Guided Workflow

I'm not sure if this the correct term for my use case. Most of the Drupal related workflow I've seen so far involved with user changing the state and the workflow firing action upon state changes. In my case however, I want the workflow to 'guide' the user so the focus is more the transition/action rather than state. Users doesn't really aware on the state of the object since they are presented with what actions available when they're viewing the object in any particular state.

As example, let's look at the typical publishing process with states and transitions define as:-

Draft - submit (draft -> submitted), edit (draft -> draft).

Submitted - review (submitted -> reviewed), reject (submitted -> rejected).

Reviewed - publish (reviewed -> published).

Published - finish workflow.

Rejected - finish workflow.

When user first created the article, actions available to him would be submit and edit (which I would like to show as a button on the node view page). Next when the workflow progress to being submitted, user with relevant access to the workflow then would be presented with buttons (Review, Reject) on the node view page. At this stage, user would not be allowed to edit the article anymore, unless we define another state and transition to allow such actions.

I'm wondering whether I can achieve this using the existing workflow/rules modules or it's clear that I have to build it from scratch.