Wait for validation of multiple people in workflow designer

Question

Situation:

I want to start a workflow when publishing a document from a doc library. The workflow should do this:

-> Check the [type] and [domain] of the document.
-> Look in a separate list for a record that fits these 2 fields. Get the [responsables] field from this record.
-> Send a mail to EACH of these people.
-> Wait for ALL of these people to Validate the publish.
-> When everyone validated, all people from the 'Approval'-Sharepoint Group get an email, telling them that a document is waiting their approval.
-> as soon as 1 of them approves, the document is published.

Most of this is straightforward, but I'm stuck on the validation part: I can't figure out how to create my workflow so that it has to wait on the validation of all members in the column [responsables].

(both 2010 and 2013 workflows can be used).

Answer 1

In a SharePoint 2013 Workflow you can use the Start a Task Process action. In the properties under Task Options you can choose what constitutes task completion:

• Wait for all responses
• Wait for first response
• Wait for specific response
• Wait for percentage of a response

The Wait for all responses seems like the right answer, but this actually works by requiring everyone to respond (good) and returning the outcome the majority of the respondents chose (not so good).

If you want unanimous agreement from every respondent, then you should choose Wait for percentage of a response and set it to 100%. Then, if not everyone agreed on that outcome, the default outcome will be returned instead. So the Required Outcome is the one you want everyone to agree on and the default outcome is what will be chosen if they don't.