openSAP Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow Management Week 1 Unit 1

00:00:05 Hello, and welcome to the openSAP course, Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow

Management.

00:00:13 Week one, Introduction and Workflows, unit one, SAP Workflow Management: an introduction.

00:00:20 My name is Stephan Schluchter and I'm a product manager. And first of all, welcome to our course.

00:00:25 It's great that you are here, that you are joining us hopefully for the next three weeks,

00:00:29 because we have a lot of exciting content for you and I'm really looking forward to doing this course

00:00:35 together with you, and of course, also with my colleagues. But first of all, as said, let's start with an introduction.

00:00:44 When we talk about business processes, I think we all have an agreement that it's good that

00:00:49 most of them are already automated from the starting to the end.

00:00:53 I mean, you gain all the benefits with the automation. And most often, also these processes

00:01:00 are covered within applications, for example, within SAP S/4HANA.

00:01:06 But we you are true to ourselves, we can see that probably 80% of all our processes,

00:01:13 which we have in different organizations are really covered with the standard scenarios,

00:01:18 with the standard applications. But what about, let's say, the 20% of non-standard workflows

00:01:25 where you probably would like to do a kind of an extension, for example, of a standard process

00:01:30 or where you would like to create something new, something which really provides also to you

00:01:36 something different to your competitor. What about these workflows, about these activities

00:01:41 which you have in your company? And they could be of course in different areas.

00:01:46 May this be in HR, for example, think of several approvals you would like to include

00:01:51 in a leave request, or may this be in the finance area, think about, for example,

00:01:55 if you'd like to provide a certain amount of budget for a project, and then different kind of approval levels

00:02:02 need to be included. Or think of any kind of interaction

00:02:06 you probably also have with your stakeholders, which you would like to include in your process flow but

00:02:12 which is not already covered within standard application. And during this course, we would like to introduce to you

00:02:20 to guide you how you could really go to this last mile of automation with the help of SAP Workflow Management.

00:02:29 Coming back to the notion of processes, we say processes run the world and probably this is true.

00:02:35 And this is of course true for most of the organizations we all are working in.

00:02:43 But we also see that processes are complex. And complexity itself is not necessarily a bad thing,

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00:02:50 but you must be able to handle this complexity. Sometimes you also must be able to hide this complexity

00:02:57 because your business users, they want to focus on the results, on the business outcomes,

00:03:03 and not about the nitty gritty technical details. On the other hand, what we see

00:03:09 and also what we are suffering from, is that processes are still too manual,

00:03:15 or sometimes part of a process, a workflow, probably is still manual.

00:03:20 And of course this all then leads to inefficiencies, can lead to errors

00:03:25 and then of course at the end to higher costs, and we need to avoid this.

00:03:33 But before we come to the introduction of the product itself,

00:03:37 let us clarify in a first step what a workflow actually is.

00:03:42 And here's a nice sentence which I would like to take here. A workflow is an executable visual diagram

00:03:51 of a structured, predefined set of activities that produce a desired result.

00:03:57 Well, so far so good, but if we take a closer look at this little sentence,

00:04:03 we can also see that probably a workflow can be very basic, very simple,

00:04:09 but it could also be enriched with different activities, with different stakeholders

00:04:14 and then probably also become much more complex. Good thing we are able to handle this complexity.

00:04:22 We will also show you how you can do this. But again, let us take a look at a workflow.

00:04:26 And a workflow, of course, consists of certain activities, of certain process steps.

00:04:33 And these activities can be executed, for example, by a business user, by the user themselves.

00:04:38 These activities could also be executed, of course, by a system.

00:04:42 So again, thinking about this notion of extension of a standard business process,

00:04:49 where you then probably then also would do a callback to the business application.

00:04:56 But of course, processes or process steps could also be, for example, executed by a bot, by a chat bot,

00:05:02 or by digital a bot coming from an robotic process automation system.

00:05:10 In the flow of such a workflow, of course, we have several gateways where decisions are made.

00:05:15 You can also see this here on the screen. So in this really simple orders return workflow.

00:05:20 So the first decision is really to be made. Do we have your low-value returns?

00:05:25 Then the process or the workflow itself will be executed just in a few seconds,

00:05:30 or will we have high-value returns, where then, of course, further approval steps are necessary.

00:05:35 So this means, also we need a kind of input to really also make these decisions.

00:05:40 And of course then the output, the result of these decisions will then also be used in the upcoming steps

00:05:46 or probably then we have a final result once the workflow itself has been ended.

00:05:53 Within a workflow there are different artifacts which can be used - by the way, we are talking here about BPMN,

00:06:00 Business Process Model and Notation artifacts which you are using here

00:06:04 also during the course of the week and also within our product.

00:06:11 When we are talking about workflows, we can also see that there are different kinds of workflows.

00:06:15 And let me just focus on three of them. So first and foremost, you will see embedded workflow.

00:06:22 So this means within a business application there is a workflow running

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00:06:25 who is including different users, probably also calling different systems.

00:06:31 And it's ensuring that certain set of activities will be executed in the right way.

00:06:36 Sometimes you even don't know that there's actually a workflow

00:06:40 or workflow engine behind it, but it's because it's so deeply integrated

00:06:44 in the actual business application. On the other hand,

00:06:48 and this is one of the main topics also during this course here, extensions.

00:06:54 Extensions of standard business processes, we've seen them everywhere

00:06:58 and also the need for them. And of course you can easily manage this

00:07:02 and do this with the help of SAP Workflow Management. So just imagine you would like to add several approval steps,

00:07:10 or you would like to include different stakeholders, get in a kind of collaboration also.

00:07:17 And then the last type, cross-LoB orchestration workflows, as we have named it here.

00:07:24 Imagine you have different systems, you have different LoBs, but they need to work together

00:07:29 because the overarching process is running across these different units,

00:07:34 across these different systems. And then of course, you also need to be capable

00:07:38 to build this up within your system, within your workflow management system.

00:07:44 And this is also what we are taking care of with the help of SAP Workflow Management.

00:07:50 So embedded, extensions, or cross-LoB orchestrations, everything is covered.

00:07:57 Now, let me show you SAP Workflow Management at a glance. So in essence, it's an offering

00:08:03 which helps you to digitize workflows, to automate and extend, as I already mentioned,

00:08:09 business processes, you can manage decision logic, gain end-to-end process visibility

00:08:15 with embedded intelligence. So what does this mean?

00:08:19 On the one hand, of course we have, let's say, the traditional, basic workflow capabilities,

00:08:25 but we have also enriched this with the, let's say, business process experts, citizen developer, no-code flavor.

00:08:32 So where actually you can configure different variants based on a certain process template.

00:08:39 You will, by the way, also learn how this is done during the course of this week.

00:08:44 As I said before, within a workflow, we have decisions. We have gateways, and of course,

00:08:48 these can be taken care of by Business Rules. Once you are executing the workflows,

00:08:54 you would like to ensure that the performance is okay. So that probably some KPIs you have defined before

00:09:01 are also met, and therefore we are using Process Visibility. The consumption of all the tasks, which are created,

00:09:08 so for the user at the end, this can be done, for example, by My Inbox or also other task providers.

00:09:18 Workflow intelligence. So think about situations where you probably do not,

00:09:24 each and every time, for example, certain approvals, so where you would need some kind of guidance.

00:09:29 And we are providing you here the guidance by the system, so learning system, which could give you, for example,

00:09:36 some kind of recommendations, or also help you to do some kind of mass approvals

00:09:42 at the end of the day. Good news also for the ones of you who are also familiar

00:09:48 with other process automation technologies, like for example, SAP Intelligent RPA,

00:09:54 we have here a really tight integration. And of course, if you would like to use, for example,

00:09:59 a digital assistant, you can easily make use of conversational AI,

00:10:03 which is also integrated into SAP Workflow Management. Let us now go a little bit deeper into the key capabilities.

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00:10:12 So I've already told you, we have here workflow, of course, in the center.

00:10:17 And as you can see, we have a Workflow Editor, a low-code environment focusing also on the, let's say,

00:10:23 application workflows, probably this could be extensions, this could be cross-LoBs workflows,

00:10:28 as I have named it before. Business Rules, also again, a low-code environment,

00:10:33 so you can see also there's not so much, let's say, developer experience needed.

