Example of State Configuration

Consider the following example of states and operations that you might configure for the Work Order family.

Note that in the following image, a square represents a state, and a line represents an operation. The square at the beginning of an arrow represents a predecessor state, and a square to which the arrow points represents a successor state.

State configuration workflow

From this diagram, you can see that a Work Order record can be set to any of the following states:

Proposed
Rejected
Approved
Assigned
In Progress
Completed

The operations that cause a record to change from one state to another are:

Reject: Changes the state from Proposed to Rejected.
Approve: Changes the state from Proposed to Approved.
Assign: Changes the state from Approved to Assigned.
Begin Work: Changes the state from Assigned to In Progress.
Close: Changes the state from In Progress to Completed.

The states are intended to provide a visual indicator of the status of a certain record and its associated information. In addition, operations help users determine what steps should be taken next. In most cases, the same user will not be performing all operations. Instead, one user will be responsible for one operation or a small set of operations, while another user will be responsible for another small set of operations. In this way, operations help guide users to perform the tasks for which they are responsible while prohibiting them from performing tasks that they should not participate in.

For example, based on the diagram shown above, for a Work Order record that is Approved, the only available operation to a GE Digital APM user would be Assign. This operation indicates that the record has been approved and is ready to be assigned to the required user. Likewise, an Assigned record is ready to be implemented, which the operation Begin Work indicates. It is unlikely that the user assigning the work order would be the same who does the work.

As you define the State Configuration for a family, keep in mind the workflow that you want users to follow. Then, create states and operations that facilitate that workflow and decrease the possibility of user error.