The difference between participants and assignments
Two words that sound alike and mean different things. Getting them straight explains most confusion about who sees what.
A participant is on the run. They can see it and work it.
An assignment is on a step. It says a particular person is responsible for that step, and they are notified about it.
How they relate
You add participants when you create a run. Assignments are made on steps, either inherited from the workflow or set inside the run.
Being a participant does not give you any particular step. Being assigned a step means it appears on your list and you hear about it when it is due.
A run with five participants and no assignments is a shared list everyone can see and nobody owns. A run where every step is assigned but somebody was left off the participant list means that person may not be able to reach the run at all.
Which one you want
- Somebody needs to see the work, or might pick a piece of it up: make them a participant.
- Somebody is responsible for a specific step: assign it to them.
- Both, usually. Assigning steps to people who are also participants is the normal case.
Where you see each
On the Runs page, participants are shown on the run. Inside the run, assignments are shown on the individual steps, and you can filter the steps by who they are assigned to.
Video walkthrough
This video walks through the difference between participants and assignments.