SailPoint Workflows
Workflows orchestrate the multi-step processes in IdentityIQ: approvals, forms, provisioning and notifications.
A workflow is IdentityIQ's process engine. It strings together steps, approvals, forms, provisioning, notifications and rules, into a defined flow. Lifecycle Manager requests, certifications and identity refresh all run through workflows, and you can customise or build your own.
- Workflows orchestrate multi-step processes
- Steps include approvals, forms, provisioning and scripts
- LCM, certifications and refresh are workflow-driven
- Variables and arguments pass data between steps
- Customise standard workflows before building new ones
Workflows are how IdentityIQ automates multi-step business processes, access-request approval, lifecycle handling, custom automation, as configurable sequences of steps, approvals and provisioning. They are the orchestration layer that turns decisions into coordinated action.
What a workflow does
A workflow launches on an event (a request, a lifecycle change), moves through ordered steps, pauses at approvals until a human responds, branches on conditions, and drives provisioning, recording everything for audit. IdentityIQ ships standard workflows you customise rather than building from scratch.
Anatomy
- Steps, units of work that can call rules or provisioning.
- Approvals, generate work items and wait for decisions.
- Transitions, conditional paths between steps.
- Variables, data carried through the process.
Designing maintainable workflows
Favour clarity over cleverness. Start from the standard LCM workflows, keep branching shallow, put custom logic in well-named rules, add escalation to approval steps, and always test in a lower environment, a stuck or looping workflow holds up real access.
Rules within workflows
Steps can invoke BeanShell rules for custom logic, computing an approver, transforming data, deciding a branch. This is where much customisation lives, so the same discipline applies: keep the logic small, tested and documented.
Common pitfalls
- Over-complex workflows no one can safely change.
- No escalation on approvals, so processes stall.
- Untested changes deployed to production.