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Workflow Director Agent

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Primary Responsibilities

• NAV Certification Workflows - Multi-step approval processes for daily NAV calculation and release
• Breach Escalation Automation - Intelligent routing and escalation for NAV variances and compliance breaches
• Approval Orchestration - Dynamic routing to appropriate approvers based on fund, amount, and risk thresholds
• SLA Management - Deadline tracking, escalation alerts, and performance metrics
• Workflow Generation - AI-powered creation of custom workflows from natural language descriptions
• Self-Healing Processes - Automatic error recovery and retry logic based on learned patterns

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Key Capabilities

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Workflow Generation & Validation

• Convert descriptions to executable workflows - “Create a workflow that validates NAV, checks compliance, routes for approval, then releases”
• Workflow optimization - Analyze execution patterns and suggest improvements for speed and reliability
• Validation and dry-runs - Test workflows before deployment to ensure logic is correct
• Integration with Temporal - Seamlessly deploy generated workflows to Temporal Cloud for orchestration

User: "Create a workflow that validates all NAV breaks are under 3bp,
       escalates any breaches to risk team, then routes to fund manager
       for approval before releasing NAV"

Workflow Director: Generates a 5-step Temporal workflow with:
  1. NAV validation activity
  2. Breach detection and severity assessment
  3. Escalation routing (automatic to Risk Analyst if >3bp)
  4. Approval task with time-based escalation
  5. NAV release activity with audit logging

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NAV Certification Workflows

1. Data Validation - Fund Accountant Assistant validates NAV breaks under 3bp threshold
2. Compliance Check - Compliance Sentinel verifies ASIC RG94 requirements met
3. Approval Routing - Routes to appropriate signatories based on fund and amount
4. Escalation - Automatic escalation if approval SLA exceeded
5. NAV Release - Final approval triggers NAV release and notification
6. Audit Trail - Complete workflow history logged for regulatory compliance

• Automatic break detection and investigation
• Multi-step approval with conditional routing
• Time-based escalation to senior management
• Parallel approval paths for efficiency
• Rollback capability if issues discovered post-release

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Breach Escalation Workflows

1. Detection - Monitor for NAV variances >3bp or other compliance breaches
2. Classification - Determine severity and likely root cause
3. Routing - Route to appropriate team based on breach type:
   • FX/Settlement delays → Integration Specialist
   • Corporate actions → Data Quality Analyst
   • Market data issues → Integration Specialist
   • Other exceptions → Fund Accountant Assistant
4. Investigation - Assigned team investigates and proposes resolution
5. Escalation - If not resolved within SLA, escalate to management
6. Closure - Log resolution and update compliance records

• Breach >5bp (immediate escalation to compliance officer)
• Multiple breaches in same fund (escalate to fund manager)
• Investigation exceeds 1-hour SLA (escalate to operations manager)
• Recurring breach pattern (escalate to risk committee)

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Approval Orchestration

Rule 1: Large NAV Release (>$100M)
  - Primary: Chief Financial Officer
  - Secondary: Head of Operations (if CFO unavailable)
  - Escalation: Chief Risk Officer (after 4 hours)

Rule 2: ASIC RG94 Breach
  - Primary: Compliance Officer
  - Secondary: Chief Compliance Officer (if primary unavailable)
  - Escalation: Board Audit Committee (after 2 hours)

Rule 3: Multi-Fund Release
  - Primary: Operations Manager
  - Secondary: Fund Manager (if ops unavailable)
  - Escalation: Chief Investment Officer (after 6 hours)

• Conditional routing based on fund properties (size, complexity, risk)
• Approver availability checking with auto-reassignment
• Parallel approvals for efficiency (e.g., compliance + CFO in parallel)
• Time-zone aware scheduling
• Audit trail with approval reasoning and evidence

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SLA Tracking & Escalation

• Real-time SLA monitoring - Track workflow duration against configured SLAs
• Automatic escalation - Escalate delayed workflows to management
• Performance dashboards - SLA compliance metrics by workflow type and approver
• Alerting - Proactive notifications when workflows approach SLA limits
• Root cause analysis - Identify bottlenecks (waiting for approver, data issues, etc.)

