What type of variable is used when you want to pass values from one process to another?

The correct answer is a process variable. In Appian, a process variable is specifically designed to hold data that can be accessed and manipulated within the scope of a process instance. When you need to pass values from one process to another, process variables serve this function by allowing you to maintain the state and data as the process flows through its defined course.

Process variables are crucial in ensuring that the required data is available throughout the lifecycle of a process, enabling data continuity and flow management between steps or even between different processes through calls or subprocesses. They can hold various data types and are accessible by all tasks and subprocesses within the process instance.

This is distinct from other types of variables such as global variables, which are accessible across the entire application but are not tied to any specific process, and local variables, which are limited to the context of a single task or process node and do not persist outside that context. Input parameters, on the other hand, are used when starting a process to pass initial data to the process variables but do not hold data for ongoing use within multiple processes.