00:10:40 We are really also providing here an easy entry, especially when we're taking a look

00:10:46 at our Process Variant editor. So this is the area where you can easily

00:10:50 configure your own Process Variants really within a no-code environment.

00:10:57 And then finally I've already mentioned Process Visibility, where you can get insights into your instances,

00:11:03 but also have kind of an overall view, measure certain KPIs within a dedicated dashboard.

00:11:12 And all this comes together with pre-built content packages. So we are not only providing the tooling

00:11:20 to do workflows the right way, but also we are providing you some templates,

00:11:25 which you can use and really you don't need to start from scratch

00:11:29 each and every time for certain patterns, for certain use cases you have within your organization.

00:11:37 Coming now back again to these cross-LoB workflows, because probably you would like to get there more information

00:11:45 or probably you are also a little bit skeptical of what this means.

00:11:48 So think about how you have different applications within your landscape,

00:11:52 which I think is the case for most in the areas where we are handling with our customers.

00:11:58 So a typical workflow could, for example, then start with any kind of data entry

00:12:03 in probably a simple form. Then of course, probably some data needs to be collected

00:12:09 from the underlying applications. And there we are also then getting in touch

00:12:14 with the applications and get this information out of them. Probably there are decisions in this workflow,

00:12:21 and therefore we are using the rules capability. As the next step,

00:12:26 probably a business user needs to be included. They will get some notifications,

00:12:30 they need to do some approvals, probably also get in touch with other stakeholders

00:12:36 so really having kind of an interaction here. And as I said before, sometimes it might also be necessary

00:12:43 that you're automating a task, for example, with the help of a digital bot.

00:12:48 And then finally, once you're done, really distribute all the data in the different applications,

00:12:54 which are connected to your overarching workflow here, your cross-LoB workflow.

00:13:00 One important thing here also to be mentioned. So when we talk about user engagement, of course,

00:13:07 this is all covered within a launchpad so that you get one single access point.

00:13:12 And as I said before, probably you could now start from scratch

00:13:16 with each and every workflow, but I think it's much easier for you

00:13:21 that you are using some kind of pre-built content in different areas.

00:13:24 For example, in areas where you are talking about the larger process of order to cash

00:13:30 or procure to pay, hire to retire, you name it. And also of course, catering to different industries.

00:13:36 Now let's take a look what these content packages all include and what you can do.

00:13:43 So these workflow content packages or live process content packages, as we call them,

00:13:49 so you will find them in the SAP API Business Hub for different LoBs, for different industries.

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00:13:55 This is the place where you can discover them. Within Workflow Management itself,

00:14:00 within the so-called flexibility cockpit, you are then able to import this content.

00:14:05 And now comes the most important thing. Then you are also able to flexibly configure this content

00:14:11 based on your business needs. Probably you would also need to be able

00:14:16 to create different kinds of process variants of one single process.

00:14:21 And also this is possible here within SAP Workflow Management.

00:14:26 As the last step, you would activate this and then of course, let the workflow run,

00:14:31 let the user consume the workflow and also work with it. So very a nice environment, really straightforward.

00:14:39 And we will show you during the course of these three weeks how you could use this with all the other capabilities

00:14:46 I have mentioned before. To give you a kind of an overview

00:14:51 of what kind of use cases they are. And by the way, at a time you are seeing this,

00:14:56 they are many more already there because we are really working hard

00:15:00 to provide many more use cases, many more predefined live process content packages to you

00:15:06 because we have seen how important it is for you and also how valuable it is for you

00:15:12 and how beneficial that you don't need to start from scratch each and every time.

00:15:16 So there are different areas, for example, in procurement area, where you will find use cases.

00:15:22 Of course, different kinds of approvals are included there. Some use cases where we are providing visibility

00:15:29 in different areas, or, of course, when it comes, for example, in certain areas,

00:15:36 in certain industries like utilities - even there we are providing content packages,

00:15:41 which you could leverage. So please be invited to take a look at them

00:15:45 and find the one which is suitable for your dedicated use case.

00:15:50 So why should you actually consider SAP Workflow Management? And these are more or less six points,

00:15:57 which I would like to take here out of this first unit in our openSAP course.

00:16:03 On one hand, it's a service offering to digitize workflows,

00:16:07 to automate, extend business processes, to manage your decisions,

00:16:11 and to gain end-to-end process visibility. So really a rich set of capabilities,

00:16:17 which is coming under one umbrella. As you have seen, we have a rich set of

00:16:22 predefined live process content packages, which you can use really as an accelerator

00:16:27 in your projects. Of course, integration to SAP

00:16:31 is given also to non-SAP applications. We are providing you the right mechanisms,

00:16:36 the right technology so that you can integrate with them quite easily and straightforwardly.

00:16:43 But of course, we know not all our customers are already in the cloud.

00:16:46 They have also systems running on-premise. And also there we are providing here the right solution

00:16:53 so that you also have support here for hybrid workflow implementations,

00:16:57 and really connect the systems which are needed in the actual flow

00:17:01 of your different activities. As I said before, we are also integrating

00:17:07 so that you with Intelligent Robotic Process Automation or conversational AI,

00:17:12 so you are able really to leverage these digital bots or the digital assistants at the end of the day.

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00:17:21 And then finally, not to forget to mention here, think about all the sentiment analytics you can look at.

00:17:27 For example, with Qualtrics. Also this information

00:17:31 is very useful within the flow of your work, within your workflow.

00:17:35 And also this we can include and really provide here a really elaborate set of capabilities

00:17:42 and content within one environment. So the key benefits, of course.

00:17:49 Your employees can really focus on the more valuable tasks with the help of process automation,

00:17:56 really get faster to a result, to really beneficial value here. On the other hand, and this is also very important

00:18:03 when we are talking about workflows themselves, we are ensuring here compliance.

00:18:08 Because all the steps are recorded, you get information and you can really follow,

00:18:12 track who has done what at which point in time. And then, one important thing,

00:18:18 the last thing here on this list. With Workflow Management,

00:18:22 you are really enabled to flexibly adapt your business processes really to your needs

00:18:27 so that you can really take care of your business and what they are requiring.

00:18:34 So the key learnings for this first unit was really the importance of business processes.

00:18:39 You have seen with Workflow Management you can really go the last mile of process automation.

00:18:44 I've introduced you to different types of workflows. You have seen some capabilities of Workflow Management

00:18:52 where we will go into more details, of course, in next units,

00:18:55 where you can also experience them on your own in your own system.

00:19:00 And of course, you have seen now a few of the use cases, but there are many more,

00:19:06 and I'm sure there are also many more in your organization. So feel free to leverage SAP Workflow Management for this.

00:19:16 In the next unit, actually I will go into the details of the tool.

00:19:20 I will show you a concrete example, the capital expenditure approval process.

00:19:25 I will show you how this has been implemented and also what the end-user experience will look like.

00:19:31 So with that, here are some links for further readings. Please feel free to visit our pages here,

00:19:39 we have videos out there, we have tutorials out there, of course, several blogs in the SAP Community.

00:19:45 By the way, also be invited to join our community here on Workflow Management, exchange your ideas,

00:19:54 get information from our experts, and so on and so forth. And last but not least, as I said before,

00:20:00 explore our live process content packages. So with that, thanks a lot for joining me in this first unit.

00:20:07 I'm looking forward to these three weeks with you and hope to see you in the next unit.

00:20:12 Bye.

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Week 1 Unit 2

00:00:05 Hello, and welcome to the openSAP course, Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow

Management,

00:00:13 week one, Introduction and Workflows, unit two, Managing Capital Expenditure Approvals.

00:00:20 My name is Stephan Schluchter, and I'm a product manager. And today, in this unit,

00:00:26 I will show you, with a real-world example, what you can actually do with SAP Workflow Management

00:00:32 in the tool itself. But let me just come now to the example.

00:00:36 So capital expenditure approvals, you probably wonder, "Is this what I want for my organization?"

00:00:43 I guess yes, because we see these capital expenditure approvals

00:00:47 in many of our customer situations. So whenever, think about you would like

00:00:53 to create a new project, you would want a new project, you would like to create a new building, for example,

00:01:00 or you would like to do some other, bigger investments, for example, also buying a software system,

00:01:06 then you need budget. So, and this capital needs to be approved by someone.

