About Routes

A route is a set of tasks that users complete to accomplish a business activity. Routes can contain content that helps the route members complete their assigned tasks.

For example, you might create a route to review and approve a design specification. You could include the design specification and other related documentation in the route. Some route members would have tasks for reviewing and commenting on the spec, others would have tasks for approving the spec.

A route defines:

  • The order in which the tasks need to be completed
  • Who needs to complete each task, called the task assignee
  • When each task is due
  • The action the task assignee needs to perform, such as approve, comment, or notify only
  • Specific instructions for how the person needs to complete the task

More than one task can be active within a route at one time or tasks can become active sequentially. If more than one task is active at once, the route creator can specify whether only one task needs to be complete or they all must be complete before the next set of tasks become active.

When the route creator starts a route, the system activates all tasks with an order number of 1 and notifies the assignee for each task. If the assignee is a user group, one person in that group must accept the responsibility for the task. That person then becomes the task assignee. The assignees complete the task as defined in the route, then mark the task as complete. The system then creates a task for the next person in the route and so on.

For more information about using routes, see the Route Management User's Guide.