Creating a Custom List Workflow using SharePoing Designer

Question

I am trying to prove the concept that SharePoint can solve some of our business problems using custom lists and workflows. The scenario I have is that a manager will report a health and safety incident on a custom list which I have designed to look more like a form, which will then notify HR who will then carry out the necessary actions. I am using SharePoint Designer, and so far I have set up my workflow to send an auto email to HR whenever a new incident is reported. I now want to take it one step further and enhance the workflow to apply to what HR will do which will be:

• As soon as HR have received their auto email alerting them that a new Incident has been reported, I want them to go into the form and update an 'Investigation Required' column. The workflow should then reflect the outcome of this column being:

• If they set this column to 'No', I want the status of the workflow to change to 'Incident Closed' and they don't need to do anything else with this.

• If they set the column to 'Yes', I want the status of the workflow to change to 'Incident Under Investigation AND I want HR to then assign the form to an Officer based on a drop down list of names.

• Whoever they assign this form to, I want them to be notified via email so that they can then carry out the investigation. I also want the status of the form to change to 'Under Investigation'.

• When the investigation is complete, I want the assigned officer to update the form with their comments and then mark the incident as closed which will then change the status to 'Incident Closed'.

My problem is that when I try to implement this on SharePoint Designer, I encounter an issue whereby, because I set my workflow to begin when a new item is created, my steps will not run because they are dependent upon fields changing. However, if I set up the workflow to begin when an item is modified, it also sends out the auto email that I have customized to detail that a new item has been created. Would it be easier to implement this on two separate workflows? Also, how do I set up an email to send to a specific person based on a drop down list of values?

I’m fairly new to SharePoint and SharePoint Designer, so it could be that my approach that I have tried to take that is causing it to fail. If there is a simpler way, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Is this 2010 or 2013?

You are correct to use the On Item Created, this is only the condition for the Workflow to start and isn't related to what causes the rest of the workflow steps to trigger.

You just need to use the "Wait for ..." activities so your workflow doesn't stop it's execution or, alternatively, start a Task Process for the HR team to evaluate the list item.