ASP.NET 3.5 Enterprise Application Development with Visual Studio® 2008: Problem - Design - Solution

7.2. Design

Let's go back to our conversation with Mary again to review her requirements and pick out those that are relevant to workflow.

Me: "So you want to automate the process of requesting vacation. I've used that template, so I know a little bit about the process, but I don't know what happens after my manager signs it. Can you tell me how the process is supposed to work?"

Mary: "When employees want to take a vacation or holiday, they are supposed to fill out the form, print it, sign it, and then hand it to their manager for approval and signature. The manager is then supposed to sign it and inter-office mail it to HR, where I check it against my Excel spreadsheet to ensure that the employee has enough days to cover the request. I then subtract the days in my spreadsheet. Also, people who want to take more than two weeks off at a time need to have their manager and a vice president sign off on the request. This really causes problems because the VPs are so busy they rarely send us the form."

Me: "Then you need a system that allows a user to request time off and then have workflow built into the system for the manager, vice president, and you to approve or deny the request. What the user enters will determine how many levels of approval are needed."

Mary: "Well, yes. I guess we would need to be able to deny the request too, but we usually just throw them out. It probably would be a good idea to keep them around so we could refer to them."

Based on this conversation and some ...