Projects + Project-specific permissions

As NWC works at present, everything is in large, global lists. Workflows, Connections and Data Sources show everything. Permissions are at one top-tier level in the tenant (with the additional layer of granting ownership to individual workflows). While this works if the team using NWC is just a small set of developers in IT, I think going forward many users would like to use NWC as more of a hub they can manage their Nintex projects (and complete their tasks/forms*) from - the current structure doesn’t allow for something like this.

* really loving the addition of the My Nintex tab, though I think that should load by default rather than the Automate tab. (Not sure if this is just because I’m an admin)

Starting from the top-level, NWC would have a tab on the left navigation for a list of projects. A project should be something that I can click (like a workflow from the workflow list) and should open up to display a few key tabs along the top:

- Overview

- Workflows

- Connections

- Data Sources

- Resources

- Groups/Users

Overview

This should give some key information for the project, such as the name, description, project owner, implementor, contact details, support details, number of workflows/forms (prod/dev) etc. (see Overview.jpg attachment for my poor mock-up – definitely not a graphic designer 😊 )

Workflows

Same as the normal workflow list, just only shows workflows that have been associated to the project. A workflow should be associated based on a project dropdown in the publishing settings or when creating a workflow from within the project. I’ve also added a toggle (with numbers) for development or production workflows as I often end up with duplicates of prod/dev next to each other – just helps keep things tidier in my opinion.

Connections

Shows any Connections that have been associated with the project (multiple project associations possible)

Data Sources

Shows any Data Sources that have been associated with the project (multiple project associations possible)

Resources

(Optional) Space to link or upload any supporting documents such as related ProMapp links (would be nice if these could be embedded in some way), documentation, user guides (If these could individually allow permissions assignments that would be optimal e.g. only designers or above should see documentation, but all project users should have access to user guides).

Groups/Users

Shows a list of all users/groups that have been granted access to the project, as well as their project access tier (designer, participant etc.)

Permissions changes

Currently NWC only supports tenant-wide permissions (with the exception of granting direct owner access to a specific workflow). This doesn’t reflect how projects (or workflows) are accessed in day-to-day usage, only certain workflows/forms should be visible to specific subsets of users.

If I were to reimagine the permission tiers around my design of projects rather than workflows, I believe a better approach would be:

- Tenant-wide permissions stay as-is, however groups should be allowed to have permission levels like users do. This would allow the creation of a top-level Nintex/IT Owners group that have admin access to everything.

- Projects have their own per-project permissions, where groups and users can be added (including the creation of new groups purely for use within a specific project). This way everyone (or a subset of users) could be participants of a specific project and use its forms etc., and users who are participants elsewhere but manage this process in particular could be designers just within the scope of this project. (I think tenant permissions should override if they are higher than the project permission, so IT admin group would always have admin access to every project).

- Taking this an extra step would be to have an even more specific tier for per-workflow/per-form permissions, just in case there is a specific form that only one group within the project needs access to.

As an extension to the project idea, I think it would be nice if the My Nintex page stacked/grouped forms/task by project, otherwise there will very quickly be a big list of forms much like there is in workflows, connections etc.