Tutorial: Quickstart: Business Modeler Basic Version 6.2.0.1
Tutorial: Quickstart: Business Modeler Basic Version 6.2.0.1
Tutorial: Quickstart
Note Before using this information and the product it supports, be sure to read the information general information under Notices and Trademarks on page 39.
This edition applies to version 6, release 2, modification 0, fix pack 1 of WebSphere Business Modeler Basic (product number 5724-I74) and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Copyright IBM Corporation 2004, 2009.
Contents
Tutorial: Quickstart . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1. Module 1: Modeling process flow 3 Creating a project and process . . . . . . 3 Creating a task flow. . . . . . . . . . 4 Editing element attributes . . . . . . . . 9 More about gateways . . . . . . . . . 12 Chapter 2. Module 2: Modeling data and data flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Creating business items . . . . . . . . 17 Associating business items with connections 20 Updating a process flow to receive data. . . 22 25 25 28 29 31 34 Chapter 3. Module 3: Modeling resources Creating a resource definition . . . . . . Creating resources . . . . . . . . . . Creating roles . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a timetable . . . . . . . . . Associating resources and roles with activities
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Tutorial: Quickstart
This Quickstart tutorial is designed to introduce you to the basic elements, tools, functions, and capabilities available to you in IBM WebSphere Business Modeler and to show how you can quickly create realistic working models for your business processes. The tutorial modules are designed to be completed using the Basic business modeling mode. By completing the full tutorial, you will give yourself a solid foundation of understanding and be ready to move on to the more advanced features and modeling capabilities of the product. The tutorial is arranged in a particular sequence that is commonly used when modeling processes, but you do not need to follow a strict order and complete every preceding exercise if you want to jump ahead and learn a particular task. For example, if you want to start putting activities into a process diagram right away without first creating resources and business items, you can skip the modules dealing with resources and business items. However, be aware that certain exercises will require that you complete one or more previous exercises. If you would rather just read the exercises, or want to jump ahead without completing all of the preceding exercises, you can import the Quickstart Financesample project. This sample project is a companion to the tutorial, providing the process diagrams, resources, and other modeling elements that you would create if you completed each exercise in the tutorial. It can also be used as a starting point if you want to start adding new elements to your models. When you feel comfortable with the basic tasks demonstrated in the Quickstart tutorial, you can begin to build more complex models with the assistance of the product's information center and the tutorials and samples available on the WebSphere Business Modeler library Web site. Each of the modules included in this tutorial should take a maximum of 30 minutes to complete.
Learning objectives
After completing the lessons in this module, you will have learned how to: v Create a project. v Create a process model. v Add and connect elements from the modeling palette in the process model. v Customize the Attributes view and edit element attributes.
on which this tutorial is based. In most cases, this difference will be the absence of the letters QS from the start of a catalog name. This is to avoid errors due to name duplication if you want to have both the completed sample and your tutorial work open at the same time 4. Leave the Default process catalog name field as the default name, Processes. Just as the project allows you to organize related items together, process catalogs allow you to group related processes together in a meaningful way within a large project. Later in the tutorial, you will be working with other catalogs as well. 5. Specify a name for the new process of Loan Application (Present). 6. Click Finish. The remaining pages of the wizard allow you to set the display style for your model, but you can accept the default values for now. 7. Click the 4-pane layout button (). . The 4-pane layout allows you to see the project and catalog structure the WebSphere Business Modeler elements in your workspace When you have completed these steps, the Project Tree view should resemble the following screen capture:
Tasks are the most basic building block of a process model. Each task represents a block of work, or activity that is important to the overall process. Tasks can be created as Local or Global Tasks. Local Tasks only appear once inside the process that they are a part of. Global Tasks are created in the Project Tree view and can be reused multiple times within and across processes. In this lesson, you will create a set of local tasks to describe a loan review and approval process. In this lesson, you will create the tasks to model the following task flow: 1. A loan application arrives for approval and is reviewed by a loan officer. 2. 70% of the time, the application is approved and funds are disbursed through a computer system. 3. 30% of the time, the application is denied, and an automated letter of denial is sent to the applicant. To do this, you will create two tasks, and one human task. A human task is a specialized version of a task, which contains additional attributes and specifications. For now it is enough to know that a human task is just another way of modelling a task that must be carried out by a person. You will also create a gateway to describe the flow of the process. 1. In the Project Tree view, expand Quickstart Tutorial Processes and double-click Loan Application (Present) to open the process that you created in the previous lesson. When you create a new process, it is not completely empty of all elements. Instead, it contains a Start node and a Terminate node. Start nodes are one way to model the start of a process, and can be useful if you are creating models primarily for documentation purposes. Terminate nodes mark points in a process that cause the entire process to stop. Terminate nodes are used primarily to mark the completion of a process. A third node element, the End node, is used to mark the end of a process path, but implies that another branch of the process is still underway, and that the process itself is not complete. 2. Update the diagram settings to display inputs and outputs in the model: icon. The Change Diagram a. Click the Change Diagram Settings Settings window opens. b. On the Diagram Options page, select Inputs and outputs from the Show in diagram options. c. Click OK to close the window and return to the editor. icon, and then click inside the 3. In the palette, click the Human Task diagram editor. This creates a single new human task. 4. Type the following name for the task: Review Loan Application. When you have finished typing the task name, press the Enter key.
