Business Process Framework and Routing
The framework
Every worker change runs as a business process instance. The business process definition sets the type: approval (Change Job, compensation events), action event (records a change with no approval), checklist (tracking items), or routing form. Definition settings also control whether the process is effective-dated and whether it can be cancelled, rescinded, or corrected.
Steps are the units of work: approval steps, to-do steps (assigned work that does not gate completion), and sub-process steps. Steps run in order. An approval step can require all approvers, one approver, or a percentage, and steps sharing an order number run in parallel.
Routing
Step assignment can be static (one security group) or dynamic: management chain, cost center manager, HR partner, or a group computed from the worker's data. Step conditions decide whether a step is included at all; they are evaluated when the instance reaches that point, using data as of the effective date. To handle an exception, add a condition to the existing step rather than building a new business process.
Business process security policy governs who may initiate, cancel, rescind, or correct. It does not route approvals - that is a common distractor.
Traps: assuming the initiator can approve their own request (steps often skip a self-approver); confusing rescind (in-progress instance) with cancel (completed instance); treating awaiting action as a step rather than a status; expecting a condition added after the instance started to retroactively change it.
Rule of thumb: answer routing questions with the most specific rule - step condition beats step group, which beats the definition default.