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PRESENTED BY
Why Workflow?
April 2014
Christoph Vollmer
Introduction
What is a Workflow?
Why Workflow?
Our Journey
Summary and Questions
Agenda
Who is PayGlobal?
• Market-leading provider of payroll and HR solutions
in Australia and NZ
• Paying over 500,000 staff, 520+ clients, 850+ sites
• Over 20 years experience in workforce management
solutions
• 120+ staff - Christchurch, Auckland, Sydney,
Melbourne and Perth
• Microsoft Gold Partner
Who is PayGlobal?
What is a Workflow?• Movement of work items through a sequence of
actions or tasks
• People– Initiate process– Action something– Resolve exceptions
• Software– Workflow framework, several different
frameworks available for different platforms
Why a Workflow framework?• Business Process Automation via business logic
declared in flexible Workflows
• Less logic hardcoded
• Less technical users can:– Inspect logic– Make changes– Visualize and Track
• Persisting and resuming workflows
MS Workflow
Why Workflow framework / product?
• Enforce business processes consistently
• Streamline cost and time
• Approvals, notifications
• Monitor and track status of workflows
Example
Law firm– Information-intensive– Document-driven– All workflows similar but different for each
law firm / attorney
What is MS Workflow
Windows Workflow FoundationFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
“Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a Microsoft technology that provides an API, an in-process workflow engine, and a rehostable designer to implement long-running processes as workflows within .NET applications.”
Too complex for a short presentation.
Our Workflow Journey
2003• Original Self Service website
2009• Prototyping on WF4 Beta
2010• Built Workflow Engine and first modules
2011• Exolvo launched on Workflow
2012
• New Workflow Modules• Microsoft Workflow TAP
2013
• Notification Flows
Why Workflow at PayGlobal?
• Needed greater configurability in the product
• Customer business processes varied a lot
• Good fit for processes in industry vertical (HRIS)
• Long running business processes
• Generic codebase
• Best practice templates
How we use it
• Employee Self Service– Hazards / Incidents– Leave Requests– Timesheets– Allowances– etc.
• Conditional workflows
• Time sensitive
• Stop processing of workflow until a date is reached
• Example: Send reminder email after three days of
no action
PayGlobal specific types of Workflow
• Form Flow– HTML UI– Not persisted to database
• Process Flow– Background– Persisted to database
• Notification Flow– Background– Not persisted
MS Workflow only knows about “Workflow”!
Form Flow
Process Flow
Notification Flow
PayGlobal Workflow Engine
• Executes business processes
• Schedules, executes, persists
• Manages data (arguments and variables)
• Interprets events e.g. due dates expiring
• Maintains state of long running processes
PayGlobal Workflow Designer
• Used by consultants to configure workflows
• Stores history of all changes
PayGlobal Workflow Designer
PayGlobal Workflow Designer
PayGlobal Workflow Designer
Form Flow (HTML UI via Workflow)
Custom Activity Library• Domain Specific Language (DSL)
• Ecosystem around MS workflow platform
• Reusable custom activities
• Consultants operate in Core Domain
Challenges
• Versioning – Improvements with .NET WF 4.5
• WF API Complexity – polling for expired workflows
• Steep learning curve - Developers and Consultants
• Unit Testing Activities – Use thin facades instead
The Tech Stack
• ESS .NET 4.5Web FormsCustom MVC (xml config)
• Workflow Engine.NET 4.5 (WF + WCF) +
Ninject, Automapper, nHibernate etc.
• Workflow Designer.NET 4.5, WPF
• SQL Server
Summary
• Long running business processes that need to configurable
• Non-developers can make changes
• Great flexibility (Form Flow)
• Core domain building blocks = powerful, expressive
• Look out for up-to-date documentation (.NET 4.5!)
Questions
References
PayGlobal TAP Case studyhttp://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=710000001560
PayGlobal Exolvowww.payglobal.com/exolvo
Visual design of workflowstinyurl.com/6behpp7
Rehosting The Workflow Designerhttps://tinyurl.com/7495qpu
What’s new in Windows Workflow Foundation 4.5https://tinyurl.com/ne9vhbp
[email protected]@payglobal.com www.payglobal.com