The Work Flow Manager

As of V5R4, the Work Flow Manager lets you define units of work that consist of automated or manual steps. These units of work can then be scheduled or run interactively. The Work Flow Manager is located in the Advanced Job Scheduler container in the iSeries™ Navigator interface.

Each step within the work flow can have one or more predecessor Advanced Job Scheduler jobs and one or more successor Advanced Job Scheduler jobs. When a work flow starts, the first step is flagged to run. When it completes, the next step is flagged to run, and so on.

The following are some additional considerations when using the Work Flow Manager:

You can manually start a work flow at any step. When you do so, you bypass all previous steps in the work flow.
Automatic steps complete after all prior steps have completed. This includes all predecessor Advanced Job Scheduler jobs.
After a step completes, the successor Advanced Job Scheduler jobs are flagged to run.
Manual steps can complete in any sequence as long as the step's predecessor jobs have finished.
You can mark completed manual steps as not complete and run them again as long as there are no subsequent incomplete automatic steps.
You can cause a step to wait until the job completes before notifying of the step's completion by specifying predecessor jobs that are the same as the successor jobs of the previous step.
You can notify other users when a particular step starts, stops, did not start by a specific time, or is taking too long. For example you can notify a user who is responsible for a particular manual step that the previous automated steps have completed.

When you use work flows, the activity log displays when the work flow started, the steps that were run, the status of automated steps (success or fail), when the work flow ended, and the final status of the work flow.

Table 1. Work Flow Example
Work Flow	PAYROLL
Scheduled	Every Friday at 1:00 p.m.
Notification	Clerk - Payroll work flow has started
Step 1	Automatic - Specifies a successor job to initialize payroll files
Step 2	Automatic: Specifies the successor job from step 1 as a predecessor job for this step Notifies Clerk that timecards can be entered
Step 3	Manual: Clerk completes after timecards are entered Specifies a successor job to process timecard files and print timecard report Notifies Supervisor if step is not completed within 120 minutes
Step 4	Automatic: Specifies successor job from previous step as a predecessor job No Successor jobs Notifies Clerk to check timecard report
Step 5	Manual: Clerk will complete after checking reports Specifies a successor job to process payroll
Step 6	Automatic: Specifies the successor job from previous step as a predecessor job No Successor jobs Notifies Clerk and Supervisor that payroll has completed

In this example the work flow PAYROLL starts every Friday at 1:00 p.m. A notification is sent to the Clerk that the work flow has started.

Because Step 1 is automatic and does not have any predecessor jobs, it flags the successor job that initializes the payroll files to run and then complete. Step 2 has the successor job for Step 1 as its predecessor. Step 2 waits for the job that initializes the payroll files to complete. After it has completed, Step 2 notifies the Clerk that he can enter timecards. There are no successor jobs to flag to run.

The Clerk manually completes Step 3 after all of the timecards are entered. The successor job that processes the timecard file and prints a timecard report is flagged to run. As a precaution, the Supervisor is notified if the step is not completed within 120 minutes. Because the predecessor job for Step 4 is the successor for Step 3, Step 4 waits until the job that processes the timecard file and prints a timecard report has completed.

After the job completes the Clerk is notified that the timecard report can be checked. There are no successor jobs to flag to run. After the timecard report is checked, the Clerk manually completes Step 5. The successor job that processes the payroll and produces the checks is flagged to run.

Because the predecessor job for Step 6 is the successor for Step 5, Step 6 waits until the job that processes the payroll and produces the checks has completed. After the job completes, it notifies the Clerk and Supervisor that Payroll has completed. The checks can now be printed and distributed.

For more detailed information about the Work Flow Manager see the online help.