Example: employee offboarding
When someone leaves, their access has to be revoked, their final pay made and their equipment collected. None of these waits for the others, so all three start together. When all three are done, a person checks what they handed on and signs the file closed.
HR records a leaving date.
These three steps start together.
An agent revokes every account on the access list and hands on the revoked accounts list.
The payroll run makes the final payment and hands on the final payslip.
The line manager collects the laptop, phone and badge, and hands on the signed equipment receipt.
A person checks the three handoffs and signs the file closed, which closes the run.
The steps and their order, which the specification calls the phase graph, come from each step's after: line. A step starts when every step it names has finished. The three middle steps name only the trigger, so they start together, and close-out names all three, so it waits for all three.
The process, written out
PROCESS: employee offboarding id: hr/offboarding v4 owner: Head of People Operations effective: 2026-10-18 trigger: HR records a leaving date for an employee concurrency: runs may overlap, one for each person leaving goal: every account revoked, final pay made, equipment returned, and the file signed closed by a named person phases: revoke-access - harness: every account on the access list revoked, one system at a time owner: IT operations after: trigger automation: supervised final-pay - system: the payroll run makes the final payment owner: Payroll after: trigger automation: autonomous equipment - human: collect the laptop, phone and badge owner: line manager after: trigger automation: manual close-out - human: check the three handoffs and sign the file closed owner: Head of People Operations after: revoke-access + final-pay + equipment automation: never handoffs: revoke-access -> close-out: the revoked accounts list, each account with the time it was revoked final-pay -> close-out: the final payslip equipment -> close-out: the signed equipment receipt records: closing-record - the version run, the three handoffs, and who signed the close and when amendments: v3 - revoke-access moved from assisted to supervised after a debrief v4 - revoke-access written as a harness: phase, led by one agent
Each part of this text is explained on Writing a process.
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