A workflow is a series of predetermined steps that Data Governance and Catalog follows when you attempt to create or modify an asset. A workflow ensures that the right people have the opportunity to provide inputs, challenge, and approve matters related to the asset that is created or modified.
The steps in a workflow ensure that assets are created or modified according to the data governance principles of your organization. Only users with the right access can create or modify assets. The organization administrator defines the workflow that is used to create or modify assets of a particular type. At each step in the workflow, Data Governance and Catalog notifies the stakeholders that they must make a decision about the asset. If the workflow requires the role of approvers at various stages of the lifecycle, the approvers must approve the asset so that the workflow can move to the next stage.
Example
Your organization requires that any new finance policy document must go through the following workflow:
1Only the Payroll Manager can create a policy document. When the Payroll Manager creates a Policy asset, the asset moves to the Finance Director for approval. The Lifecycle status is Draft.
2The Finance Director must go through the document and choose to approve or reject it.
aIf the Finance Director approves the document, the document is published as a new Policy asset in Data Governance and Catalog. The Lifecycle status changes to Published.
bIf the Finance Director rejects the policy document, it goes to the Accounting Manager. The Lifecycle status changes to In Progress.
3The Accounting Manager can take a second look at the document and choose to approve or reject it.
aIf the Account Manager approves the document, it goes again to the Finance Director for further approval. The Lifecycle status remains at In Progress. The Finance Director can again choose to approve or reject the document. The workflow moves to step 2.
bIf the Accounting Manager rejects the document, it goes back to the Payroll Manager. The Lifecycle status changes to Deleted. The Payroll Manager can reconsider the document and sent it to the Finance Director again. The workflow moves to step 1.
This workflow can be represented by the following diagram:
Workflow status
A workflow can be in one of the following statuses:
Draft
If you create or modify an asset, the Lifecycle value changes to Draft. You can create a ticket by assigning stakeholders to the asset and publish your changes to start the ticket workflow process.
In Review
If the change request is in progress, the Lifecycle value of the asset changes to In Review. Now the asset moves through the stakeholders that are defined in the workflow.
If the Lifecycle value of the asset is in the In Review status, other stakeholders cannot participate in the ticket workflow until the Lifecycle of the asset is in Approved or Rejected status. If several users attempt to modify an asset, the system creates several tickets for the same asset. If an approval ticket is already created and is in open state, you cannot create any ticket on that asset.
Published
The Lifecycle value of the asset changes to Published, if the workflow approval request is complete. This indicates that the asset has moved through all the stakeholders and reached the end of the workflow.
Note: If you are not the stakeholder of an asset, you can still view the asset in the Draft, In Review and Published versions.
