CUP: Advanced workflow design question

Dear all,

There is a problem with the definition of a workflow that I am facing.

Say I have a standard, straight workflow. At some point during this workflow, I would like to insert two (independent) stages of additional approvals that only need to be obtained based on specific role attributes.

These role attributes are a) business process = FI and b) a custom attribute that defines if a special training certificate is required for the user before obtaining the role (attribute name: "special_training").

How do I add these stages to the workflow?

My doubts are these:

- It is not possible to simply create a second workflow that is a copy of the standard workflow but includes these two extra stages because initators cannot be based on role attributes (correct?).

- If I add these stages to the main workflow and a request does not contain roles that match either business process = FI or special_training = yes, I will have a "approver not found at stage" situation.

- If I deal with the "approver not found at stage" situation with an escape route, the request will be forwarded to a later stage in the workflow (say, "security review"). This would be ok if there were only one "additional/optional" stage that may cause the "approver not found at stage" - but in my case, there are two. This means that if the request drops out of the workflow at the first of the two optional stages and is forwarded to a later stage, the second optional stage is skipped! This, of course, is undesirable.

Note that by far the majority of requests do not qualify for these "extra" approvals.

I hope my description makes some sense and someone has solved a similar issue before?

Happy Easter to everyone who cares about it and a great weekend to everyone else.

Thanks and cheers

Patrick