What are workflows?

Workflows are TerraTrue’s frontline tools for gathering and documenting information about how your org uses data. Built on a simple question-and-answer interface, workflows can be assigned to team-members and reviewers to give you a full view of your privacy needs at each stage of your development lifecycle. TerraTrue provides a wide range of workflows for different needs:

  • The Data Spec
    The heart of TerraTrue is the Data Spec — a five-minute workflow that help PMs, engineers, and development directors document how each launch collects, uses, shares, and retains data. TerraTrue learns how your org uses data and suggests answers based on prior launches, so the Data Spec gets smarter and simpler the more you use them.

  • Privacy worksheets
    Privacy worksheets are expanded question-and-answer interfaces designed that help privacy managers evaluate how launches use data. Each privacy worksheet generates a custom list of questions for each launch based on information gathered from the Data Spec, your org settings, and your launch history. When the privacy worksheet is complete, TerraTrue provides the privacy manager with a list of recommended actions.

  • Custom workflows (formerly custom questionnaires)
    TerraTrue lets you create and configure your own workflows to simplify and automate TerraTrue. Use custom workflows to gather and consolidate information, assign risk levels, or automate actions based on your users’ responses. Custom workflows support conditional logic, so you can configure them to surface when specific conditions are met — like when new launches are created, when a sensitive data type is used, or when a launch is associated with a particular product or component.

  • Privacy assessments
    Privacy assessments are supplemental workflows that appear automatically in the privacy worksheet based on each launch’s data and privacy practices. Privacy managers use privacy assessments to understand the finer points of their org’s regulatory needs.

  • Launch creation workflows
    Launch creation workflows help you screen new launches and automate tasks by asking a few quick questions whenever a launch is created. These workflows can be customized with conditional logic to surface only in specific scenarios — like when a certain product is used — and can be configured to automatically assign reviewers, mark a launch as not needed, or populate fields in the Data Spec.

  • Invitation workflows
    Most workflows are accessed through individual launches, but you can also invite people to fill out a workflow when you need information that might not be directly related to a specific launch. We call these invitation workflows, and we offer two kinds:
    • Third-party assessments (formerly external questionnaires)
      Third-party assessments are designed to be shared with vendors, contractors, and other external partners to help you understand how their data and privacy practices affect your org. Third-party assessments use access-controlled invitations and are simple to customize, so you can ask the right questions to the right users in a secure environment. TerraTrue learns from each response to streamline your launches and update your recommendations.
    • Internal surveys
      Internal surveys are powerful, customizable workflows that help you gather information from people inside your org. Use them to understand your teams’ data and privacy practices — like what types of data are being used, where that data is processed, or to compile cookie inventories across web pages.

How do I customize workflows?

TerraTrue's default workflows — like the Data Spec and the privacy worksheet — are built into launches to help you understand and document how your org uses data. You can also customize and automate TerraTrue by creating your own workflows. Add workflows to launches and Data Specs to gather and consolidate information, assign risk scores, or automate actions based on your users’ responses. Workflows support conditional logic, so you can configure them to surface when specific conditions are met — like when new launches are created, when a sensitive data type is used, or when a launch is associated with a particular product or component.

How do I create a custom workflow?

Users with the Workflow Manager role can create workflows in the Workflows Library. Select Create New in Launch Creation Workflows or Launch Summary Workflows to begin. Once the basic workflow details have been provided by the user they will be taken to the workflow builder.

Setting up your custom workflow

The Basics section of the workflow builder asks you to add a name and description to your workflow, and provides four configuration options:

  • Workflow Location lets you select where your workflow will be displayed. Here's a full breakdown of the rules surrounding workflow locations:

    Workflow Location Options for Custom Workflows

    Location selected

    When and where will users encounter the workflow?

    Launch creation

    When creating a launch, the user is asked to associate the launch with a product. If a designated product is selected, the user will encounter the custom workflow later in the launch-creation process. The launch status will be set as “not screened” until all launch-creation workflows have been completed.

    Launch summary

    When the logical conditions associated with the workflow are met, these workflows will appear on the launch summary page. Launch summary workflows are often used to supplement a launch and can be completed or assigned as needed. Users are not required to complete all of the workflows on the launch summary page.