00:01:12 And probably you would say, "Hmm, this is quite easy."

00:01:15 Yes, it can be easy, but it could also sum up to several, probably up to 20 levels of approvals during your hierarchy,

00:01:23 which you would like to include. Or probably you would also like

00:01:27 to include certain KPIs. So for example, like one of our customers did,

00:01:32 they would like to include their sustainability KPIs there. So nevertheless,

00:01:37 we are seeing capital expenditure approvals at different customer situations,

00:01:42 and we have just listed one here, Danone, who have also dealt with it,

00:01:47 and solved the issue which they had before, so with a manual process,

00:01:51 with not really having a kind of track record of what's going on, with the help of SAP Workflow Management.

00:01:58 And by the way, this was also the trigger for us. There we have seen though a capital expenditure approval

00:02:04 could be slightly different in each and every organization, there are certain patterns which are reoccurring.

00:02:10 And wouldn't it be good to have some predefined content which you could use as an accelerator for your projects?

00:02:17 And the answer was yes, and we have worked on this,

00:02:19 and now we are also providing a rich set of these content packages in different LoBs

00:02:25 in different areas. But today, we will focus on capital expenditure approvals.

00:02:32 When we take a look, most likely such an approval process could look like this.

00:02:36 So some of what you've reviewed is CapEx request, and a submission will be created, for a standing approval is going on,

00:02:44 and as I said, this could sum up to different levels of approvals.

00:02:47 Then the budget will be provided, then the investment will be done,

00:02:51 for example, a project will be created. And then of course, at the end,

00:02:54 you would also like to measure whether the investment you have made,

00:02:58 whether you really get the money back, so to speak, with your ROI.

00:03:04 And for this, we are using different capabilities of SAP Workflow Management to really fulfill this need,

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00:03:11 to have this capital expenditure approval process automated. Let me show this now in a demo.

00:03:20 So I am now here in the launchpad, and as you can see, there are several tiles.

00:03:24 Of course, on the one hand for the business user, like the My Inbox tile,

00:03:28 and also the Process Flexibility Cockpit, which could also be used by a citizen developer,

00:03:33 and I'll show you this in a minute. There are some administration tools here

00:03:37 in the monitoring area, and also we have created here some custom applications.

00:03:42 And this is actually where I would like to start because we will now create a new CapEx request.

00:03:54 So, and therefore, let me type in some information, first name, last name, and the e-mail address.

00:04:04 Then of course, we also would need the user ID. We could put in here some comments,

00:04:15 but also here now starting to really do the request for the new CapEx request.

00:04:22 And in this case, we would like to have new office building in Walldorf.

00:04:30 And why is this the case? Because we have new team members,

00:04:36 and of course we also need more space for the new team members.

00:04:43 So now let us put in the cost for this building, also the operational costs, add them.

00:04:50 And then also we can provide here some financial numbers,

00:04:57 and also, if you would like to have it here, also some sustainability KPIs.

00:05:01 So what I've mentioned earlier, what we have also seen in customer cases

00:05:05 that also these areas, these items are important. Okay, so we have entered all the information,

00:05:19 and now we can request a new capital expenditure. So let us go back now,

00:05:32 and we can see here also the number here in the My Inbox application has increased,

00:05:37 so there's a new item in it. And now a business user, in this case actually,

00:05:43 the local manager, as you can see here, approval for CapEx request, "New office building in Walldorf",

00:05:48 in your role as local manager you can now go through all the details.

00:05:52 You will get of course all the information which is necessary, and then either approve or reject this request.

00:06:00 Let us approve it, and then we do a short refresh,

00:06:04 we can then see that also the item will be forwarded then to the next role - in this case,

00:06:11 this would be the vice president. And of course, as you could imagine,

00:06:14 then all the information will be the same here at the end. So that's here, the one we have just created right now

00:06:24 in your role as vice president. But now, let's take a look

00:06:30 how this has been created, or what are the underlying artifacts.

00:06:34 And in this case, as I said, with Workflow Management,

00:06:38 we are more or less taking care from pro-code developers to low-code to also no-code citizen developers.

00:06:46 And here in the Process Flexibility Cockpit, this is the central place where you can,

00:06:51 on the one hand, discover the live process content packages.

00:06:54 And by the way, within these packages, there are also several artifacts available.

00:06:59 And then you can see here also what has already been imported.

00:07:03 But if you go now here, we can see here there's 32

00:07:07 live process content packages available. As I said, we are currently working on providing

00:07:14 much more in different areas, in different industries, in different LoBs.

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00:07:18 And the one which we are taking care of today is Capital Expenditure Approval Process.

00:07:25 And if we can take a look here, so we, on the one hand, see what kind of documents are available, setup guide,

00:07:31 end user guide, configuration guide, but also, there is a link to GitHub repository,

00:07:38 where you actually will find the sources. So the workflow, for example,

00:07:42 you will also find there user interfaces and whatever you need.

00:07:46 And the central artifacts that we will have in these live process content packages,

00:07:51 they can vary, of course, they can be different in each content package,

00:07:55 but normally, you would get a process, you will get decisions, so the underlying business rules,

00:08:01 and also a visibility scenario where you can then gain

00:08:06 the end-to-end process visibility for this certain process.

00:08:11 And if we take a closer look here, we can also see, for example, which default variant has been configured here.

00:08:18 In this case, we have just one approval step, and this can then, of course,

00:08:22 be adapted based on the business needs accordingly. So, I'm back here now in the Process Flexibility Cockpit.

00:08:32 And now let's take a look what has been configured here. So as you can see,

00:08:38 there are certain areas and we will go through them now step by step.

00:08:42 So on the one hand, we have the process variants,

00:08:45 so this means based on these default variants, which I have shown you before, with this single step,

00:08:50 then the citizen developer is free to create here variants

00:08:54 really based on the business requirements. So now let's take a look at the CapEx for Infrastructure.

00:09:03 So as you can see here, based on these default variants, so the approval step,

00:09:07 which is here also as an available step, there has been created a dedicated process variant

00:09:12 with an approval by the local manager, the approval by the vice president, which you have seen.

00:09:17 And of course, there are several other approval steps, which can easily be added by just moving

00:09:23 here the steps into the canvas, and then finally, just save and activate it.

00:09:29 So with this, it's quite easy for a citizen developer to really create the process variants

00:09:35 according to their needs. But there is more,

00:09:38 because we not only have the process variant in such a package,

00:09:42 as you have seen, we have also decisions in there.

00:09:47 And for example, in this case, we also have a decision to determine the approvers.

00:09:54 So let us take a look what's happening here. First of all, there is a rule included here, a text rule,

00:10:00 which will decide whether actually a manual approval is necessary.

00:10:05 So if someone really needs to click on the Approve button or whether this would be an auto-approval itself.

00:10:12 And then on the next step, there would be, for example, here,

00:10:16 the possibility to determine the approvers. And in this case,

00:10:26 this is a decision table maintained with different attributes, and of course you are also free to change this business rule

00:10:34 really based on your business needs. As a third step, we have here our visibility scenario.

00:10:51 So we can maintain here some general information, description, of course,

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00:10:56 and then also maintain the processes. So what are the so-called participants in our scenario?

00:11:05 And you can add here different kinds of processes. So on the one hand, and also what we have done here,

00:11:11 we have added a workflow from the workflow service. But of course, you could also add a process template,

00:11:16 you will learn later on how this is possible, but even a business workflow.

00:11:22 And also a Qualtrics survey so that you also get the information,

00:11:26 the sentiment analysis within your Process Visibility dashboard.

00:11:32 There's of course also the context information listed, because based on these context attributes

00:11:37 and the values behind them, then you are able to really define the attributes that are here.

00:11:44 And then finally also define the performance indicators, which you would like to have displayed

00:11:50 in your dashboard. So this could be, for example,

00:11:53 the number of open capital expenditure approval requests, this could be, for example, also the cycle time.

00:11:59 There are different representations possible, and really you can slice and dice here the information

00:12:05 so that all the information which is relevant for your business user is also displayed here.

