Human Tasks & the Tasklist
BPMN user tasks turn a workflow step into an assignable work item. A person claims it from the My Tasks inbox, completes it — optionally supplying variables that steer the rest of the process — and the run resumes automatically. Assignment, candidate groups, due dates, and priority included.
Not every step in a network process is automated. Some need a person — approve a production cutover, confirm a maintenance window, sign off on a risky change. In BPMN these are user tasks, and Versus gives them a real home: the My Tasks inbox. When a running process reaches a user task it pauses, creates a work item, and waits. A person claims it, completes it, and the process resumes on its own — carrying forward whatever the person decided.
This is part of BPMN Process Orchestration.
The inbox
Workflows → My Tasks is a live inbox that refreshes on its own. Four queues let a person find the work that is theirs:
- Inbox — everything assigned to you plus anything unassigned you're allowed to pick up.
- Assigned to me — tasks you've claimed.
- Available — the unassigned pool, ready to claim.
- All — every task, for an operator overseeing the queue.
Each task card shows the activity name, the workflow and run it belongs to, its priority, its assignee (or Unassigned), any candidate groups, its due date, and an Overdue flag once the clock runs out.
Claiming and completing
- Claim — a task in the created state sits in a group queue; claiming it makes you the assignee so no one else works it in parallel.
- Complete — opens a small form. You supply an outcome (for example
approve,reject, or a named choice) and, optionally, variables as JSON. Both flow back into the process:- the variables are merged into the run context, so a downstream gateway can route on what the
person entered (
approved_budget > 5000, say); - an outcome of
rejectfails the run; any other value continues it.
- the variables are merged into the run context, so a downstream gateway can route on what the
person entered (
The moment you complete the task, the token that was waiting advances through the engine and the rest of the process runs.
Configuring a user task
On any approval / user-task node in the Workflow Editor, a Human task panel sets how the task is routed when a run reaches it:
- Assignee — a specific username. Leave blank to send it to the queue.
- Candidate groups — comma-separated roles/teams who may claim it (e.g.
network-ops, change-approvers). - Priority — Low / Normal / High.
- Due in (hours) — sets a due date; the task shows Overdue once it passes.
Where it fits
The classic pattern is a health gate → approval → cutover: an exclusive gateway checks that a change is healthy, and only then does the process pause for a human to approve the production step. The person is never asked to babysit a script — they get a single, clear decision in their inbox, with the full context of the run behind it, and the automation takes over again the instant they act.
Human tasks build directly on Versus's existing approval mechanism, so they slot into change-gated workflows and Versus Desk change management the same way approvals always have — now as a first-class, queryable Tasklist.