Lesson 3: Run and administer a workflow

Use the instructions in this lesson to launch (run) the car loan application workflow from lesson 2 and process the various steps from the user point of view. We will also examine the active workflow as a tracker and as a workflow administrator.

To access Design mode in Process Designer, you must be a member of PWDesigner access role.
To access the Administrator functionality, you must be a member of PWAdministration access role.
All users can access items in their inboxes and items in work queues, if the work queues allow general access.

To launch the car loan application workflow:

  1. If the CarLoanApplication is not open, in Process Designer select File > FileNet > Open/Checkout and locate CarLoanApplication.pep.
  2. Select File > Launch Main Workflow.

    In a production system, the workflow would usually be launched by a user action, such as checking in a loan application document. Launching from Process Designer is for convenience in testing the workflow definition.

  3. On the Launch page, read the instructions and do the following steps.
    1. Enter the required information:
      • ApplicantName – enter text to represent the applicant name.
      • TaxID– enter any numbers to represent a tax ID number.
      • LoanAmount – enter numbers (integer) to represent the amount of the car loan, such as 28500.
      • DownPayment– enter numbers to represent a down payment amount, such as 3000. (Less than 1000 sends the process through the VerifyIncome step even if the applicant has a high credit score.)
      • IncomeAmount - enter numbers to represent annual income, such as 55000.
      • IncomeSource - enter text, such as ABC Corp.
    2. Click F_Trackers and specify yourself (your user name) as a tracker for this instance of this workflow.

      Note that in Workflow Properties we could have specified a user who would automatically be a tracker every time this workflow ran. Instead, we are specifying the tracker at launch time which allows us to specify a different tracker each time we launch the workflow.

    3. Click Launch to start the workflow, sending it to the first step, CheckCredit.
  4. To access the steps of the running workflow from Process Designer, select Tools > Personal Work Manager.

    In a production system, users would use Workplace or Workplace XT to access tasks in their inboxes and in work queues to which they have access. This shortcut in Process Designer is for convenience in testing a new workflow definition.

    PWM displays your Inbox (your user name) and Work Queues you are authorized to see.

  5. Double-click to open the Work Queues folder and the Credit folder to access work items in the Credit queue.
  6. As one of the credit clerks who can process this work, open the CheckCredit step.

    In the CreditScore field, enter a number between 400 and 900 to represent the credit score of the applicant. Click Complete to complete the step.

  7. You specified yourself as a tracker for this workflow. In PWM, open the Tracker folder and open the CarLoanApp workflow to check on the progress.

    The map shows the steps that have been completed and the current step waiting to be processed. Click on any completed step to see the data field values at that step. As a tracker, you can lock the current step and change the values, complete the current step, and other actions to manage this workflow.

  8. The work continues to the DownPayment step, which is processed by the Process Engine server, and then to either the SetRate step or the VerifyIncome step, depending on the amount of the down payment.

    If the CreditScore was greater than 650 and the DownPayment amount was greater than 1000, open your inbox and open the SetRate step. Do not click Complete because that will end the workflow.

    Otherwise, open the Credit work queue and open the ContactEmployer step. Look at the field values, and then click Complete.

You can open the SetRate step or the DenyApp step to look at the field values, but do not complete the SetRate step or the DenyApp step because we want to examine the active workflow using Process Administrator. If you complete either of these terminal steps, the workflow ends and you cannot view the work items using Process Administrator.

To examine and administer the active workflows:

  1. Switch back to Process Designer and select Tools > Process Administrator.

    In Process Administrator, you can perform the same types of actions that a tracker can perform, but you have access to all active workflows, rather than just specific workflows where you are assigned as a tracker.

    (In a production system, a workflow administrator would use Workplace or Workplace XT to access the administrator applications, Process Configuration Console and Process Administrator. This shortcut in Process Designer is for convenience in testing a new workflow definition.)

  2. In Process Administrator, click Find Now to see a list of all workflows running in the Process Engine server that are using the default roster (a list of running workflows).
  3. If there are several active workflows, use the following steps to find the CarLoanApplication workflow and examine the values of the data fields:
    1. Under Search mode, select Edit (all fields).
    2. In Search Fields: select F_Subject (String), Operator: like, Value: Car%. (The % is a wildcard for the search.)

      Click Insert, and then click Find Now.

    3. In the resulting list, there is probably only one item.

      Scroll to the right to see all of the system fields and the fields that you exposed on the Credit queue. You can see the values you entered for the ApplicantName, CreditScore, DownPayment, and so on.

    As an administrator you can lock the work item, change the data field values, assign a step to another user, or terminate the workflow.

To provide more work items for you to examine, you can go back to step 2 in this lesson and launch this workflow several times and enter different data for each instance.