Step 2: Design Blueprint | Online Help | Qntrl

Step 2: Design Blueprint

Once a form is created, the next step is to design blueprints to capture the complete workflow. 
  
Blueprints help you define the step-by-step approach of a workflow. A blueprint is a replica of offline business processes where the processes are split into individual steps. 
  
In addition to providing detailed clarity on the workflow and coordinating various teams to complete it, blueprints also help you easily manage, optimize, and automate repetitive tasks. 
Build with us!
Helen's workflow contains steps like draft, approve, and reject. Let's see how we can build a blueprint for it. 
The main components to build blueprints are Stages and Transitions.  

What is a stage?  

Stages are a series of steps in a particular order that builds up the blueprint. 
In a design workflow, the stages are: Design review, Review complete, Approved, and Rejected. 
  

What is a transition? 

A transition connects two stages in a blueprint and contains the conditions for a task to move to the next stage of the blueprint.  
In a design workflow, the transitions are: move to review, Notify approval, and Notify rejection. 

Create blueprint  

When you create the board from Settings, once you navigate to step 2, you will see a pop-up which allows you to add stages. You can enter the stage names and click  Add , or you can click  Skip  and add stages from the blueprint editor. 
   


On the right panel, you can view the blueprint details.
  1. Blueprint Name : A name will be populated automatically based on the Board name, but you can edit it. 
  2. Description : Enter a description of your blueprint. 
  3. Click  +Add  to enter criteria for cards to be mapped with your blueprint. 
    1. Select criteria : 
      1. Select one or more criteria based on the fields available in the form. 
      2. Click + to add more criteria. You can also set logic between criteria using OR and AND expressions. 
        1. AND: Every criteria must be true. 
        2. OR: Only one of the criteria must be true. 
      3. New cards will be mapped with a blueprint based on the specified criteria. 
    2. All cards : 
      1. If you select this option, the blueprint will be available to be associated with any card. 
  4. You can always edit this criteria at the later stages of your blueprint. Click OK to save the criteria.
  5. Save the blueprint.

Add stage  

You can add a new stage or choose from existing stages.  
  1. Type the stage name in the search box. 
  2. If you get a relevant match in the drop-down, select the stage. 
  3. Otherwise, click the  Add  button.  
 

The new stage will be added to the right panel. Now, drag and drop the stage onto the blueprint editor on the right to use it in your workflow. 

A stage can be open or closed. Usually, the last stages of the blueprint are marked closed and the others are open. 
  
To ensure your team completes the stage on time, you can set SLAs which will help you trigger early reminders, due date alerts, and escalations ensuring your tasks are not delayed. 

SLA in stages 

SLA   allows you to set deadlines for stages and triggers escalations when the set deadlines are not met.      
Helen can setup SLAs to trigger early reminders, day-of-reminders, and escalation alerts when the reimbursement review is in-progress.
  To set SLA in Qntrl, click on the stage name in your blueprint and fill the following details in the right panel:  
  1. Stage Deadline : Set a deadline within which the stage must be completed. Click the Configure Deadline drop down to choose an option.
    1. Set deadline period : Enter the number of minutes/work hours/work days/weeks within which the stage must be completed.
    2. Set date & time field : Choose a date & time field from the associated form as the stage deadline. The date & time filled in this field while creating the card will be set as the stage deadline.
    3. Set conditional deadline : Set before/after conditions based on date & time fields as the stage deadline.
    4. Note: Your organization’s 'Work Hours' and ‘Days Off’ configured under  Preferences   will be considered while calculating the deadline. 
  2. Once the deadline is set you can configure to send scheduled emails to associated users.  
    1. Early reminder : Send a reminder before the stage deadline.   
      1. Set time to trigger the email, select the email template to be sent, and choose the users to be notified.   
    2. Day-of reminder : Send a reminder on the day of the deadline.   
      1. Select the email template to be sent, and choose the users to be notified.   
    3. Escalation alert : Escalate an email alert when the stage is not completed even after the deadline.  
      1. Set time to trigger the email, select the email template to be sent, and choose the users to be notified.   
  3. Click   Save .                                                                                                                                                                                          

  1. Stage deadline must be set to a minimum of 15 minutes.   
  2. Reminder must be set before the stage deadline.   
  3. You can set different levels of escalations using SLA in Qntrl.  
  4. You can configure 3 early reminders, 1 day-of reminder, and 3 escalation alerts.    
  5. You can edit the default SLA emails from  Email Templates under Customization . 

Add transition  

Once you have created stages, you can create transitions between the stages by dragging a line from the first stage to the next. Now, click the     icon between two stages to add the transition details. You can predefine transition actions using the Before, During and After transition tabs. 

The outgoing transitions of a stage are displayed in the order of creation on the right side of the panel under 'Customize outgoing transitions'.

  1. Click on     icon to customize the colour of the transition.
  2. You can also reorder to display a particular order of transitions in the card details page.
 Click on the  Preview   hyperlink to view how the transitions will be displayed in the card details page.

Common transitions cannot be reordered.