00:12:13 Another interesting fact is that you not only can provide information,

00:12:17 but you could also define some actions. So this means whenever there are issues

00:12:22 within a certain instance, then, for example, a workflow will be triggered to restart the approval

00:12:28 if there's something, if the approval didn't complete finally.

00:12:33 Or you could even, for example, notify the process admin that there are some issues,

00:12:39 some business issues under certain conditions. In addition to that,

00:12:44 there are different target states which can be defined. So the status here, may this be critical,

00:12:51 at risk, on track, completed with violations, for example, or completed without violations.

00:13:02 So with just a few steps here, you could easily define what kind of, yes,

00:13:09 information you would like to have displayed, and of course, what kind of performance indicators

00:13:14 should be measured for the business user. And now let's take a look how this information

00:13:21 which has been defined here can actually be consumed. And therefore we will go here

00:13:26 into the Live Process Insights. So we have here, the dashboard, we can see

00:13:39 the open capital expenditure approval requests by status, and I've shown you before the cycle time by variant even.

00:13:46 So the approved capital expenditure by business unit. We can even see the total cost.

00:13:53 In this case, we can have information regarding the step cycle time,

00:13:58 so how much time it really took in the different areas.

00:14:03 We can see how many have been completed without violations, how many are currently open,

00:14:09 the overall value, and so on and so forth.

00:14:12 So it's really up to you what kind of information you would like to have displayed here.

00:14:16 And as you have seen before, it's quite easy also to configure this information.

00:14:21 Probably would mean, okay, this is now a nice dashboard, but is there something more?

00:14:25 Yes, there is much more because you could even go into details

11

00:14:29 of the single instances and really get here also the information.

00:14:33 And again, based on the process context and the workflow context, which has been defined before,

00:14:39 and as I said before, here is also, for example, such an action which has been defined here

00:14:44 to restart the approval in this case. So quite powerful as you can see,

00:14:50 not only getting an overview, but really going into the details here.

00:14:57 So let us go back now. Here again, Process Flexibility Cockpit.

00:15:04 And what I have shown you so far was on the one hand the My Inbox application,

00:15:09 Process Flexibility Cockpit. There are certain monitoring tools which could be used.

00:15:14 So for example, an administrator could also go into here,

00:15:17 into some details, and take a look at what's currently going on,

00:15:21 how the workflows, the instances are performing. Are there any errors, what is the workflow context?

00:15:28 And also take a look at the execution log. Besides this, of course,

00:15:35 there are also workflow definitions available here, and there of course you can then also

00:15:41 dive into much more details and get information out of this.

00:15:46 So this was the view for the business user, for the citizen developer, and also for the administrator.

00:15:52 Now let's go one step deeper and take a look at how this would look for a low-code developer

00:15:59 who could really then also implement a workflow behind the scenes.

00:16:08 So we are now in the SAP Business Application Studio, so this is the environment where you can create workflows,

00:16:14 also create user interfaces, for example, forms and so on and so forth.

00:16:19 And of course, everything that you're doing here could also then be packaged

00:16:22 and be made available into live process content package. So the live process content package

00:16:28 can include the workflow, the process, the variants that you have seen.

00:16:31 It could include business rules, visibility scenarios,

00:16:35 and also the user interfaces. Now let's take a look here

00:16:42 on the capital expenditure project here. And on the one hand,

00:16:48 what we see here, for example, the templates, so what I have told you before.

00:16:53 So a template which has been used to create, the process template in this case,

00:17:00 so we have the process context, we have the process steps, and so on,

00:17:04 but also the default variant. So remember what I've shown you in the beginning

00:17:09 within the business hub. So this is actually the variant

00:17:13 which has been created as one default variant. And the variant itself is based on certain process steps,

00:17:20 and underneath these process steps, of course a standard workflow.

00:17:23 So if we take a look at the approval step, we can see that there are different artifacts included.

00:17:30 So they are all based on BPMN 2.0. These are different task types

00:17:36 that we have here, user task, service task, script task, mail task, and even a referenced subflow,

00:17:42 so if you would like to do some structuring within your workflows.

00:17:45 And then there are different gateways available, and you can make use of them, of course, then,

00:17:52 in the definition of your workflow itself, and then really have here a meaningful,

00:17:57 and also powerful environment, which you could use to create your workflows.

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00:18:05 So in the next units, you will learn actually how to create

00:18:08 such kinds of workflows, how to create templates, the variants,

00:18:11 the business rules, and the visibility scenarios. And this was also the end of this demo.

00:18:20 So what have you learned now in this unit? So you have seen, in a real-life example,

00:18:25 real-world example, with capital expenditures approvals,

00:18:28 how really SAP Workflow Management can be used. On the other hand, you have seen of course,

00:18:34 on one hand, the implementation, but also the execution, and what really

00:18:40 the end user experience looks like. So what's next?

00:18:45 Well, in the next unit, you will learn how you could set up your environment.

00:18:49 And this is really easy because you will follow a booster where most of the steps

00:18:54 are already automatically triggered for you, and just follow the explanation

00:19:01 by my colleague Archana in unit three. Thanks a lot and hope to see you soon again.

00:19:07 Bye.

13

Week 1 Unit 3

00:00:06 Hello, and welcome to the openSAP course, Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow

Management,

00:00:14 week one, unit three, on setting up your development landscape.

00:00:18 My name is Archana Shukla and I'm from the product management team

00:00:22 of SAP Workflow Management. To set up your development landscape,

00:00:29 you first need to create a subaccount in your global account,

00:00:33 then add workflow, business rules, process visibility, and Workflow Management entitlements

00:00:39 in your subaccount. Then you have to enable business rules,

00:00:43 Application Studio subscriptions to create and deploy your workflow

00:00:48 and Workflow Management subscription to access different applications

00:00:52 of Workflow Management capabilities. Then you have to create service instances

00:00:58 for each of workflow, business rules, process visibility, and Workflow Management capabilities.

00:01:04 Finally, to access respective applications of Workflow Management from the launchpad,

00:01:10 you have to assign Workflow Management role collections to your user.

00:01:15 To simplify and accelerate the entire onboarding of Workflow Management in your SAP BTP account,

00:01:23 we have introduced Workflow Management booster. With Workflow Management booster,

00:01:28 you can automatically set up your account without the need of any manual configuration.

00:01:34 Booster, in general, is a guided set of automatic instructions

00:01:38 to achieve a specific goal. Workflow Management booster fully automates

00:01:43 the onboarding of workflow, business rules, process visibility,

00:01:47 and Workflow Management capabilities in your account. It will configure entitlements,

00:01:52 it will enable Workflow Management, Business Application Studio,

00:01:56 and launchpad subscriptions. It will create service instances,

00:02:00 together with service keys. It will create destinations,

00:02:03 and finally, assign all the needed Workflow Management role collections

00:02:08 to the logged-in user. For the entire duration of this course,

00:02:13 you will be using your SAP BTP trial account to run the exercises.

00:02:18 Now let us go to SAP BTP Trial Cockpit and see how you can set up

00:02:23 your trial environment using booster. Open SAP BTP Trial home page

00:02:30 and log in to your trial account. If you're logging in for the first time,

00:02:34 then you have to register to SAP BTP Trial Account. Click to enter into your trial account.

00:02:41 Your trial account will already have a subaccount created for you by default.

00:02:45 If you want, you can also create a new subaccount with the New Subaccount option.

00:02:51 Booster is available in your global account on the left panel.

00:02:55 Click to view all the available boosters from different services.

00:03:01 Select the Digital Process Automation option to find the SAP Workflow Management booster.

00:03:08 You can click to enter to know more about what this booster provides.

00:03:14 You can see all different components and the subscription,

00:03:18 which is available with Workflow Management. If you want to learn more about the different capabilities

00:03:23 of Workflow Management, then you can click on the respective links available

00:03:28 in the additional resource section. To run the booster, click on the Start.

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00:03:35 If you have multiple subaccounts in your global account, then this screen will pop up

00:03:41 where you have to enter the subaccount where you want to run the booster.

00:03:48 If you do not have multiple subaccounts, then the booster will automatically be launched.

00:03:54 When the subaccount is selected, you select the space where you want to run the booster

00:03:58 and click Finish. It will take four to five minutes to run the booster,

00:04:03 and your account will be automatically set up with all the needed Workflow Management configurations.

