to the Location, Building, or Storey the document has been linked to.
  3. Discipline - The relevant discipline the document is associated with which is custom metadata that is set up by the administrator.
  4. Labels - Any custom labels that have been added to the document information which are created by the administrator .
  5. Document type - Refers to which document type was specified when uploading a document, this could be either Document, Documentation, Drawing, Image or Model.
  6. Author - Refers to which company the user belongs to who was responsible for uploading the document.
  7. Status - The relevant status the document was determined to have which is custom metadata that is set up by the administrator.
       When finished, click on "Save".

Define Workflow Steps

After adding initial workflow information, next we can set up the workflow steps. When a new document is added that meets the conditions, the workflow is triggered and it then automatically monitors the progress and coordinates all tasks.



There are four standard actions that can occur, including an Audit Round, a Review Task, a Stamp and a Notification. To add one of these steps, click the "Add Action" button and then select one from the dropdown list.
You first need to select an action, and then define the triggers that follow by selecting the "Add trigger" button.
                
The details of each action type will now be explained.

Audit Round 

An audit round can be used in a workflow as a way to collect the feedback of multiple stakeholders on a document. 
If an audit round is triggered, personal audit tasks for each stakeholder will be automatically created which can be completed in parallel. The next step in the workflow depends on whether any comments are added to the task by the responsible users before the audit round deadline.

  

An audit round has the following properties:

1. Description: description of the audit round, for reference only.
2. Responsible: one or more users. An audit task is created per responsible person. Team members from the same company can complete each other's audit tasks, but there is always one user from the company who's name will be assigned as responsible.
3. Duration: number of days the audit task is open. The deadline of this task is determined by the duration.

After the deadline, the outcome of the audit tasks within the control round is evaluated and the next step in the workflow is started. An audit round has the following outcomes that can be added :
  1. Comments: comments have been placed on one or more audit tasks within the deadline.
  2. No comments: no comments have been placed on any of the audit tasks. Tasks not completed within the deadline also count as no comment. Thus, the audit round does not depend on all tasks being completed.
  3. Always execute: execute the next step of the workflow no matter which outcome.

Review 

A Review can be used to reject or approve a document within the workflow based on one stakeholder's feedback of the document.
If a review action is triggered in a workflow, a single review task will be automatically created where multiple responsible people can be assigned, but the task ends as soon as the first person completes it.

   

A review action has the following properties:

1. Description: description of review task, for reference only.
2. Responsible: the users authorized to carry out the review. Multiple persons can be added as responsible, but whoever completes this first will close the task. Thus, only one review task is created per review.
3. Duration: the number of days the review is open. After the deadline, the review task becomes urgent, but the workflow does not continue until the task is completed.

Unlike the audit round, a review is not evaluated until the task is completed. The deadline is for information purposes only. A review has two outcomes:
  1. Approved: the review was positive and approved.
  2. Rejected: the review was negative, an explanation can be added in the form of text or an appendix.
  3. Always execute: execute the next step of the workflow no matter which outcome.
To learn more about review tasks and the realization module, refer to the article Realization.

Stamp

As a result of an Audit or Review task, an automated stamp can be placed on a document based on the outcome.

    

In the properties of this action, one of the document stamps from the space can be selected.
Document stamps can be added by the administrator from the Account Settings page.

Notification

A notification action sends a BIMcollab Twin notification to selected recipients.



In the notification action properties, the notification information can contain:

1. Subject: the subject of the message, also the subject of the email sent.
2. Receivers: the users receiving the notification.
3. Message: a textual explanation.

Notifications can be scheduled to be sent at any point in the workflow. If you as a user are a recipient, this notification is sent by e-mail but it will also be visible in your personal dashboard within the communication module.

Activating and Deactivating Workflows

All workflows can be activated or deactivated directly from a workflow's overview page. Once activated, the icon will turn green "".


If needed, it's also possible to deactivate all workflows at the same time by clicking on the "Deactivate all workflows" button on the workflows overview page.



Editing Workflows

It is possible to edit the details of a workflow at a later stage:
  1. Information can be edited at any time regardless if the workflow is active or not.
  2. Conditions can be edited at any time regardless if the workflow is active or not.
  3. Steps can only be edited if the workflow is deactivated. 


To view  more information on each of the workflow steps, you can click on the name to expand or collapse each action. For example, you can see who is responsible for a task or who are the recipients of a notification etc.


How users can view workflows

Users can view workflows that are active in their project in one of two ways:
  1. The Documents Module where they can select a document number, and then navigate to the Workflows page to see which workflows it has triggered. The Events page also allows users to view all previous actions that have occurred to a document as a result of passing through a workflow.
  2. The Workflows Module (with the user role permission enabled) which shows all the active workflows in the project.
            


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