Ideas on re-usability

I’ve built a Contract Management solution that sounds similar to your requirements.  It assigns metadata to signed contracts when they’re uploaded into SharePoint based on the contract type like Master Agreement, Schedule, Licensing Agreement, etc.  I used Forms Services as well.

In your case if the task is being routed directly back to the originator then on the form for the client event could probably have a dropdown or button that allows them to select the “document type”.  The form would then either show a different view or show a previously hidden section which would display the properties for that “document type”.  After they submit the client event the workflow can then assign the metadata to the document using the SharePoint document event.

When it gets routed to the reviewers the form would know that this is a specific document type and would display the correct filled out property view of the Forms Services form.

From what you’ve described so far I don’t think a IPC event would be needed and would add complexity.  A single form with different views or a single view but hidden sections sounds like it would meet your requirements.

Regards,

Tim

When using InfoPath the form travels with the process so reusing the same process across multiple SharePoint document libraries is probably not a practical option.

If you use ASP.net forms the process should be more easily reused as the Default Client Event URL can be dynamic and potentially populated at runtime with the correct ASP.net page when the process starts which might be through an IPC call.  Of course the downside of this is that you would need to add custom code to the ASP.net form to respond to the client events vs. no code InfoPath development.  The APIs are relatively easy with good samples in the online help but if you don’t have a developer available to help create and modify the pages over time then it could become a bottleneck in your process development and maintenance.

In my experience although I’ve had customers express a wish to reuse processes once we got down to the actual process requirements they were just enough different that you couldn’t effectively reuse the same process.  I would end up simply creating a new process and just copying and pasting the common elements between the processes to rebuild it.  Another key thing to think about is who is going to manage the process.  Often IT wants to offload the regular process management to the business units through a process portal.  However, if you have multiple business units using the same common process one business unit might accidently modify another units process. 

I’d love to hear other people’s experience about K2 process reuse.

Regards,

Tim