One of the biggest problems people had with SharePoint Designer 2007 is the inability to run actions in parallel. For instance, what if you wanted to get the approval from 5 users all at the same time? In 2007, you had to issue tasks to those users sequentially, one after another. With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can issue the tasks (or any other action, for that matter) all at once.
Parallel Blocks are similar to Steps, except that they allow you to run multiple actions consecutively. For a complex workflow with many steps that are not necessarily dependant on each other, parallel blocks will allow you to complete the workflow much faster. The figure below shows two actions that run in sequence. The second task is created after the first task has been marked as complete:
Conversely, with SharePoint Designer 2010 I can now enable both tasks to be created at the same time. The workflow will continue executing after both tasks have been completed:
Steps can also run in parallel. Notice the figure below showing how step 2 and step 3 both execute at the same time, rather than one after the other:
These parallel blocks will undoubtedly make the chasm between Visual Studio workflows and SharePoint Designer workflows smaller, because until now, only Visual Studio workflows could perform actions in parallel. This enables Designer to meet more complex business requirements…
Phil