ACD/Workflow Manager

List of Features

ACD/Workflow Manager provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface for creating and editing workflow diagrams and all other necessary workflow components and operations.

The following special entity types are assumed in ACD/Workflow Manager:

• Sample - an ACD/SpecManager Enterprise record bound to a workflow.
• Diagram - a drawing that holds all other entity types (including other diagrams). It is a workspace (the program subwindow) to draw a workflow in.
• Form - a user interface window containing a collection of one or more fields, buttons, descriptive text, and other common controls. ACD/Workflow Manager distinguishes two types of forms:
  • Action Form that must be complete when changing a sample's state.
  • View Form that is bound to a state and allows inspection of the sample's properties in that state.
• State - a defined condition a sample can be in. Throughout its life cycle, the sample moves from state to state residing in every point for some time. When a sample comes into a state, some actions (e.g., checks or notifications) can be performed (OnEnter actions). The same happens when a sample leaves a state (OnLeave actions). Both OnEnter and OnLeave actions are optional.
• Start State - initial pseudo state where a record is considered unbound to a workflow. This state is mandatory and appears graphically as a black filled circle every time a new diagram starts.
• End State - final pseudo state where a record is considered unbound to a workflow. This state is mandatory and appears graphically as a black filled circle every time a diagram finishes.
• Decision - a pseudo state which designates the point where a choice of two possible pathways is made. A decision point contains a set of checks. For the true result of a decision point, all its checks should return a true result. Normally a sample does not stay in this pseudo state for long.
• Branching Point - a pseudo state that designates the point where the execution path is divided into two or more parallel threads. After a branching point has executed, a sample may be more than one state simultaneously. Normally a sample does not stay in this pseudo state for long.
• Synchronization Point - a pseudo state that designates the point where execution paths from branching points are merged. At a synchronization point, all parallel paths wait until the last one completes. Normally a sample does not stay in this pseudo state for long.
• State Transition - this entity is graphically represented as an arrow either between states or looped back on to the same state (cyclic state transition). State transitions can be Actions, (pre)Checks, and Notifications in any combination. A transition may be initiated:
  • By user (user initiated a state change).
  • By Event (notification from an external application, e.g. ACD/SpecManager Enterprise).
  • Automatically (Auto Transition).
• Action - an operation that occurs when passing a state transition, changing the state of a sample. The possible types of actions are: form completion, execution of a SQL procedure, change of some sample attributes, and so on. External systems (like ACD/SpecManager Enterprise or third party) expose the list of their own operations to ACD/Workflow Manager at design time. An administrator creates the required actions (PL/SQL) according to the current task.
• Check - a special type of transition that verifies some conditions (e.g., whether the sample is in some specified state or has all the required data entered), operates on passing a state or state transition, applying no changes to a sample. To perform the pass, all the checks should return "true" as a result. With this entity being defined and placed in transition, it is possible to:
  • Check whether the transition can be performed at the moment for a given object.
  • Check whether previous transition steps were finished successfully.
• Precheck - the check that always precedes all of the possible actions for the current transition.
• Notification - a special type of transition that informs an interested person (by e-mail, for example) about a change.
• Event - an external entity which allows interaction of other systems with ACD/Workflow Manager. Events are imported by ACD/Workflow Manager at design time. An Event is initiated by an external application when something happens that should be signaled to ACD/Workflow Manager. In response to the event, ACD/Workflow Manager may:
  • Start a transition.
  • Return an error to prohibit a change in an external application.
  • Return success to allow a change in an external application.

Creating a Flowchart

The Diagram Editor subwindow appears when you double-click a diagram object in the Tree Panel subwindow. The Toolbar on the left side contains the drawing tools necessary to create and modify a flowchart, such as state/state transition, decision, branching/synchronization point, and other tools. Each workflow component corresponds to one flowchart object. The flowchart can also contain auxiliary objects such as notes and callouts.

While drawing a new project, you need to start with the creation of a new flowchart.

First, define a number of states between the start and end points of the flowchart that samples are to pass through. The names of all states should be specified:

Then connect the states with arrows of the desired transitions and events in the diagram. The created project should be saved as an SMS file:

Defining Types of Transitions and Forms

After the flowchart is created, you have to specify the contents of every transition - types of all necessary actions, notifications, or checks - that will be executed while a sample is passing from state to state:

All types of forms may accompany sample transitions and register information in a workflow. These should be defined at this stage:

Assigning Forms to Transitions and States

As mentioned above, there can be two form types in ACD/Workflow Manager - action forms and view forms. Every action form should be assigned to a corresponding action:

The view forms are assigned accordingly to sample states:

Assigning Procedures to Forms

Each form bound to a state transition requires at least one get procedure. For instance, ACD/Web Librarian™ uses these types of procedures to extract sample data from a database and fill screen forms. Another type of procedure, set, is applied to store new or changed data that was entered using a screen form in a database:

The view form cannot be used to change sample data, so only a get procedure is required in this case.

Creating and Editing a Current Form

ACD/Workflow Manager has a facility for administrators to create custom forms that users can then apply in their daily processes, for example, sample submission. Every form defined and assigned to a flowchart's states or transitions can be conveniently designed and edited using the Edit Form window of the ACD/Forms Manager directly accessible from the Workflow Manager:

For each form, you can choose the data types to be placed in and adjust parameters and contents of relative form boxes:

Administrative Features

• Actions, notifications, diagrams, states, and forms are grouped into project(s). Entities from one project can be used in another project(s). A project is just a means of categorizing the objects. For example, you may create the LIBRARY project, put all the reusable entities (e.g., notifications), and use this project's entities when constructing other projects.
   
• Generally, the design process in ACD/Workflow Manager consists of defining a set of the above entities for each of the dynamic objects recognized in the system. After being developed, a workflow must be saved to the repository - Oracle-based data storage.
   
• All actions performed on either a workflow or a sample are logged to an audit trail (in the form of "5W") and can be reviewed at any time.

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