Step types

Steps play such a key role in Introist that we have dedicated a full section for them. The key idea is that you build step templates (Workflow Step) to Workflows describing what that step should do. When an Automation is created (for Employee), a copy of the step is created (Automation Step) and attached to the Automation.

Here's a short description of the full lifecycle of a single step:

Workflow Step

Each step is created and configured in Workflow editor. You can think of this as a template of which all the steps for each employee are then copied.

Automation Step - Scheduled

When an Automation is created, a copy of the workflow step is created and attached to that Automation. At this point the step is also scheduled so it gets a specific date and time. The step remains in "scheduled" state until it's execution time. I

t's worth noticing that you can make further adjustments to the step at this point and those changes will only affect the automation step. This allows you to tweak the step on an employee to employee basis without modifying the "template" workflow step.

Automation Step - Active

As soon as the steps scheduled time arrives, Introist executes the step. For steps like message sending, the message is sent at this point and as there isn't anything else to do, the step moves straight away to "completed" state.

However, for other step types such as calendar meeting, executing the step only means creating the meeting to calendar, but that's not the end of it. After scheduling the meeting, Introist continues to monitor it in case adjustments need to be made before the meeting takes place.

For these kinds of steps, the step might stay in the "active" state for quite a while. In active state, the step is already executed but not yet completed. Some changes can be made but the possibilities vary between different step types.

Automation Step - Completed

When everything is done for the step, it reaches the "completed" state. For messages and other simple step types, that happens as soon as they are executed (sent). For longer lasting steps as calendar events, that depends on the step.

Automation Step - Canceled

Automation steps can be canceled at any time before they are completed. In this situation, Introist does any necessary actions (such as removes the calendar event) and the step reaches it's final state "canceled".