Function call life cycles provide a unified view of a workload. In many situations it is desirable, or required, to have more than one life cycle. When this is the case, it becomes difficult to view the complete workload in similar queues, across all life cycles. For example if each life cycle contains a Data Entry queue, you would have to check each life cycle individually to get the number of documents in the Data Entry state. This situation can be rectified by the creation of another type of function call life cycle. This function call life cycle could contain a single Data Entry queue where documents are moved during their own life cycles. Once the actions are performed in this separate life cycle, the documents are moved back to their original main life cycle to continue. This centralizes the documents to one queue, which allows for easier logic and security maintenance. The diagram below demonstrates how a unified view of the work that needs to be performed by the data entry personnel can be accomplished across multiple life cycles operating on potentially different document types. In the diagram, the dashed lines represent when the control is passed between the life cycles. In reality, the documents never leave their starting life cycle until the end. These documents are added from the Initial Queue in Application A and Application B to the Demographic Entry life cycle.
