@WonderLaura

Every Wednesday at 11 AM Central time, some colleagues from Rackspace and I do a live YouTube / Google Hangout broadcast called SharePoint Power Hour.

Recently, I did a series of videos where I outline a single business process in detail.  I decided that a New Hire Onboarding process is a very common scenario, so that’s what I decided to create.  First of all, here are some associated files for you:

• The PDF of this workflow diagram.
• The PDF of the whole PowerPoint presentation.
• A ZIP file of the workflows exported to Visio from SharePoint Designer

Hour 1 – I go through some slides describing the business process and my pet peeves with out of box workflow and tasks.   In the last 20 minutes I start building the whole solution from scratch.  I create the New Hires list, the new Hire Content type, site columns, and then I create the Promoted Links list.

4:13 Explanation of the solution
5:40 Some slides
8:20 Visio diagram of the workflow
20:01 Show a demo in the SharePoint site
30:45 Laura realized that her workflow was working fine along even though she was trying to troubleshoot it 🙂
32:44 Explanation of why to use the Create List Item action instead of task actions
37:09 An overview of the workflow in SPD
37:50 Create a new site, to start building this whole solution from scratch
39:31 Creating all of the lists on the site
40:32 Explanation of creating the New Hire as a content type with site columns
52:45 Look at the New Hire form after finishing the list
53:11 Create the Promoted Links list
56:57 Insert the Promoted Links as a web part
57:29 Wrap it up for today

Hour 2 – I start building the new hire approval workflow in SharePoint Designer 2013, I create several Task content types.  I finish building the Set Variables stage and the Manager Approval stage.

0:00 Introductions
4:00 Begin the overview of what’s happened so far with the solution
5:36 Discuss the concepts behind how the workflow will be built
8:26 Fill out the first new hire form
11:17 Modify the default view of the new hires list
18:26 Open SharePoint Designer to start on the workflow
20:20 Demonstrate the visual workflow designer
23:59 Add the manager approval actions to the workflow
24:45 Discuss the Workflow Tasks list and task content types
34:03 Finish creating the Set Variables stage
37:13 Publish the workflow and run it as a test
38:08 Add logging to the workflow
39:50 Create more Task content types
52:32 Create the New Hire lookup site column
55:48 Add the new hire lookup to the Create Item action
58:40 Add a condition in the transition to stage in the workflow

Hour 3 – I finish up the manager approval stage, and move on to the three parallel task.  I explain how I make the workflow wait until all 3 of those tasks are finished before it moves on.

0:00 Intro
4:39 Overview of the workflow
6:52 Open the workflow in SPD, overview of it so far
9:39 Rant about a frustration with 2013 workflows
11:12 Answer a question about promoted links list
12:02 Pick up where we left off at end of manager approval
12:35 Create a workflow on the task list
13:45 Lori asks a question about the workflow start options
15:33 Add the first condition and action to task WF
19:22 Test the workflow so far
19:35 Add the transition after manager approval stage
20:30 Talk about GoTo actions and meaning of stage names
21:35 Fill out a test new hire
25:00 Check workflow status screens on both lists, troubleshoot
26:04 Fix the task workflow and re-publish
27:26 Add logging to task workflow
28:33 Back to new hire workflow, stage 3 parallel tasks
30:13 Create SharePoint groups for roles within workflow
32:01 Back to workflow, put SP Groups in assigned tasks
34:05 Discuss the due date variable
34:52 Add all three of the actions for the parallel tasks
37:43 Explanation of logic waiting for 3 parallel tasks
40:00 Create new site column for new hire list, Parallel Count
42:45 Add site column to New Hire content type
44:11 Back to workflow to utilize that new column
49:02 Rant about Else-If pet peeve in 2013.
50:00 Answer question about looping through mult tasks Post I wrote on that
59:25 wrap up

Hour 4 – At the beach!  In this segment, I finish up the parallel task stage, and add the security task stage.  Then, I create the new hire dashboard and run through the workflow.

0:00 Intro
4:01 Overview of workflow diagram
5:08 Fill out a new hire, run through WF so far
11:43 Pick up where we left off in the 3 parallel tasks in WF
12:19 create transition to diff stages according to approve or reject
14:10 After 3 parallel tasks completed, MATH. Go to next stage.
15:32 Open task list workflow, add new condition.
18:40 Back to new hire list wf, add stage for security task
20:36 Add the Department site column to New Hire content type
21:46 Back to WF, create conditional transitions and all stages
25:50 Add security task stage actions
29:40 Back to task workflow, add another condition
29:55 Organize the task workflow so that the conditions aren’t nested
34:22 Add the security task condition to the task WF
38:40 Add a test new hire
40:10 Start creating the new hire dashboard
46:30 Workaround for the inability to do web part connection to tasks
49:05 Create custom action / quick step to get to dashboard
53:12 Go back to the new hire being tested, run through wf
57:15 So far so good. Go to questions.

Hour 5 – Home with the baby.  I finish up the workflows, do a test run-through, and create a couple of views.

0:00 Intro
9:20 Overview of workflow task order
10:00 Workflow in SharePoint Designer
11:49 Go to where we left off, the HR Approval stage
17:22 Open task list workflow, add new condition and action
22:00 Add a bunch of logging to task workflow
22:55 Back to new hire list workflow
25:00 Go to Employee Orientation stage
28:00 Talk about the task wf and then go add another condition to it
29:38 Move on to the completed stage of new hire workflow
30:45 Stephen mentions linking a task list to Outlook
33:15 Set the Task content type required fields
34:25 Do a test run-through of the whole workflow
38:36 Troubleshooting: modify the required and hidden fields
40:50 Add another new hire, test again
46:10 Troubleshooting stuck workflow. Fix it.
49:49 Create “in progress” view of new hires list, add promoted link
53:30 Adding / editing more views of various lists and on dashboard
54:11 One more run-through of a test

Hour 6 – Whew! Fix the due date column, modify some web parts and navigation to generally clean up the whole user interface.  Discuss permissions options.

0:00 Intro
3:22 Overview of solution
5:58 Fill out a new hire, start going through process
10:30 Answer question about how the dashboard was created
11:15 back to walking through the workflow
13:43 Fix due date column to show date and time
20:35 Modify web parts on home page
27:55 Modify navigation
31:03 Modify the new hire dashboard
38:48 Talk about permissions
40:43 Define who can see what
43:13 Modify permissions
44:20 (Rant about the “Edit” permission level in 2013 / O365)
53:08 Activate the App Step feature

I hope you have liked this series, and stay tuned to our upcoming Power Hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqQJZhAY30A&list=PLtx4MPCKmPulTidrqsBCFZqF9yJJxwExU