How to Design a Workflow: Best Practices and Patterns
Designing an effective workflow is about balancing structure, flexibility, and clarity. In the XYB platform, workflows give teams control over core logic but with that power comes responsibility to ensure workflows are maintainable, observable, and secure.
This guide outlines key principles and common patterns to help teams design workflows that scale.
1. Define the Goal
Start with a clear, outcome-focused goal:
What process are you trying to automate?
What services will be involved?
What is the desired end state?
Example:
"When a customer is flagged RiskClosed, close all associated investigation tasks."
2. Choose the Right Trigger (if applicable)
Some workflows begin with a service event, others are internal processes. Determine whether your workflow is:
Service-driven (e.g. entity created, payment initiated)
Scheduled (e.g. rotate secrets weekly)
Manual (e.g. operator triggers the flow)
3. Break It Into Steps
Decompose the workflow into logical stages:
Input validation
Risk or eligibility checks
Routing or decision branches
Execution actions (create task, update status)
Use sequence contexts for ordered steps, and selection contexts to branch.
4. Use Parameters for Flexibility
Avoid hardcoding logic inside a workflow. Use parameterized values for things like:
Thresholds (e.g. transaction size limits)
Recipient accounts or task templates
Provider selection
Parameters can be adjusted per workflow version or client without code changes.
5. Handle Failures Gracefully
Services should handle retries and timeouts, but workflows should:
Detect known error conditions
Set workflow states appropriately
Avoid infinite loops or recursion
Workflows can use the ENDING state or terminal transitions to mark completion.
6. Reuse Through Templates
Abstract repeated logic into reusable templates. Examples:
Standard ledger validation block
Common risk escalation flow
Account + wallet creation bundle
Templates reduce duplication and improve quality.
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