Process Portal Hands-on Exercise

Transcription

1 IBM BPM in Action using WebSphere Lombardi Edition Process Portal Hands-on Exercise This lab will introduce you to the Lombardi Process Portal, which is an interface that enables process participants to perform assigned tasks, view the history of tasks, and view the performance of their processes and teams and in general participate in business processes. Recommended Approach: 1) Goto and Watch the YouTube Demo Videos for this exercise, or Download the full-length video here: as seen below. 2) Come back here and follow the hands-on exercise instructions outlined in the Table of Contents on page #2. The YouTube Demo Video for the Order Fulfillment BPM End2End Scenario exercise on looks like the following: Full length videos downloadable here: Lab 2 Process Portal Page 1

2 Lab 2 Process Portal This lab will introduce you to the Process Portal, which is a web interface that enables process participants to perform their assigned tasks, visualize their performance, manage their teams and govern the overall health and performance of their processes. Specifically you will perform these activities: Lab 2 Process Portal Scenario Setup (Update due dates) Start the server and reset the historical data Analyst Tour Login to the Lombardi Process Portal Explore the Lombardi Process Portal View Process Diagram for an Order My Performance Scoreboard Explore Order Details Search your Inbox Create a new Order (a.k.a. Order Fulfillment process instance ) History of your work Vendor Tour ofvendor1 Order Processing ofvendor2 Order Processing Analyst *Final* Order Processing ofanalyst2 Order Processing Manager Tour Log On as ofmanager My Team Performance Scoreboard My Process Performance Scoreboard Ad Hoc Reports Ad-Hoc Reports Pre-built for this Process App OPTIONAL: My Projects Optional Read-only: Manage EPVs Optional Hands-on: Predefined searches Summary 55 Page 2 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

3 2.1 Scenario Setup (Update due dates) IBM Software In this section, you will reset some of the historical data (for example, due dates) that was preloaded so that you can see more features that would not have available without that historical data. These activities will be performed outside of the portal using the Process Admin Console Start the server and reset the historical data 1. Login to the Process Admin Console using these steps: a. Start Firefox and use the WLE Process Admin Console bookmark If you are using a VMWare you may notice this time zone message. Just click OK and continue with the lab. i. Login using the User Name tw_admin and Password tw_admin, then click Login 2. Reset the OTB report distribution (OTB is out-of-the-box) using these steps: a. In the left navigation pane, select ORDER FULFILLMENT DEMO Lab 2 Process Portal Page 3

4 b. Click on OF OTB Report Distribution. After a few seconds, you should see a message that says You have successfully reset the OTB report distribution for the selected BPD. (Business Process Definition). c. d. This updates the due dates of the Orders (or process instances in flight) so that everything is up to date as opposed to all tasks being overdue. This is a technical utility that allows us to use pre-populated orders to experiment in an ad-hoc fashion. Once you see the message You have successfully reset you can click Log out. e. Close the Firefox web browser. Page 4 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

5 2.2 Analyst Tour IBM Software In this section, you will use the Order Fulfillment Process Application to explore the Process Portal. We have created some orders for you already, so that there is some realistic historical data, based on a variety of inflight and completed orders that have already been entered into the system. The primary actors or roles in this process include: Vendor, Analysts, Manager, System tasks and an ERP System (SAP). The high-level flow of the Order Fulfillment process is as follows: An order is created by either a person (Analyst) or a system (SAP) The order is sent out for quote to one or more vendors (Activity: Get Vendor Responses) An Analyst reviews vendor responses and chooses a recommended vendor (Activity: Select Fulfillment Option) A Manager Approves or Rejects the vendor chosen by the Analyst (Activity: Manager Approval) Either the order is either Rejected by the Manager and sent back to the Analyst for rework o OR the order is Approved by the Manager and completed (Activity: Place Order in SAP ) Lab 2 Process Portal Page 5

6 Specifically in this section, you will: Log into the Process Portal View the Scoreboards (dashboards) to explore personal, team and process performance Manage your work and your team s work Build ad-hoc reports And more Login to the Lombardi Process Portal 1. Open the Firefox web browser, click on the WLE Process Portal bookmark and Log in to the Lombardi Process Portal: a. Log in using the User Name ofanalyst1 and Password teamworks, then click Login If you are using the PoT VMWare image you may notice this time zone message. Just click OK and continue with the lab. Page 6 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