    Data Spec

    When the logical conditions associated with the workflow are met, these workflows will appear at the end of the Data Spec.

    Third party assessment

    Third-party assessments help you understand how the data and security practices of your vendors, contractors, or other external partners might affect your own privacy program. An assessment can contain one or more workflows that can be drawn from your library of custom workflows. When you designate a workflow as being intended for third party assessments, it will be filed in a library that you can later draw from when building third party assessments.

    Internal survey

    Internal surveys are used to gather information about data and privacy practices from people inside your org. When you designate a workflow as being intended for internal surveys, it will be filed in a library that you can draw from when building internal surveys.

  • Visibility lets you specify if your workflow should appear on every launch creation, launch summary, or Data Spec, or if it should appear only when certain conditions are met. Configuring workflows with conditional logic offers a powerful way to streamline TerraTrue by ensuring that your teams are never asked to complete irrelevant workflows.

    Visibility Rules for Custom Workflows

    Setting

    When and how will your workflow appear to users?

    Always

    When this option is selected and your visibility rules are set to "Always," your workflow will display on every new Data Spec by default. 

    Conditional logic

    If you're using conditional visibility rules, selecting this option will display this workflow directly on new Data Specs when your logic rules are met.

    Leave this option unselected to allow users to manually add this workflow to new Data Specs.

  • Enable risk scoring lets you assign risk levels to different answers to help you automatically assess the outcome of a workflow.
  • Send responses to Google Sheets lets you automatically store workflow responses in Google Sheets.

Creating and managing questions

Use the Structure section to add or remove questions, choose question types, organize your questions into pages, and add content and logic to individual questions. Workflows support nine question types:

  • Checkbox questions allow users to select zero, one, or several options from a list.
  • Radio questions allow users to select exactly one option from a list.
  • Text Area questions offer users a large text composer with rich-text functionality.
  • Text Field questions provide a short text field and are intended for brief responses
  • Yes/No questions allow users to answer either “Yes” or “No,” and can be configured with a “I don't know” option.
  • Date questions ask users to select a date from a calendar interface.
  • File Upload questions allow users to upload files.
  • Alert questions provide information to users and do not ask for a user response.
  • Taxonomy questions ask users to select one or more items from your organization’s custom taxonomies, such as data types, data uses, third parties, or retention periods.

Adding and managing custom actions

The Custom Actions section lets you automatically raise a new Jira issue or mark a review team as not needed or blocked based on users’ responses to one or more of your questions.

 

Managing workflows

The Workflow Library houses all of your workflows, both published and unpublished. Workflows that have responses or invitations associated with them, are considered "in use" and cannot be deleted.

However, if you need to make changes to a published workflow, you can simply unpublish it. This allows you to make necessary updates and then republish the workflow when you’re ready.

For unpublished workflows without any responses, you have the option to delete them permanently. This can be a useful option for removing any unnecessary workflows.

Unpublishing a workflow

This action stops any further responses from being collected. Responses to unpublished workflows are available to respondents, but the workflow will not show up in a launch unless a response to a revision exists. 

To unpublish a workflow:

  1. Navigate to the relevant workflow type page
  2. Click on any published workflow to get to the Workflow Details
  3. Click on the carat on the Edit Workflow button and select Unpublish
  4. Confirm the change in the pop-up by selecting Unpublish Workflow

    unpublish_workflow.png

Permanently deleting a workflow

A workflow must first be unpublished without any associated responses before it can be permanently deleted. 
These workflows will no longer be available to publish or edit once the deletion process is complete.

To permanently delete a workflow:

  1. Head to Workflow Library
  2. Navigate to the relevant workflow type page
  3. Click on an unpublished workflow that is not currently in use to get to the Workflow Details
  4. Click on the carat on the Edit Workflow button and select Delete Workflow

Email notifications

To help manage deleted workflows, email notifications will be sent to Privacy Managers, Workflow Managers, and Admin users in the following circumstances:

  • When a workflow is unpublished
  • When a workflow is permanently deleted

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