Start a topic workflow

Users with permissions can easily start a workflow for a review assignment from a project and assign workflow activities to participants that are included in the review.

Required permissions

To create, view, update, and delete workflows you must either be an Administrator, the project Owner, or have the following permissions:

A Seat Type of Standard. If the user has a Seat Type of ReviewOnly or Support, they cannot be given permissions to start a workflow. Administrators can see a user's seat type in the Security module on the User Management tab. Refer to the topic: Things you do on the User Management tab.
Create, read, update, and delete permissions to the Projects module.
For the Projects module, your user account must be listed under the following Property: can_initiate_assignment.
- If you are an administrator, refer to Allow users to create project assignments and workflows.

Tips and tricks

When you create a review workflow from a project, the project must include at least one user with review coordinator permissions.

Make sure you meet the following requirements when creating a workflow:

The project includes a user with permissions to create a review.
Optionally, when adding participants to a project, you can select the Role of Review Coordinators. This list includes all users in your organization that can create a review.
For more details about adding participants to a project, read Get started with projects.

Keep in mind that after you add a participant to a project and give them tasks to complete, you might not be able to easily remove them. You can't remove a participant from an active project if they are:
- A reviewer, approver, or coordinator of an active Review workflow in that project.
- A reviewer or coordinator of a Topic workflow in that project.
- Given an assignment in that project.
For more details, read Remove participants from a project.

To start a topic workflow:

In Inspire, go to Projects.
To open the project where you want to start a workflow, double click on it.
In the Workflow pane, click Add Workflow .
To create a topic development process, on the Start Workflow screen, select Topic Workflow or another custom topic workflow, and then click Next.
On the Start Workflow (Step 1 of 4) screen:
1. In Workflow Name, enter a title using 50 characters or less.
2. Optionally, you can set a deadline. In Due By, either enter a date or click the Date picker and select a date.
3. Optionally, you can set a time for the deadline. After selecting the date, select the checkbox and then select a time.
4. By default, the Workflow owner is set to your user name (the logged-in user).
5. Optionally, you can enter a Description of the topic workflow or why you are using it.
6. Click Next.
On the Start Workflow (2 of 4) Workgroups and Participants screen:
1. If the user names aren't pre-populated, in Participants, select a participant for each workgroup.
  Keep in mind that you will not be able to remove a participant from a Topic workflow after the workflow has been started. You will have to cancel the entire workflow and start over.
On the Start Workflow (3 of 4) Activities screen:
1. For each Workflow Task, select an Activity.
2. Click Next.
  Note that you can set default Activities for a workflow in the Topic workflow template.
  - If there are no defaults, you must select a Project Activity.
  - If there are defaults, you can choose to leave them and click Next.
  - If there are defaults, you can choose to change them if necessary.
  - For instructions on setting Project Activity defaults, refer to:
    - Update the topic workflow template
    - Manage workflow template activities
On the Start Workflow (Step 4 of 4) Initial Task screen:
1. In Develop Topic(s), select a participant for the first workflow task.
2. Optionally, to add the due date for the first task, use the Due By calendar to choose a date.
3. Optionally, to add components, click Add Components, select the folder, and then the component. When you've added the ones you need, click Select.
  Inspire checks to see if the component(s) you want to add are in another assignment, project workflow or review workflow.
  - You see warnings if a component is already in use.
  - If you want, you can close the warnings and create the assignment or workflow anyway.
4. On the Initial Task screen, click Start.
  If you try to assign work to a participant who doesn't have access to the component, you will see an error.
  - The error tells you the name of the restricted component.
  - The Workflow is still started. You can change the participant or the component to resolve the conflict.
  - For details on how to set permissions, refer to: Set permissions.
  Results: Your workflow is created and you can see an assignment in the Assignments pane. All participants you added to the workflow can be viewed in the Participants pane.