7 2.2.2 Explore the Lombardi Process Portal 1. Explore features available in the Lombardi Process Portal: Section Description You can use the links in the navigation bar to navigate to activities within My Tasks, My Scoreboards, and My Projects. My Tasks - Receive and complete tasks that are assigned to you, view task execution history, requests for help from other process participants, and process-related alerts. My ScoreBoards - Monitor individual and process performance, view custom reports, and create ad hoc reports. The team performance and some of these reports are only available to managers. My Projects - Access custom Lombardi Process Portal pages that may be defined for a process application. In this example, none are available. This area displays the name of the current Lombardi Process Portal user. Click Preferences to specify your and language settings. Click Help to open the online user assistance for Lombardi Process Portal. Use the toolbar icons to manage process instances and tasks. For example, you can start, suspend, resume, or terminate currently active process instances, assign tasks to users or groups, change the due date of a process instance or a task, and search for process instances and tasks. This is the main area that displays the items you are currently working with. For example, the preceding image shows the tasks in the current user's Inbox. The tasks are displayed according to the process instance that generated each task. You can click an Instance Name or Task Subject to see more detailed information about each task. In this area, you can also view and sort search results, view reports and scoreboards, and edit preferences. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 7

8 2.2.3 View Process Diagram for an Order 1. The following steps show you how to see a graphic view of an in-flight process instance, in the case of the Order Fulfillment Process this is the current state of an Order. a. Check a checkbox to the left of an order and then click the process diagram ( ) b. The process diagram will open and the current step of the process will be highlighted in a yellow halo. This diagram is not just a static picture. You can hover your mouse over the highlighted activity as well as right-click on it to see a popup menu. For now, just observe the options and don t take any action. We ll do more with this later Page 8 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

9 c. IBM Software View the due date of the task, who the task is assigned to, and the time left to complete the task, by hovering your mouse over the highlighted activity: d. Right-click on the highlighted task to see the Re-route and Re-assign Task options in the popup menu. Don t take any action for now, we ll revisit this later. i. Close the process diagram window. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 9

10 2.2.4 My Performance Scoreboard 1. Explore the My Performance Scoreboard to evaluate your On Track, At Risk and Overdue tasks as well as When tasks will go overdue and Your performance compared to your Team. a. Click on the My Performance Scoreboard on the left navigation area: b. Your inbox of activities awaiting your action are now color-coded as follows: - Red = Overdue - Orange = At Risk of going overdue (calculated or learned over time) - Blue = On Track (Not yet overdue) Page 10 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

11 c. IBM Software The upper right of the My Performance Scoreboard shows you when your tasks will become overdue: d. Scrolling down, you can see your performance compared to the rest of your team: Lab 2 Process Portal Page 11

12 2. Here is a guide or inventory of what you can do with the My Performance Scoreboard view: Section Description 1 You can filter your tasks by teams you belong to using this drop-down. 2 3a, 3b You can filter your tasks by process using this drop-down. For example, a call center representative might have several processes to work on. By default all tasks in 3a are categorized into: on track, at risk, and overdue. If you click on one of the pieces of the pie chart, for example, Overdue, then 3b will refresh and only show overdue task. This shows that these are dynamic scoreboards getting their data from the performance data warehouse. 4 Use the scroll left and right arrows to see when tasks will go overdue. 5 This shows your performance versus your team average over the last seven days. 6 This shows your performance trend for Completed and Active tasks. Page 12 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

13 2.2.5 Explore Order Details 1. Click on any order to drill down into Order Details Lab 2 Process Portal Page 13

14 2. Explore the Order Details view as follows: o Expand the Process Diagram section at bottom of screen, if not already open, by clicking [+] o Notice the yellow highlighted Activity in the process diagram o Click on Open Tasks drop down and click on All Tasks to see list of Activities completed Page 14 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

15 3. IBM Software The following screen shows the Activities or Tasks completed before the Analysts (your task) called Select Fulfillment Option, as seen below. Your screen resemble this after you click the All Tasks. Notice the following: o Activity Name column shows Activities completed before the task at hand o Status column shows Closed Activities leading up to current Activity awaiting your attention o Participant column shows who completed the Activities before you o There is a green run button next to the Activity you need to claim and complete 4. There is also a toolbar at the top of the screen to allow you to take a variety of actions on your Activities: Lab 2 Process Portal Page 15

16 2.2.6 Search your Inbox 1. Click on Inbox in the upper left corner and then type kindle in the Quick Search field 2. You ll notice that the result is that your inbox now displays only the orders with Kindle in the name: Page 16 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

