What is a Boomerang?

A Workday to Workday integration that replaces a manual process in Workday with an automated one or that enhances existing Workday functionality.

Boomerangs:

1. Take data from one or more Workday data sources via RaaS or API call 
2. Perform calculations against those data using predefined logic
3. Load data back into Workday, adding or updating existing objects

Motivation:

Suppose there is a need for functionality not currently delivered by Workday, and integration would significantly reduce friction for the customer or allow the customer to go live. In that case, a boomerang can be a tool to automate or enhance existing processes until Workday functionality is released that would replace it. 

Building a Boomerang:

The most crucial phase in boomerang development is integration discovery; it should occur in the Architect phase of the Workday deployment.

The first step of building a boomerang is clearly articulating the problem you are solving. By precisely identifying the manual processes or existing functionality that cause friction in a customer’s Workday experience, and by examining the touchpoints of those processes, you ensure you know:

1. Where to retrieve your data from in Workday, 
2. Where you need to insert transformed / result data in Workday, and 
3. Where to look for Workday functionality that would preclude the need for a boomerang that you may not be aware of

Before building a boomerang, an implementer should take all possible measures to ensure that the use case or problem that the boomerang would solve can’t already be solved using delivered Workday functionality included in the customer’s subscribed SKUs. If you cannot articulate your use case clearly, you won’t be in an excellent position to recognize if and when a Workday release solves for all or a part of the use case for your boomerang.

Remember: a custom programmatic process is never as valuable to a customer as delivered functionality that is clearly visible in the tenant and is supported by Workday. Boomerangs should be built with the perspective that they are supporting a customer’s implementation until a permanent Workday feature makes it unnecessary.

Notes:

• A boomerang has Workday as its sole data source. If the integration makes calls to update other systems, it is a bidirectional integration between Workday and another system.
• These integrations are typically built in Workday Studio.
• As Workday continues to evolve, the boomerang’s use case may be solved by Workday functionality delivered in a future release. When architecting, ensure that your functional architect has confirmed that there is not existing or forthcoming product functionality that could be used instead of the boomerang