Working with Process Diagrams

You can create process diagrams to illustrate the relationships between processes. When you publish a method web site you can choose whether or not to include these diagrams.

There are 3 types of diagrams you can create:

• Activity Diagrams: These diagrams show how the child process elements of a process, activity, phase, or iteration flow together. This diagram is also used to show the sequence of tasks for an activity that consists of a set of tasks. You can create an activity diagram or you can specify your own image for the diagram. When you create the diagram the sequence of activities, or control flow, depicted in your diagram is reflected in the precedence for these activities in your work breakdown structure. Create these diagrams from the Work Breakdown Structure tab by opening the context menu for the activity and then selecting Diagrams > Open Activity Diagram. To specify your own diagram image, select Diagrams > User Defined Diagrams..

 

• Activity Detail Diagrams: These diagrams show tasks within activities arranged by the responsible role that performs them. Activity detail diagrams also show the mandatory input and output work products for each task. Create these diagrams from the Work Breakdown Structure tab by opening the context menu for the activity and then selecting Diagrams > Open Activity Detail Diagram. These diagrams are generated automatically when you publish your configuration. You can also specify your own image to be used for these diagrams by opening the context menu for the activity and then selecting Diagrams > User Defined Diagrams..

 

• Work Product Dependency Diagrams: These diagrams are used to illustrate the traceability of the work products for a particular activity in your process. A work product dependency diagram also shows how one or more work products are used in the creation of another work product in the activity. These diagrams must be created manually . Relationships depicted in these diagrams are not reflected elsewhere in your process. Create these diagrams from the Work Product Usage tab by opening the context menu for the activity and then selecting Diagrams > Open Work Product Dependency Diagram. You can also specify your own diagram image to use for this diagram by selecting Diagrams > User Defined Diagrams..

Publishing Your Diagrams

When you publish your configuration you may want to include some or all of your process diagrams. You can control which diagrams are published as follows:

• By default, every diagram you create is published. You can choose not to publish a particular diagram by opening the context menu for the element that has a diagram you wish not to publish and selecting Diagrams > Publishing Options.. A dialog will open listing each diagram you have created for this element. Uncheck the diagrams that you do not want to be published.

 

• You can choose to automatically generate activity detail diagrams. To do so, when you publish your configuration, choose the option to Publish activity detail diagrams that have not been created in process editor. To set this option as the default whenever you open the publishing wizard, specify this preference in Window > Preferences.. Method Authoring>Diagram, and then check Publish or browse activity detail diagrams that have not been created in process editor. This setting also generates activity detail diagrams when you browse your process in the tool.