Hi, All.
I’ve been using WM IS and TN for about three years. We purchased BPM in the hopes that we could use it some day, as it looks to be very useful. I’m attempting to think about how it would be used for a current project, and am finding it difficult to understand how the BPM elements (tasks, events, etc.) should be used to formulate my process. I know this sounds stupid. I’ve read the BPM documentation a couple of times. It is full of references to things that I see when I poke around on the screen, and explains how to configure each item in detail.
What nothing seems to explain concisely is what the BPM engine is doing with this process. I do see some allusions to how the BPM engine runs in the administration guide, but it is rather veiled. I guess I’m looking for something like a cookbook that says, “when you want to do this… do that…”.
I will start with one scenario for this topic. If you’d like to answer any or all of it, please do. If you know of some document I’m missing or some section of a document that I have that explains this, please direct me to it.
Logical Scenario: My process has an initial stage where the entity that it manages sits and accepts data until that stage of the process is completed. At a point in time, or when a person requests that it be “closed”, that stage is closed and the entity begins to move through the rest of the business process.
My BPM attempts: I was thinking that my start task could go to a receive task to receive a message requesting more data to be added to my entity. I could then have my recieve task transition to a send task to send a message indicating the status of the import. That task could then transition back to the receive task to wait for more data. Then I would have an intermediate timer event on the receive task to be able to interrupt the task and kick it out to continue with the process. But I can’t put an intermediate timer event on a receive task. I tried standalone intermediate message tasks as well, but seem to run into various dead ends. I feel like I’m just missing some fundamental understanding.
What I really don’t understand is exactly how the BPM behaves when it goes “into” each of these types of activities. When does it start a new “thread”? How can I tell how many “threads” are running and where they are? What happens when an task has no valid transition out? How can I get the process to “wait” for some time period and then move on?
I’m hoping that someone can just refer me to something. I’ve been through the administrator’s guide and the process development help.
Thanks!
Jason