• NAV Certification: 90% must complete within 2 hours of market close
• Breach Investigation: 80% must resolve within 1 hour
• Approval SLA: 95% of approvals within 30 minutes
• NAV Release: 100% must release before market open next day

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Self-Healing Error Recovery

• Data import failure → Retry with fallback data source
• Approval timeout → Route to alternate approver
• Compliance check fails → Route to Compliance Sentinel for investigation
• Workflow activity fails → Automatic retry with exponential backoff
• Missing data → Prompt Data Quality Analyst to investigate

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Tools & Integrations

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Workflow Generation Tools

• Input: Natural language description of workflow steps
• Output: Temporal workflow definition (YAML/JSON)
• Capabilities: Multi-step workflows, conditional logic, parallel execution

• Analyze workflow for logic errors, deadlocks, missing steps
• Suggest optimizations for performance and reliability
• Test with sample data before deployment

• Push validated workflow to Temporal Cloud
• Configure retry policies, timeouts, and escalation
• Enable monitoring and alerting

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Approval Management Tools

• Create approval request with context and evidence
• Route to appropriate approver
• Set deadline and escalation rules
• Request specific documentation for approval

• Evaluate approval rules against fund/breach properties
• Find available approver in approver chain
• Route request with full context
• Track approval status and timing

• Apply pre-configured auto-approval rules
• Auto-approve low-risk items (e.g., less than 0.5bp variance)
• Flag exceptions that require manual approval
• Log auto-approval decision with reasoning

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Workflow Execution Tools

• Start workflow execution with context data
• Monitor execution progress in real-time
• Receive notifications of step completion
• Handle workflow results and errors

• Track workflow duration against SLA
• Alert if approaching or exceeding SLA
• Escalate if SLA breached
• Generate SLA compliance reports

• Retrieve execution history for audit purposes
• View all steps, approvals, and decisions
• Download workflow evidence for compliance
• Analyze execution patterns for optimization

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Use Cases

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Use Case 1: Daily NAV Release Workflow

• Manually check each fund’s NAV calculation
• Gather approval signatures from 5 different approvers
• Track which funds approved vs. pending
• Follow up on late approvals
• Release only when all approvals received
• Time: 45 minutes to 2 hours

1. Trigger workflow: “Release all NAV calculations for today”
2. Workflow automatically:
   • Validates all 30 NAVs against 3bp threshold
   • Identifies 2 breaches requiring investigation
   • Routes fund-level approvals to CFO (parallel to investigation)
   • Investigation completes, breach resolved
   • CFO approves all 30 NAVs
   • System releases all NAVs 30 minutes before market open
3. Time: 5 minutes to trigger, 90 minutes automated execution
4. Result: Early release, complete audit trail, zero manual errors

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Use Case 2: Breach Investigation & Escalation

• Operations manager notified of breach
• Manually investigates, checking admin feeds, custodian data, etc.
• Discovers late trade from custodian
• Documents issue in spreadsheet
• Routes to compliance officer
• Compliance approves release with notation
• Time: 45 minutes to 1.5 hours

1. Breach detected (4bp > 3bp threshold)
2. Workflow automatically:
   • Classifies as “likely late trade” (ML prediction)
   • Routes to Data Quality Analyst for investigation (5 min)
   • Analyst confirms late trade issue
   • Routes to Compliance Officer for review (2 min)
   • Compliance approves with issue logged
   • Routes back to Fund Manager for NAV release decision
3. Time: 12 minutes total
4. Result: Investigation complete, risk escalated appropriately, audit trail perfect

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Use Case 3: Approval Workflow with Escalation

• Routes approval request to CFO
• CFO unavailable (in meeting)
• Waits 2 hours for CFO response
• CFO delegates to COO without clear authority
• Confusion about who approved
• Delayed release impacts investor servicing

1. Approval workflow triggered for $500M NAV
2. Workflow executes:
   • Routes to CFO (primary approver)
   • Checks CFO availability - unavailable
   • Auto-routes to Head of Operations (secondary)
   • Head of Operations approves within 5 minutes
   • Audit log shows escalation path and approver
   • NAV releases immediately
3. Time: 5 minutes
4. Result: Quick approval, clear authority, complete audit trail

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Use Case 4: Custom Workflow Generation

• Compliance officer describes needed workflow
• IT team manually codes approval logic
• Testing takes 1-2 weeks
• First deployment in production
• Bugs discovered, more fixes needed
• Time: 2-3 weeks to production-ready workflow

1. Compliance officer describes in natural language: “New fund has 2 share classes (Institutional, Retail). Institutional always needs CFO approval. Retail needs both Fund Manager AND Compliance Officer approval, in parallel. If either declines, escalate to CIO.”
2. Workflow Director:
   • Generates complete workflow definition
   • Validates logic (no deadlocks, clear escalation paths)
   • Dry-runs with test data
   • Deploys to Temporal Cloud
3. Time: 15 minutes
4. Result: Production-ready workflow, tested, auditable

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Integration with Other Agents

• Triggers NAV validation activities
• Receives validation results and break notifications
• Routes validation failures for investigation

• Executes compliance check activities
• Receives compliance assessment results
• Routes compliance violations for investigation

• Routes breach investigation tasks
• Receives investigation results and root cause analysis
• Handles remediation recommendations

• Creates workflow status dashboards
• Displays SLA compliance metrics
• Shows approval bottleneck analysis

• Coordinates data ingestion workflows
• Manages timing of data loads for validations
• Orchestrates external system integrations

