Workflow Steps 

Each workflow consists of a user-defined sequence workflow steps. The different types of workflow steps and connectors are summarized in the table below and described in the following sections.

Step	Name	Description
	Start	The first step of a workflow.
	Stop	The final step of a workflow.
	Process	A process step that assigns a task to one or more users or roles.
	Group	Groups steps for single, sequential, or concurrent execution.
	Validate	Performs a validation or validation group against the job records.
	Approve	Requires approval by one or more users.
	Assign	Performs an assignment against the job records.
	Notify	Sends an email to one or more users.
	Branch	Breaks a single job into multiple subjobs and threads.
	Merge	Merges multiple threads into a single thread.
	Match	Runs the matching strategy against the job records.
	Syndicate	Syndicates the job records
	Connect	Connects from one step to another in the workflow.
	Connector	Not a step type, but used to connect two steps.

MDM workflow emphasizes self-regulating logic rather than command-and-control, and features a relatively small number of step types for conceptual and design simplicity. At the same time, these simple self-contained steps can be combined to build sophisticated workflows that are flexible, configurable, and self-evident.

The Validate, Notify, Merge Connect, and Merge steps are defined in Microsoft Visio and participate in workflow execution, but they are hidden from the user during runtime. For example, if Process1 is connected to Validate1 is connected to Process2, the user will see Process2 as the next step when finished with Process1 and attempting to send the job to the next step.