In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there are two types of timing for executing workflows: background and real-time. You can read about the details of each online but the main difference is that the steps of real-time workflows are executed as part of a single transaction whereas background workflows are scheduled by the asynchronous process server. Don’t worry, the rest of the post is not this technical 🙂 A real-time workflow can be used to alert the user when a specific condition is met. The workflow will also stop as a result.
In my example, we have a very strict sales process dictating that the opportunity must be at least 30 days old before it can be closed. Your real-time workflow could run anytime the status of your opportunity changes to closed. If the age of the opportunity is less than 30 days, an alert will appear with a message of your choice. Now the appearance of the alert is not very friendly since it says “Business Process Error” but the mechanism can still be useful once you get past that.
