Asynchronous tasks are often misunderstood so here's a short note about them. You'll find a fuller description in the online documentation. Asynchronous tasks only terminate when a terminating event is received. This makes them especially suitable for tasks where you want to be absolutely sure that the user has done what was intended. The event is usually triggered within the method itself when the terminating condition is met.

These cases cry out for being implemented as asynchronous tasks:

The user MUST make a change in the business object (e.g. status change)

Post-processing of the method takes place in the update task and it is essential that the workflow does not continue until this post-processing has fully completed (e.g. creation of a business object)

Some users often perform this task directly from the menu without accessing the workflow system so feedback via the event is essential to ensure that the workflow continues automatically.