About State and Transition Configuration

States represent a view of primary items as they reside at a specific point in the application workflow. States ensure the correct flow of each item through the application workflow because while an item resides in a specific state, it typically has a primary owner who is responsible for performing a specific task before the item can move on in the process. You can also set up a workflow so that one or more users are secondarily responsible for items while they reside in a particular state. For details on assigning ownership for states, refer to the SBM Composer Guide.

Transitions, on the other hand, move items from state to state. Most transitions are available as buttons on state forms. When users initiate a transition, they can enter data about the item before completing the transition.

In general, states provide a way to view data for items, while transitions provide a way to act on or add data to items.

Each state and transition contains a set of properties that are inherited throughout the workflow hierarchy defined in SBM Composer. This allows you to configure state properties once rather than for each workflow in the hierarchy. When you assign projects to workflows, states and transition properties apply to that project and any further derived projects. You can modify certain state and transition properties for projects, however.