17 2.2.7 Create a new Order (a.k.a. Order Fulfillment process instance ) IBM Software a. For the Order Fulfillment Process Application, members of the Analysts team can create new Orders. This is modeled into the process, as seen in the Process Designer (a.k.a. WebSphere Lombardi Edition Authoring Environment): b. In your web browser, click on the Inbox in the left navigation area, and then click on the New dropdown menu to see a list of processes that this user can start. In this case, there is only one, Order Fulfillment. Click on Order Fulfillment to create a new Order. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 17

18 c. The first screen for the Create Order activity will appear. This screen-flow will coach you through participating in the process. Click Next >> to step through creating a new Order. Page 18 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

19 d. IBM Software Fill out the form as follows (Red labels indicate mandatory fields): Customer: Choose one from drop down listbox or by typing the first letter (e.g. Walmart ) Date: Pick a date Material No: Type any number (e.g. 123 ) Material Desc: Type anything (e.g. ipad 2 ) Attach a document if you like (Optional) e. Click Next >> to proceed Lab 2 Process Portal Page 19

20 f. The second screen shows the details of the order, including a live report with details about vendor quotes in flight vs. completed, and finally provides an area at the bottom to select the vendor(s) to receive Requests for Quote. Select the first two vendors (ofvendor1 and ofvendor2) and then click Next >> Page 20 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

21 g. Review the order information, and then click Submit. IBM Software History of your work 1. A history of work you have completed is available from the Lombardi Process Portal under History. a. You might notice that the ipad 2 order has disappeared from your inbox. This is because the Order was submitted by you, while logged on as ofanalyst1, and it has now proceeded in the process to be handled by the vendors. We ll see the IPad 2 order appear in the inboxes of ofvendor1 and ofvendor2 soon. However, you can still access information about that order if you visit the History section to review Orders you have touched or previously processed. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 21

22 b. Under My Tasks on the left navigation area, click History and you will see a list of tasks you have completed, sorted by earliest Task Due Date. c. To see the task you just completed, resort the list to make the tasks with the latest due date show up first by clicking ( ) under Task Due Date. The Order Fulfillment instance you just created for ipad 2 should now show up as the first task. You could select it and view the process state or click on its Instance Name and see more details about the task. d. Now Log Off from the Process Portal using the Log Off link in the upper right corner. Page 22 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

23 2.3 Vendor Tour ofvendor1 Order Processing 1. Log Off if you have not already done so Lab 2 Process Portal Page 23

24 2. Log On as ofvendor1 with a password of teamworks 3. Vendors can view their My Performance just like any other process participant, to get an idea of what work is awaiting their attention, in a color coded fashion across the dimensions of On Track, At Risk and Overdue: Page 24 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

25 4. Select the ipad 2 Order (Note: Your inbox my look slightly different from this one, and that s ok!) IBM Software 5. Notice that ofvendor1 can only Claim his or her Activity, even though they can see that the request for quote was also submitted to ofvendor2. This visibility and secure disclosure is configurable. Also, notice that they can who completed the Activities completed before them, a Yellow graphical highlight of where they are in the process and they have a green run button to Claim their Activity Lab 2 Process Portal Page 25

26 6. Click on the green run button to claim this activity (towards the middle right side/edge of the screen: Page 26 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

27 7. IBM Software The Vendor screen shows the details of the Order along with some live reports that highlight their response time vs. quotes accepted as well as the competitiveness of their quotes: 8. Click the Respond button to proceed with the quote. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 27

28 9. Fill in the Price: field with something like $ When you tab away from the field, it is formatted into $currency$ format: 10. Then click the Send button to complete the quote: 11. Log Off and then Log On as ofvendor2 with password of teamworks Page 28 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

29 2.3.2 ofvendor2 Order Processing IBM Software 1. Repeat above steps in (1-11) to process the order as ofvendor2 o Log On as ofvendor2 password teamworks o Review My Performance by clicking on My Performance o Select the ipad 2 Order in the list (your inbox and My Performance my look different, that s ok!) o use $300,000 or something like that for the quoted Price: $300,000 just to make it interesting and different o Proceed to Respond and submit as outlined in (1-11) above! 2. Make sure you process the ipad 2 order as ofvendor2, otherwise, the following exercise for ofmanager1 will not work properly!!! Lab 2 Process Portal Page 29

