Article last updated on the 26th of January, 2026.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Requirements
3.2. Creating stages
3.4. Creating transitions
3.5. Creating constraints
1. Introduction
Stage management is a very powerful way to control the life-cycles of work items in WorkPoint. Regardless of whether a WorkPoint solution is used for project management, case management, or other types of work, stages can be used to control phases and progress of the work by splitting the work up in specific stages.
In practice, life-cycles in WorkPoint are controlled using stage models, comprised of at least two of the following three:
- Stages: Stage models are always comprised of stages. A couple of examples of stages could be "Preparation", "Implementation" or "Active".
- Transitions: Transitions define how work items can move between the stages defined in a given stage model. For example, a transition can be set up between Stage A and Stage B, and between Stage B and Stage C. This makes it possible to go from Stage A to Stage B, and from Stage B to Stage C, but not between Stage A and Stage C.
- Constraints: Constraints are optional configurations which blocks transitioning between stages under customizable circumstances. For example, using constraints it is possible to make it so that a work item cannot transition between Stage A and Stage B if all tasks on the work item are not completed, or if a specific report document has not yet been created.
Business modules can have multiple stage models defined. For example, a Projects business module can have multiple stage models defined, for example to differentiate stage models between small and large projects. This ensures flexibility, as projects of varying sizes, or cases of different types etc., do not always follow a common life-cycle.
Stage management is done per business module. This means that each business module has its own stage settings, and each business module can implement differing stage configurations.
Overall, Stage Management acts as the backbone for structured and controlled work processes in WorkPoint 365. It enhances governance, improves clarity for end‑users, and enables intelligent automation throughout the life-cycle of each work item.
In this article, we will go through the basics of setting up a stage model, and how to use it on a work item in WorkPoint. The typical approach is to start by creating all the stages needed by a stage model, and then create the stage model and transitions between the stages. If necessary, we can then create the required constraints. After that, we can then enable staging for the business module.
2. Requirements
There are currently no license requirements for this feature. If using this feature in collaboration with e.g. Action Management, an Action Management license is necessary for this to work.
3. Configuration
3.1. Accessing Stage Settings
To configure stage settings in the modern UI version of WorkPoint, follow these steps:
- Click the Home-button in the top-left corner of the WorkPoint solution.
- Click the cog-icon to open the WorkPoint Administration.
- In the WorkPoint Administration, click the header of the business module for which stage settings should be configured.
- Click the “Stage Settings”-menu item from the list.
- The “Enable staging for this business module”-button can be used to enable and disable staging. This can be useful if staging should be temporarily turned either on or off for some reason. All stage settings and configurations persist through disabling and re-enabling staging. Be advised that staging is not always necessary. In that case, simply do not configure these settings. Also note that this setting should only be enabled once a set of stages and a stage model has been created.
- In the "Stage Models" section, you can add new stage models to the business module. Business modules may have multiple stage models - functionality which you can read more about in this article.
- Substaging makes it possible to define child stages for existing stages on the business module. This functionality can be enabled by clicking "Enable substaging for this business module". You can read more about substaging in this article.
- In the "Stages" section, you can add new stages by clicking "Add stage".
3.2. Creating stages
In WorkPoint 365, stages of the following types can be created:
| Stage type | Function |
|---|---|
| Start | Acts as the first stage of the stage model. Work items can transition out of, but not into this stage, as it acts as the very beginning in the work item's life-cycle. |
| StartAndStandard | Stages of this type can act both as a Start stage and a Standard stage. This means that a work item using a stage model with this type of stage can begin in this stage, but it also acts as a Standard stage in the sense that it can be transitioned into, for example from a pure Start stage. |
| Standard | Stages of the Standard type can be transitioned into and out of as defined by the stage model transitions. |
| End | Acts as the end stage of the stage model, and the final phase in the work item's life-cycle. Work items can transition into but not out of stages of this type. When a work item enters this stage, it's a great time to lock the item for editing, and perform other relevant actions, such as archiving it in a different business module. |
Using these types, we will demonstrate stage creation by creating the following stages for our Projects business module:
Idea (Start), Analysis (StartAndStandard), Planning (Standard), Active (Standard), Closed (Standard), Archived (End).
- To add a new stage, we click the "Add stage" in the Stages section.
- In the "Title" field on the Add stage page, we can provide a title for the new stage.
- If we click the globe icon next to the Title field, we can add translations to various supported languages.
- In the "Stage type" field, we can select the stage type for the new stage.
- In the "Stage Link" field, we can provide a link to a resource which can provide additional information about this stage. This appears as a link when selecting the stage in the Stage panel in WorkPoint 365 (which we will demonstrate later). The linked resource could for example be a life-cycle guideline document, living on the Documents library on the root site of the solution, but importantly, it should be located in a place where it is accessible to users who need to be able to read it.
- To save the new stage, we click the Save button.
The new stage will now appear in our list of stages:
Using the same method, we can now create the other stages mentioned previously:
With these stages defined, we can now move on to creating a stage model.
3.3. Creating a stage model
In this section, we will take the six stages created earlier, and use them to create a stage model for our Projects business module.
- To create a new stage model, we click "Add Stage Model" in the Stage Models section.
- In the "Name" field, we can give the stage model a fitting name. In this case, we are not planning on having multiple stage models, so we just call this one "Default Stage Model".
- If we click the globe button, we can provide translations for the name in various supported languages.
- For the "Is Default" setting, we can set whether this stage model should be the default stage model for this business module.
- To finalize the creation of the new stage model, we click the "Save" button.
On the stage model page, we can now assign the stages we made before:
- In the "Stages" section, we click "Set Existing Stages".
- Using the checkers, we can select which stages we want to use in the stage model we are configuring. In this case, we selected all of them.
- To save the selections, we click the "Save" button.