00:04:18 Once the booster is complete, you will find the direct links

00:04:23 for the Workflow Management launchpad to access workflow, business rules,

00:04:27 process visibility, and process flexibility applications. Let me now show you all the setup the booster did

00:04:36 in your subaccount. First, let's go and check the entitlements.

00:04:50 Usually, in your default trial subaccount, all the entitlements will already be assigned,

00:04:55 but if you have created a new subaccount in the trial or in your enterprise account,

00:05:01 then this might not be the case. So the booster assigns all the needed entitlements

00:05:05 with the right plans in your subaccount. Now let's go into Subscriptions.

00:05:15 Booster enables SAP Business Application Studio, Launchpad Service, and Workflow Management subscriptions

00:05:23 in your trial account. SAP Business Application Studio subscription is mandatory

00:05:30 if you want to model your workflows. Launchpad subscription is needed

00:05:34 if you want to build your custom launchpad with Workflow Management applications.

00:05:39 And Workflow Management launchpad is enabled to quickly give you the access

00:05:43 to all the applications of workflow, business rules, process visibility, and process flexibility.

00:05:49 Now let's go on to the service instances. So whenever you want to start a workflow

00:05:54 or consume, let's say, business rules in your processes or import pre-packaged content,

00:06:00 you will be needing the credentials delivered as part of the service instances.

00:06:05 Booster creates the service instance and one service key

00:06:08 for each of the service instances of workflow, business rules, process visibility, and process flexibility.

00:06:15 The default instances created by the booster will have a prefix as wm_.

00:06:23 Now let's see the destinations created by the booster. There are multiple destinations

00:06:32 that get created for different connectivity needs while working with Workflow Management capabilities.

00:06:38 Like these first four destinations are created out of the service instance

00:06:43 of process visibility, rules, Workflow Management, and workflow respectively,

00:06:48 and you can use these destinations while configuring these applications in the launchpad.

00:06:55 Then there's an OAuth destination, which you can use while working

00:06:59 with principle propagations in workflow. BUSINESS_RULES destination contains

00:07:04 all the needed credentials to use business rules APIs

00:07:07 while using business rules in workflow or in any of your applications.

00:07:14 APIHUB destination of business rules is used to import the business rules content

00:07:19 from API Hub in business rules editor. And finally is the CF_SPACE_PROVIDER destination,

00:07:27 which will basically be used to import the pre-packaged content

00:07:32 in Process Flexibility Cockpit. So what you have to do

00:07:42 is when this destination gets created, it will be created with a dummy password.

00:07:48 So you have to change the password to your trial account password.

00:07:54 And save it. Now, moving on to the final activity that the booster did,

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00:08:04 which was assigning the role collections to your user. For that, you have to go into Users.

00:08:18 To see the role collections assigned to your user,

00:08:21 enter your trial account user e-mail. And click on Show Assignments.

00:08:29 And you will see that all the four different role collections

00:08:33 of the Workflow Management are being assigned to your user, plus it will also assign

00:08:38 the Business Application Studio role, which will be needed when you are working with workflows.

00:08:48 For this openSAP course, you will also have to have some additional setup done.

00:08:57 For this, navigate to your Workflow Management launchpad and click on Process Flexibility Cockpit.

00:09:11 From the Process Flexibility Cockpit, go to Discover Packages,

00:09:15 and search for Sample Capital Expenditure Approval Process. This Sample Capital Expenditure Approval Process

00:09:28 contains the sample workflow, rules, and process visibility.

00:09:33 So you have to import the Sample Capital Expenditure Approval Process

00:09:38 into your account. Once the Capital Expenditure Process is imported,

00:09:48 you can find it in your Process Flexibility Cockpit. Go into the Sample Capital Expenditure Approval Process

00:09:54 and you will find the variant, the decisions, and the visibility scenarios

00:09:59 that are available with the sample. So you have to go into the Determine All Approvers decision.

00:10:13 And activate this decision. This operation is needed

00:10:21 because you will be using this business rules ID while modeling the workflows in the upcoming unit.

00:10:29 With this, your setup is now completed. With this, your SAP BTP trial environment

00:10:37 is ready to get started. You can get this similar experience

00:10:41 in your enterprise accounts as well. In this unit, you have learned about using booster

00:10:47 and how it can automatically set up your development environment

00:10:51 so that you can quickly get access to Workflow Management applications,

00:10:55 and start working on your project without worrying about cumbersome installation steps.

00:11:02 In next unit, you will be introduced to workflow capability of SAP Workflow Management,

00:11:08 and you will learn how to model and manage your workflows

00:11:11 using SAP Business Application Studio. Here are some quick links

00:11:17 to read more about setting up your development environment using booster.

00:11:24 Now we are at the end of the unit. Thank you for listening and see you in the next unit.

16

Week 1 Unit 4

00:00:05 Hello and welcome to the openSAP course, Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow

Management,

00:00:11 week one, unit four, Building a Workflow from Scratch.

00:00:15 My name is Frederic Ahring, and I'm a solution engineer.

00:00:19 SAP Workflow Management is a cloud service offering to digitize workflows, automate and extend business processes,

00:00:26 Manage Decision Logic, and gain end-to-end process visibility.

00:00:30 If we take a closer look at the workflow capability,

00:00:33 we can see several aspects of usage. Integration with other systems can be achieved

00:00:38 either with direct system calls or using the power of SAP Integration Suite

00:00:42 or SAP Connectivity service. End users can work on tasks in My Inbox

00:00:48 or start new workflows in self-service scenarios. Technical administrators and business experts

00:00:54 can gain visibility, and monitor the smooth running of workflows,

00:00:57 and take actions when necessary. Workflow developers can use

00:01:02 SAP Business Application Studio. This browser-based development environment

00:01:07 offers low-code tooling for modeling workflow definitions and easy creation of simple form-based user interfaces.

00:01:14 Custom rich user interfaces based on SAPUI5 can be developed in the same environment.

00:01:21 Let's start with a short introduction to the used terms. The SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment

00:01:29 provides bundling of different components into deployable packages with the concept

00:01:34 of a multi-target application or MTA. In Business Application Studio,

00:01:39 all artifacts relating to one workflow scenario are compiled into one MTAR file,

00:01:45 which can then be deployed to the dev or productive landscapes.

00:01:51 The definition of a workflow is a modeled behavior of how a system should act

00:01:55 on each workflow start or instance. Each running instance contains a context,

00:02:02 which is the data used by this instance. Upon starting a workflow, an initial context

00:02:07 is given as a start parameter, which can then be displayed, modified,

00:02:12 used for flow decisions, and passed to other systems.

00:02:17 A selection of the values in the context can be defined as workflow attributes.

00:02:22 Those can then be used in process visibility for business monitoring. Enhanced calculations on the context data

00:02:30 can be done using JavaScript. For interaction with humans,

00:02:34 user interfaces can be built. Depending on the complexity,

00:02:38 those can be bundled in the same MTA as the workflow or placed in a separate one.

00:02:47 The Business Process Model and Notation, or BPMN in short, is an ISO standard

00:02:52 for defining and visualizing workflows. BPMN workflows are defined in a graphical way.

00:02:58 Different activities are chained using arrows, which indicate an ordered sequence.

00:03:03 Conditional branches and loops provide the real power of workflows.

00:03:07 The main component of workflows are tasks which are performed by a human,

00:03:11 tasks which are performed by a computer, and decisions about the flow based on contextual data.

00:03:18 In SAP Workflow Management, tasks performed by humans are called user tasks,

00:03:23 and denoted with a little person icon. You can see one here in the middle

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00:03:27 of the example called Approval Task. They are shown to the end users in My Inbox

00:03:32 and wait for data input or decisions to be made. Tasks performed by a computer are called

00:03:38 service tasks, indicated with a gear icon. They call out to the API of another system

00:03:44 using REST communication. Data can be transported both ways.

00:03:48 If an asynchronous pattern is desired, a workflow can be modeled to wait for a call-back.

00:03:54 The most interesting part of workflows are flow decisions taken

00:03:57 based on workflow context data. This can be achieved with gateways.

