Best Practices

Process Design

Keep Processes Focused

Design each process to accomplish a single, well-defined business objective. Avoid creating monolithic processes that try to handle too many scenarios.

Approach	Recommendation
Single Responsibility	Each process should handle one business workflow
Sub-Processes	Break complex workflows into smaller, reusable sub-processes
Clear Boundaries	Define clear start and end points for each process

Name Things Clearly

Use descriptive, consistent naming conventions throughout your processes.

Element	Naming Convention	Good Example	Bad Example
Process	[Action] + [Subject]	"Approve Loan Application"	"Process 1"
Stage	[Action] + [Object]	"Review Documents"	"Stage 2"
Transition	[Condition Summary]	"If Amount > $50K"	"Path A"

Design for Failure

Anticipate what can go wrong and design your processes to handle exceptions gracefully.

• ✅ Always define a default transition from every non-terminating stage
• ✅ Include error handling stages for exception scenarios
• ✅ Configure appropriate timeouts and escalations
• ✅ Use validation in On Entering to catch issues early

Stage Configuration

Use Appropriate Assignment Types

Choose the right assignment type based on the nature of the work:

Scenario	Recommended Assignment	Reason
Requires specific expertise	User	Ensures qualified person handles it
High volume, interchangeable work	Team	Enables workload balancing
Needs consensus/multiple approvals	Every Team Member	Captures all required sign-offs
Data validation, calculations	System	Faster, consistent, no human delay
Cross-functional collaboration	Custom	Parallel work streams

Set Realistic Due Dates

Configure due dates that reflect actual business expectations:

• ✅ Account for business hours and working days
• ✅ Consider dependencies on external parties
• ✅ Allow buffer for reviews and rework
• ❌ Don't set artificially tight deadlines that will always be missed

Leverage On Entering and On Exiting

Use stage automation strategically:

Event	Best Used For
On Entering	Notifications, status updates, data preparation, launching parallel work
On Exiting	Recording outcomes, calculating results, triggering downstream processes

Automation Tip

Keep automation logic in reusable FlowOn Logic Flows rather than duplicating it across stages. This makes maintenance easier and ensures consistency.

Transitions and Routing

Always Have a Default Path

Every non-terminating stage should have a guaranteed exit path. If no conditional transitions match, the process will be stuck.

Order Transitions by Specificity

When using multiple conditional transitions, order them from most specific to least specific:

1. Most specific conditions first (highest priority)
2. General conditions next
3. Default/fallback last (lowest priority)

Use Decision Tables for Complex Logic

When you have multiple conditions with multiple outcomes, use FlowOn Logic Decision Tables instead of chaining many simple transitions:

Scenario	Approach
2-3 simple conditions	Simple transition guards
Multiple factors, many outcomes	Decision Table
Sequential yes/no decisions	Decision Tree

Versioning and Deployment

Test Before Activating

Always validate your process design before deploying to production:

• ✅ Test all possible paths through the process
• ✅ Verify transition guards with different data scenarios
• ✅ Confirm automation executes correctly
• ✅ Check assignments route to correct users/teams

Use Publish for Review Workflows

Take advantage of the two-step publishing model:

Action	When to Use
Publish	When stakeholder review/approval is required before going live
Publish & Activate	For quick deployments of tested, validated changes

Document Version Changes

Maintain a changelog for your processes:

• What changed in each version
• Why the change was made
• Who approved the change
• When it was activated

Performance and Scalability

Enable Tracing Strategically

Tracing provides valuable debugging information but adds overhead:

Environment	Tracing Recommendation
Development	✅ Always enabled
Test/UAT	✅ Enabled
Production (low volume)	✅ Enabled for audit
Production (high volume)	⚠️ Consider performance impact

Keep Stages Focused

Avoid putting too much automation in a single stage. If a stage has extensive On Entering and On Exiting logic:

• Consider splitting into multiple stages
• Move complex logic into dedicated system-assigned stages
• Use sub-processes for substantial parallel work

Minimize Loops

While FlowOn BPM supports non-linear flows, excessive looping can indicate process design issues:

• ✅ Analyze stages with frequent revisits
• ✅ Consider adding validation earlier to prevent rework
• ✅ Review if loop is truly necessary or if process can be redesigned

Security and Governance

Apply Least Privilege

Only assign the Process Designer role to users who genuinely need to design processes:

User Type	Process Designer Role
Process designers/architects	✅ Yes
Business analysts (designing)	✅ Yes
End users (completing tasks)	❌ No
Managers (viewing reports)	❌ No

Separate Design and Runtime

In production environments, install only the FlowOn BPM runtime solution:

• ✅ Reduces attack surface
• ✅ Prevents accidental modifications
• ✅ Smaller solution footprint
• ✅ Enforces change management through proper deployment

Use Projects for Organization

Group related processes and artifacts into FlowOn Projects:

• Easier to manage permissions
• Simplified deployment (deploy entire project)
• Better organization for large implementations
• Enables reuse of Logic Flows across processes

Monitoring and Maintenance

Review Process Metrics Regularly

Use trace data to monitor process health:

Metric	What to Look For
Average Duration	Increasing times may indicate bottlenecks
Overdue Rate	High rates suggest unrealistic due dates or capacity issues
Rework Frequency	Frequent loops indicate quality or clarity issues
Fault Rate	Rising faults need immediate investigation

Archive Completed Instances

For high-volume processes, establish a retention policy for completed instances:

• Keep recent instances readily available
• Archive older instances for compliance
• Document retention requirements

Plan for Process Evolution

Processes change over time. Plan for it:

• ✅ Use version control (FlowOn artifacts in source control)
• ✅ Maintain documentation alongside process definitions
• ✅ Review and optimize processes periodically
• ✅ Gather feedback from process participants