Process stuck at "Set to superseded" due to private checkout

[cying]

Version: Windchill 12.0

Use Case: During our promotion request, the process flow is stuck at "set to superseded". Our fix is to contact the user who has the previous release uploaded to their workspace to delete the objects from their workspace on the server side. I then have to contact our IT to search for the workflow from the queue manager for them to do a reset. This is very tedious and time-consuming.

Description:

On our promotion request, the previous release is set to superseded once the latest object is approved for release.  However, if the previous release is "uploaded" to the server side, it is considered as a "private checkout"  The system can not change the state when it is "checked-out".  Site admin access is required to reset the workflow after the objects have been removed from the server side.  

I am searching for a workaround, or a solution to bypass this behavior.  In my opinion, the system can differentiate the "checked-out vs private checkout" 

[avillanueva]

What you need to do is add a pre-check before any state change that sees if any items are checked out and hands failures off to the a person to fix. This avoids the task failing and immediately notifies users of the issue. A better check is not allowing them to advanced to next step without checking in items. That can be done via a transition check.

[cying]

We have a check to validate that the collected objects are not checked out.   The "private checkout" issue is:

• REV AA is at PRODUCTION RELEASED
• REV AB has been approved to PRODUCTION RELEASED
• REV AA needs to be set to SUPERSEDED.  REV AA was "uploaded" to the user's workspace on the server side.  The system thinks this is a checked-out and cannot set the state to SUPERSEDED.   The worksround is to notify the user to remove the objects and refresh the workflow.