The stages are now added to the stage model:
3.4. Creating transitions
In this example, six stages have been created for demonstration purposes; Idea, Analysis, Planning, Active, Closed, and Archived.
In this section, we will set up transitions between the stages, following this stage model diagram:
Since both the Idea and Analysis stages can function as Start stages, they both lead into the Planning Stage, but since Analysis is a StartAndStandard, the Idea stage also leads into that. From there, the stage model is linear towards the End stage Archived.
To create a new transition, we click "Add transition" in the "Transitions" section.
- In the From stage selector, we select which stage this transition goes from, and in the To stage selector, we select where it goes to.
- To save the transition, we click the "Save" button.
The transition is now created in the stage model:
In exactly the same way, we create the other transitions for our model:
Now we have a stage model comprised of a number of stages, and it's possible to transition between them.
From here, we can optionally set up constraints to gate some transitions behind certain conditions. If constraints are not needed, you can skip the next section of this article entirely.
3.5. Creating constraints
Constraints are used for settings up requirements for when one stage can transition to another. This is useful if e.g. all tasks on a project needs to be completed before closing. This is done using a so-called CAML query. You can read about CAML queries and the language by visiting this link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/schema/collaborative-application-markup-language-caml-schemas.
In this example, we will create a constraint which makes it impossible to transition from our Active stage to the Closed stage, if there are any non-completed tasks on the project:
- In the Constraints section, we click "Add constraint".
- In the checkbox, we can set the constraint active or inactive. Only active constraints will be enforced.
- In the Title field, we can add a title for the constraint. In this example a name of “Active -> Closed: Open Tasks” is chosen. This title will not be displayed to the end user.
- In the "Stage" field, we select the stage to which this constraint should apply. The constraint will be checked when the user tries to transition into the selected stage. In this example, we want to enforce a rule if the user attempts to go to the "Closed" stage.
- In the "Type" field, we select whether a violation of the constraint should result in a warning or an error. Warnings can be ignored by the user. Errors cannot be bypassed. In this example, “Error” is selected because we want to full stop the user from transitioning into the Closed stage if there are any open tasks on the project.
- In the "Constraint source" field, we select the source to be used for this constraint. If “List” is selected, the constraint will apply to one of the lists on the entity site. If “Metadata” is selected, the constraint applies to a specific metadata field on the entity site, which can be selected from a list. In this example, “List” is selected, because we want to check if there are any items matching our rule in the Tasks list.
- In the "List" selector, we select the list for which the CAML query later specified will be run against. In this example, we want to see if there are any tasks in the Tasks list which are not completed. Therefore, the “Tasks” list is selected.
- Next, we select the “Definition Type” for this constraint. A value of “Required” means that the constraint is violated if no result is returned by the CAML query. A value of “Prohibited” means that the constraint is violated if the CAML query returns any element(s). In this example, we want the constraint to be violated if there are ANY tasks that are not completed. Therefore, “Prohibited” is selected.
- The “Definition” holds the CAML query that is executed against the selected list in pt. 32. In this example, we want to make sure that there are no items in the Tasks list, whose status is NOT "Completed". This is specified in the query. For more information on CAML queries and the language, visit this link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/schema/collaborative-application-markup-language-caml-schemas. Various tools for creating CAML queries exist but are not directly endorsed by WorkPoint.
- In the "Message" field, we type a message which the user will be presented with if the constraint is enforced, as per our setup. In this example, the message lets the user know that there was an error, and that there are open tasks on the project which need to be closed in order to proceed. It is good practice to create informative error messages so that users know what to correct in order to successfully perform the operation they were trying to do.
- Complete configuring the constraint by clicking the “Save”-button.
The constraint now shows in the list of constraints in the main Stage Settings page:
3.6. Enabling staging on the business module
Now that we have created a set of stages, and implemented it in a Stage Model, including transitions and constraints, we can proceed to enable staging on the business module and use the Stage Model in practice:
- In the Edit Stage Model page, we click the "Back" button.
- Back on the Stage Settings page, we click the "Enable staging for this business module" button.
This extends the Stage Settings page with several new fields:
We will not cover these settings in this articles, because they all relate to non-basic stage management functionality.
Instead, we will take a look at how we can use the stage model configured in this article in practice.
4. End User Guide
When a stage model is implemented and activated on a business module, entities within it will be born in the model's Start or StartAndStandard stages, if applicable.
An entity's current stage, as well as the stage model can be viewed when expanding the entity's top panel:
- The Stage pill in the Entity top panel displays the current stage. In this case, we have created a project in the "Idea" start stage.
- Clicking the project in the top panel expands it to display the stage model, including previous and future stages.
To change the current stage, WorkPoint provides a standard process for doing so. When a stage model is activated on a business module, this standard process is automatically made available in the My Tools menu on that module:
- Clicking the "Change stage" button in the My Tools panel opens the standard process for changing the stage:
- In the first step of the process, the stage model is displayed, and we can select which one our project should transition to. The bullseye icon shows the current stage. The empty colored circles show the stages which the project can currently transition into, based on the current stage. The gray circles display stages in the stage model, which the project cannot transition into at the moment, because of the current stage.
- When a valid stage is selected (here the Analysis stage), the background turns colored and a small arrow appears next to it.
- We can then click the "Continue" button to proceed to the next step in the process.
- In the next step, we can optionally edit any current metadata on our project. in this instance, we do not have too many fields to edit, so we just leave everything as it is.
- We can then click the "Save" button.
- The stage is now being changed, and eventual metadata changes are being saved.
Once completed, the process shows a final message:
If we close the process and take a look at the top panel of the project, we can see the stage has been changed:
Note that you can make your own process to change the stage, for example if you need a simpler or more complex process to suit your needs. You can read more in this article.
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