Processes

Processes are Now Platform representations of your manual cross-enterprise workflows. By creating a process record on the platform, you're digitizing these workflows. A process has two dimensions: the process definition and the associated process executions.

Designing a process

When you design your business process in Process Automation Designer, you're creating a process definition.

Each process definition consists of a trigger as well as lanes and activities. Triggers define the conditions that, when met, start running your process. Lanes and activities represent stages and individual steps in your overall business process. In the Process Automation Designer design environment, you can organize these lanes and processes into a sequence that reflects how your business process runs.

When you're done creating your process definition, activate it so that it runs when triggered.

What happens when a process runs

When your activated process definition is triggered, the system creates a process execution, which represents a single, running instance of your process definition.

After you create the process execution, the system evaluates each activity within your process. The system iterates through each activity in your process until the final activity finishes running, which means that the process execution is completed. As each activity runs, automated record operations occur on the Now Platform.

If a Workspace administrator has set up a playbook experience for your process, then your process execution renders as a playbook. A playbook is a visual representation of your process, which is associated with a record in a Workspace.

Learn more about processes