Chapter 1. Module 1: Modeling process flow
5. Now you need to add two generic tasks to your loan application process: icon. a. In the palette, click the Task b. Move your cursor to the Process editor to the area just to the right of the human task that you added in step 2. Before clicking in the diagram, press and hold the Shift key. c. Click inside the diagram editor, and continue to hold the Shift key. d. While still holding the Shift key, position your cursor below the task that you have just added, and click again to add the second new task to your process diagram. Your process diagram should now look similar to the following image:
Tip: If necessary, you can arrange the tasks to adjust the amount of space between them. To move a task in the diagram, click the task and drag it to the appropriate spot. 6. Now give the two new tasks meaningful names: a. Click the task labeled Task once to select it, and then click again to edit the task name. Give it the name Disburse Funds. b. Click the task labeled Task:2 once to select it, and then click again to edit the task name. Type the following task name: Reject Application and Notify Customer. 7. The Reject Application task is too small to display the entire name, so resize it by clicking the task once to select it, and then clicking and dragging its corner to resize it. You can also click and drag the tasks (and other elements) around the editor to change their relative position to each other. At this point, your diagram should resemble this:
8. Now, add a simple decision to the diagram to model the decision of whether or not to approve the application. Simple decisions model an exclusive yes-no choice. Each time the element is encountered, it directs the flow of the process down one or the other path, but not both. For more complex decision points, use a Multiple-Choice Decision nodes. You will make use of these decisions in a later lesson. icon. You might have to a. In the palette, click the Simple Decision open the Gateways drawer in the palette to see the Simple Decision icon. b. Move your cursor to the right of the Review Loan Application task and click to add the decision to the process diagram. c. Type the following name for the decision: Approve Loan? Note that the decision provides a Yes or No response to a question, in this case "Is this loan application approved?" By default, the two possible responsesYes and Noare assigned an equivalent probability of 50%. You will change these values in a later lesson, but leave them with their defaults for now. 9. For completeness, of the diagram, you will now add nodes that explicitly mark where the process starts and completes by adding a Start node and two Terminate nodes: a. In the palette, click the Start icon. You might have to open the Events drawer to do this. b. Now click the diagram editor to add the Start node to the model. Position the start node to the left of the other elements that you have created. c. In the palette, click the Terminate icon. d. Now, hold down the Shift key and click diagram editor twice to add two Terminate nodes to the model. Position these nodes to the right of the other elements that you have created.
Chapter 1. Module 1: Modeling process flow
When you are documenting a process, the start node indicates where the process flow begins. There is typically only a single start node for a documented process, even though WebSphere Business Modeler allows you to have multiple start nodes in a diagram. Terminate nodes mark the points where a process completes. When any branch of a process flow reaches a terminate node, all flow through that instance of the process will also stop. In contrast, the stop node, which is not used in this tutorial, marks only the end of a particular task flow inside the process, but does not cause the process as a whole to cease. 10. Press Ctrl + S to save the changes that you have made. When you save your model, a model validation is carried out, and any errors are reported in the errors view. Your diagram should now resemble the following image:
11. To complete this lesson, add connections to indicate the order in which each task takes place: button, which a. In the palette toolbar, click the Create connection is located at the top of the palette. b. In the process diagram, click the start node, and then click the left side of the Review Loan Application task. Notice that there is now a connection between the node and task, with the arrow indicating which direction process flows. c. Continue clicking to create the following connections: From Review Loan Application to Approve Loan? From the Yes branch of Approve Loan? to Disburse Funds. From Disburse Funds to one of the Terminate nodes. From the No branch of Approve Loan? to Reject Application and Notify Customer. v From Reject Application and Notify Customer to the other Terminate node. 12. Press Ctrl + S to save the changes that you have made. At this time, you should not have any warnings or errors in your model, and the model should resemble the following diagram. v v v v
2. Now, associate a cost of $3.00 USD with the Review Loan Application task: a. Click the Cost and Revenue tab. Four kinds of costs are available: Processing Cost Records the cost associated with carrying out the task. Startup Cost Records any one-time cost incurred the very first time the task occurs. In other words, it is the initialization cost for the activity. Wait-time Cost Records the cost incurred if the activity cannot begin as soon as its prerequisite activities have completed and prerequisite data has been received. For example, if a the task Review Loan Application is supposed to begin when a loan application arrives, but there is no one to carry out the review, you can modl a cost associated with the lag time between the arrival of the application and the moment that someone is able to review it. Revenue Records the amount of income realized by carrying out the task. In this tutorial, you will only set the Processing Cost. b. Expand the Processing Cost section and enter a value of 3.00 USD. Notice that the pull-down menu automatically changes from None to Specific Value. It is also possible to set a cost defined by a random distribution, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial. Note: The cost that we are modeling at this point is only the cost associated with the task itself, and does not necessarily take into account the cost associated with the resources that are engaged in it. WebSphere Business Modeler provides you with a great deal of flexibility in your modeling. If you want to capture all your cost information at the task level, you can. However, you can also associate costs with the resources carrying out the tasks. You will do this in a later lesson. 3. Next, set a duration of 30 minutes to carry out the Review Loan Application task. a. Click the Duration tab. Two kinds of duration are available to specify: Processing Time Records the time that it takes to carry out the task. By default, tasks take no time to complete.