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Technical Architecture

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Temporal Cloud Integration

• Temporal Cloud region: ap-southeast-1 (Sydney)
• Workflow namespace: opshub-production
• Multi-tenant workflow isolation
• SLA monitoring and alerting built-in

• Sequential Workflows - Steps execute in order (NAV validation → approval → release)
• Parallel Workflows - Steps execute simultaneously (parallel approvals)
• Conditional Workflows - Logic routes based on conditions (routing by breach severity)
• Long-Running Workflows - Handle days-long processes with human-in-the-loop
• Retry Logic - Automatic retry with exponential backoff for transient failures

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State Management

-- Workflow execution state
workflow.workflow_executions {
  id: UUID
  workflow_id: string  -- temporal workflow ID
  status: enum (running, completed, failed, paused)
  started_at: timestamp
  completed_at: timestamp
  duration_minutes: integer
  sla_minutes: integer
  sla_breached: boolean
}

-- Approval tasks within workflows
workflow.approval_tasks {
  id: UUID
  workflow_execution_id: UUID
  approver_id: UUID
  status: enum (pending, approved, rejected, escalated)
  created_at: timestamp
  approved_at: timestamp
  approval_notes: text
  escalation_reason: text
}

-- Workflow activity logs
workflow.workflow_activity_logs {
  id: UUID
  workflow_execution_id: UUID
  activity_name: string
  status: enum (scheduled, started, completed, failed)
  started_at: timestamp
  completed_at: timestamp
  error_message: text (if failed)
}

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Performance Metrics

• Workflow completion rate - % of workflows completing on time
• Average workflow duration - Trend over time by workflow type
• SLA compliance - % of workflows meeting SLA targets
• Approval bottlenecks - Which approvers cause delays
• Escalation frequency - How often workflows escalate
• Error rates - % of workflows failing and requiring manual intervention

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Best Practices

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Designing Effective Workflows

• Start with simple workflows (3-5 steps) and add complexity gradually
• Set realistic SLAs based on historical data
• Include clear escalation paths with defined owners
• Test workflows with sample data before deployment
• Document workflow logic and approval rules

• Create overly complex workflows with too many conditional branches
• Set SLAs too tight without considering approver availability
• Forget to include escalation rules (can lead to indefinite waiting)
• Deploy untested workflows to production
• Change workflows frequently without analyzing impact

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Approval Rule Configuration

• Define approval rules by fund property (size, risk, complexity), not just workflow type
• Include secondary and tertiary approvers for business continuity
• Set escalation times based on fund criticality and market timing
• Document why each rule exists and when to change it
• Review approval rules quarterly for optimization

Rule: Large Single-Fund NAV Release (>$50M)
Why: Large NAV changes impact investor valuations
Primary Approver: CFO (can approve large NAV changes)
Secondary: Head of Ops (if CFO unavailable)
Escalation: CIO (if not approved within 2 hours)
Escalation Reason: Market pressure, investor servicing
Reviews: Quarterly with CFO and Compliance

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Monitoring SLA Performance

• Overall SLA compliance rate (target: >95%)
• Approval bottlenecks (identify slow approvers)
• Escalation frequency (high escalations = workflow design issue)
• Error rates (>5% errors = investigate root cause)
• Average workflow duration vs. SLA

• Analyze top 3 SLA violations - what caused them?
• Identify approvers with consistently slow responses
• Review escalation rules effectiveness
• Gather feedback from users on workflow usability

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Real-World Examples

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Example 1: Multi-Fund Daily Release

Daily NAV Release (9am Market Open)
├─ [Parallel] Validate all 30 fund NAVs (1-2 min)
├─ [Parallel] Identify breaches and route to investigators (immediate)
├─ Wait for breach investigation (5-10 min)
├─ [Parallel] Route approvals to CFO, Compliance (immediate)
├─ Wait for approvals (5-15 min)
├─ Execute auto-approvals for low-risk releases (immediate)
├─ Release all approved NAVs (immediate)
└─ Generate release report and audit log (1 min)

SLA: 100% released by 8:30am (30 min before market open)

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Example 2: Quarterly Compliance Certification

Quarterly RG94 Certification
├─ [Parallel] Pull 90 days of validation records
├─ [Parallel] Compile breach investigation history
├─ [Parallel] Calculate breach investigation SLA compliance
├─ Review by Compliance Officer (30 min - 1 hour)
├─ Review by External Auditor (1-2 hours)
├─ Generate certification report (5 min)
└─ File with ASIC (immediate)

SLA: Complete by last day of quarter month

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Conclusion

• Reduce manual work - 70-80% reduction in workflow coordination time
• Eliminate errors - Workflows execute consistently every time
• Improve compliance - Complete audit trails for regulatory requirements
• Scale operations - Handle complex multi-step processes without additional staff
• Respond faster - Approval workflows complete in minutes, not hours