Business Process Management, also called workflow, is how SUITS processes, configures, and tracks work in the form of defined processes consisting of one or more activities.
Workflow Processing:
Workflow processing is how the SUITS business user most often interacts with workflow. This is the process of completing defined activities in order to complete defined processes, which accomplishes a specific, trackable business goal in the system. An example of such a workflow process might be Review Change Legal Name, which is the process a SUITS business users must complete in order to successfully change the name of an employer in the system to reflect the new legal name.
The basic pattern of processing workflow is that a business user starts an activity, performs work in the system, and the system completes the activity. This enables the next business user to start the next activity in the process (if any); a process is complete when all activities are complete.
In detail, a business user may do the following as part of processing workflow:
Check out an activity: An activity can be automatically assigned to a business user, or it can be created and left available for any user to assign it to themselves from the work pool. Checking out an activity is the process of locating an available activity and assigning it to yourself. This also tells the system you are currently working on this activity, so the system will automatically open whatever screen you need to begin work.
Launch an activity: If an activity is assigned to you, but the system does not reflect that you are currently working on it, and/or you are not on the correct screen to work on it, you can launch the activity to inform the system that you are currently working on that activity. The system will automatically open the required screen.
Add notes: You can enter notes as the activity or business needs dictate.
Suspend an activity: You cannot always complete an activity right away. Sometimes the business process requires you to wait a certain amount of time after doing part of the work, or you find you do not have necessary documents. Suspending more or less “pauses” an activity until either a defined amount of time passes or the system detects the receipt of the information it needs to continue.
Resume an activity: If an activity is suspended and it becomes possible to work on it before the allotted time passes, or you have the information you need and that is not reflected in the system documents, you can manually resume it.
Terminate an activity: If an activity was initiated in error, you can terminate it. This effectively cancels the activity and its process.
Complete an activity: When you have finished the work the activity requires, the system will mark it complete to initiate the next activity in the process. If that activity was the last process activity, completing it completes the process.
There are other processes related to processing workflow:
Manually assign work: If a user is currently assigned an activity and cannot work on it, another user can move that activity into someone else’s My Basket. Additionally, if an activity is in the work pool (no one is assigned to it), an authorized user can move that activity into another user’s My Basket.
Manually initiate an activity: In general, the system creates a workflow activity in response to some configured event (see below), or the receipt of a file, or the completion of a job schedule, or similar. However, a user with permissions can force the system to initiate the first activity in any workflow by entering the data the system requires to begin routing the workflow.
BPM Dashboard: The BPM Dashboard is a way for Managers (or individuals with the right security roles) to see a snap shot of the general standing of workflow items. The Dashboard will allow you to see the number of workflow items that have been completed, as well as outstanding, in a specified timeframe by user name. It will also allow you to see how many items are completed, assigned or still in the work pool by process name.