Embrace Step Functions for Efficient Workflow Management • Ben Smith & Eric Johnson

Step Functions enables visual workflow orchestration of AWS services through drag-and-drop interface (Workflow Studio) and integration with over 220 AWS services and 11,000 actions

Two types of workflows:

• Express Workflows: Fast, short-duration (up to 5 minutes), cost-effective for high-volume tasks
• Standard Workflows: Long-running (up to 1 year), support human approval steps and task tokens

Key benefits:

• Eliminates Lambda cold starts and reduces invocation costs
• Provides built-in error handling, retries, and parallel execution
• Manages service permissions and IAM roles automatically
• Enables asynchronous and synchronous workflow execution

Common patterns:

• Using Express workflows for CRUD APIs and quick operations
• Implementing task tokens for human approvals and external service integration
• Combining Express and Standard workflows for cost optimization
• Parallel state execution for concurrent processing
• Global variable management through parallel states

App Composer integration provides:

• Local IDE workflow editing capability
• SAM template generation
• Automatic IAM role and permission configuration
• Seamless integration with infrastructure as code

Best practices:

• Start with Express workflows, migrate to Standard when needed
• Use for orchestrating multiple AWS services
• Implement for complex routing logic and business processes
• Consider for AI/ML workflow orchestration
• Leverage for event-driven architectures