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Resource Wait Time Records the maximum amount of time that is allowed between the time that a task's prerequisites are complete and the time that resources become available for it to begin. In cases where you have resource contention, then if a task cannot begin within its Resource Wait Time, it is considered to have failed, and will not run. By default, activities will wait indefinitely to begin without failing. b. Expand the Processing Time section and set a value of 30 minutes. Notice that the pull-down menu automatically changes from None to Specific Value. It is also possible to set a duration defined by a random distribution, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial. 4. In a similar way, set the duration for Disburse Funds to 10 minutes and the Duration of Reject Application and Notify Customer to 5 minutes. 5. Now, update the simple decision to reflect the process being modeled: a. Click the simple decision to select it. b. Select the Output branches tab. This is where the probability information for simple decisions is stored. c. For the Yes condition, edit the table to have a value of 70%. d. For the No condition, edit the table to have a value of 30%. The two values must add to 100% to avoid an error message. However, they must each be updated individually. 6. Finally, update the diagram settings to display the attributes that you have set: a. In the menu bar, click Change Diagram Settings (
). The Diagram Settings window opens. b. Select Labels, and then select the Display information labels on the diagram option. c. Select the Top Label cell for the Local task element type, and choose Processing Time. d. Select the Top Label cell for the Local human task element type, and choose Processing Time. e. Select the Bottom Label cell for the Local task element type, and choose Processing Cost. f. Select the Bottom Label cell for the Local human task element type, and choose Processing Cost. g. Clear the Include the attribute name in the label field. h. Click OK.
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You can use the diagram settings in later lessons to review other changes you have made to your diagram elements, or associations you have made with them. For example, in Module 3 you will associate roles and resources with some of the tasks. You can use these settings to display some of those associations directly in the diagram. 7. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. The model should now look similar to the following:
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gateways to handle the new option. Specifically, you will create a multiple-choice decision and a merge gateway. 1. In the Project Tree view, right click the Loan Application (Present) process that you created in this module, and select New Process. 2. In the Create a new process wizard, enter the process name Loan Application (Future) and click Finish. The new process will open automatically in the Process editor. 3. Now, double-click the Loan Application (Present) process to open it in the editor. The Loan Application (Present) process opens, but the Loan Application (Future) process also remains open and accessible through the tabs that run along the top of the editor. 4. Click in the editor for the Loan Application (Present) process, and then press Ctrl + A to select all of the elements that it contains. 5. Press Ctrl + C to copy the elements. 6. Click the tab for the Loan Application (Future) process and then press Ctrl + V to paste the process that you copied into the editor. 7. Press Ctrl + S to save your work so far. 8. Add a new local task called Apply special terms, with a duration of 5 minutes. The following instructions review how to do this, but also show you a different way to update the name of the element. a. In the activities drawer of the palette, click Task, and then click in the drawing area of the editor. b. Ensure that the task is selected in the diagram so that its attributes display in the Attributes view. c. On the General tab, change the Name field to read Apply special terms. d. On the Duration tab, change the Processing time to be the specific value of 5 minutes. 9. Replace the simple decision with a multiple-choice decision. Multiple choice decisions are used to model a point where a process can take one of many different paths. Each of a multiple choice decision's outputs has an associated probability. In an exclusive multiple-choice decision, a process or data flow that arrives at the inputs can only continue down one of the possible outputs. In an inclusive decision, the probability that the process flows down each output is calculated separately, which can sometimes result in a process continuing down multiple paths, or down none at all. Only exclusive decisions, which are the default, are within the scope of this tutorial. Carry out the following steps in the Loan Application (Future) process model to model the three possible approval decisions for the loan application.