00:04:02 Further elements exist, like script tasks and mail tasks,

00:04:05 and events based on external factors. When creating user interfaces for tasks

00:04:14 or for starting a workflow, Workflow Forms provides an easy way

00:04:18 to configure simple UIs. This may be fully sufficient

00:04:22 for a lot of smaller use cases, and it's especially beneficial

00:04:25 during development and prototyping. On the other end of the spectrum

00:04:29 is developing a complex interface, completely free-form.

00:04:33 The recommendation is to use SAPUI5 for which graphical tooling support is provided.

00:04:38 Of course, choosing any other technology is possible as well.

00:04:42 With this freedom comes a higher development effort. Access to most of the workflow functionalities

00:04:52 is easily possible through the provided APIs. SAP API Business Hub provides

00:04:58 an extensive API documentation. It also offers a feature to call API endpoints

00:05:03 directly from the browser. Authorization is based on OAuth 2.0 tokens.

00:05:08 Fine granular permissions can be used to control access to the various endpoints.

00:05:14 Technical users are also supported using client credential flow, with credentials available

00:05:19 in the Cloud Foundry service bindings. Let's take a look at the live system.

00:05:30 You can open SAP Business Application Studio from the SAP BTP Cockpit by going

00:05:36 to Instances and Subscriptions, selecting the SAP Business Application Studio subscription,

00:05:43 and clicking on Go to Application. Then you can Create a New Dev Space by giving it a name

00:05:51 and selecting from the additional SAP extensions, the Workflow Management extension.

00:05:59 Click on Create Dev Space, and this will now create a virtual machine

00:06:05 in the background, which will store all of your files during your development in this browser-based environment.

00:06:11 Wait until it is in the status of Running, which you can also, if you had made a pause,

00:06:19 restart here from the buttons on the right. And once it is running, the name

00:06:25 of your dev space will turn blue, and you can click it to launch the application.

00:06:32 In the SAP Business Application Studio, on the left-hand side,

00:06:35 you will see the File Explorer. And in this case, I've already

00:06:39 created a multi-target application, where we can store our workflow data.

00:06:45 If we go to View, Find Command, or press F1, we can select by typing in

00:06:51 or selecting from the recently used, Create New Workflow.

00:06:56 We are asked to choose the application where we want to store the workflow,

00:07:01 optionally, we can enter a namespace, and finally, the name of the new workflow.

00:07:09 This will now open the Workflow Editor with the most minimal workflow imaginable,

00:07:15 which consists of just a start event followed directly by an end event.

00:07:21 As you can see here, the screen is divided into three areas.

00:07:28 On the left-hand side, we have the palette, where you can choose your flow object,

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00:07:32 which you want to place into your workflow. On the right-hand side, we have the properties

00:07:38 of the currently selected element. So currently, it is the workflow itself.

00:07:43 And in the middle, we have the graphical editor, where you can model your workflow.

00:07:49 If you click on one of the elements, we get speed buttons, which we can use

00:07:55 to very easily add new flow elements to the workflow. For example, a Service Task

00:08:03 for calling out to other systems. And it will automatically be placed

00:08:08 in between the existing connectors. We can now directly continue

00:08:13 to place another task, for example, a User Task, and it will also be placed

00:08:19 in between the connectors, but here, you can already see

00:08:22 the space was not sufficient. So it makes some visually not so nice loopings.

00:08:28 So in this case, we have two options. Either for simple workflows,

00:08:32 we can select the auto formatter to say, arrange horizontally or vertically,

00:08:40 or we can directly click and drag and drop all of the elements directly

00:08:46 and position them how we like it. If it do it this way,

00:08:50 there will be some orange guidelines appearing to make the placement in a more regular pattern

00:08:56 and make it look nicer. We can also add new elements

00:09:06 from the palette on the left-hand side. For example, let me add a Script Task.

00:09:11 And here, I have two options, I can either place it anywhere on the screen,

00:09:18 or I can place it on an existing connector. And if I do that, again,

00:09:24 it will be placed inside the connector, and the connection will go through it.

00:09:30 If I did not do that, I have the option to drag a connector,

00:09:35 which is called a sequence flow, from the speed buttons directly to where I want to have it.

00:09:42 There's also the option to select the connector, select the end or beginning of the connector,

00:09:50 and drag it somewhere else to make the form different.

00:09:57 This can be used, for example, if I choose the end event,

00:10:00 and I want to place it underneath, and this automatically now creates this S kind of shape.

00:10:05 I can select it, and make sure that it actually goes in a very nice vertical way.

00:10:14 Now, let me speak about the workflow context. The workflow context is a JSON structure

00:10:21 which is stored alongside each instance of a workflow, and it contains data which is used for flow decisions,

00:10:29 and for showing to users, or retrieving from users to be placed

00:10:35 into external systems. If you start a workflow, we can give

00:10:40 an initial context as a parameter. And to make it easier for administrators during testing,

00:10:47 we can define a start event with an example context, and I've already prepared such a context,

00:10:55 which I will now select. And you see, this is just a simple JSON file,

00:11:07 and the JSON file can be structured in any way that the developer wants to have it.

00:11:13 However, we do recommend to keep the workflow context rather small,

00:11:18 so it only contains the information you need to make flow decisions

00:11:22 or present to the user, or retrieve from the user.

00:11:25 And all bigger information, especially whole data objects or files,

00:11:32 to place it in a separate system, and just store a reference here

00:11:36 to retrieve it later in the UI or elsewhere. If I click on a script task,

00:11:43 I have the option to make more complicated calculations based on the context.

00:11:49 Here, for example, if I click on Create New File, the new file will automatically contain

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00:11:57 a commented-out section of coding, which gives a good example

00:12:01 of how you can access part of the context, but also how you can access decisions

00:12:06 made by the last user task, and this gives you a good introduction.

00:12:12 And if it's not sufficient, you can also take a look in the SAP Help documentation,

00:12:18 where there's a fuller description of this available.

00:12:24 Let me now show you an existing modeled workflow. What you can see here is a simple approval form.

00:12:33 We defined that approvals should be based on the input data,

00:12:37 so for example, the region or the investment amount. So we call a separate system

00:12:43 to retrieve who should approve, and then we have a User Task

00:12:48 to actually have the appropriate person approve it. So what we are doing is we first have a Script Task

00:12:55 to prepare the data for the external system. And then we use a Service Task,

00:13:02 which is a connection to the external system. And here, in the Properties pane,

00:13:09 you can see there's always general properties, which shows us a technical ID,

00:13:14 the name given, that is shown here in the workflow and also shown in the execution log.

00:13:20 Optionally, you can add documentation. And additional details in the Properties tab,

00:13:25 depending on which object you have currently selected. So for the Service Task,

00:13:30 this would be the information to which system you want to connect,

00:13:34 which would be using the Cloud Foundry destination concept. An administrator can define the technical details

00:13:41 of how to access a system, including also the credentials to access the system.

00:13:47 Give it a name, and this name can be now be referred here under Destination.

00:13:52 In this case, we will refer our rules-based system and give it a path,

00:13:59 where we will make a REST call. If you don't know the path,

00:14:02 there's all those option to connect to SAP API Business Hub,

00:14:06 to retrieve default destinations for many SAP systems. To put data into the external system,

00:14:17 we define a part of the context which should be transferred to the system,

00:14:21 and response data will be transferred back into the context.

00:14:25 And with Request Variable and Response Variable, we can define where in the context

00:14:30 this data should be taken from or put into. Finally, we have the option to not use

00:14:37 a technical user to connect to the system, but a user which is a real user,

00:14:43 which has previously interacted with this very workflow.

00:14:47 So if I select Principal Propagation, then I can select where this user

00:14:52 information should be taken from, and the options are either the user

00:14:56 who has started the workflow, if it was a real user,

00:15:00 or the user who has completed one of the tasks. So you see all of the User Tasks

00:15:06 which I have modeled are then available here, and they can select one.

00:15:09 Internally, the system will store principal data, and then make an impersonation when doing the call.

00:15:21 What you can also see here is that we have a kind of error marker.

00:15:26 This means that something is not completely configured. You can see especially here in this

00:15:32 just newly created workflow, where we have not configured anything.

00:15:36 If we hover over it, we will see the information,

00:15:39 what kind of data is missing. And once we have filled in everything,

00:15:44 then this marker will go away, and then we can deploy the workflow

00:15:48 how we want to have it. In this case, I just need to unclick Principal Propagation

20

00:15:56 because I did not select a flow element. And you see now, the error marker goes away.

