Configure Workflows

Customize workflow settings to control approval processes for request data access and review workflows:

Request data access workflow: Change default assignee and set up approval routing.
Review workflow: Apply it to specific entities and define multi-step approval processes.

You need MMM_admin identity provider role to configure workflows.

For information about using workflows, see Workflows.

View workflow configuration

To view a workflow configuration, go to Tasks and workflows > Workflows tab.

Here you can:

View default workflow settings.
Edit assignees for request data access workflows.
Configure multi-step approval processes for review workflows.

On the Workflows listing, you can see:

Workflow name: Data review workflow, Request Data Access, and Review workflow.
Owner: System. This indicates it is a default workflow that you cannot delete.
Preview: Hover over the eye icon to see all possible task states.
Last run date: When the workflow was most recently triggered.
Active run: Number of pending requests.
Archive run: Number of completed requests.

For details about editing a workflow, refer to the following sections.

Configure request data access workflow

Apply workflow

To let users request access to an asset, add the workflows:ableToStartRequestDataAccess trait to the entity.

Go to Metadata Model > [your entity] > Traits.
Add the workflows:ableToStartRequestDataAccess trait and publish your changes.

This trait can be added to the following entities:

catalogItem
source
location
connection

Edit default assignee

The default assignee can either handle the request themselves or reassign the task to another user.

To change the default assignee of all request data access workflows:

Go to Tasks and workflows > Workflows.
In the three dots menu for the Request Data Access workflow, select Edit.
Specify the default assignee:
- Group assigned using stewardship: Tasks are automatically assigned to the group defined by the asset stewardship. Anyone from the group can resolve the task.
  
  To assign the task to a specific role within the group, select Filter by roles within the group. Choose one or multiple roles and define the order in which they are assigned the task if the stewardship group has no relevant role.
- Fallback group (when stewardship isn’t set): If stewardship isn’t assigned on the asset, tasks are assigned to the fallback group that you select here.

Configure review workflow

Apply workflow

To require approval before publishing changes to an asset type, remove the hasNoWorkflow trait from the entity.

Go to Metadata Model > [your entity] > Traits.
Remove the hasNoWorkflow trait and publish your changes.

The following entities have this trait by default:

connection
location
source
credential
connectionWithCredentials
relationshipType
catalogItemRelationship
termRelationship
globalRole
group

Edit workflow steps

In the review workflow, you can define one or multiple workflow steps. Each step definition consists of three parts: approver, conditions, and businessState.

By combining these parts, you can create workflow steps to adjust the default workflow to your needs (for example, to specify different workflow steps on different entities, or to specify that the step should apply only to a specific subset of an entity).

The order in which the steps are defined in the configuration determines the order of the approval steps in the workflow.

To change the default review workflow configuration:

Go to Tasks and Workflows > Workflows tab.
In the three dots menu for the Review workflow, select Edit.
Edit the configuration as needed. See Configuration properties.

To view sample workflow configurations, see Configuration examples.
In Backup workflow settings, specify a group that can manage the task in case the configured approver is not available.
Select Save.

Configuration properties

Approver

The approver defines who will be assigned to the task. The assignee can handle the request on their own or reassign the task to another user.

You can choose from two approver types:

stewardship: The tasks are assigned to the group according to the asset stewardship. You can further specify the assignee role using the globalRolesIds property. This option is used in the default review workflow.

All users within the stewardship group (or role, if specified) have access to the task and can resolve or reassign it.

All tasks are also visible to admins and users who created the task.

Properties used with the stewardship approver type:
- globalRolesIds (optional): In Global Settings > User Management > Governance Roles, select a role, and copy the role ID from the URL: …/userManagement/globalRole/<globalRoleId>/.
  
  To open Global Settings, select the name of your organization in the upper-left corner and then Global Settings.
  
  Configuration options of the approver element:
  Assign tasks to the stewardship group with no roles defined
  "approver": { "type": "stewardship", "globalRoleIds": [] },
  Assign tasks to a specific role (Data Stewards) within the stewardship group
  "approver": { "type": "stewardship", "globalRoleIds": ["36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a894"] },
  For full workflow configuration examples, see Configuration examples.
group: The tasks are assigned to the group specified by groupId. You can further narrow down the assignees to users with a specific role within the group using the optional globalRoleId property.

All users within the group (or role, if specified) have access to the task and can resolve or reassign it.

To assign tasks to a specific user, use the optional userId property. The specified user can access the task regardless of their role. In addition, the user sees the task as a direct assignee in the I’m assignee tab on the Tasks Overview screen.

All tasks are also visible to admins and users who created the task.

