â Things Can Only Get Betterâ AWE â Approval workflow Engine

PeopleSoft Approval Workflow Engine (AWE) is a recent entrant into the PeopleToo
ls family â introduced only in 9.0. The majority of the code supporting the AWE is d
elivered as part of PeopleTools 8.48.
AWE is basically an engine that provides capabilities for creating, running, and
managing approval processes within PeopleSoft. Approval workflows are triggered
when employees, managers or users, submit a transaction, such as a Salary Incre
ase, Transfer, promotion, etc. When the user submits the transaction, the applic
ation hands the transaction over to the Approval Workflow Engine. The AWE will d
etermine the appropriate approval process definition and then launch the approva
l workflow. The engine uses a series of database objects combined with applicati
on component configuration settings to determine how to process approvals using
workflow.
The best part of the AWE is not the technology behind it, rather the ability for
functional users to make modifications without the need of a technical develope
r. Three levels of users are able to either develop, configure, or use transacti
on approvals. For example, the process of submitting a salary change and getting
it approved requires defining who will approve the promotion, the order in whic
h they will approve it, and how it will be routed to approvers.
Prior to 9.0 and the AWE, standard PeopleSoft workflow required advanced technic
al skills in PeopleSoft PeopleTools to create or customize. With the AWE you now
have an alternative to standard workflow creation and maintenance. Workflow usi
ng the AWE is much easier to create, configure, and maintain.
All of the steps in approval workflow are defined using PeopleSoft pages and not
PeopleSoft PeopleCode. Therefore, functional users can design and maintain work
flow using these online PeopleSoft pages instead of requiring technical develope
rs to create workflow rules. This is a huge Win for the Functional Team!
Two steps :
1. Define all the technical support objects required for setting up and usi
ng the AWE
2. To register transactions and set up process definitions in AWE for appro
val processing.