Using conditional work item queues in Workflow:

This Blog is part two of the original blog; “Use of Queues in Workflow: Use case scenario for Purchase Requisitions” where we introduced the setup and usage of Queues in a workflow.

In this 2^nd Use case Scenario, we will expand on the use of Queues from our previous example, and examine the use of conditions in the ‘Assignment Rule’ tab within a queue.

Most of the conditions you can put in a Queue, you could also choose to put in the workflow itself using a conditional decision. But your workflow can easily become overly complex with many conditional routing options, and the conditional queues can therefore help simplify the workflow, by placing conditions in the queues themselves.

Use Case Scenario:

In this use case scenario, each Department has named multiple people who are responsible for approvals on the Departmental level.
Key here, is that we do not only have one person who can approve PR’s on a departmental level, but several people.
The people associated with a given Financial Dimension, will therefore have approval rights and responsibilities for that particular financial dimension.
(note, if there were only one approver per department, it would be easier to use the 'Owner' of  each department to route the workflow to). 

Setup Process:

Go to:  Organization administration > Workflow > Work item queues.

As you can see below, I have created a queue that I will use for Department ‘Finance’ (1) (using Contoso demo data). I have associated 2 users to the queue, Julia Funderburk and Charlie Carson (2).
And lastly, I have created and assigned an assignment rule called ‘Dep – 024 – Finance’.

In this use-case scenario, you would essentially create one queue for every Department.

Let’s look at the Assignment rule:

In this case, my condition is to use the Financial department ‘024’ (4).

Click ‘New’ to create new assignment rule.
- Select ‘Purchase requisition’ under Document (1) to associate this rule to the PR workflows.
- Make sure it’s set to ‘active’ (2) before closing the form.
- Under the tab ‘Conditions’ find and select the financial dimension ‘Departments’ (3).
- Select Finance department ‘024’ (4).

Once you are done, save and close the form.

Now go to: Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing workflows:

And select ‘New’ and then select to create ‘Purchase requisition review’ workflow.

Drag into the canvas the Task element ‘Review purchase requisitions’ (1).

Then right-click the task element and select ‘Properties’ or simply select ‘Properties’ from the menu (2).

Select ‘Queue’ in ‘Assignment Type’ (3).

Next, go to the ‘Queue based’ tab and select the conditional queue name (1) you created previously:

When the workflow is done, go ‘Save and Close’ and activate the workflow.

Process steps of Purchase Requisition using Conditional Queues:

As the employee Tim Litton, I am creating a Purchase requisition both as the preparer and requester.

After creating a Purchase requisition line, I make sure that I select the Financial Dimension 024 for Finance (1).

I then go ahead and submit the workflow (2):

Recall from previous step, that the two employees we assigned to the queue, was Julia Funderburk and Charlie Carson.

Signed in as Julia Funderburk, I can now see the purchase requisition in ‘Work items assigned to my queues’ (1).
Notice that the workflow picked up the right queue ‘Dep 024 – Finance’ (2).

Click accept to take ownership and process the workflow.

Hope you found the blog useful in learning some of the more advanced functions of Workflow in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.