"Run as workflow owner" created by user who has left?

[joshpaynesays]

During testing of a timesheet system we have created within an On-prem SharePoint site (workflow and handovers powered by Nintex WF & Nintex Forms) I had to act as though I was a standard users, so I removed my Full Control permissions in exchange for Contribute (don't panic, a colleague still retained his and could reverse this after the test).

This lead to a few workflows I designed failing. I then had a though, perhaps I should set the WKs to

Run as workflow owner

Checking this option will cause this action, and any child actions, to run using the credentials of the user who published the workflow instead of the user who started the workflow. "

; however I had a though.

My major questions are:

1) What would happen if I left the business?

2) What would happen to all the workflows I have designed (would they all fail, as I assume my IT department would deactivate my account via Active directory)?

3) What is the best practice for ensuring workflows run without depending on the credentials of any one user?

[chaddavis]

1. Any workflows with Run as Workflow Owner would fail when your account is disabled if you were the last to publish them.

2. Any other workflows you've designed and have not set Run as Workflow Owner would be fine since they'll run as the Initiator.

3. I'm not sure if it's best practice per se, but I always publish workflows using a system account when they need the Run as Workflow Owner option. This way, they're guaranteed to run. Of course, you need to ensure the system account has permissions on the site. We have a system account that is a site collection admin. That's the account I use.