Gain insights on processes having complex relationship using SAP Build Process Automation

[SandhyaG]

The Process Visibility Capability of SAP Build Process Automation offers an end to end view of heterogenous processes . Process fragments running on different systems have to be correlated to get an end to end view and the following forms of correlation are supported. 

• 1: 1 Correlation
  • This form of correlation is defined when an instance of one process is associated to exactly one instance of another process. For example, consider an employee onboarding process in SAP SuccessFactors that is triggered for a new hire. This process triggers an extension workflow on SAP BTP for equipment provisioning . A 1:1 correlation exists between the processes as each new hire onboarding process triggers an equipment procurement process.

• N:1 Correlation
  • This form of correlation is defined when multiple instances of a process relate to exactly one instance of another process. For example, consider a scenario having an order and a delivery processes where multiple orders are part of the same delivery. There exists an N:1 correlation between the processes as multiple orders can be associated with a single delivery.
• 1: N Correlation
  • This form of correlation is defined when one instance of the primary process is associated with multiple instances of the secondary process. For example, consider Capital Expenditure Approval  process that initiates multiple instances of approval process dynamically based on the number of mandatory approvers. In such cases, it is important to track the primary process instances and also monitor the associated secondary process instances that it starts.

In this blog , I will take you through the steps to configure a dasboard that enables business users to track end to end processes having 1:N relation. Let's look at the example of a Capital Expenditure Approval process. As soon as a request  is submitted, a process is triggered. This request needs multiple approvals where the Manager, Cost Center Owner and Vice President need to review & approve the request. This is an example where the primary process (Capital Expenditure Process) starts multiple secondary process instances (Approval process).

 Process Owners overseeing the Capital Expenditure process require visibility into the present status of requests and the ability to monitor associated approval requests.

To configure one such dashboard , follow the steps given below :

Prerequisites:

• You have subscribed to SAP Build Process Automation . For details, refer documentation
• You have two processes that have a 1:N relationship & these processes could be of type SPA Process, BTP Workflow ,Observed Process or Business Workflow.

Procedure

1. Create a primary visibility scenario in your project and add a process as a participant to your visibility scenario. In this example, Capital Expenditure Approval is the primary process added to the scenario. Refer to the documentation to create a visibility scenario.
2. Create a second visibility scenario in the same project and add a process as a participant.In this example,  Approval process is added to the scenario. Ensure that you have atleast one common context attribute (defined with the same path & attribute ID in both scenarios)  to link the instances across the primary and secondary scenario. In this example, Request ID is the common context attribute as shown below.
3. To enable drill down of instances from primary scenario to the secondary, we need to do the following :
   • In the primary scenario, create a calculated attribute of the expression type Constant and datatype String and enter the desired value for the attribute  eg (View Approvals)
   • Configure a navigation link for the above attribute as given below. 
     • Example:<Site URL>/site#pv-showInstances?sap-app-origin-hint=&sap-ushell-navmode=inplace&scenarioId=<scenarioID>&/filter=<context attribute ID> eq '<Value>'
     • Site URL - This is the site URL that is configured using SAP Build Workzone standard edition.
     • scenarioID - Scenario ID of the secondary scenario. You can find the scenario ID in Visibility Scenarios application in Monitoring page
     • Context Attribute ID - This is the common context attribute ID and the value can be passed dynamically while configuring the link as shown below. The dynamic value will be resolved when the link is clicked
4. Save your project.
5. Release and Deploy your project. 
6. You have started instances for both the processes or alternatively pushed events as documented here.
7. From the Monitoring page, click on the Visibility Scenarios tile and check if the instances are processed for both the scenarios.
8. Configure Process Workspace application in SAP Build Workzone as outlined in the documentation.
9. Open the Visibility Scenario dashboard for the primary scenario & navigate to its scenario instances.
10. Click on the link View Approvals to navigate to the instances of the secondary scenario.
    
    With this procedure, you can achieve any level of navigation from one scenario to another to effectively track instances and monitor their progress.