In Stellic, a workflow is a paperless approval process. See “What are Workflows?” for a high level overview of Stellic workflows. In this article, we will discuss how to create a workflow, which is listed as step 2 in the steps of a workflow.
Users with the ability to create a workflow are determined by the institution's Stellic admin(s). Only users with the create workflow permission will be able to create a workflow. The permission to create workflows is currently institution-wide, so we recommend clarifying institutional preferences and best practices when granting this permission to an admin user at your institution.
1. To begin, select the "Requests" tab from the menu at the top of the screen or the left sidebar, and select the "Create New Workflow" button:
2. A pop-up box will appear that prompts you to name your workflow and to select the category. A category will help to keep all of your workflows organized, and assist with filtering. Currently, institutions are limited to 3 categories of workflows, but can create as many workflows within a category as necessary. If this is your first workflow ever, or if the category type that you want isn't listed, you can create a new category by selecting the "+ create new category" option.
If you would like to use an existing workflow as a base for your new workflow, you can select that workflow in the "Copy Workflow From" field. You'll be able to edit all of the fields once the workflow is created.
3. Once these options have been selected, it is time to start editing your workflow! By default, a new workflow is inactive when it is created, meaning that it is not visible to anyone without workflow editing permission until it is published.
4. Enter a description for your workflow. This description is visible to anyone who can see the request process at any stage of the request and approval process.
5. Select the criteria of students who are eligible to participate in the workflow. Students who do not meet the criteria won't be able to see or be entered into the workflow process. Currently, workflows are only available for processes that involve students. Additionally, the creator of the workflow will only be able to add students for whom that creator has permission to view within Stellic. For example, if an advisor is only able to see their own advisees in Stellic and the advisor has the ability to create a workflow, the advisor will only be able to add their own advisees to a workflow.
In the example below, we have selected that any sophomore or junior students who are in the Chemistry BS program are eligible for this workflow process.
6. Decide on the process for who can initiate the request for the workflow, and what fields are needed in order to submit the request. Until a request has been initiated, the student will not be entered into the workflow, meaning that there will be no request to approve or review anything. The creator determines who is able to initiate the request. The options available for request initiators are:
- the student's primary advisor (if available — not every institution identifies a primary advisor)
- the student
- anyone with the permission to edit the student's plan within Stellic
- a specific user(s)
Additionally, you will need to specify what information is available to and/or required by the initiator. You can include none, some, or all of these options. Each option is able to be configured, and you can decide whether the field is optional or mandatory.
- Checkbox: In order to initiate the request, the person initiating will need to check the box before proceeding. For example, perhaps you want the student to acknowledge that they have read the rules associated with requesting a degree review or state that they have done an initial review of their requirements before submitting this request. The title and content of the checkbox are editable, and you can make the checkbox mandatory or optional for the person initiating the request.
- Auto-upload progress snapshot: When added, this will automatically attach a PDF of the student's academic audit. This field can't be edited or made optional—it is an automatic action when included.
- File Upload: This field allows the initiator to upload a file with the request. The title and content of the file upload field's title and descriptive text are editable, and you can make the file upload mandatory or optional for the person initiating the request.
- Custom Text Field: This field allows the initiator to add a free-flow text field to the request. The title and content of the file upload field's title and descriptive text are editable, and you can make the text field mandatory or optional for the person initiating the request.
A view of the fields available is below:
7. Once you have decided who is able to initiate a request and have determined the information needed by the initiator, you will decide what steps are involved for the request to be approved. A workflow must have at least one approval step in order to be published. Workflows are also able to have multiple approvers.
The same options listed above for information available to initiate the request (checkbox, auto progress upload, file upload, and text field) are also available for information needed to approve steps. You can include none, some, or all of these options for anyone involved in the approval process. All of the people involved in the approval steps will be able to submit these options. Additionally, some of these fields are able to be hidden from students when they review the request.
In the example below, each approver must:
- Select a checkbox acknowledgement. This is a required step, and will be visible to students when they review the request.
- A PDF file of the student's audit will also be included in the approval step. This is automatic and does not require any additional action by the approver.
- Optionally upload a file. This is not visible to students in this particular example.
Each approver listed in each step will see the options included above. Now you must list the approvers for the request in the workflow. You can edit the name of each step. You must decide who can complete the step, whether it's someone with a particular relationship within Stellic to the student, or a specific user. (Note: Only Stellic users are able to be added to and engage in workflows). Currently, the only relationship available for workflows is a student's primary advisor, but other types of Stellic relationships will be added in the future. (Not all institutions indicate a primary advisor in the data sent to Stellic.)
8. Finally, decide whether or not you want the workflow to enforce the order of the approval steps, using the checkbox at the bottom of the workflow that says "Enforce order of steps".
When selected, “Enforce order of steps” means that the workflow must proceed in a sequential fashion, where the first approver on the list (in the example above, the student's primary advisor) must approve the request before it moves on to the next person. If the first person denies the request, the next person in the workflow will not receive a notification to review the request.
When the “Enforce order of steps” checkmark is not checked, the request will be sent to all reviewers simultaneously and the workflow will not respect any order of steps.
Publishing a Workflow
Once you are satisfied with all of your workflow steps, you need to Publish the workflow to make it visible to anyone eligible to initiate the request! Please ensure that you are ready to publish the workflow before clicking the button—once at least one request has been submitted to a workflow, you are no longer able to make edits to that workflow.
To publish a workflow, click on the blue "Publish" button at the top of the workflow page. Students who are eligible to start a request for the workflow will receive a notification that the workflow is available for requests. And that's it! Your workflow is now ready to receive requests!
For information on how to add students into the workflow, please visit our article on Initiating Requests.