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a. Click the Approve Loan? decision and then press Delete to remove it from the model. Any connections attached to the element are also removed. b. In the Gateways drawer, click Multiple-Choice Decision and then click again in the editor to add one to the model. c. Click the decision name Decision once to select it, and a second time to change its name. Rename the element Outcome of review?. d. Double-click the Outcome of review? element to open the Attributes view for it. e. On the Output branches tab, click Add to add a third possible output to the decision. f. Edit the name and probability columns to match the following table:
Name Approved Approved with conditions Not Approved Probability 50% 30% 20%
You will notice that the output branches also contain attributes that define the "Decision Branch Condition." These attributes are used primarily for models that are being created for deployment and are beyond the scope of this tutorial. There are now two possible ways that the process can flow from the decision to Disburse Funds. Either it can go directly there because the application was approved, or it can go there after the special conditions are applied by the Apply special conditions task. To model this, you must use a merge gateway, which recombines multiple process flows back to a single path. You will notice on the palette that there is another gateway, the join gateway, that appears to recombine process flows. The difference between the merge and the join gateway is simple. A merge gateway passes on any input that it receives immediately to its output. A join gateway only produces output when it has received information at all of its inputs. If you are familiar with logical gates, you can think of the merge gateway as being similar to an OR gate, while the join gateway is similar to an AND gate. In almost every case, you will use merges to recombine paths that were split as the result of decisions, and use joins to recombine paths that were split as the result of forks. Additional use of forks and merges, however, are beyond the scope of this tutorial. 10. Add a merge gateway to the model and connect the elements together: a. In the Gateways drawer, click Merge, and then click in the drawing area of the editor to add a Merge gateway to the diagram.
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b. Create the following connections: v From Review Loan Application to Outcome of review? v From 50% Approved to the merge gateway v From 30% Approved with conditions to Apply special terms v From 20% Not Approved to Reject Application and Notify Customer v From Apply special terms to the merge gateway v From the merge gateway to Disburse Funds 11. If the diagram is a little cluttered, you can either rearrange the layout manually, or use the auto-layout function. To use the auto-layout function, right click in the drawing area of the editor and select Auto-Layout Left to Right. After carrying out the auto-layout, you can save screen space by right-clicking again and selecting Compact Diagram. Auto-layout moves your elements around in an attempt to minimize any cross connections and to keep a logical flow across the diagram. Compact Diagram reduces the space between elements, but maintains the relative position of each element. Your diagram should now resemble the following image:
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Learning objectives
After completing the lessons in this module you will have learned how to: v Discern between basic and complex data types. v Use the Definition editor to create business items. v Associate a business item with a connection. v Model external inputs to a process. v Model process output.
Prerequisites
This module builds on the results of Module 1. If you have not completed Module 1, you should do so before continuing with the tutorial.
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not the agents of an action; they are the objects. So, in the case of the example process, the loan application, disbursed funds, and any letters sent out to the applicants can all be modeled as business items. However, the bank employees that decide whether or not to approve the loan, and the computer that generates the contract terms are not business items. These active participants in the process are resources and are discussed in Module 3. In this lesson you will create a set of business items to represent the application, disbursed cash, and customer letter used by the process. You will also create the catalog that contains the newly created business items. 1. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Quickstart Tutorial project and select New Data Catalog. 2. In the Create a new data catalog window, enter Loans as the name of the new catalog, and click Finish. Your new data catalog now appears in the Quickstart Tutorial project. You will use this catalog to store the business items that you create. 3. Create a business item for the loan application: a. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Loans data catalog and select New > Business Item. b. In the Name of new business item field, type Application. c. In the Description of new business item field, type Customer application for loan. d. Click Finish. The Application business item is created in the Project Tree and opens in the Definition editor. In some cases, a business item name and description will contain enough information for you to consider the model complete. However, in other cases, you might want to use the Definition editor to refine the business items by adding one or more attributes to them. One way to think of a business item is as a collection of smaller associated data items. These smaller items can be simple values, such as text or numbers, or can themselves be complex structures defined by other business items. In this tutorial, you will add attributes to the application business item. 4. Add attributes to the Application business item: a. If the Definition editor is not open for the Application business item, then double-click the Application business Item in the Project Tree view. b. With the Definition editor open, click Add at the bottom of the attributes table. A new attribute appears in the list. Notice the pencil icon next to the name of the attribute. This icon indicates that the attribute was created in this business item and is not inherited from a template. c. Click the attribute Name field and type Amount Requested.