30 2.4 Analyst *Final* Order Processing ofanalyst2 Order Processing 1. Log Off and then Log On as ofanalyst2 password teamworks Page 30 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

31 2. IBM Software Use ofanalyst2 and password teamworks to Log On as ofanalyst2 (Note: We logon as ofanalyst2 to prove the point that anyone in the Analyst Group can claim Analyst activities) 3. View My Performance to see that ofanalyst2 can see My Performance just like any other process participant: Lab 2 Process Portal Page 31

32 4. Drill down into the ipad 2 Order to Claim Activity and process Order: o Click on ipad 2 Order above o View Process Diagram to see where ofanalyst2 is in the process o Review what Activities have been completed and by whom o Claim the Activity by clicking on the green run button (off to the right side) 5. Claim the Activity by clicking on the green run button (off to the right side) Page 32 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

33 6. Select the LOWER of the two Vendor Bids and then click the Submit button: IBM Software 7. Click the Refresh button in your web browser Lab 2 Process Portal Page 33

34 8. Notice that the Process has moved forward and now the Order is awaiting Manager Approval 9. Log Off and then Log On as ofmanager with password teamworks Page 34 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

35 2.5 Manager Tour IBM Software Log On as ofmanager1 1. If you have not already done so Log Off and then Log On as ofmanager with password teamworks 2. Visit My Performance to observe that ofmanager1 can view My Performance just like any other process participant: Lab 2 Process Portal Page 35

36 3. Drill down into the ipad 2 Order: 4. Review the status of the Order Details, including which Activities have been completed by whom: Page 36 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

37 5. IBM Software Notice that if there were Document Attachments or Collaboration Comments they would appear in the RED outlined section below. They would be visible throughout the entire process and be visible to All Participants. Also, there are ways to selectively disclose comments and document attachments to some vs. all users: 6. Claim the Order by clicking on the green run button Lab 2 Process Portal Page 37

38 7. Manager Approves or Rejects Order o Manager examines live report for insight o Manager Reviews recommended Vendor o Manager Approves or Rejects (e.g. Mgr could Reject order and then provide Comments in collaboration section of Order Details) Page 38 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

39 2.5.2 My Team Performance Scoreboard IBM Software Once Manager Approves/Rejects Order, that closes screen flow and returns to Process Portal Manager clicks on My Team Performance o Manager can see who is working on Orders and what Teams have yet to claim work o Manager has familiar scoreboards for Team, consistent with My Performance views 3. Manager can Reassign work or Change Priority of work easily Lab 2 Process Portal Page 39

40 4. Manager can see work distribution across entire team, to make better decisions about Reassigning work, etc My Process Performance Scoreboard 1. Manager can view overall process performance o Click on Process Performance Page 40 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

41 2. Drill down into Order Fulfillment Process Performance by clicking on Órder Fulfillment link IBM Software 3. Manager can view Trend Report for Orders in-flight as well as Completed 4. Manager can view Activity Overview Scoreboard to see highest volume and velicity Activities Lab 2 Process Portal Page 41

42 5. Clicking on Red, Orange or Blue bars will display a subset of those Activities For instance, clicking on Blue bar of Manager Approval appears below: Page 42 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

43 6. IBM Software Recap: The Process Performance Scoreboard, like all Process Portal Scoreboards, work with any process application you build. This view gives a process overview of the Order Fulfillment process application. Some of the areas are static; such as 5 and 6 but 1-4 are all dynamic and give you drilldown capability into deeper views. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 43

44 Section 1a, 1b Description 1a gives a summary of the instance status as a pie chart, with the summary data represented in 1b as a table that has such data as number of active, closed, total instances, etc. If in 1a, you clicked on View All, areas 3-6 would be replaced with an Instance List for this process. This is a graph on the Instance Closed / Total Trend in Days, which is the default time-period. You can change the time-period from Days, to Weeks, or to Months. Use the scroll left and scroll-right to view different time periods. If any SLAs were defined for a process application, you would see them here. If any Timing Intervals were defined for a process application, you would see them here. This is an Activity Task Count that shows for each process activity, the number of tasks that are Overdue, at Risk, and on Track. This graph shows the Average Historical Duration for each process activity Ad Hoc Reports Ad Hoc reports (a.k.a. Process Specific Reports) can be created at Design-time or at Run-time after a Process Application has been deployed Click on Ad-Hoc Reports in the left Navigation area Page 44 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

