diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6c3f627e53..f99d3e0d15 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,5 +3,47 @@ Global Superstructure/Workflow currently supporting the Finite-Volume on a Cubed
 
 The global-workflow depends on the following prerequisities to be available on the system:
 
+* workload management platform / scheduler - LSF or SLURM
+* workflow manager - ROCOTO (https://github.com/christopherwharrop/rocoto)
+* modules - NCEPLIBS (various), esmf v8.0.0bs48, hdf5, intel/ips v18, impi v18, wgrib2, netcdf v4.7.0, hpss, gempak (see module files under /modulefiles for additional details)
 * manage_externals - A utility from ESMCI to checkout external dependencies. Manage_externals can be obtained at the following address and should in the users PATH: https://github.com/ESMCI/manage_externals
 
+The global-workflow current supports the following machines:
+
+* WCOSS-Dell
+* WCOSS-Cray
+* Hera
+
+## Build global-workflow:
+
+### 1. Check out components
+
+The global-workflow uses the manage_externals utility to handle checking out its components. The manic-v1.1.6 manage_externals tag is supported.
+
+Run manage_externals (checkout_externals) while at top of clone:
+
+```
+$ checkout_externals
+```
+
+If checkout_externals is not in PATH then use full path to it:
+
+* WCOSS-Dell: /gpfs/dell2/emc/modeling/noscrub/emc.glopara/git/manage_externals/manic-v1.1.6/checkout_externals
+* WCOSS-Cray: /gpfs/hps3/emc/global/noscrub/emc.glopara/git/manage_externals/manic-v1.1.6/checkout_externals
+* Hera: /scratch1/NCEPDEV/global/glopara/git/manage_externals/manic-v1.1.6/checkout_externals
+
+### 2. Build components
+
+While in /sorc folder:
+```
+$ sh build_all.sh
+```
+
+### 3. Link components
+
+While in /sorc folder:
+```
+$ sh link_fv3gfs.sh emc $MACHINE
+```
+
+...where $MACHINE is "dell", "cray", or "hera".