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d. Click the Type field and click the button that appears in the field to select a type for the attribute e. In the Type Selection window, select Basic type. Then select Integer from the list of basic types and click OK. f. On the Confirm Operation dialog box, click OK. g. Now enter the following short description in the Attributes description field: The value of the loan requested, in local currency. The description field allows you to add more detailed information about the attribute, and can be useful for later review of the model. Now, repeat these steps to create the following additional attributes, all with basic types:
Attribute name Customer Name Type Text Description The full name of the customer applying for the loan Does the customer already have a loan with this financial institution?
Boolean
5. The default icon associated with a business item is a small suitcase. However, because this business item represents an application, you should change it to be an icon of a piece of paper: Note: Even though this tutorial only uses the predefined icons that come with the product, you are also able to import custom icons to use in your models. a. Click the Change button located in the upper-right corner of the editor. b. In the Set icon for business item dialog box, expand the Predefined folder, select the icon labelled Letter, and click OK. c. Press Ctrl+S to save your work. 6. Now that you have created one business item, create two more according to the following specifications:
Business Item name E-Mail Notification Description E-Mailed notification of loan refusal Loan funds to be disbursed to the customer Attribute Customer Name Attribute Type Text
Funds
Loan Amount
Integer
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7. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. Tip: By now, you probably have a large number of editors open. To close them quickly, right-click one of them and either select Close All, or Close Others. You have now created three business items to use with your process and have learned how to use the Definition editor to update their attributes. In the next lesson, you will return to the process editor and associate the business items that you have created with the process connections.
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4. Press Ctrl+S to save the changes to the model. 5. Now in the Project Tree, double-click the Loan Application (Future) process to open it in the Process editor. You will use a different technique to associate business items with the connections in this model. 6. In the Project Tree, expand the Loans catalog to show the Application business item. 7. Click and drag the Application business item onto the connection between the Review Loan Application task and the Outcome of Review? decision. The connection leading to the input of the decision is now associated with the Application business item. However, the connections at the decisions outputs do not change automatically. Instead, a new set of outputs appear on the decision. These outputs are filled in to indicate that they produce data. This part of the diagram should now resemble the following image:
8. Using the selection tool, select each of the connections and then press the Delete key to remove them from the diagram. You can select multiple connections by holding the Shift key while you select each element. 9. Use the connection tools to add the connections back in, this time connecting them from the data output (the filled-in connection) to the follow-on tasks. If you draw the connection to the follow-on elements, it creates a new input for them. If you draw the connection directly to the existing inputs, it converts them to data inputs automatically. 10. Continue by removing the connections between the tasks and the merge element and recreating them so that they also carry the Application business object. 11. Finally, remove any unused inputs or outputs by selecting and deleting them. 12. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. When you have finished, the diagram should look like the following image.
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the production of an e-mail. At this point, the diagram should resemble the following image:
7. Now, double-click the Loan Application (Future) process and carry out these same steps again to create a diagram similar to the following image:
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Learning objectives
After completing the lessons in this module you will have learned how to: v Create resources and resource definitions v Refine a resource through its attributes v Create roles v Create a timetable and associate a role with it v Discern when to use a role and when to use a resource in your model
Prerequisites
This module builds on the results of Module 2. If you have not completed Module 2, you should do so before continuing with the tutorial.
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smaller organizations, or when you have a more specialized requirement for a task, you might want to refine the information and model individual resources. For example, in the next lesson, you will create a resource called computer number 27 to refer to a specific machine. To add a new resource definition to your project, complete the following steps: 1. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Quickstart Tutorial project and select New Resource Catalog. Resources definitions, resources, and roles must be stored in a resource catalog. A default catalog is created with every project, but it is good practice to create your own in order to locate related resources more easily. 2. In the Create a new resource catalog window, expand the navigation tree until you have selected the default resources catalog. This ensures that the new resource catalog nests under the existing default catalog. 3. Enter Computers as the name of the new catalog, and click Finish. Your new data catalog now appears in the Quickstart Tutorial project. You will use this to store the resource definition that you are about to create. 4. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Computers resource catalog and select New > Resource Definition. A wizard opens. 5. Type the following name for the resource definition: Desktop Computer. 6. Leave the color as the default. WebSphere Business Modeler provides many options for using color to identify parts of your model. However, this function is beyond the scope of this tutorial. 7. In the Description field, type Computers used by loan department employees 8. For resource type, click the Individual radio button. The individual resource type is used for resources that are assigned individually to an activity and that cannot participate in more than one activity at the same time. A desktop computer, an employee, or a printer could be accurately modeled as an individual resource. By contrast, a bulk resource type is used if a resource is assigned to multiple activities at once, or if a portion of the resource is applied to a task. Pens, paper, and fuel can all be accurately modeled as a bulk resource. 9. Click Finish. The Desktop Computer resource definition that you have created opens in the Definition editor.
