Work with processes

About WorkZone Process

WorkZone Process applies an overall phase-based process model and makes it possible to automate processes, thus supporting business process automation. The phase-based process model includes deadline and duration controls. This gives you a better overview of the current state in the case management flow. For more information about processes, see the User Guide for WorkZone Process, for example About WorkZone Process and Use the Processes overview.

From WorkZone Client, you can start a process from a case or a document detail page. Note that all processes are based on a case even if you start it from a document detail page.

Prerequisite: Before you start a process, you need to select a case that is not part of a running process yet, or you need to create a new case. See Create a new case

Processes differ by the sequence of actions to be completed by involved actors. For example, actors can contribute to a process one by one or work on this process simultaneously.

  • Submission is a process based on a sequential flow where one or more actors approve a document in a certain order.
  • Hearing is a process based on a parallel flow. This means that selected actors should not respond in a particular order – they can work in parallel.

  • The purpose of a distribution process is to assign ownership of a case to a responsible contact and, perhaps, find contributors. Once the responsible contact has accepted ownership of the case, the contributors, if they accept their role as contributors, can start working on the case.

    Find more information on this topic in the Basic Package and Extended Package sections of the WorkZone Process User Guide.

The Process Overview

The Processes overview displays processes created by you and you can select other views to display processes with different characteristics, for example processes created by other users, your unit's processes or all active processes.

You can also select and expand a process in the Process Overview to view additional process information.

For more information, see About the Process Overview

The Processes detail tab

The Processes case detail tab displays all active processes on the case and enables you to gain an overview of the process as well as start a process directly from the tab. The Processes tab also enables you to preview a selected process in greater detail, close a selected process, display grouped process steps for combined processes (parallel and sequential steps), and refresh the list to update any changes made to the processes by others.

By default the following information is displayed:

  • The Process type and Title.
  • Case handler, Responsible unit, and Process owner.
  • The date the process was created and the date the process is due.
  • The status of the process.

Tip: Right-click the column headers to add additional process information fields such as the date the process is planned to be closed, the date the process was actually closed, the case type, the state of the process and the Instance ID. The Instance ID is only used for troubleshooting potential errors.

Start a process from a case

  1. Open a case detail page to start a process.
  2. In the ribbon or in the Processes case detail tab, click Process and select a sequence of involved actors among the available options to open the Start Submission form.
  3. In the Start Submission form, click Deadline and specify date and time to set the process deadline.
  4. In the Description field, enter an optional process description.
  5. Select documents for this process.
  6. Assign actors to this process. You can do this in two ways:
    • Add actors from the Select parties list.

      • -And / Or-

    • Select an actor sequence from the drop-down list of available sequences.1
  7. Click Start.

1To use this option, you must create an actor sequence. Find a detailed instruction on how to create an actor sequence, see Create a new actor sequence

Start a process from a document

  1. Open a document detail page to start a process.
  2. In the ribbon, click Process and select a sequence of involved actors among the available options to open the Start Submission form.
  3. Click Deadline and specify date and time to set the process deadline.
  4. In the Description field, enter an optional process description.
  5. If you start a process from a document detail page, this document is then automatically added to the process. You can add more documents for the process in the Documents section.
  6. Assign actors to the process. You can do this in two ways:
    • Add actors from the Select parties list one by one.

      • -And / Or-

    • Select an actor sequence from the drop-down list of available sequences.1
  7. Click Start.

1To use this option, you must create an actor sequence. Find a detailed instruction on how to create an actor sequence, see Create a new actor sequence

 

Order and reorder tasks

When a process is started, the order of user tasks is assigned automatically but you can reorder your tasks and the tasks of users that you are a delegate for according to the order that you want the tasks to be processed. You can reorder open and pending tasks. You can reorder tasks in WorkZone Client on the My Open tasks and My pending tasks lists on the Home tab and on the Tasks tab on your own contact detail page. You can also order tasks in WorkZone Mobile.

On the Home tab, click My open tasks or My pending tasks in the navigation pane to open the list. You may have to add the lists to the navigation pane first. See List actions.

—Or—

Click your name in the lower right corner to open your contact page, and click the User task tab. You may have to add the tab first. See Manage tabs.

Drag and drop the tasks according to the order you want to work with them.

Open the contact detail page of the user you are a delegate for.

Click the User task tab. You may have to add the tab first. See Manage tabs.

Drag and drop the tasks according to the order you want the user you are a delegate for to process the tasks.

See also Work with Delegates.