A workflow follows the path your reviews already take through your production, automating the hand-offs from one stage to the next.
Each stage has its own audience. A published review starts at the first stage and moves through them in order, one at a time.
What Rush takes on is the distribution. No one keeps a mailing list or works out who to forward a review to, and no one needs the full picture of who else is in the chain. People watch a review when it reaches them; those trusted to move it on release it to the next stage, and the routing carries it to the right people without anyone having to name them.
How a workflow is assigned
A workflow is assigned per review type within a project. From then on, every review published under that type is routed into the workflow automatically — there's nothing to send by hand.
A review type can have one workflow at a time.
The same workflow can be reused across projects and review types.
This is why the people publishing matter less to the chain than you might expect. A contributor publishing from the Rush Portal doesn't need to know who picks the review up from the studio — they approve it when they're happy with it, and the workflow's routing takes it from there.
For now, Sohonet sets workflows up for you: let us know the stages you need and the people at each one, and we'll configure it for your project.
Coming soon: Self-service workflow management — building and editing your own workflows from an admin area — is on the way.
Stages and releasers
A workflow can have as many or as few stages as the process needs. Each stage has:
Reviewers — the people the review is shared with when it reaches their stage. They needn't know who comes next.
Releasers — people at the stage who can also move the review on. When a releaser releases the review, it passes to the next stage — without them having to know exactly who receives it.
A stage can name more than one releaser, but it only takes one release to move the review on — the first release sends it to the next stage. A stage isn't a sign-off gate where everyone has to approve.
A review moves one stage at a time, in order — it can't skip ahead.
When a review is released to the next stage, it's automatically shared with each reviewer there — surfacing as a New review for their attention in both their Screening Room and their Focus.
Releasing a review
Releasing sends a review on to the next stage of its workflow.
You'll only see a Release button where you're a releaser for the review's current stage.
Open Focus from the sidebar.
Watch the review first — reviews waiting on you show Awaiting Release once you've watched them.
Click Release on the review's row.
You can also release from the review's details: open the review from All Reviews and use the Release button in the review drawer.
Releasing can't be undone from the app — if you release something by mistake, contact whoever runs the workflow, or Sohonet support.
Workspace Managers have oversight of reviews in flight across a production and can step in to release one that has stalled between stages — see Focus for Workspace Managers.
Not every review needs a workflow. Where one isn't set up, people can share directly with specific people instead. Direct sharing isn't available from the Rush Portal yet — that's coming soon.