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10. Now continue to define the resource definition by adding two attributes to it. For the purposes of this tutorial, assume that every desktop computer has an identification number and a workstation placement. Use the Definition to add these attributes: a. Click Add twice. Two new attributes are displayed in the attributes table. b. Click the Name field of the first attribute and type ID Number. icon c. Click the Type field of the first attribute and then click the that appears at the end of the highlighted field. The Select Type wizard opens. 11. In the Select Type wizard, ensure that the Basic type radio button is selected. In this model the ID of a given computer is just a set of letters and numbers, which you will model with the string attribute. 12. Use the drop-down menu in the type field to view the various types available, but leave the option of Text selected. 13. Now modify the second attribute in the same way, this time changing its name to Work Station and again specifying an basic attribute type of Text. 14. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. You have now created a resource definition, which should resemble the following image:
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Creating resources
Learn about resources and resource definitions In the previous lesson you created a resource definition to model the personal computers that are required by the loan application processes. Sometimes, however, you may want to model a specific resource, rather than a more general class. In this lesson, you will learn how to do this by creating a resource called Computer 27, based on the personal computer resource definition. 1. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Desktop Computer resource definition that you created in the previous lesson and select New Resource. A wizard opens. Notice that the Resource type and Associated resource definition values are already selected based on the Desktop Computer resource definition. 2. In the Name of new resource field, type Desktop Computer 27. 3. In the Description of new resource field, type Loan department computer. 4. Click Finish. The Desktop Computer No. 27 resource opens in the Resource editor. You will notice that this editor, unlike the Resource Definition editor, has more tabs available. Costs, availability, and roles will be discussed in later lessons. For now, you will examine the Attributes tab. 5. Click the Attributes tab to show the attributes. The editor shows that Desktop Computer 27 is an instance of the resource definition Desktop Computer. It also displays the attributes that the resource inherits from its definition, and allows you to supply values for them. 6. Click the First value field for the ID Number attribute, and enter a value of D27. You can ignore the minimum and maximum fields during this tutorial. These fields are used in the Advanced and Technology modes to
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model resource instances with multiple possible attribute values. The use of these fields is beyond the scope of this tutorial. 7. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. You have now successfully created a resource from a resource definition.
Creating roles
Define roles to model the positions or responsibilities of people within an organization, or to indicate the part that a resource plays in a process. Also use roles to capture the qualifications that a resource must have in order to participate in an activity. Roles are used to capture the positions, areas of responsibility, or qualifications that are required to carry out activities. For example, in this lesson, you will create a role called Loan officer, which will later be associated with the Review Loan Application and Apply Special Terms activities. This will indicate that in order for those activities to complete, someone who can act in the capacity of a loan officer must be assigned to the task. Roles can be associated with resources to indicate explicitly that a particular set of resources that you have modeled is capable of fulfilling the task. For example, if you have multiple bulk resources that can all be used as a fuel source for some process or other, you can create a role called fuel source, and associate it with each of the bulk resources. Then, in your model, you can use a role requirement of fuel source instead of explicitly indicating one of the bulk resources. Roles cannot be associated with resource definitions, however. This use of roles is not in the scope of the tutorial. Alternatively you can create roles independently of the resources in your model. This means that in some cases you can use roles as an alternative to resource requirements. Roles, along with other elements such as resources and human tasks, can be scheduled using timetables. In the case of a role, this means that you can define a time period during which the role can be enacted. This can be useful if you want to model the availability of resources using a timetable, but do not want to model the resources themselves. It is in this way that you will make use of a roles in the loan application processes: 1. In the same way that you created the Computers resource catalog in the Creating a resource definition on page 25 lesson, create a new resource catalog called Personnel. a. Right-clicking the Quickstart Tutorial project and select New Resource Catalog b. In the Create a new resource catalog window, expand the navigation tree until you have selected the default resources catalog.
Chapter 3. Module 3: Modeling resources
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2. 3. 4. 5.
c. Enter Personnel as the name of the new catalog, and click Finish. In the Project Tree view, right-click the Personnel resource catalog and select New > Role. A wizard opens. Ensure that the Personnel resource catalog is highlighted in the navigation tree of the New Role wizard. In the Name of new role field, type the following name: Loan Officer. Leave the role color as the default. It is possible to associate colors with each role, and then view a color-coded version of your model. However, this function is out of the scope of this tutorial.
