A life cycle or set of life cycles represent a business process that an item travels through. A life cycle defines the steps that an item takes in a given business process. Each step or state is represented by queues. Every time an item moves to a new step or state it is called a transition. Essentially, a life cycle consists of a series of queues, transitions, actions and rules that solve a specific business issue.
When an item enters a life cycle, all of the necessary work that must be performed for the business process is performed on the item contained in OnBase. If the business process changes, any procedural changes can be incorporated into the life cycle(s) configuration immediately.