SAP Learning Journey

Improving the Sales Order Management Process with Decision Logic

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Create and configure decision logic in the process
  • Update an existing process

Introduction: Improving the Process with Decision Logic

Definitions and Rules for Improving the Process with Decision Logic

Now you will learn how to create and configure a decision. A decision consists of one or more policies. Each policy consists of a collection of rules. These rules are used to automate the decision-making parts of a business process. After you create a decision (policy), you define your business logic by adding rules to the policy or policies.

Create and Configure Decision Logic in the Process

Create, Configure, and Update a Decision

To add a decision, first identify the set of rules to consider in the decision-making process.

Then define the data types relevant for designing the rules. Data types will contain all the necessary fields that will be needed to model the rule. Example: If a design rule says Sales Order Amount > 100000 then set the Approver Email as lorin@domain.com, then the data types are Sales Order with Amountfield and Approver withEmailfield.

Include the Decision Logic in the Process

Business Scenario

When approvers are determined automatically via decision logic in the process, this also needs to reflect in the following approval tasks. The recipients of the approval tasks should be based on the resulting process content / variables of the decision execution step.

You'll now adapt the business process one last time to fully automate your approver selection by matching the recipients of the approval form to the one returned from the decision table.

To learn more about how to include the decision logic in the process, follow this interactive tutorial.

Exercise Options

To carry out this exercise, you can choose from the following options:

  1. Live Environment – Using the instructions provided below, you can perform the steps in your SAP BTP account.
  2. Platform Simulation – Follow the step-by-step instructions within the simulation.
  3. Side-by-side: Follow the step-by-step instructions within the simulation and perform the steps in your SAP BTP account simultaneously.
Note
We strongly recommend to perform the steps in the live environment.
ExerciseStart Exercise

Task 1: Include the Decision Logic in the Process

Steps

  1. Include the decision logic in the process.

    1. Choose Approval Form.

    2. Choose Clear to remove the existing value.

    3. Choose orderNumber.

    4. Choose Clear to remove the existing value.

    5. Choose Users.

    6. Choose Email.

    7. To view the required field, select the scroll bar to scroll down.

    8. Choose Groups.

    9. Choose UserGroup.

    10. You can modify your selection as needed.

    11. Choose Save.

Run the Process including Automation and Decision

Business Scenario

You have updated your business process with an automation and additional decision logic. Previously, you made sure that the process was running as expected. Now you need to re-validate because significant changes have been made. It is required to release and deploy the process again, and to the execute it for validation.

Run the business process with a full monitoring of the workflow instances and automation jobs.

To learn more about how to run the process including automation and decision, follow this tutorial.

Prerequisites

Before releasing and deploying your business process, please make sure you have completed the required Agent Management settings to execute the process with an automation.

Once you have taken care of the agent management settings, you can release and deploy the business process project to run the process.

Exercise Options

To carry out this exercise, you can choose from the following options:

  1. Live Environment – by using the instructions provided below, you can perform the steps in your SAP BTP account.
  2. Platform Simulation – follow the step-by-step instructions within the simulation.
  3. Side-by-side – Follow the step-by-step instructions within the simulation and perform the steps in your SAP BTP account simultaneously.
Note
We strongly recommend to perform the steps in the live environment.
ExerciseStart Exercise

Task 1: Run the Process including Automation and Decision

Steps

  1. Release and deploy the business process.

    Use the following data:

    FieldValue
    StringW:\SalesOrdersDetails.xlsx

    1. Choose Release.

      1

    2. On the pop-up, choose Release.

    3. Choose Deploy.

    4. In the String field, enter W:\SalesOrdersDetails.xlsx.

    5. Choose Confirm.

    6. Choose Deploy.

  2. Run the business process.

    You will now run the process and learn how to monitor the process and work on the tasks. You have released and deployed the business process project.

    Use the following data:

    FieldValue
    Customer NameSAP SE
    Order NumberPO7918

    1. Choose Order Processing.

    2. Choose Order Processing Form.

    3. Choose Copy for the Form Link.

    4. Paste the form link into a new a browser window.

      When you open the form in the browser, you will see all the input fields you defined in the process trigger form.

    5. In the Customer Name field, enter SAP SE.

      You have to enter one of the order numbers from the excel file. Do not enter any random order number or else the automation will not give any results.

    6. In the Order Number field, enter PO7918.

    7. Choose Submit.

      After you have chosen the Submit button, you will be notified that the form has been successfully submitted.

      The workflow has been triggered and the approval process has started. You can now work on the tasks, monitor the process, and gain insights.

  3. Work on the tasks.

    Tasks are requests for users to participate in an approval or review process. These tasks appear in the My Inbox application shipped with SAP Build Process Automation. Users can claim, approve, and/or reject the task from their inbox.

    1. From the SAP Build Quick Start window, choose My Inbox.

      The provided tasks and forms might look different than this screenshot, depending on your configurations.

    2. Choose Approve.

    3. Choose Refresh.

    4. Note: all the tasks are listed on the left-hand side.

    5. Choose Submit.

  4. Monitor the process and automation.

    Monitoring business processes is one of the key aspects of successful automation. Using monitoring capabilities, you can proactively and consistently monitor process performance, identify any issues in the process, and take necessary actions to ensure business process continuity.

    SAP Build Process Automation provides different applications for monitoring and managing different process skills. The applications include Process and Workflow Instances, Automation Jobs, Acquired Events, and so on. These applications are available under the Monitor tab in Application Development studio.

    All deployed processes can be accessed by following Manage → Processes and Workflows application.

    1. Choose Monitor.

    2. Choose Process and Workflow Instances.

      In there, you will see all the running, erroneous, and suspended process instances. Use the filter bar to get a more customized view of the process instances based on different statuses such as running, completed, suspended, terminated, and so on.

      To explore different process monitoring options, go to the Instances list, and choose your new process instance that was just triggered via the start form.

    3. Choose Order Processing.

    4. Observe the process instance information which provides the context for the process. You can see actual process data flowing across different activities in the process, and the execution logs where you can trace how the entire process has been progressing. You can also see some basic runtime information for each activity such activity name, who started it, when was it completed, and so on.

      Note
      To view additional information, select the scroll bar to scroll down.

    5. To expand the Monitor pane, choose the arrow.

    6. Choose Automation Jobs.

    7. Choose the Warning icon (if applicable) to learn more about the Automation.

      You will see the automation ran successfully.

    8. Choose Process and Workflow Instances.

    9. Notice the process instance progresses further to the approval step in the business process.

  5. Gain visibility into the business process.

    1. Choose Lobby.

    2. Choose Sales Orders Management.

      Note
      To view additional information, select the scroll bar to scroll down.

    3. Choose Sales Order Visibility Scenario.

    4. Choose the Copy for Dashboard Link.

    5. Open the Visibility Scenario Dashboard by pasting the dashboard link in a browser window.

      The dashboard is there. The performance indicators are filling up. Depending on the time it has taken, there might be different results. Please now feel free to explore the details and discover what is included in each tile. You could even navigate into single instances.

Result

You have successfully completed the task run the process including automation and decision.

This concludes the tutorial.

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