6. In the Description of new role field, type the following description: Reviews and approves loan applications at the finance company. 7. Click Finish. The Loan Officer role opens in the Definition editor. 8. In the Qualifications pane, click the Add button. The Add Qualification window opens. The Qualification enables you to define a characteristic of a role. For example, if you require your loan officers to have a certain amount of experience with the company, you can use Years of Experience as a qualification. 9. Type the following name for the qualification: Years of Experience. Click OK. The new qualification is added to the Qualification list. 10. Click the Years of Experience qualification that you have just added in order to select it. 11. From the Qualification value type menu, select Integer. By selecting Integer, you are indicating that this value will be a number; for example "2", for two years of experience. Your Loan Officer role should now look like the one in the following image:
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Creating a timetable
Learn to model the availability of a resource through the use of a timetable. Timetables are used to define the availability and cost schedules of resources and roles. In many business processes, resources may only be available during specific times of the day. Similarly, the cost of using that resource might depend on the time of the day or year that is it used. Timetables allow you to model the schedules that govern price structures and availability times. In the previous lesson, you created a role called Loan Officer. In this lesson, you will create a timetable called Day Shift, which models an availability schedule of 10AM to 4PM, Monday through Friday. To do this, you will create one timetable to define a daily availability of 10AM to 4PM. You will then create a second timetable to block out Saturday and Sunday from the available dates. 1. In the Project Tree, right-click the Personnel resource catalog and click New > Timetable. A wizard opens. 2. Type the following name for the timetable: Day Shift 3. Type the following description for the timetable: Shift for regularly scheduled daytime employees. This is that timetable that you will use to define an availability schedule of 10AM to 4PM every day. 4. Click Finish. The Day Shift timetable opens in the Timetable editor. 5. Click the Recurring time intervals tab. You will use this tab to define the daily availability. 6. Define a period of repetition. This defines time that you will use to establish your timetable pattern, and its period of repetition. a. In the Number of times to repeat field, leave the Forever check box selected. This selection indicates that you want the pattern that you are defining to repeat indefinitely. b. In the Repetition period fields, specify a length of 1 day. This indicates that you will be specifying a pattern of one day in length, and will cause that pattern to repeat each day. c. Next to the Beginning on field, click the Select time button. A calendar opens. d. In the Time zone field, select GMT -5. e. In the calendar, select January 1, 2008 and specify the time as 12:00:00 A.M. This specifies that the pattern you are defining begins January 1, 2008 at midnight in the GMT-5 time zone.
Chapter 3. Module 3: Modeling resources
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f.
Click OK.
Next, specify the time interval that you want to repeat. 7. In the Recurring Time Intervals pane, ensure that Time interval is selected. Time intervals are defined by their start time and duration, so to create a time interval from 10AM to 4PM, complete the following steps: a. In the Selected interval details pane, click the Select duration button and specify 6 Hours. b. In the Start time calendar, select January 1, 2008, the same date as the repetition period, and set the start time to 10:00 A.M. Your Day Shift timetable now starts at 10:00 a.m. each day and lasts for 6 hours. The Attributes view displays the time intervals in a graph. Your timetable should now look like the one in the following image:
Notice that the time period you have defined repeats every day, including Saturday and Sunday. However, the loan officer is not supposed to be available on these days. To remove these days from the schedule, you will create a second timetable called Weekends. This Weekends timetable will then be identified as an exception table for the Day Shift timetable. This means that any times that appear in the Weekends timetable are removed from the Day Shift timetable. 8. In the Project Tree, right-click the Personnel resource catalog and click New > Timetable. A wizard opens. 9. Type the following name for the timetable: Weekends
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10. Type the following description for the timetable: Exemption table for day shift. 11. Click Finish. The Weekends timetable opens in the Timetable editor. 12. Specify a repetition period of 7 days, beginning on January 1, 2008. 13. In the Recurring time intervals pane, select Time Interval, and then type Saturday to rename it. 14. With Saturday selected, set a duration of 1 day, beginning January 5, 2008, at 12:00:00 A.M. 15. 16. 17. 18. Press Ctrl + S to save the model. Now, click the Add button to add a new time interval to the timetable. Rename this new time interval Sunday. With Sunday selected, set a duration of 1 day, beginning January 6, 2008, at 12:00:00 A.M. 19. Press Ctrl + S to save the model. The Weekends timetable should now resemble the following image:
20. In the Project Tree, double-click the Day shift timetable to open it in the editor. 21. Click the Exemption period tab. 22. Click Add. 23. In the Select Timetable window, select the Weekends timetable and click OK.
