Push notification for approval workflow process tasks with Camunda

Introduction

An approval workflow process (AWP) is a particular type of workflow that involves humans. Such workflows have multiple checks or steps throughout the process and from a variety of different stakeholders; can be users or groups of users. They are use to solve a variety of use cases where businesses must approve documents (e.g invoices) or requests (e,g time off, purchase orders…). A proper workflow engine such as Camunda can be used to build an automated approval system instead of relying on manual processes.

A simple approval workflow process with three steps for payment requests

In Camunda, you can represent each step of a AWP by a user task.

A User Task is used to model work that needs to be done by a human actor. When the process execution arrives at such a User Task, a new task is created in the task list of the user(s) or group(s) assigned to that task.

After the initiation of a workflow, a task is assigned to one or several users or one or several groups of users. When the task is completed (approved or rejected), the workflow process instance move to the next step; a new task is created and assigned to one or several users and so on…

What we would like to have is a system that can push notifications to users when one or several tasks are assigned to them and be notified when…