The term workflow refers to the set of states through which objects may transition and the set of transitions themselves. The OpenEngagement DMS uses one workflow, though it may be viewed as two workflows, since two states, Review and Reviewed, do not apply where no Reviewer is assigned. The KMS does not use workflow, nor do items placed in the root of the CMS.

Areas and Sections have no states and therefore no transitions. Entities may be either in the Active or Inactive state. Documents may be in the Active, Review, Reviewed, Completed or Archived states.

The purpose of a workflow is primarily to enhance the security system, though workflow also provides some informational value. For example, users can view the Engagements for a given Area, Entity or Section and see what state each is in.

Generally, the security model allows us to define what users (based on their roles) may perform what actions on what types of objects. Workflow allows us to enhance this, so we may define what users (based on their roles) may perform what actions on what types of objects while in what states. For example, the OpenEngagement DMS specifies that Preparers may edit Documents while they are in the Active or Review state, but not while in the Reviewed, Completed or Archived states.

The Active and Inactive states associated with Entities are purely for informational value and do not affect the set of actions which may be performed by any users. The documents are the items where the DMS workflow is most noteworthy.

Where one or more reviewers is assigned to a document, the workflow consists of the following states:

• Active
• Review
• Reviewed
• Completed
• Archived

Where no reviewers are assigned, the workflow consists of the following states:

• Active
• Completed
• Archived

 

The Entity workflow is part of the OpenEngagement workflow, applying only to Entity objects.  The workflow is very simple, having only two states: Active and Inactive. The states are for information only; they do not affect the permissions for Entities. Future versions of the OpenEngagement DMS will have additional states for Entities, representing proposed, private and rejected Entities.

The Document workflow applies to all Document types: Engagements, Files, Pages, Images, and Links. This workflow has the states: Active, Review, Reviewed, Completed and Archived. Generally, Documents will go through the five states in that order, but other orders are also possible.

Documents are initially in the Active state. If Reviewers are assigned, one of the Preparers or Engagement Managers may then transition the Document to the Review state. If no Reviewers are assigned, the Review and Reviewed states do not apply. In this case, an Engagement Manager would move the Document at some point to the Completed state. It is also possible, even when Reviewers are assigned, for an Engagement Manager to move the Document directly to the Completed state, if they feel it is appropriate.

From any given state, other than archived, it is possible to retract a Document back to Active. For example, if a Preparer transitions a Document from Active to Review, that Preparer, or another user with sufficient permissions, may later determine the document is not, in fact, ready for review, and may move the Document back to the Active state. See the Detailed Security section for specific information. Once Documents enter the archived state, they can not be transitioned out of this state.

Documents, as well, cannot be transitioned from one state to another when they are set as read-only.

The Active state is the initial state for Documents. It indicates that the Preparers are preparing the Document, but the DMS-level review is not yet ready to begin. While an Engagement is in the Active state at the DMS level, it may proceed through a number of stages at the Working Papers level, such as Initializing, Planning and Performing. These are not currently tracked by the OpenEngagement DMS, but will be in future releases.

The Review state indicates that the Reviewers may begin reviewing the Document, though the Preparers have not necessarily finished their work. It may be the case that firms wish to have the Reviewers perform their DMS-level reviews in a specific order. There is no mechanism in the DMS to enforce this, but the DMS does facilitate this, through email notifications, and through listing, for each Document, which Reviewers have and have not completed their reviews.

The Reviewed state indicates the work of the Preparers and Reviewers is done. In the case of Documents other than Engagements, this state is not likely useful, and the Engagement Managers may wish to move it immediately to Completed. However, when Documents enter the Completed state, they enter a countdown before moving to Archived, at which point they become un-editable. For this reason, firms may wish to keep their Pages, Files, Images and Links in the Reviewed state once they have completed review.

With Engagements, once they enter the Reviewed state, they may still need to be finalized. This includes removing unnecessary content and other tasks performed by an Engagement Manager.

When an Engagement is in the Reviewed state, the Engagement Managers will check the Engagement, and if everything is okay, will move it to the Completed state.

This state indicates there is no known work left to perform with the Document, but it is not yet Archived. The OpenEngagement configuration defines the number of days after a Document enters the Completed state before it is automatically transitioned to the Archived state. While in the Completed state, users can still sign-out and edit the Documents, but can not once the Document is Archived. Engagement Managers will receive email notification prior to the Document entering the Archived state, so they may perform any necessary tasks before then, if there are any. It is also possible for Engagement Managers to manually transition Documents to the Archived state if they wish.

When Documents are signed-out or set read-only, the OpenEngagement DMS cannot automatically transition them to Archived. In this case the Engagement Managers will be sent an email notification alerting them to this situation.  The Document cannot be moved to Archived in this case because if the item is a File, Image or Engagement, the person with it signed out will not be able to then sign the new enclosed file back into it if it is moved to Archived.

Archived is the final state of Documents. In this state, the Document content and any enclosed files cannot be modified, though may still be viewed. Users with sufficient permissions may still perform some tasks such as modifying the keywords, as this affects only the searching functionality within the DMS, and does not affect the Document itself.

The OpenEngagement DMS supports multiple reviews, and the reviews may be simultaneous, or partially simultaneous. That is, multiple reviewers can view the engagement at the same time. We may, for example, have a sequence such as the following, where there are two reviewers: one Reviewer signs-out the Engagement, reviews part of it, creating a review list within the client file as they review. This Reviewer gets part way through the Engagement and signs it in. The other Reviewer signs out the Engagement, creates a review list within the client file, signs it in, and marks it as approved. The first reviewer then signs it out again, finishes it, and marks it as Approved. We then have all Reviewers completed their reviews, and the Engagement will automatically move to the Reviewed state.

Each Reviewer may simply review the Engagement at a very high level, or may review it very closely, and may create a list of review items in the client file. These items may be done by the Preparer, or they may be waived. Each Reviewer will only review an Engagement once, unless it is retracted, and each Reviewer will indicate that they have finished their review when they finish it. For example, if one reviewer adds a number of items to the review list and the Preparer completes these tasks, this does not cause other Reviewers to review the Engagement again.

The OpenEngagement DMS has a number of email notifications, used to notify various users of the progress of Documents within the DMS. Since these are often sent to the users with specific roles, most often to Reviewers and Engagement Managers, firms may wish to assign some users these roles in order to benefit from the email notification system. This is not necessary though.

The following email notifications are sent:

When a Document is created or is put into the Active state, each Preparer is notified.

When a Document enters the Review state, each Reviewer is notified.

As Reviewers approve a Document, each remaining Reviewer is notified.

When the final review is completed, and the Document moves to the Reviewed state, each Engagement Manager is notified.

When Documents in the Completed state approach the date of their automatic transition to Archived, each Engagement Manager is notified.

An email is also sent if an item cannot be automatically archived due to it being signed-out or set read-only. When this happens all Engagement Managers, as well as the person who has it signed out are sent an email.