This section discusses important details on Parent/Child workflow steps.
If a workflow has children and the parent’s current step is a reject action to cancel or suspend, PM Compass also cancels or suspends the children. The children do not have a history record about being rejected, but PM Compass saves a history record for each of them about being cancelled or suspended as a result of the parent’s rejection and subsequent cancellation or suspension. The system saves the parents history record about it being rejected and then a second history record about it being cancelled or suspended.
For more information, see Child Workflow Overview.
If you select one or more workflows and select the Resume option, PM Compass determines whether it can resume these workflows. It does not resume the workflows that are not suspended or that are children of parents whose workflow you did not select to resume. In this case, the system processes the workflows that it can, prompts for any comment if it resumes the workflow steps of an assignment, and displays a message.
Since PM Compass suspends all of a parent’s children when it suspends the parent, provided the child is not cancelled or closed, selecting to resume the workflow of a child does not move the child out of the suspended stage unless you resume the workflow steps of the parent at the same time or resume the parent's workflow steps first.
The Resume option is not available if the suspended child that PM Compass currently displays has a parent that is still suspended.
You cannot resume the workflow steps of the parent without also resuming the workflow steps of the children.
If PM Compass detects that a workflow that you want to cancel has children that are not yet published or closed, the system displays a message that the workflow and its children will all be cancelled. You cannot cancel the parent without also cancelling the children that are not already closed or have a published workflow status. Note, though, that if you select to cancel a child, the system does not prompt you to also cancel the parent.
The basic rule is that the parent can have cancelled children, but a cancelled parent cannot have children that are not cancelled, closed, or published.
PM Compass saves any cancellation comment you enter with the cancelled children.
PM Compass updates the following fields after you cancel the workflow steps. These changes apply both to the parent and any children:
My Action Required, My Due Date, and My Workflow Status fields on the open assignment records for the parent and children. PM Compass updates them to reflect the current settings.
Last Updated by and Last Update fields on the parent and children.
Stage field on the parent and children. PM Compass updates the stage to Closed and assigns a closed date.
If the parent or one of its children is in a suspended stage before the cancellation, PM Compass clears the Suspended flag.
When a workflow step that has the Create Workflow action ends, PM Compass automatically generates a new workflow in the system. It can be of any type and can be created as a child of the current workflow. It can be conditionally created based on whether any workflows of the selected type already exist for the control account.
When PM Compass creates the new workflow, it copies the information located in the standard fields or any custom field in the original/calling workflow to the new workflow. It copies the project, control account, change number, and others to the newly created workflow.
PM Compass sets the Created by field of the new workflow to the user whose action created the new workflow. If the Create Workflow action is in a workflow step, PM Compass sets the user who completed the workflow step as the value for the Created by field in the new workflow. If the workflow is created using a scheduled alert, PM Compass sets the Created by field to the user who created the scheduled alert.
PM Compass starts the workflow steps for the new workflow. It assigns the workflow to the user indicated in the first step and sends notifications. It runs the same process as when you click the Start Workflow button after you manually create a workflow.
An example of when PM Compass performs this action is when a schedule change request has been approved. PM Compass can automatically create an action, instructing the scheduler to modify the schedule. Making the new change request a child of the parent gives the scheduler quick access to the details of the change. PM Compass populates the Assigned to field on the Create Workflow Configuration dialog box with a custom user field that indicates the scheduler on the project. After it creates the new change request, the workflow step on the action starts, notifying the scheduler that an action has been assigned to them.
Another example is to automatically start the Work Authorization after the Baseline Change Request has been approved. The project, control account, and change number are inherited from the Baseline Change Request. The Work Authorization retrieves all of the details necessary for approval from the selected project and control account. You do not have to make it a child of the change request. Since the Work Authorization already has the workflow steps defined, the Assigned to field is left blank in the Create Workflow Configuration dialog box. When PM Compass creates the new Work Authorization, it also starts the workflow steps defined.
When a Create Workflow action is selected, PM Compass inserts a row into the Step Actions grid below the last row and populates it as follows:
The Step Action column is set to: Create Workflow
The Description column is set to: Create Workflow
The Edit Content column is set to Workflow, which is displayed as a hyperlink
The Active column’s check box is selected.
If you no longer want the action to occur, you must delete the row or make it inactive.
No email or dashboard alert is associated with this action, but the workflow type for the workflow that is created can have workflow steps that involve email or dashboard alert actions.
When a workflow is created this way, the system automatically starts its workflow steps.
Selecting the Workflow hyperlink in the Edit Content column displays the Create Workflow Configuration dialog box for editing.
The new workflow created inherits the project, control account, work package, activity, change number, and other standard fields from the current workflow.
If the workflow contains a Cost Detail grid, PM Compass populates the grid when it displays the workflow form.
While PM Compass creates the workflow, it checks whether the workflow category for the workflow type is active. If it is not then the system does not create the workflow.
When the step action creates the new workflow, it starts the workflow steps. This means that the system sends notifications to the user assigned to the first step of the workflow.