SAS Intelligent Decisioning: Using a Workflow for a Decision

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In SAS Intelligent Decisioning (as of stable 2025.03), you can manage workflow tasks on the Home page. The Tasks section at the bottom of the home page lists the active workflow tasks to which you or a group of which you are a member have been assigned. You can claim, complete, and release tasks from the Home page.

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In my previous post, I reviewed the administrative tasks for setting up workflow for SAS Intelligent Decisioning.  In this post, I will demonstrate using that workflow with a decision as a non-Administrator.

Add a Workflow to a Decision

There are two ways to add a workflow to a decision.  One way is to select the workflow when you create the decision.

The other way is to add it on the properties tab after the decision is created.

I have added the Decision Approval workflow that I created in my previous post to the decision.

Workflow Tasks

As a reminder, the Decision Approval workflow consists of the following user tasks:

• Develop decision
• Review decision
• Prepare decision for deployment
• Deploy decision.

All workflow users can perform the Develop decision and Review decision tasks; however, Alex is excluded from being a participant in the Prepare decision for deployment task and Alex and Sarah are excluded from being participants in the Deploy decision task.

Currently, there is no tie between tasks and permissions to perform functions such as publishing a decision; therefore, even though in the workflow Alex and Sarah are excluded from the Deploy decision task they can still publish the decision.

Start a Workflow

There are two ways to start a workflow for a decision.  One way is to select the Workflow dropdown button and then select Start workflow.

The other way is to select Start on the Properties tab of the decision.

Using either method opens a dialog box.  If the workflow requires inputs to start, then you will be prompted to complete them; otherwise, simply select Start.

The workflow now shows the status of the first step in the workflow.  In the case of the Decision Approval workflow that is Developing.

Claim Task

I am logged in as the user Alex and select Tasks →  Develop Decision from with the decision.

Next, I select Claim to claim the task and then Close to close the dialog.

Alex has claimed the Develop decision task.  The task is removed from the general queue for claiming and is assigned to Alex.  Tasks can also be claimed from the Tasks list on the Home screen if they are still unclaimed.

Since Alex has claimed the Develop decision task.  When I log in as Sarah, there are no tasks for her to claim since Alex is already working on it.

 

Complete Task

Alex works on developing the task and when he is ready, he can set the Develop decision task to complete by selecting Tasks →  Develop Decision  and then click Complete.

He moves the decision to the Review Ready stage and can enter any desired comments.

Depending upon workflow there may be more than one next task to select when completing a task.  Now that this task is complete the next task in the workflow is ready to be claimed.

Tasks can also be completed from the Tasks list on the Home screen if it is still incomplete and has been claimed by the user who is logged in.  

 

Release Task

If a user has claimed a task and decides they will not work on that task, they can release the task so another user can claim it and work on it.  To do this, on the task dialog select Release and then Close.

Releasing a task unassigns the task and puts it back in the general queue for another user to claim.  The task stays at the same status.

Tasks can also be released for the Tasks list on the Home screen if they have been claimed by the user who is logged in.

Complete Workflow

Once all tasks for a workflow have been completed, the workflow is marked Completed in the decision.

If you create a new version of the decision, then you can start the workflow process again.

Summary

You can use a workflow to formalize the decision building, approval, and publishing process.  You can work with the workflow tasks from either within the decision or from the Home screen.  For more information, refer to the Using Custom Workflows with SAS Intelligent Decisioning section in the documentation.

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