XTM Cloud offers huge flexibility when it comes to building up XTM Cloud workflow definitions and defining transitions between particular workflow steps. This article presents the ins and outs of how transition marks work in the XTM Cloud workflow, especially in cases when multiple Linguists work on a particular workflow step.

What are transition marks?

Transition marks or blocking mechanisms are controls with which you can set rules to specify when specific workflow steps are available to work on by assigned linguists in the XTM Cloud UI.

They are set up in the XTM Workflow editor:

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When are they used? – splitting a job into bundles

Transition marks are primarily of importance when XTM Cloud jobs are split into multiple smaller bundles.

A bundle is a separate part of a job that can be assigned to a different assignee than the other parts. Its main purpose is to enable different Linguists to work on a single workflow step simultaneously. What is more, when setting up bundles in the Workflow tab, with a user assigned, this user is being transferred as an assigned actor to all bundles.

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IMPORTANT!

A common misconception about splitting an XTM Cloud job into bundles is that it enables multiple Linguists to work on the exact same segments in XTM Workbench, in the same workflow step. It works in exactly the opposite way: Linguists have a different scope of segments assigned to them in XTM Workbench, within a single workflow step. Other segments, which are not assigned to a specific Linguist, are locked and they cannot access them in XTM Workbench.

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IMPORTANT!

You cannot split bundles between LSP and other assignees. In such situation, all bundles will be assigned to this LSP only. Such an option was never possible in XTM Cloud.

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Therefore, the best workaround in such situations is either have two projects with the same files or have the very same file doubled in a single project, so one can be assigned internally and one can be assigned to the LSP.

Types of transition mark

There are three types of transition mark for insertion between workflow steps in XTM Cloud:

Open	Comma → Bundles in the neighboring workflow steps can be processed at the same time, which means that the first workflow step does not necessarily have to be finished first: Open

Open	Comma → Bundles in the neighboring workflow steps can be processed at the same time, which means that the first workflow step does not necessarily have to be finished first: Open
Open	Arrow → A specific bundle in the next workflow step cannot be started until the previous workflow step for the bundle has been finished first. Open
Open	Hashtag → No bundles in the next workflow step can be started until all the bundles from the previous step have been finished first. Open