How does escalation work?

[sten]

Before making a lot of workflow changes I want confirm my understanding of workflow escalation.

I have a workspace where each item must undergo regular reevaluations.

The reevaluation duration varies by item, but is typically between 6 months and 36 months.

I already calculate the next reevaulation date (item.NEXTEVALDATE).

I now want it to automatically transition into the "PERFORM EVALUATION" state on (or near) the NEXTEVALDATE.

I don't see a way to do this directly, however does it work if I create a "dummy WF transition" that executes a script that performs the NEXTEVALDATE comparizon and performs the transition if needed. 

I hope I can then run the "dummy WF transition" every couple of weeks using the "escalate after n days" feature.

Does that work?

Will the escalate -> dummy WF transition only fire once, or will it keep firing n days after the previous dummy WF transtion?

[sten]

I should probably say that the reason for the question is that a while ago I tried to have a script run on a "escalate after n days", hoping that it would keep running the script on an n day interval. It didn't.

[broepke]

I don't think you directly do what you want with the scripting.... or the built in escalations.  They're not really for that long of period of time.  I think the max is 60 days.  

However you can accomplish almost the same thing with conditional scripting and the reminders / oustanding work functionality.

There is an example of this in the "Suppliers" workspace (should you have this from the default tenant).  Basically this does a couple of things

1. allows you to select a review cycle time (12, 24, 36 months... whatever)
2. sets a field to the date you last approved it
3. Computes a new feild to that date + the number of months from step 1
4. Then, only allows you to submit the transition (manually) when the date from step 3 has passed.

this means that after the review cycle starts - the action to "re-review" the supplier or whatever will show up in someone's worklist.  Basically as an action.  It doesn't change the workflow state but still allows you to assign the work to people.

check that out.  could be something to help you out.

[sten]

Brian,

I am familiar with the Supplier workspace, but want to get a stronger notification than just being added to the outstanding work list.

My outstanding worklist is very long. (yes I am behind on a lot of things....)

So is there no way I can get a script to execute at regular interval?

I am hoping you can answer my question about repeating escalations. I can test it myself, but it will take me a few days to get the answer.

Can I use escalation to fire a script every n days (say 30 days)? The script could then perform the transition based on a date condition.

Sten

[broepke]

Just enable teh workflow reminders as well - you can have it send you an email daily to prompt you do do something.