User Tasks and Roles

Actions represent the tasks in a process, things to do. They include user tasks, operations in a file, or any other actions that represent work for someone to perform as part of a process.

SAP Signavio Process Governance provides many action types. Some of them are executed automatically by the system, some of them need to be assigned and performed by users. These actions are split into 3 separate sections:

1. Main actions. This category includes all actions which are commonly used in practice in many practical workflows. They can be considered as 'required' for execution in order to achieve the goal of the workflow.
2. Services & other actions. This category groups actions to be used for automated additional support to the main actions, like filling a document template by the system or auto-creating a PDF document with information from the process.
3. Events and Gateways. This category provides all objects required to control the flow and states in the process in order to make sure the right actions get executed.

• Evaluate CV
• Plan Interview
• Interview Candidate
• Decide on the Candidate

SAP Signavio Workflow Accelerator provides two different types of tasks to be assigned to users. These types are User Tasks and Multi User Tasks.

User Tasks are the most used and common action type in human-centric workflows. They are basically tasks to be assigned and executed by a certain user or group of users. Usually, those users need to provide information in predefined forms required in the process. 

Use cases from practice:

• A  user need to provide information on a business case (risks, controls, requests, applications, etc.)
• A user needs to confirm a certain document has been read (by just clicking a 'done' button).
• A user needs to approve or reject something

General

In this section, the actual user or user group can be added. In a workflow, all users assigned to a task are considered task candidates. A user can also be assigned to a role, which can be reused in other user tasks.

Form

This section allows you to create the actual form that needs to be shown in the runtime environment. The form itself is based on the same form field types as described in the section Form Trigger.

Reminders

The reminder section allows you to set a notification if the task is overdue. It also allows you to:

• Escalate overdue tasks by automatically assigning it to another user after a certain time.
• Close tasks automatically after a certain period of time.

Access Rights (Task specific)

Task-specific access rights can be set. This is used only if certain users need to see and or edit specific tasks, but are not allowed to see the entire workflow and all its information. 

Multi-User Tasks are helpful if the same task needs to be executed by several defined users. It avoids manually creating the same task multiple times for each user. SAP Signavio Process Governance creates that task automatically for each user defined in the section General.

Use cases from practice:

• Multiple users need to make a decision (e.g. an approval)
• Multiple users need to confirm they have checked a new document

Since the tasks are created for each user defined in the list, we can decide if the task itself needs to follow an order of assignment or if it gets assigned to all users at the same time. In our example, every user in the list needs to evaluate the applicant's documents individually.

Parallel execution

The task gets assigned to all users, but each of them need to make a decision individually.

Sequential execution

The next user gets the task as soon as the previous user completes it. 

SAP Signavio Process Governance collects all decisions made by the assigned users and then further explore through a gateway to the next step if: 

• All users have chosen the same option 
• At least one user has chosen a certain option

We're going to look at how to create an Employee Onboarding Workflow by applying the knowledge learned in this lesson. Make sure you signed up for your free 30-day trial and have access to the software. 

Create the following user tasks to make sure, all steps are covered as part of the onboarding process. You can reuse all fields from the trigger form. You can assign all task to yourself as there are no other users in your workflow yet.

1. Set up company account. Make sure, the IT Team gets the following information to set up the account and prepare the laptop. Reuse the following fields from the trigger form:
   1. Full Name
   2. Start Date
   3. Department.

   Add a new field, so the IT-Team can add the new email address. Set a due date of 14 days and set a reminder of 5 days.

2. Prepare Laptop. Make sure, the IT Team gets the following information to set up the account and prepare the laptop. Reuse the fields from the previous task.
   1. Full Name
   2. Start Date
   3. Department

   Add new fields, so the IT-Team can provide the serial number and model of the laptop.

3. Assign a Buddy. In this task, we would like to assign a buddy who is going to support the new hire in the first days in the company.
   1. Email address of the Buddy assigned
   2. Full Name (new hire)
   3. Start Date (new hire)
   4. Department
   Note

   We will use the buddy's email address later to send an actual email and inform the person about all the tasks to be done on the first day.
4. Order Business Cards. In this task, the manager needs to order new business cards for the colleague.
5. Prepare workstation and material. In this task, no form is required. It's just a task to be marked as done once completed.
6. Welcome new colleague. In this task, no form is required. It's just a task to be marked as done once completed.

In the next lesson, we're going to look at Gateways to consider parallel and exclusive branches in our process. The Case Study will continue at the end of the next lesson.