Chapter 2. Your first workflow

Workflows that track features for in-development software are highly desired. Clients often have software requirements written in a SharePoint-hosted document. A workflow is helpful in this scenario because it tracks the progress of the requirements document from start to finish. Additionally, the workflow enforces the final approval of that document before it’s given to the team. An example demonstrated in this chapter facilitates the development of this requirements document by automatically assigning tasks, tracking versions, and centralizing the document management. We accomplish this using one of the out-of-the-box workflows called the Three-state workflow.

This chapter will take you through the planning process for developing your first workflow and preparing a document library for a workflow in SharePoint. After we lay the foundation, we’ll walk through the steps for implementing and then maintaining the Three-state workflow. This establishes the foundation that other chapters will build on. We will demonstrate much of the basic nomenclature and many of the SharePoint workflow concepts. The Three-state workflow used in the requirements document example will serve as an excellent starting point for a developer new to workflows.

2.1. Planning and preparing for your workflow

2.2. Implementing a workflow

2.3. Maintaining workflow instances

2.4. Additional out-of-the-box workflows

2.5. Summary