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24. Press Ctrl + S to save your work. The Day Shift timetable should now resemble the following image:
Notice that the Saturday and Sunday time periods appear in a different color to indicate that they are no longer available. Note: You might have to click the Zoom-Out button ( view an entire week at a time. ) in order to
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c. In the Additional Resources tab, expand the Individual Resource Requirements section and click Add. d. Click the name field for the new requirement to select it, and then type Computer Requirements as its new name. e. Click the Individual resource field and then click the button that appears in it. f. In the selection window that opens, expand the navigation tree to the Desktop Computer resource definition that you created in a previous lesson, select it, and click OK. Note: It is also possible to associate a specific resource instead of a definition. If you assign a resource definition, you are indicating that any resource based on the definition is sufficient to complete the task. g. Click the Time required field, and then click the button that appears in it. h. Specify a time of 10 minutes to indicate that the computer resource must be used for 10 minutes to complete this task, and click OK. i. Press Ctrl + S to save your changes. 2. Now continue by adding the same resource requirement to the Review Loan Application task in the Loan Application (Future) process: a. In the Project Tree view, double-click the Loan Application (Future) process to open it in the Process editor. b. Double-click the Review Loan Application task. c. In the Additional Resources tab, expand the Individual Resource Requirements section and click Add. d. Click the name field for the new requirement to select it, and then type Computer Requirements as its new name. e. Click the Individual resource field and then click the button that appears in it. f. In the selection window that opens, expand the navigation tree to the Desktop Computer resource definition that you created in a previous lesson, select it, and click OK. g. Click the Time required field, and then click the button that appears in it. h. Specify a time of 10 minutes to indicate that the computer resource must be used for 10 minutes to complete this task, and click OK. i. Press Ctrl + S to save your changes. 3. Next add the same resource requirement to the Apply Special Terms task in the Loan Application (Future) process, but with a different time requirement.
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a. In the Project Tree view, double-click the Loan Application (Future) process to open it in the Process editor. b. Click the Apply Special Terms task. Notice that the tabs for this task are different from those that were available for the Review Loan Application task. This difference is because Review Loan Application was modeled as a Human Task, while Apply Special Terms was just modeled as task. c. In the Resources tab, expand the Individual Resource Requirements section and click Add. d. Click the name field for the new requirement to select it, and then type Computer Requirements as its new name. e. Click the Individual resource field and then click the button that appears in it. f. In the selection window that opens, expand the navigation tree to the Desktop Computer resource definition that you created in a previous lesson, select it, and click OK. g. Click the Time required field, and then click the button that appears in it. h. Specify a time of 5 minutes to indicate that the computer resource must be used for 5 minutes to complete this task, and click OK. i. Press Ctrl + S to save your changes. 4. Associate the Loan Officer role with the Review Loan Application task. This models the fact that someone recognized as a Loan Officer must carry out these tasks. a. In the Project Tree view, double-click the Loan Application (Present) process to open it in the Process editor. b. Click the Review Loan Application task. c. In the Primary Owner tab, select the Role option and click Browse. The primary owner of a human task models a resource or role requirement, but additionally ensures that information about that requirement is included when the model is used in a deployment context. The deployment of models is outside the scope of this tutorial For the purposes of this tutorial, consider that the primary owner indicates the role that is chiefly responsible for carrying out the task. d. In the selection window that opens, expand the navigation tree to the Loan Officer role that you created in a previous lesson, select it, and click OK. e. In the Time required field, specify a time of 15 minutes. Notice that the time that the loan officer is required for this task is more time than the computer is required. WebSphere Business Modeler allows you to do this. However, you cannot model a case in which a particular resource is not required until mid-way through a task.
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f. Press Ctrl + S to save your changes. Now continue by adding the same resource requirement to the Review Loan Application task in the Loan Application (Future) process. 5. Associate the Loan Officer role with the Apply Special Terms task. Because this is not a human task, there is no primary owner, so the role requirement is specified in a similar way to the resource requirement. a. In the Project Tree view, double-click the Loan Application (Future) process to open it in the Process editor. b. Click the Apply special terms task. c. In the Resources tab, expand the Role Requirements section and click Add. d. Click the name field for the new requirement to select it, and then type Reviewer Requirement as its new name. e. Click the Role field and then click the button that appears in it. f. In the selection window that opens, expand the navigation tree to the Loan Officer role, and click OK. g. Click the Time required field, and then click the button that appears in it. h. Specify a time of 5 minutes to indicate that the loan officer will take 5 minutes to complete this task, and click OK. i. Leave the remaining fields with their default values. These indicate that only a single resource fulfilling the role is required, and that resource does not have to be related to any particular resource definition. j. Press Ctrl + S to save your changes.
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