Best Practices

Tips and recommendations for getting the most out of Invent Workflows.

For Users

Stay On Top of Tasks

• Check My Tasks regularly — it's your central inbox for everything assigned to you
• Use status filters to focus on what needs attention right now
• Use Save Progress on form tasks if you need to pause and come back later

Track Your Workflows

• Use the Dashboard tag filter to focus on specific workflow types
• The status filter helps you quickly find workflows needing attention — try filtering by "Blocked" to see what's stuck
• Click into any workflow instance to see detailed progress and milestones

Communicate with Your Team

• Use the Discussion tab on tasks to ask questions, share context, or flag issues
• When completing approval tasks, add a comment explaining your reasoning — it helps the team understand decisions later

For Template Designers

Structure Your Workflows Clearly

• Name milestones meaningfully — they should describe phases that stakeholders understand (e.g., "Application", "Review", "Processing"), not technical steps
• Keep steps focused — each step should represent a single logical unit of work
• Order milestones chronologically — they should reflect the natural progression of the process

Design Good Input Schemas

• Use clear labels — the field label is what end users see, so make it descriptive
• Add descriptions — help text below fields guides users on what to enter
• Mark fields required only when truly necessary — optional fields reduce friction
• Use visibility conditions to hide irrelevant fields — this keeps the form clean and relevant
• Reuse Input Templates for common field patterns — this ensures consistency across workflows

Design Effective Flows

• Name your actions clearly — action names appear in the Flow Viewer, so use descriptive names like "Send Approval Email" instead of "Email 1"
• Use conditionals to handle different paths — don't create separate templates when a single template with branching covers the same scenarios
• Use parallel blocks when tasks are independent — this speeds up workflow execution
• Configure error handling thoughtfully:
  • Use Stop for critical actions (payment processing, account creation) — you want to know if these fail
  • Use Continue for non-critical actions (notifications, logging) — the workflow can proceed without them

Set Up Permissions Correctly

• Choose the right creator role — typically Admin or Manager so the launcher can manage the instance
• Use default permissions to automatically add team members — this saves the launcher from adding people manually each time
• Use group permissions when possible — adding a group means any member of that group gets access, and changes to group membership are automatically reflected

Testing and Iteration

• Test your workflow end-to-end before making it available to users
• Export templates as JSON backup before making major changes
• Use AI generation as a starting point, then refine — it's faster than building from scratch but usually needs customization

For Administrators

Template Management

• Archive instead of delete — if a template is no longer needed, archive it first. This preserves it for reference and running instances aren't affected
• Use tags consistently — establish a tagging convention and stick to it (e.g., department names, process types)
• Review analytics to understand which templates are used most and where bottlenecks occur

Team Management

• Set up instance roles carefully — Admin gives full control, Manager gives task flexibility, User restricts to assigned tasks only
• Use authorization scripts when you need dynamic launch permissions based on user attributes or input data

Monitoring

• Check the Analytics page for trends — rising blocked workflow counts may indicate a systemic issue
• Review failed actions in the Flow Viewer — recurring failures might need a flow design change or external system fix
• Use the Blocked status filter on the Dashboard to quickly find workflows needing intervention

See Also

• Workflow Examples — end-to-end scenarios and common design patterns