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Working with States and Actions

In the same way that tasks group actions together into logical units, states group tasks together into logical units.

Every process starts with an initial state. If your process is very simple, you can leave it at that. For more complex processes, you should create states to group tasks that occur together, usually at the same stage of your process.

The best way to understand states is to think of them as being like stations along an automobile assembly line. At one station, mechanics install the axles, wheels, and steering components onto the chassis. At the next station, workers install the engine and all of its related parts. At the next station, the shell of the car body is welded onto the chassis and the doors are installed. At each station, workers do a group of related tasks and then send the car down the line to the next station for another group of tasks to be done. At the end of the line, the result is a finished automobile.

Similarly, a process is like an assembly line. At each stage of the process, people must do various related tasks before the process can continue: getting intake data, checking a credit score, routing a form to the relevant manager for approval, and so forth. At each point, a state groups the tasks so that the process is easy to understand and carry out. At the end of the process, you get the result.