Automatically launching the user's next task

To help your business user be maximally efficient while using your application, consider places in your process where you expect the same user to be completing multiple tasks in sequence.

About this task

Normally, for each task a user is assigned, they need to launch the task from their task list, complete the work for that task, then return to the task list for the next activity. You can save the user from having to go back to the task list when the next task in the process is also assigned to them.

For example, a customer service agent might be assigned a task for opening a new customer account followed immediately by a task for taking the new customer's order. Instead of having the user return to his or her task list to retrieve the second task after the first one completes, you can select to have the coach for the second task open immediately upon completion of the first.

Procedure

To configure an activity to automatically launch the following task, go to the Implementation tab of the first task in the sequence and select Automatically flow to next task. In the Process Portal, if the owner of the first task is the same as the owner of the second, the second task will launch automatically when the first task is complete.
Activities are still considered to be sequential even if they are separated by synchronous actions such as exclusive gateways or tracking points. However, there are a number of scenarios where the second activity in a sequence cannot be automatically started even if the check box is selected on the first task:
- When the second task in the sequence is a system task.
- When an intermediate timer event or an intermediate message event follows the first activity in the sequence.
- When the first activity flows to multiple tasks assigned to the same user, for example in a multi-instance loop or a parallel (split) gateway.
- If the task is being tested in the Process Inspector.
- If the elapsed time between the end of the first task and the arrival of the token at the next task is greater than the autoflow-timeout setting in 99Local.xml. By default, the autoflow-timeout is set to 3 seconds.