00:16:06 The interesting part for workflows is flow decisions. For this, we use gateways,

00:16:12 so we have two ways of gateways. The Parallel Gateway is a very simple one.

00:16:18 It just goes to all of the parallel outgoing branches at the same time,

00:16:23 so no decision taken, just all of them will be taken.

00:16:27 And this interesting one is Exclusive Gateway. And here, for each outgoing branch,

00:16:33 I can define a condition. A condition is an expression

00:16:37 which goes to the context data. And based on whether the context data

00:16:42 is of a certain value, or in this case it would be just a Boolean,

00:16:48 it will be decided whether the flow goes to that branch or another branch.

00:16:54 One branch will always be configured as the default branch.

00:16:58 That one will be taken when no other branch has precedence.

00:17:06 For a User Task, you can see I can give a priority, I can give a title.

00:17:13 And also here in the title, I can add expressions to personalize the task a bit more.

00:17:19 And the recipients can be given both as users or lists of users,

00:17:24 and also as groups. And here again, I've used an expression

00:17:29 to return the data which I've previously fetched from the rule system

00:17:34 to define who should actually get this task. The user interface can be either an SAPUI5 component,

00:17:45 which you can model separately in a very complex way, or a very simple way, especially for prototyping very useful,

00:17:54 is a Workflow Form. And I've already prepared a form.

00:18:00 You can see the form editor is directly integrated here in the Workflow Editor.

00:18:05 It offers a grouping of elements, and each element consists of a name

00:18:12 that is shown in the UI as a title. There is a type of element, which defines how it is displayed,

00:18:21 or perhaps how the input element is chosen. And the context path,

00:18:27 which means which part of the JSON object is used to display the data.

00:18:33 Or if modification is enabled, the user can also modify the data,

00:18:37 and then it is placed back into the context at this place in the path.

00:18:43 You see here, the mode can be selected, Editable or Display Only.

00:18:47 And for Editable, we have the options to define whether it is required

00:18:53 and what kind of input field we want to have. For example, just a line, a whole Text Area,

00:19:00 we can have a Dropdown, and then we can also select multiple values,

00:19:05 which can be selected. Also, we have the tab Decisions,

00:19:13 and here, we can define the buttons which can be displayed for the actions the user can take.

00:19:19 In this example, it would be three actions, and then the workflow flow can be based

00:19:26 upon which action is being taken here. You see there's a text, which is displayed,

00:19:32 an internal ID, and it has a type, and the type is based on the graphical theming.

00:19:39 So in the default theming, a positive type would be a green button,

00:19:45 and a negative type would be a red button, and the neutral type would just

00:19:49 be the default blue button style. Finally, if you are happy

00:19:55 with the workflow we have created, and we have no further issues and problems,

00:20:01 then we can build and deploy the workflow. For that, let me quickly delete

00:20:06 the unfinished workflow I've created before, and show you the mta.yaml file.

00:20:15 That is the description file of the multi-target application.

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00:20:20 It's automatically created but you can adapt it, and it references what other services

00:20:25 are required for this deployment. And in this case, it is just the workflow service.

00:20:31 If I right-click on that file, I can select Build.

00:20:36 And you can see the build log here in the lower part of the screen.

00:20:40 And this will create a new folder called mta_archives, and inside, an MTAR file,

00:20:46 which is a zipped deployable archive of the whole folder, will be available.

00:20:55 On this one, I can select Deploy. And since I've already logged in to the system previously,

00:21:01 it will now start a deployment to the cloud. If any kind of issues would occur,

00:21:10 and the back-end system would reject the data for some kind of errors,

00:21:15 those would be displayed here in the error log and can then be investigated and corrected.

00:21:21 Otherwise, we will see that everything is running through correctly.

00:21:27 Just need to wait a little bit here. Lastly, if you don't want to see this lower window anymore,

00:21:35 there's this option here in the lower right, and if you click on that,

00:21:39 then this window will not be displayed anymore. Or if I click it again, I can toggle it,

00:21:45 and now it's verified that the deployment actually went through successfully.

00:21:52 In this unit, we've learned how to model a workflow using SAP Business Application Studio.

00:21:57 We've designed a simple form-based user task and made a call to another system.

00:22:03 We've also learned how to control flow and how to influence it.

00:22:13 In the next unit, we will learn how to interact with workflows as an end user

00:22:17 and as an administrator. More information can be found

00:22:23 with the provided links. Now, we are at the end of the unit.

00:22:27 Thanks for listening, and see you in the next unit.

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Week 1 Unit 5

00:00:06 Hello and welcome to the openSAP course, Improve Business Processes with SAP Workflow

Management.

00:00:12 Week one, unit five, Executing and Monitoring Your Workflows.

00:00:16 My Name is Frederic Ahring and I'm a solution engineer. In this unit we will focus on interacting with workflows

00:00:23 from both the end-user and administrator perspectives. We will start with task processing using My Inbox.

00:00:31 My Inbox can be configured as a tile in the Fiori launchpad, and offers a responsive UI

00:00:36 for access across different devices. Workflow participants can use My Inbox

00:00:43 to view and complete tasks. Multiple options to sort, group,

00:00:47 and filter tasks are available. Task UIs can be designed to be displayed directly

00:00:52 in the My Inbox view or be opened in a separate window. Optionally a workflow log can be displayed.

00:01:01 Let's take a look at the live system. The My Inbox tile is available in the Fiori launchpad.

00:01:09 Already here in the overview, you can see the number of open tasks that are available for you.

00:01:15 If I click on the tile and open the inbox, you can see a split screen layout

00:01:20 with a list of all open tasks on the left side, and on the right side, the individual UIs

00:01:26 for the respective tasks. If you take a closer look here,

00:01:33 you see each task has information of the task title, the information of who started the workflow

00:01:41 that this task is a part of, the priority, for example medium, low, or different,

00:01:48 and if a task has a due date, it is also displayed here. If the due date is already in the past,

00:01:55 like for those tasks down here, then an overdue marker is shown.

00:02:01 Also, as you can see, priority high is shown differently colored.

00:02:10 There are several options to navigate through the available tasks efficiently.

00:02:16 One would be to use the search field at the very top, to narrow down the list of available tasks

00:02:24 to those which contain the search term entered. If I click on X, the filter will be cleared again

00:02:34 and I will see all 18 tasks again. At the bottom of the screen I have several options

00:02:41 to do different arrangements of the tasks. The easiest one is just changing the sort ordering.

00:02:48 The default is to have the newest task on the top. But you can also change it to the title,

00:02:54 which would be an alphabetical ordering, the priority, or, for example, when it would be due.

00:03:04 Another option is to filter the tasks based on several attributes of a task,

00:03:11 which could also be the priority. And you can select which priorities you want to see.

00:03:18 Or whether it's the due date set, a specific status, or the type of the task.

00:03:24 If you go here, the list of available types will match the tasks

00:03:29 you actually have available in your inbox at the current moment in time.

00:03:33 So this list will depend on the actual tasks you have. Let's say I only want to see reporting information tasks.

00:03:44 Then the list will be filtered. And if now I want to see everything again,

00:03:50 I can open the filter menu and click on Reset, which fill remove the filtering.

00:03:59 Similarly, you can group all tasks based on certain attributes,

00:04:05 for example, the task type. And now we will see all of the tasks

00:04:12 for the respective types grouped in several subareas here. Again, to remove the grouping,

00:04:20 open the menu and click Reset. On the right-hand side, I will see the UI

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00:04:28 for the respective task I have selected. You'll see here on the top,

00:04:32 I also see the information for the priority, the due date in red, because it's overdue.

00:04:39 And the respective fields specific for this specific type of task.

00:04:46 Here you see this task only allows me to add a comment,

00:04:51 and I cannot make any other changes to the UI. And then I will be asked to either approve or reject it,

00:04:59 which buttons are depending on the task type as well. If, for example, I would go to a different task.

00:05:08 This one is a custom UI5-based UI. It contains a list of data which was entered

00:05:16 in the previous step, and also contains input fields, which I have to fill in to complete this task.

00:05:32 In this case, the task only offers one button, which would be Submit.