Before transition

Before Transition  works on the parameters to be finalized before the transition starts.
  1. Choose the users who must be able to perform this transition under 'Who can perform this transition?'  drop-down field. 
    1. The drop-down lists relevant options like line managers, team, and user drop-down fields used in the card.
    2. You can also choose individual users, multiple users, teams, and roles.
    3. If no user is mentioned here, all users in the orchestration will be able to perform the transition. 
    4. Also, opt to automate your transition by time or condition or connected cards .  Learn more about automated transitions. 
    5. On choosing teams or roles, users who are a part of the board will be able to perform the transition.
    6. We can also allow users who are not a part of the board, but a part of the organization, to perform transitions via email. To configure this, click  at the right corner and choose the organization users, email template, and click Save .  Learn  about configuring this option in  Non Board users' transition . 
  2. Specify the criteria under 'Which cards can pass thro ugh this transition? '  to filter the cards in which the transition must be visible. 
  1. Select criteria : Select one or more criteria based on the fields available in your form. If the card's field value matches with the criteria, this transition will be visible in the corresponding card, for the selected users. 
  2. All cards : By selecting this option, the transition will be visible in all the associated cards, for the selected users.

You can either automate a transition or assign users, teams, and roles to it. However, if you want to achieve both  automated  and  user-based  transitions, we might have a solution for you. 
  1. Create two different transitions between stages and assign the first transition to users, teams, and/or roles.
  2. Automate the second transition based on condition.
Now, the transition can be performed by the user until the condition is met. Once the condition becomes true, the card automatically moves to the next stage. You can thus have a manual hold on the transition as well as automate it for specific cases. 

During transition

During Transition works on the parameters to be updated when the transition is under progress.

The parameters added in this section will be displayed as a pop-up when the user is performing the transition.
  1. Click the +Fields and Line Items button to add new fields and line items or update existing fields in the card when a user is performing the transition.
  2. Click the Fields radio button to add fields while performing the transition.
    1. In the Select Fields drop-down, you can select an existing field from the list of fields available in your form. Also, you can change the current property of the fields by hovering the mouse over the respective field and selecting ⚙ icon. This change will only be applicable in the blueprint and not the form. The user will be prompted to update the value of the selected field while performing the transition.
    2. You can also create new fields by clicking the New  hyperlink. In the ensuing pop-up, enter the field title, select the field type, and perform the validations for the field. The user will be prompted to provide a value to the field while performing the transition.
  3. Click the Line Items  radio button to add line items while performing the transition.
    1. In the Select Line Items drop-down, you can select an existing line item field from the list of line items fields available in your form. You can also change the current property of the line item fields by hovering the mouse over the respective field and selecting the ⚙ icon. This change will be applicable only in the blueprint and not the form. The user will be prompted to update the value of the selected line item field while performing the transition.
  4. Click the + Info button and type the information to display a supporting text or tip about the transition when it is being performed in the card. 

  5. Click the + Widget button to work with installed extensions.

  1. The Line Items radio button will only be displayed if at least one line item field is added in the form and the board is published.
  2. If a new line item field is added in the Create Form tab, the respective line item will only be displayed after publishing the board.
  3. Radio Button, Multi Select, and Multi-User fields configured in Line Items will not be displayed during the transition.


  1. The fields will be displayed as a pop-up when a transition is being performed. They will be listed in the form under the  Transitional Fields  section. 
  2. Any change to the field property will be applicable only to this blueprint and will not be reflected in the form.
  3. The Select Fields drop-down will display only the field labels of the associated form. 

After transition

After Transition  works on the actions to be automated upon completion of the transition. You can configure two different action sequences here:
  1. Instant Actions : Set up actions to be triggered instantly after a transition. 
  2. Schedule Actions : Set up actions to be triggered at the scheduled time after a transition. 
    1. The minimum schedule period is 15 minutes.
    2. Only 2 sets of actions can be scheduled. 
Here's the list of actions that can be configured: 

Send email

You can choose to send email alerts to specific users or teams when a transition is completed.  Learn more about email alerts.


Update fields

When a transition is complete, some of the field values may need to be updated. For such cases, you can use update fields.  Learn more about field updates.


Webhooks

You can trigger webhooks in custom or third-party applications.  Learn more about webhooks.


Custom functions

You can develop and execute user-defined functions using Zoho's online scripting language- Deluge.  Learn more about custom functions. 


Connected Cards
You can configure to create a new connected card in a different (sub) board once this transition is complete. Learn more about connected cards.


You can create the following types of transition in blueprints:  
  1. Parallel Transitions : To create multiple transitions between a pair of stages. 
  2. Common Transitions : To allow a transition to be reached from multiple stages. 
  3. Automated Transitions : To create transitions and execute them without any manual input.  
You can also add more than one blueprint in a board. Learn more about adding multiple blueprints .

Validate a blueprint  

A few conditions need to be satisfied for a blueprint to be complete and be validated: 
  1. The first stage must always be open. 
  2. Every stage must be linked to the start stage. 
  3. Every stage must have an incoming transition. 
  4. Every stage must be connected to one or more stages. 
  5. All outgoing transitions from a stage must have a unique name. 
  6. Every stage must have a path to reach the closed stage. 
  7. If stages are being re-used in one or more blueprints, their stage types must also be the same.   
  8. After a blueprint is published, the stage types cannot be modified. 
Once you have created your blueprint, click  Save and Validate  to validate your blueprint right away, or click  Save  to validate it later. 


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