Why should I use Swarm workflow?

By default Swarm's review process is basically advisory in nature with very few restrictions imposed on the review process. Team members can work in whatever way they want, but as projects grow in size and complexity, teams may prefer a stricter set of workflow rules over flexibility in order to improve productivity and quality. However, relying on people to stick to the agreed rules is not always enough.

The quality and speed of delivery of a product is heavily dependent on having a standardized and controlled workflow that follows best practice. It is also beneficial to automate the workflow where possible because the benefits of automating the workflow increases exponentially with scale. Teams within your organization will have varied workflow needs, it is important to maintain a balance between a company-wide policy and project specific needs. The Swarm workflow features have been designed to help you achieve this balance.

The Swarm workflow feature enables you to enforce your rules and enables you to define specific rules for different projects and branches, providing you with flexibility and control over your review workflow. Workflows can be shared and they can be used on multiple projects/branches. Changing the workflow rules updates the workflow for all of the projects and branches it is associated with. This makes it easy to make changes in one place and change the workflow of multiple projects/branches. Specific workflow rules can be applied globally, ensuring basic company policies are followed by every project.

For example of the workflows used in a typical project and a step-by-step guide to setting up and using workflows, see Workflow: a step-by-step walk-through.