Tasks vs Records and related action

Question

I want to generally ask the community on advantages and disadvantages of the 2 approaches below: 
 1. A long running process and user task in it waiting for user action 
 2. A record and related action which is displayed as a report (task report)  for user to act on 
 My take: 
 1. There are no long running process in second point so less memory usage, and easy deployments where no in flight process updates are necessary 
 2. In first point we are using Appians task management framework which I think one can mostly replicate with some extra effort on 2nd step, like group assignment, escalation, etc. 
 3. In 2nd point, it's easier to manage the data to be displayed.. 
 What am I missing? 
 :)

Dai Williams · Accepted Answer

Think of your record as a wrapper for other processes and tasks within that process if you wish. Having a record allows you to be far more flexible in your approach to designing the process. 
 
However, look at how other processes may be designed in your organisation. For example, a record may not be suitable for a process that may only be active for 5 minutes! 
 
Records tend to be more suitable for case management style processes where ad-hoc work and unstructured processes may be built on over time. Records can also be suitable where you are considering viewing groups of processes for a customer for example. You may also find it easier to "plug in" common frameworks like you have said. 
 
Hope this helps! 
 
Dai