Workflow transition
Also known as State transition, Work item transition
Definition
A workflow transition is an observable change in a work item's state, such as entering review, becoming blocked, or reaching done. Transitions supply the event history used to measure flow and waiting.
Movement creates the timeline
Transitions show when work changes condition. A start event, review entry, approval, deployment, and completion can each form a boundary for a flow measure. If a transition is recorded late or skipped, the resulting duration describes the record-keeping behavior as much as the delivery process.
A concrete example
An illustrative change moves from implementation to review at 3 p.m., receives approval at 11 a.m. the next day, and deploys Friday. Those transitions allow the team to separate review waiting from deployment waiting instead of treating the entire interval as one opaque delay.
Define the event
State who or what records a transition, whether reopening creates a new event, and how cancellations are handled. Keep event history when a work item revisits a state. A current-state snapshot cannot explain every wait.
Limitations
Not every meaningful action has a timestamp. Some transitions are inferred from commits or deployments and should be labeled as such. Avoid false precision when the source event is approximate.
How this relates to Weave
Weave can help teams inspect engineering events that accompany transitions through review and delivery. It cannot correct an inaccurate workflow history, so transition semantics and source-system hygiene remain essential to trustworthy analysis.
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