Figure: A Representation of an Activity
As explained in the chapter Activities, a series of activities connected with one another by transitions constitutes the core of the process.
An activity is represented in the Process Workbench in two different ways. In the Outline view it is represented by a small gear pictogram. In diagrams you will see an activity depicted as a box possibly with transition symbols related to other symbols representing its performer, its data and the application invoked by this activity.
Figure: A Representation of an Activity
To create an activity you can either:
When deleting activities, you must make a distinction between deleting an activity from the model information or only deleting a symbol from a diagram. To do the first - delete an activity from a model - you proceed as follows:
The option Delete Symbol in the pop-up menu called from within the diagram canvas will only remove the activity symbol from the diagram.
The properties of an activity are accessible in its properties dialog. To open this dialog, right-click the activity symbol - in the Outline view or diagram - and select the option Properties. Double-clicking on the activity symbol will open this dialog as well.
Activity characteristics are bundled into the following categories, each represented in an own pane:
Section Implementation specific describes implementation specific settings, like the participant of a manual activity.
In the Authorization section, you can set specific permissions for activities. Refer to section Authorization for Activities of chapter Authorization for details.
Next to a name, an ID and a description, general properties of an activity comprise the following checkbox options:
Figure: General Activity Properties
Please note that IDs containing hyphens, blanks or dots and IDs starting with digits are not supported.
The description of the activity is displayed as tooltip text in the Stardust Portal when you hover the mouse over the activity name.
In the Internationalization part you can set a locale specific name for the activity, as described in detail in chapter Native Language Support.
For this property a checkbox is provided to mark activities as auxiliary from a business perspective. This option is disabled by default, except for the route activities. Auxiliary activities marked as Is Auxiliary Activity will be treated equivalent to route activities in the process history.
Figure: Is Auxiliary Activity Option
For route activities, this option is set to Is Auxiliary Activity per default.
Please note that if a subprocess activity is defined as an auxiliary activity, a disabled Show/Hide auxiliary activities filter button in the Stardust Portals process history also hides all following activities in this subprocess.
Control flow options define the split, join and loop behavior around the activity.
Figure: Control Flow Options
Join behavior specifies the runtime behavior in case of multiple transitions from the predecessor activity leading to the chosen activity. The following options are offered:
Split behavior specifies how multiple transitions to the following activities are to be executed:
See also Control Flow for basic informations.
Loop behavior specifies how an activity is repeated until the loop condition is fulfilled. During the runtime execution of loop activity the specific part of the workflow is repeated.
When an activity enters the loop, one or more instances of the activity are created and performed. On termination of the activity instance, the loop condition is evaluated and based on the result a new activity instance is created. This is repeated until the loop gets terminated and then the subsequent activity is performed, if any.
None indicates that the activity is performed exactly once regardless of the evaluation of the condition. The following loop conditions can be applied when the activity needs to be performed more than once.
The syntax language for the loop condition parameter is carnotEL. Currently, the single line format is supported. The following figure explains the While loop condition.
Figure:While Loop Condition
More elaborate cycles in the model should be modeled explicitly by cycles in the activity/transition graph. See figure below.
Figure: Transition in a Cycle
In this example transition conditions influence the process flow. Please refer to Specifying Transition Conditions.
For details on event handling refer to chapter Working With Activity Event Handlers.
The activity properties dialog allows you to add and remove data mappings belonging to this activity. The In data mapping maps workflow data to the input of the activity. The mapping is interpreted depending on the activity implementation type. In comparison to the data mappings properties dialog you will find here all data mapped to this activity. Refer to Specifying Data Mappings for more information on mapping data to applications via an activity.
The activity properties dialog allows you to add and remove data mappings belonging to this activity. The Out data mapping maps workflow data to the output of the activity. The mapping is interpreted depending on the activity implementation type. In comparison to the data mappings properties dialog you will find here all data mapped to this activity. Refer to Specifying Data Mappings for more information on mapping data to applications via an activity.
The following controlling parameters are available for activities:
Figure: Quality Assurance
This property has the default value include for interactive activities and not include for non-interactive activities. It is used in the Business Control Center view Resource Performance view, where all activities having this controlling property set to include are included into the calculation.
In case you choose to mark the activity for quality assurance, select the checkbox for Quality Assurance Activity. Note that activities having a conditional performer as default performer are not supported to be marked for quality assurance. In case the default performer of the activity is a conditional performer, selecting the checkbox results in an inconsistency error. The following fields become available:
Figure: Quality Assurance
For details on how probability value and formula are used to determine quality assurance, refer to chapter Quality Assurance in the Concepts section for Stardust .
The Quality Assurance Codes panel contains a table of all Quality Assurance codes defined in the model properties dialog. Refer to section Quality Assurance Codes of chapter Quality Assurance on interactive Activities for details on setting or editing these codes.
Per default, all codes defined for the model are deselected. To add codes to the list of applicable Quality Assurance codes, select a subset of the Quality Assurance codes.
Figure: Quality Assurance Codes
In this section you can specify simulation configurations, as described in chapter Simulation Configurations of the Stardust Simulation Guide.
In this section you can specify the subprocess refinement required.
Figure: Setting the Subprocess Refinement Required.
Pease refer to the chapter Project Effort Calculation for detailed information on Project Effort calculations.
Activities in the Stardust Process Workbench can be of the following types:
Chapter Activities of the Workflow Basics concepts part describes the concepts of these implementations.
The type of activity and related details are set in the implementation section of activity properties. To set the type to manual activity or route activity, a selection of the type and providing the parameters in the implementation section is sufficient.
There is no special implementation setting for route activities, as they mainly serve as routers.
The implementation setting for manual activities is the participant to perform this activity. Select a performer in the provided list or via a role-assignment in the diagram.
You have the option to convert manual activities to JSF application activities. Please refer to chapter Converting Manual Activities to JSF Application Activities for more information on this issue.
In the case of the application type, an application has to be created in the model. It can be linked to the activity by selecting it from the provided list or by an executed-by connection in the diagram. All execution parameters for the application are set in the properties dialog pertaining to the application.
To define an activity as a subprocess, select Subprocess
as the type of the activity. In the properties dialog, select the desired process from
list of existing process definitions.
Figure: Configuring a Subprocess
For details on working with subprocesses, refer to chapter Configuring Subprocess Activities.