00:05:38 There are several other buttons, which are always available for all tasks,

00:05:43 and this would be the Show Log button. Here you can see what already happened

00:05:49 in the specific workflow that this task is part of. And in this case, I have started the workflow,

00:05:55 and then the task has been created. In other cases, there might already be more tasks

00:06:01 which have been completed before. Those would be listed here as well.

00:06:09 You can also see here the little marker, which says Reserved by You.

00:06:13 This is because I can mark a task that I want to work on it.

00:06:19 If multiple people would get the task, for example, in a call center setting,

00:06:24 then I could choose a task. Let's take this one.

00:06:29 And then I have the Claim button. And if I click on Claim,

00:06:33 as you can see, Reserved by You appears, and it will be not shown anymore in the inbox

00:06:40 of all other users, and you can work on the task if you need more time for research or contacting the customer.

00:06:49 If you want to not complete the task, but give it back in the pool,

00:06:54 then you can also click on Release. Finally, if enabled for the specific task,

00:07:01 you have the option to forward it, to specify a different user

00:07:06 who was not in the original list of the recipients, but you want them to actually work on the task.

00:07:13 And then you could forward it. Another option to forward tasks to other persons

00:07:26 is to specify a substitution. If I go in the menu bar and select Manage My Substitutes,

00:07:37 under Planned substitutions, I can add a new substitute, give the user ID from the system,

00:07:45 and also specify a timeframe for when the substitution should be available.

00:07:50 For example, if I would be on vacation, then during this timeframe,

00:07:57 all of my tasks will automatically also appear in the inbox of Thomas, and he can work on them.

00:08:05 The second option is to prepare for unplanned absences. And in this case, I can add a new substitute.

00:08:16 But here I will not give a timeframe, and those tasks will not immediately show up in his inbox,

00:08:23 but in the case I'm falling ill or I'm not available, he now has the option to take over my tasks if necessary.

00:08:32 What this would look like, let's assume user Dennis has created such a rule for myself.

00:08:40 Then I could go to Substitute For. And I would see that Dennis has created

00:08:46 such an unplanned substitution rule for me, and I can activate it, and now I would be receiving

00:08:53 all of the tasks of Dennis in my inbox as well, until I disable it again.

00:09:03 Monitor Workflows enables administrators to manage workflows on a technical level.

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00:09:07 It is available as a tile in the Fiori launchpad. Using Monitor Workflows,

00:09:14 administrators can gain an overview of both deployed workflow definitions

00:09:18 and workflow instances. Instances can be started, monitored, suspended,

00:09:23 and terminated as required. Instances which have run into an error can be inspected

00:09:29 and resumed. Using the filter and search,

00:09:32 specific instances can be found quickly. It is also possible to show already completed instances,

00:09:38 as long as they have not been deleted. Let's take a look at the live system.

00:09:48 To ensure the smooth running of the workflows, administrators can access the Monitor Workflow app

00:09:53 from the Fiori launchpad. Two tiles are available,

00:09:56 one for listing and starting deployed workflow definitions, and the other for managing running workflow instances.

00:10:04 We'll start with the workflow definitions. All available workflow definitions are listed

00:10:13 on the left side by their given name The right side is for the details

00:10:17 for the selected workflow definitions, its technical identifier, and the version.

00:10:23 Each time a workflow is deployed, the version will be incremented automatically.

00:10:28 At the the bottom of the screen, additional actions are available.

00:10:32 Starting from the right, you can download your deployed workflow definition

00:10:36 in its native JSON format. SAP Support might ask you for that file for troubleshooting.

00:10:48 The usual way for workflows to be initiated is by either a user interface,

00:10:52 which provides options like input validation, value help, and a structured layout,

00:10:57 or by a call from another connected system. During development and for testing purposes,

00:11:03 workflows can also be directly started from Monitor Workflows.

00:11:09 An input field allows you to enter the JSON data for the initial workflow context.

00:11:14 As the structure is highly depending on the respective workflow definition,

00:11:18 the workflow developer can configure an example context in the selected format as a default value.

00:11:24 This of course can be modified before starting the instance.

00:11:35 If you want to start more than one instance, you can use the Start New Instance button.

00:11:40 And if you are happy with just one, just click on Start New Instance and Close.

00:11:49 Finally, Show Instances switches over to the Monitor Workflows Instances view.

00:11:58 The list on the left shows an overview of our workflow instances,

00:12:01 with information about their name, technical identifier, their initiating user, and the current status.

00:12:12 Using the filter options, instances from specific workflow definitions

00:12:16 can be selected. Since we have opened this view

00:12:20 coming from the workflow definition details, a matching filter has already been applied.

00:12:25 This is the quickest option to focus on specific workflows, for example, during development.

00:12:32 If I remove the selection, all workflow definitions will be shown again.

00:12:39 Another filter criterion is the instance status. By default, all non-final instances are shown,

00:12:45 that is, those running, suspended, or in error state. Additionally, workflows which have completed normally,

00:12:52 or have been canceled, can be shown as well. Selecting Reset will remove all filters

00:12:58 and show all instances that are available. On the right, the details

00:13:09 of the selected workflow instance are shown. Besides the header information,

00:13:13 as also shown in the list view, more technical details are shown

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00:13:17 under Workflow Information. Among others, the clickable workflow definition ID

00:13:22 leading back to the definitions view, the definition version this instance is using,

00:13:27 and the business key used for correlating of intermediate message event,

00:13:33 and the instance ID, which can be used for calling APIs. In the section Workflow Context,

00:13:40 you can see the current live state for this instance. No history is kept.

00:13:46 Investigating the context is the best way to figure out what caused unexpected behavior,

00:13:51 especially during development. Please note that for data protection,

00:13:56 an additional permission is required to view the context. The execution log shows the run for this workflow instance

00:14:06 so far, with the most current event at the top. You can see who started the workflow,

00:14:12 the different activities which have been started and completed, together with a timestamp

00:14:17 and additional details. Like the destination name for service tasks

00:14:22 or some details about user tasks. More details for user tasks can be shown with Show Tasks.

00:14:31 This will list all existing open and completed tasks for this workflow instance.

00:14:36 Apart from the technical IDs, the recipient list can be seen

00:14:40 as well as the currently assigned processor, if any. A task is assigned if a user claims it,

00:14:46 or by the administrator explicitly assigning it to them. Especially during development,

00:14:53 assigning a task to yourself for further testing without needing to change the business logic

00:14:58 is very helpful. When workflows are modeled using reference workflows,

00:15:10 like the process variants are using implicitly, the field Parent Instance ID is filled for all subflows.

00:15:21 If you look at the execution log for this parent instance, you can see that this instance so far has only contained

00:15:27 the call for the referenced subflow. Just like tasks,

00:15:34 all subflows for this workflow instance can be shown with the Show Subflow Instances button.

00:15:52 Sometimes workflows run into errors. The most common cause are modeling errors

00:15:57 during development, for example, a mismatch of expected and actual fields in the context.

00:16:02 But also in productive use, those errors might occur, for example, when a remote system could not be reached

00:16:08 or returns an error. Depending on the situation,

00:16:11 an administrator can try to remedy the situation and retry the call or terminate the workflow.

00:16:19 You can see the error message here at the top and also in the execution log.

00:16:26 In this example, a remote system was wrongly configured, and after taking corrective action,

00:16:32 a retry can be used. Let's refresh the system.

00:16:43 And verify that now the call to the external system was completed successfully.

00:16:49 If a recovery is not possible, the administrator might choose to terminate the workflow instance.

00:16:56 After a confirmation popup, this will set the state to canceled,

00:17:00 and all called subflows and active tasks are canceled as well.

00:17:10 Lastly, administrators have the option to temporarily suspend

00:17:15 a workflow instance. In this case, the workflow will be paused

00:17:23 and all associated tasks hidden. The next options are either to resume,

00:17:29 or to terminate it. In this unit we have learned how to use My Inbox

00:17:36 as an end user to view and work on tasks. We have also learned how to use Monitor Workflows

00:17:42 as an administrator to start, manage, and terminate workflows.

00:17:47 In the next unit, we will learn how to create a process template.

26

00:17:53 More information can be found with the provided links. Now, we are at the end of the unit.

00:17:59 Thanks for listening and see you in the next unit.

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