Monitoring live workflows

Live workflows is the list of everything currently running: reviews, one-to-ones, 360 rounds, course requests, publish checks, post-course sign-offs and course surveys. It answers the question nobody can answer from the individual screens — what is in flight, and what has stopped moving.

Where it is

Choose Admin, then Process in the left-hand menu and Live workflows.

What a row tells you

Each row is one running process: when it Started, its Status, how long it has been Waiting, the Record it is about, its Type and the Workflow it is running. Point at the waiting time to see who it is waiting on, and open the row for the current step and the full timeline.

Waiting is the column to sort by. A process waiting ten days on a named person is the thing this screen exists to surface, and it is invisible from anywhere else.

The four states

State	What it means
In progress	Moving normally, waiting on a person
Stalled	Stopped for a reason that is not a person
Returned	Sent back to whoever raised it
Waiting on linked workflow	Held until another process it started finishes

Stalled is the one that needs you. In progress means the workflow is doing its job and somebody owes it an answer; an escalation ladder will chase them. Stalled means the process itself could not continue — an automated action failed rather than a person being slow.

So read the two differently. A long wait on In progress is a people problem, and the answer is a reminder or an escalation policy. Any age of Stalled is a system problem, and no amount of chasing will move it.

A stalled process can be retried, which puts it back to the engine to attempt the failed step again.

Waiting on linked workflow is not stuck either. It is a process that started another one and is properly holding until that finishes — chase the workflow it started, not this one.

Workflows started by another workflow

A workflow can start another one with a Start another workflow step — a performance review that starts an improvement plan, or a post-course process that sends a course survey. Each started workflow is its own row in the list, marked Part of the workflow that started it. Choose the Part of link to open the workflow that started it.

To see only the workflows that were launched directly, choose Top-level only under Show in the filters.

A step the process passed over because it did not apply shows as Skipped in the timeline, not as completed. For example, a post-course process skips the learner attestation on a course that only asks for a sign-off.

Open a workflow and its timeline shows every workflow it started as a single row among its steps, placed where it started: the name, which step it is on out of how many, who it is waiting on and for how long. The row is tagged Holds this when the parent is waiting for it to finish, or Runs independently when the parent can finish without it.

• Choose the arrow on the row to see the started workflow’s own steps underneath it.
• Choose Open to look at a started workflow on its own. A workflow started from inside that one also has Open, and the panel shows a trail such as Q3 review › Improvement plan › Capability hearing. Choose Back, or any name in the trail, to return.

Screenshot missinglive-workflow-started-workflows

The Live workflows timeline panel for a performance review that has started two workflows. One started workflow row is expanded to show its own steps and is tagged "Holds this"; the other is collapsed and tagged "Runs independently". Each row shows "Step n of m", who it is waiting on and for how long, with the Open button visible.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/monitor-live-workflows/live-workflow-started-workflows.png

A parent that has finished shows as Complete even while a workflow it started independently is still running.

Reassigning a step to somebody else

When the person a step is waiting on cannot act — they are away, or have left — hand the step to somebody else. You need the Override form responses permission.

1. Open the workflow from the list.
2. On the step that is waiting, choose Reassign.
3. In Hand it to, choose the person who takes the step over.
4. If several people are still to act on the step, such as a sign-off offered to every qualified signatory at a site, Whose place lists each of them. Choose the person you are replacing, and the others keep their place. Leave it on Everyone still to act, the default, to hand over every place. When only one person is still to act, Whose place is not shown, because that person is the one replaced.
5. Enter a Reason. It is required, and it is kept with the record.
6. Choose Reassign.

Screenshot missingreassign-workflow-step

The Reassign step dialog opened from a live sign-off step, with a person chosen in "Hand it to", a person chosen in "Whose place", and a reason entered.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/monitor-live-workflows/reassign-workflow-step.png

Narrowing the list

Filters cover the type of process and the launch source, including whether it came from a record-date launch. Type is the useful one day to day; launch source answers “did my rule actually fire?” without opening the rule.

Using it as a routine

Sort by waiting, weekly. The top of that list is your entire problem set, and it takes a minute.

Look at Stalled first, whatever its age. It will not clear itself and nobody else is looking at this screen.

Check the launch-source filter after setting up a rule. A new launch rule that is working shows rows here; one that is not shows nothing, and this is the fastest way to tell the difference.

What this screen does not do

It shows what is running, not what has finished. A process that completed or was cancelled leaves the list, so this is a monitoring screen rather than a record — the individual review, one-to-one or round keeps its own history.