Patent ID: 8151208

Claim:
A method in a computing device for presenting workflow tracking information for workflows assigned to business objects, a workflow specifying approval steps for a business object, the method comprising: receiving from a user an identification of a business object with an assigned workflow; sending to a server a request to retrieve tracking information for the identified business object and assigned workflow; receiving from the server the requested tracking information for the identified business object and assigned workflow, the tracking information including a workflow approval status, an originator identifier identifying an originator, and a plurality of steps of the assigned workflow, a step including a step name, a step approval status, approver tracking information, and zero or more next steps, each instance of approver tracking information including an approver identifier and an approver approval status, each next step including one or more steps, wherein at least one of the plurality of steps includes a next step; generating a display of the received tracking information, the display indicating the workflow approval status and the originator and providing a tree-like representation that includes: a root node at a first level representing the workflow and identifying the business object, and the originator of the workflow; for each first step of the workflow, a node at a second level representing that first step and identifying the step name, and the step approval status of the first step; and for each next step of each first step of the workflow, a node at a third level representing that next step and identifying the step name, and the step approval status of that next step wherein the display includes a line between the root node and each node representing a first step and between each node representing a first step and each node representing a next step of that first step, and wherein the workflow includes multiple first steps or a first step includes multiple next steps; and outputting to the user the generated display.