Best practices for selecting and ordering Workflows when creating Table Reports
When creating a Table Report, the order in which you select Workflows will impact the data that can be displayed in the Table Report.
Selecting Workflows
When you create a Table Report, the first thing you need to do is select the Primary Workflow in the "Table Report / Create" modal.
The Primary Workflow will determine which Secondary Workflows you are able to select. Only Workflows that are directly linked to the Primary Workflow can be selected as Secondary Workflows.
When you select Secondary Workflows, Workflows that are directly linked to the Secondary Workflows will also be displayed. You can select up to four Workflows for a Table Report.
Workflow Structure Data Implications
The structure of Table Reports is important because this structure determines the number of Records displayed in the Table Report. The number of Records displayed depend on the Workflows selected as the Primary and Secondary Workflows.
The following examples of Table Reports for an Enterprise Risk Management Application illustrate how the structure of Table Reports determines the Records displayed. The Enterprise Risk Management Application has three workflows: Risks, Assessments, and Mitigations. The Assessments Workflow is linked to the Risks Workflow and the Mitigations Workflow is linked to the Assessments Workflow.
Example 1
The following three Table Reports have the Risks Workflow, the Assessments Workflow, and the Mitigations Workflow as the Primary Workflow respectively. There are ten Risk Records in the Application. Assessments have been initiated for two Risks and a mitigation has been initiated for one of the Assessments.
Notice that even though the same Fields from the same Workflows have been included in the three Table Reports, Table Report A displays has ten rows because Risks is the Primary Workflow and there are ten Risk Records in the Application. Table Report B has two rows because Assessments is the Primary Workflow and there are two Assessment Records. Table Report C has only one row because Mitigations is the Primary Workflow and only one mitigation has been initiated.
Example 2
The following Table Reports have the Assessments Workflow and the Risks Workflow as the Primary Workflows respectively. There are ten Risk Records in the Application and five Assessment Records. One of the Assessments is not linked to a Risk Record.
As you can see, all five Assessment Records are seen in Table Report A, including Assessment-5 (highlighted) that is not linked to a Risk Record (there are six rows because one of the assessments have two mitigations associated with it). However, because the Risks Workflow is the Primary Workflow, Assessment-5 is not displayed in Table Report B.
Example 3
For the following Table Reports, there are ten Risk Records in, three Assessment Records, and two Mitigation Records. One of the assessments (Assessment-3) has two mitigations linked to it.
As you can see, Table Report A has three rows since three Mitigation Records have been created. Both Table Report B and Table Report C have the same Primary Workflow (Assessments). Table Report B displays four rows while Table Report C displays three rows because the Mitigations Workflow is selected as a Secondary Workflow in Table Report B. As a result, even though Fields from the Mitigations Workflow are not included in the Table Report, the Report has two rows for Assessment-3 as Assessment-3 has two mitigations associated with it. Since Table Report C does not have the Mitigations Workflow listed as the Secondary Workflow, it does not display two rows for Assessment-3.
Implications of Workflow Structure
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When viewing Table Reports, do not rely on the Record count displayed at the top to be a true count of Records within a Workflow
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If all the data you believe should be displayed is not visible, review Records in Secondary Workflows to ensure all necessary data has been completed.
Design Considerations
- Select the Workflow in which key data resides as the Primary Workflow.
- If capturing Null data is important, select the Workflow with the Null data as the Primary Workflow.
- If data is contained within multiple workflows, choose the Primary Workflow so that any other data is within three Workflows of the Primary Workflow.