During the workflow design phase, the workflow author, application developer, and workflow administrator typically work together to provide workflow definition and isolated region configuration information. The workflow author creates a workflow definition that automates a business process. The application developer creates and integrates the custom applications that are necessary to complete the workflow cycle. The workflow administrator defines and configures the necessary pieces that the application developer and workflow author require.
The workflow author and the application developer typically work together during this time to ensure that the process application is consistent with the workflow definition. Several details of the workflow definition must match the details in the process application code. Various APIs can reference the names of class components.
The following table shows the steps in a typical workflow development process and the information that would commonly be provided by each person.
Step | Workflow administrator responsibilities | Workflow author responsibilities | Application developer responsibilities |
---|---|---|---|
Determine the work area | Determine whether the workflow processes can use an existing isolated region and initialize the region if necessary. For more information, see Initializing an isolated region. | ||
Determine necessary data fields | By creating corresponding database fields for workflow fields, you make workflow field values available for searches, indexes, or historical event logs. You can create database fields for workflow rosters, work and user queues, and event logs. For more information, see Workflow and database fields. | Determine the data fields that are used by the workflow, and provide this information to the application developer. | Can access the data fields by using the Process APIs. |
Determine information to be logged | Provide the workflow author with the event logging options for each isolated region. This information defines which events are recorded in the event log database. For more information, see Event logging categories. | Work within the framework that is set up by the workflow administrator, or tell the workflow administrator when additional logging must be enabled. | |
Determine application performance requirements | Create indexes. For more information, see Managing workflow indexes. | Tell the workflow administrator what indexes the application needs in order to function efficiently. | |
Specify access privileges | Specify the security settings for each workflow roster, work queue, and user queue, and provide this information to the workflow author. For information about security, see Workflow security. | ||
Determine what functions or customization are required for any step processors | Determine if any additional functions are required, and provide the requirements to the application developer. | Use the necessary development tools to create a custom step processor and then configure it. For more information, see Java™ step processor. | |
Determine if any external processes are required | Determines if any external processes are required, and provides the requirements to the application developer. | Create and configure a custom component. For more information, see Component queues. | |
Create and add business rules for use in workflow steps | Create and deploy business rules. The workflow administrator uses rules software from another software vendor to create business rules. | ||
Determine if any customized web applications are required | Determine if any customized web applications are required, and provide the requirements to the application developer. | Create and configure a custom web application. For more information, see Configuring web applications. | |
Create a workflow | Create a workflow definition by using Process Designer.
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