A calendar can be used in coordination with the lifecycle and workflow processes for a business object. By using a calendar to keep track of milestones and deadlines of interest, a workflow process can programmatically update the calendar to indicate the completion of an event or the regression to a prior event. The calendar can then be used as a status report of workflow progression and an estimator for future dates.

If a calendar is used in coordination with a workflow, there is a relationship between a set of the work items or robots for a workflow and the events for a calendar. For example, a workflow might advance the lifecycle state of a product to be “Approved For Production,” while there is a deadline event defined in the calendar for “Approved for Production.” Upon completion of the workflow robot, the workflow could set the actual end date of the calendar event to reflect the change.

Not all workflow tasks need to map to calendar events. Depending on the granularity of the workflow process or calendar, there might be many more of one or the other. This decision depends on the needs of the customer.

A calendar could be used instead of workflow to track a process; however, the disadvantages of this include lack of role assignment, notification, and all other features of workflow.