Types of workflows

Types of workflows

          As explained in my previous article there are many tools available for automation but here on I will explaining topics based on UiPath tool. I will try to generalize concepts wherever its necessary.

          Coming back to the types of workflows , let’s see what is a workflow, tools provide activities to automate each task. The activities are the core building blocks of RPA automation. Most of the tools provide drag and drop activities where you can set different properties of activity to act accordingly. A set or sequence of activities forms a workflow. These represent an automatable task in the order of steps performed. These workflows are further categorized into the following types

                           Sequence

                           Flowchart

                           State Machine

Lets go and in detail about each of the above categories of automation projects-

Sequence

                       This is the simplest type of workflow, where a group of activities are placed one after the other in an order of actions to be performed. These activities perform a direct action. This type is suitable for linear project actions where one activity is executed to another. Sequences can be reused by creating actions that are repeated into a separate sequence.

Flowchart

                       This is the next type of automation project. This category contains decision making and is suitable for complex and simple projects as well. This type includes multiple decision making that allows automating complex business processes. We can use connectors to connect different activities. In short can say flowchart as a sequence with decision making.

State Machine

                      Another type of workflow includes state machine which best suited for complex business processes. A state machine is a type of automation that uses a finite number of states in its execution. It can go into a state when it is triggered by an activity, and it exits that state when another activity is triggered. Another important aspect of state machines are transitions, as they also enable you to add conditions based on which to jump from one state to another. These are represented by arrows or branches between states.