Properties used with the group approver type:
- groupId (mandatory): In Global Settings > User Management > Groups, select a group, and copy the ID from the URL …/userManagement/group/<groupId>/.
- globalRoleId (optional): In Global Settings > User Management > Governance Roles, select a role, and copy the role ID from the URL: …/userManagement/globalRole/<globalRoleId>/.
- userId (optional): In Global Settings > User Management > Users, select a user, and copy the value of the User Id property.
  
  Configuration options of the approver element:
  Assign tasks to a group using groupId
  "approver": { "type": "group", "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b" },
  Assign tasks to a role within the group using groupId and globalRoleId
  "approver": { "type": "group", "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b", "globalRoleId": "36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a87d" },
  Assign tasks to a user using groupId and userId
  "approver": { "type": "group", "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b", "userId": "a24b2b3a-6abf-4324-9103-c7f888099857" },
  Assign tasks to a user within the group with a specific role using groupId, globalRoleId, and userId
  "approver": { "type": "group", "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b", "globalRoleId": "36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a87d", "userId": "a24b2b3a-6abf-4324-9103-c7f888099857" },

For full workflow configuration examples, see Configuration examples.

Conditions

The conditions define entities (entityType) on which the workflow will be used. If the workflow should only apply to a subset of entities, use a filter to select these entities.

By default, review workflow is enabled only on policies and terms.

entityType: Specify any entity on which you want to configure the workflow.
filter: Specify the conditions under which the workflow is triggered using AQL expressions.

To find the list of properties you can use in the AQL expression, open the entity details in Metadata Model and see its properties. For example, go to Metadata Model > term > validationRules property > object termValidationRules to see the properties you can use in the filter (boolean enabled and array ruleInstances).

Business state

The businessState defines the label for the specified review workflow step. This is a custom message that is shown on the task card when the request is created.

Configuration examples

The following examples show the most common use cases of the review workflow configuration.

Example 1: Default workflow definition

This workflow has one approval step (Waiting for review) for term and policy entities without filters.

Tasks are assigned to the asset’s stewardship group.

View configuration

[
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "stewardship",
      "globalRoleIds": []
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "term"
      },
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "policy"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Waiting for review"
  }
]

Example 2: Use AQL filter to define a specific step for a subset of assets

This workflow has two approval steps:

Waiting for review applies to all term and policy entities. Tasks are assigned to the asset’s stewardship group.
Waiting for data office applies only to term entities with DQ validation rules. Tasks are assigned to the Data Office group (specified by groupId).

This workflow has two approval steps defined:

View configuration

[
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "stewardship",
      "globalRoleIds": []
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "term"
      },
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "policy"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Waiting for review"
  },
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "group",
      "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b"
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": "validationRules.enabled = true and validationRules.ruleInstances.count() > 0",
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Waiting for data office"
  }
]

Example 3: Assign a workflow step to a specific role within stewardship definition and to the selected user group

This workflow has four approval steps:

Waiting for review applies to policy entities. Tasks are assigned to the policy’s stewardship group.

For term entities, there are three sequential steps:

Data steward review - assigned to Data Stewards within the term’s stewardship group (specified by globalRoleIds).
Marketing review - assigned to the Marketing governance group.
Data owner review - assigned to Data Owners within the term’s stewardship group.

View configuration

[
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "stewardship",
      "globalRoleIds": []
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "policy"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Waiting for review"
  },
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "stewardship",
      "globalRoleIds": ["36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a894"]
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Data steward review"
  },
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "group",
      "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025d"
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Marketing review"
  },
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "stewardship",
      "globalRoleIds": ["36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a87d"]
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": null,
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Data owner review"
  }
]

Example 4: Assign a workflow step to a specific user within the governance group

This workflow has one approval step (Abbreviation review) for term entities where the abbreviation field is empty.

Tasks are assigned to user jane.smith (specified by userId) within the Data Office group (specified by groupId). Other users in the Data Office group can also access these tasks.

View configuration

[
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "group",
      "userId": "a24b2b3a-6abf-4324-9103-c7f888099857",
      "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b"
    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": "abbreviation is null",
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Abbreviation review"
  }
]

If you need the assignee to have a specific role within the group (such as Data Owner), add globalRoleId to the step definition:

View configuration

[
  {
    "approver": {
      "type": "group",
      "groupId": "15bbce34-0000-7000-0000-00000047025b",
      "globalRoleId": "36ed325c-0000-7000-0000-00000008a87d",
			"userId" : "a24b2b3a-6abf-4324-9103-c7f888099857"

    },
    "conditions": [
      {
        "filter": "abbreviation is null",
        "entityType": "term"
      }
    ],
    "businessState": "Abbreviation review"
  }
]

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