Workflows configuration

Only Admin users can configure Workflows, and only in Dataedo Portal.

For your convenience, Dataedo offers a default Workflow, but you can set up additional, custom Workflows for all manual objects (terms, domains, data products, and lookups) based on your organization's needs. You can manage and edit existing Workflows from Settings > Catalog Settings by choosing the Workflows tab.

Default configuration

The default Workflow consists of seven predefined statuses with default settings determining who is allowed to set a certain status, view objects with a given status, and so on.

All of these parameters are customizable and can be adjusted according to your organization's needs.

The statuses are displayed in an order that you can change by dragging and dropping a selected status. Their order should mimic your organization's desired Workflow.

Default statuses

The seven predefined statuses and their purposes are:

• Idea — status meant for objects that are not yet established. It is the first, conceptual stage of your Workflow. Once the work on operationalizing this object starts, you can move it to the next status.
• In definition — status denoting "work in progress". It is meant for objects that are being worked on, before the results can be presented for authorization.
• For review — status for objects awaiting review and approval from the relevant Assignee. After review, an object should be set to either Ready to publish, Rejected, or sent back to In definition, depending on the outcome.
• Ready to publish — status for approved objects that are yet to be released. Helpful if your Workflow involves scheduling or batch releases of objects.
• Published — status for objects that have been published. By default, this is the only status that makes objects visible to Viewers.
• Rejected — status for objects that the reviewers have not accepted and deemed non-compliant.
• Obsolete — status for objects that are no longer in use or relevant. Applying this status to your object will make it invisible to Viewers, but the object will remain in your system for archival purposes.

Workflow configuration and managing parameters

You can freely add new Workflows or edit existing ones. To add a new Workflow, use the Add workflow [A] button. To edit an existing one, click the edit icon [B] next to its name.

Each Workflow consists of a set of statuses. You can freely add or remove them to mirror your organization's work process. When you add a status with Add status [A] or edit one with the edit icon [B], a configuration menu will appear. Each status, be it default or custom-defined, has seven parameters to edit. Their roles are explored in more detail below.

Name & description

These two parameters are purely descriptive and help you establish clear roles for each status within your Workflow. Name should be a unique identifier of the status, and Description should contain its purpose.

Visible for non-editors

This parameter defines whether an object in a given status is visible to users without Edit permissions. A practical implementation of this parameter involves drafting — objects that are still a work in progress will not be visible to Viewers until they are finished and moved to a status with Visible for non-editors enabled.

caution

Usually, each object's visibility is based on its own Workflow status. There is, however, an exception for Domains. If a Domain's status indicates it is not visible to Viewers, all its nested areas will be hidden as well.

Who can set this status?

This parameter lets you restrict the ability to set a certain status to a select group of users. You can define restrictions by role, user group, or a Custom Field of the User type, which you can assign to a selected person. For example, you can allow only certain authorized persons to publish Terms.

Multiple rules can be defined. Users who match at least one of these rules will all be able to set this specific status.

Users who do not match these rules will not be able to set a given status. They will see the status name grayed out, with a tooltip indicating a lack of permissions.

Assignee

An Assignee is a user (or a group of users) responsible for moving the object's status further. The Assignee of a status does not necessarily have to be the user setting the status. Users marked as assignees will also see objects in a given status assigned to them in the Steward Hub. They will be notified about an object they should take care of (perform an action and move it to the correct status).

Note that in our default configuration, some statuses have Unassigned in the Assignee column. This means that no further action is required after the object is Published or Rejected.

CTA text in Steward Hub

This parameter defines the text visible in the navigation tree of the Steward Hub. Ideally, it describes the action that should be taken with an object in a given status. For example, when an object is in the Ready to publish status, our default CTA says Approve, and for objects in For review, the action is Review.

Color

This parameter affects the color of a dot displayed next to a given status in the Steward Hub. We recommend that the colors follow a color legend denoting the "position" of a given status within the Workflow.

Adding and removing statuses

You can add new statuses to your existing Workflows at any time. To do so, use the Add status [A] button. This will open a status configuration menu. By default, new statuses are added at the end of the status list.

You can also remove statuses using the trash can icon [B].

Some objects may still be in a status that is about to be deleted from your Workflow. To prevent any errors, you will be asked to select a new status for those objects.

Workflows per object type

You might want to have separate Workflows defined for different object types. You can do that in the Workflow for object types section of Workflows settings.

When you hover over an object type, an edit icon will appear. Click it to change the Workflow assigned to that object.

You will see a drop-down list where you can select from the Workflows configured in your repository. The change is saved automatically.

Before the change can be applied, you will have to map old statuses to those in your new Workflow. Dataedo will convert all objects of that type to the new statuses automatically.

Approver role

Dataedo offers the Approver role. This role lets larger organizations enable two-step approvals based on the user role. For example, you could configure a Workflow so that only users with the Approver role are allowed to publish objects, making them visible to all Viewers in the application.