Workflow Sample: Episode 589: Designation in Uneven Hierarchy, part 3

Regarding designation within an organization in which its hierarchy is uneven, we studied "method of absolute specification by job title" in Part 1, and "method of relative designation according to organization hierarchy" in Part 2.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and approver/decision-makers are needed to be careful during operation. After all, in the case of "an organization with unevenness in depth", it is difficult to simply describe business rules.

The easy-to-use and easy-to-operate Workflow (setting method) will also vary depending on the size of the organization or proficiency to business rules/system of the organization members, and so on. Although we will introduce two more Workflows this time, please consider and choose "which description method is easy to operate without misunderstanding" according to the actual situation of each company including those introduced in the past articles.

One way is to separate the Workflows according to the requester.
In other words, if the approval route differs depending on the job title of who made a request, it may be good to separate into different Workflows.

[Approval flow (Separate the request of the Manager)]

In [Approval flow (absolute representation 2)] or [Approval flow (relative representation)], the settings are a little complicated for needing Splitting so that flows of different hierarchy to be realized in one Workflow.

Even though there are more objects to manage, there is the merit that you can design each Workflow simple by separating the workflow.

[Approval flow (Designate Approver/Decision-maker)]

Another way is to designate the approver and the decision-maker at the time of making a request.
It is a simple method that is easy-to-understand and capable of responding to any cases since the person to handle is to be directly designated. If "Approver" is not designated, "2. Approval" process will be skipped automatically.

Meanwhile, since the designation of the person in charge is entrusted to the requester him/herself, it must be noted the possibilities that the case does not go to the "approver" or to the "decision-maker" as expected, for reasons such as the requester may not know the business rule well or if he/she may designate incorrectly.

[Approval flow (Designate Approver/Decision-maker):"1. Request for approval" screen]