"Connecting Workflows" is one of the real thrill(??) of high-performance workflow product. It enables to pass business data from 'Process of Sales Department' to 'Process of Manufacturing Department' without any leakage of data. (If you are a Cloud Worker of Google Apps,etc.,Cloud-based Workflow would suit you for handling business information.)
See Workflow Start Another Workflow Automatically during Processing
However... It sure is easy to connect when that is clear about upstream process or downstream process such as 'Sales flow' and 'Manufacture flow, but in cases that continue to connect each other, difficulty goes up straight away.
In terms of Software Engineering, they are "Waterfall model" against "Spiral models". Moreover, for example, in such as "Advisory Contract" or "Maintenance Service", the cycle of "Service delivery" and the cycle of "Continuous orders" will circulate in parallel. That is, the Sales sector is moving toward the next orders, concurrently the Service sector is processing their service delivery. (Double Spiral?)
For such case, we would like to introduce to you how to make 'Parent process cycle' as "Orders Process" ,and 'Child process cycle' as "Service Delivery process".
[Circulating Orders Flow]
When you deal with a new orders, it proceeds 1,2,3,4,5,6. In the middle of the way, it launches "Service Delivery Process" at the completion of Task 2, and further, launches "Orders Process" recursively at the completion of Task 5. That means by the time when the bill would be delivered, a sales personnel will be allocated new task of "1a. Report Continuous Orders".
Specifically, "Advisory Contract process of March 2012" launches "Service Delivery process of March 2012" and "Advisory Contract process of April 2012".
[Circulating Orders Flow [2. Report Continuous Orders] screen]
[Message Throwing Intermediate Event (Email) setting screen]
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