45 3. Click on New Ad-Hoc Report IBM Software 4. Click and select Order Fulfillment from the drop down list box 5. On the X-Axis select Auto-Tracked and then select customer Lab 2 Process Portal Page 45

46 6. On the Y-Axis select Auto-Tracked and then select totalqty 7. For Function in the Y-Axis section, select AVG (average) 8. In the Chart Layout section to the right, select Simple Pie Chart Page 46 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

47 9. It should look like this: IBM Software 10. Select Multi Color bar chart Lab 2 Process Portal Page 47

48 11. It should look like this: (Note: Your charts will most likely look a little different from these graphics) 12. Note: With the proper authority, you can save these custom reports for shared use. In the current VMWare image used for this PoT, saving Ad-Hoc Reports is not enabled. Page 48 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

49 2.5.5 Ad-Hoc Reports Pre-built for this Process App IBM Software 1. Click on Vendor Quote Performance on the left Navigation Area Your screen should look similar to this: 2. These Process Specific Reports can be built at Design-time or at Run-time by end users. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 49

50 3. The amount and variety of business data can be easily chosen, without coding, through simple check boxes in the Process Model, in the Authoring Environment (a.k.a. Process Designer) o Click on the Variables tab in the Process Designer Then Select a process variable and simply check the checkbox for Performance Tracking! 4. The more process variables you Check for Performance Tracking, the longer the list of business data becomes for business stakeholders to use to build reports. It s that easy! Page 50 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

51 2.6 OPTIONAL: My Projects IBM Software In this section, you will work with specific projects that have been exposed to you as a user or group of users. These projects are custom and are not out-of-the-box offerings within the Lombardi Process Portal. Specifically you will see how you can manage Exposed Process Values (EPVs) and perform custom searches. EPVs allow you to add dynamicity of values without redeploying a process. For an example of a custom search, you will work with a search specific to Order Fulfillment: Order Search Optional Read-only: Manage EPVs Exposed Process Values (EPVs) are a special type of variable that you can create to enable end users to set or alter values while an instance of a process is running. By creating EPVs, you can provide process flexibility. The use of EPVs allows end users to adjust specific variable values as constants, thereby affecting the flow of all running process instances, task assignments, and so on. You can also designate which end users can set or alter EPVs in the Process Admin Console. This section will show you how you can manage EPVs from the Lombardi Process Portal. Lab 2 Process Portal Page 51

52 1. In this case, we will work with the EPVs of Order Fulfillment. One of the EPVs of Order Fulfillment is autoapprovalthreshold, which can now be used to auto-approve order if the amount is less than a threshold. In this case, Different approvers or managers could be giving access in the Lombardi Process Portal to change this value if needed, without redeploying the entire process application. a. Under My Projects, click Manage EPV. A list of EPVs will be displayed. (note: In the VMWare image we are using today, Edit is not enabled!) b. Custom screens can guide business users through changing process variables at runtime. We won t complete this portion of the exercise today, but suffice it to say that this introduces business variability in a user-friendly fashion, without changing the process design or implementation. For example, you could create EPVs and use these in a Process Application to control process flow. Specifically, the autoapprovalthreshold EPV above could be used in a decision gateway to determine which branch is followed through the process. Orders below the autoapprovalthreshold EPV would be automatically approved, while the ones over and above the threshold would be sent to a manager for approval. EPVs can be changed in the Process Portal. Therefore, you can change the value without changing or redeploying the process. The end result is better business flexibility and agility without IT involvement. Page 52 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

53 2.6.2 Optional Hands-on: Predefined searches IBM Software Predefined searches for a process application can be exposed in the Lombardi Process Portal. These predefined searches could be custom built using standard coaches and integration services, and then exposed to the Lombardi Process Portal. 2. We will work with Order Search, which is a predefined (custom) search for Order Fulfillment. a. Under My Projects, click Order Search. A Search Filter section allows you to use different filters (search criteria) to find specific instances meeting the selected criteria. b. Set the Vendor to Acme and select the East Sales Division, then click Search Lab 2 Process Portal Page 53

54 c. In the updated Search Results, note in the yellow-highlighted area that the Sales Division is East, Vendor is Acme and there are only 22 results meeting the criteria. Other capabilities that you might expect are also available: Export the search results, see the Instance Details and view an instance s process diagram. Page 54 Order Fulfillment Scenario Process Portal

55 2.7 Summary Congratulations, you have completed the Process Portal Scenario! Lab 2 Process Portal Page 55