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Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide > Designing Workflow Processes > Working with Start Steps >

Defining a Start Step

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You define a Start step in the All Processes view.

To define a Start step

In the All Processes view, select the process for which you would like to define a Start step.
Drill down on the process by clicking its name.

This brings you to the Process Designer view.

To add a Start step to the workspace, drag and drop the Start icon from the palette to the workspace.
Enter or modify the step name, and then enter a description of the purpose of the Start step.
See Defining Next Step Branches for instructions on setting up branches for the Start step.

Defining Next Step Branches

Start steps can have multiple next step branches. Use the following procedure to define each branch.

NOTE:  In this release, Workflow processes do not support parallel processing. Make sure that you define your conditions so that only one branch is valid. If an object matches the conditions in multiple branches, Workflow will take the first condition that passes and execute it. Workflow will assume that the other conditions fail.

To define a next step branch

In the Process Designer view, drag and drop the appropriate step icon for the next step in the process.

NOTE:  If you have already designed the entire workflow process, including connector arrows, double-click the connector arrow attached to the Start step, then proceed to Step 4.

Drag and drop a connector arrow to the workspace, connecting the Start step with the new next step.
Double-click the connector arrow to access the Start view and activate the Next Step applet.
Enter or modify the branch name.

NOTE:  The name of the branch must be unique or you will not be able to import or export the workflow process.

Choose a branch type. Type values are described in Table 11.

CAUTION:  You should always define a Default branch step in case some work items do not meet any of the conditions you define.

Enter the name of the next step and enter any comments.
See Defining Conditions and Values for Next Step Branches, to define the conditions that apply to each branch.

Defining Conditions and Values for Next Step Branches

Conditions and values affect the flow of your process execution. For example, you can define a condition based on the value of a priority field. If the priority is "high," the process follows a branch that sends an email to a vice president. If the priority is "medium," the email is sent to an engineer.

To define conditions and values

Select the appropriate branch in the Next Step form in the Start view.
Click the Conditions form to activate the branch.
Choose a Compare To value:
Process Property. Compares a process instance's process property value to a specified value.
Expression. Uses an expression to evaluate a specific value.
Business Component. Uses the value in a business component field for the condition comparison or when you are defining an expression.
Applet. Uses the value in an applet field for the condition comparison.
If you chose Process Property, select the process property name from the Process Property picklist. If you chose Business Component or Expression, select the component and field names from the Business Component Name and the Business Component Field picklists.
Choose the operation to use for evaluating the values:
This Must Match. The current value must match exactly, including case.
One Must Match. One or more values must match exactly, including case.
All Must Match. All of the values must match exactly, including case.

NOTE:  The All Must Match operation is only applicable in a scenario where a workflow branch must make a decision based on a field of a child business component. The name of the child business component is specified by the Business Component Name field of the branch. The child business component is different from the primary business component of the workflow process. It is possible for the child business component to contain multiple records. If the workflow branch uses the All Must Match comparison criterion, the branch will pass only when the field values of all child business component records match branch criteria value(s) of the branch.

None Can Match. None of the values can match exactly, including case.
This Must Match (ignore case). The current value must match without regard to case.
One Must Match (ignore case). One or more values must match without regard to case.
All Must Match (ignore case). All of the values must match without regard to case.
None Can Match (ignore case). None of the values can match without regard to case.
Greater Than. Value must be greater than the comparison value.
Less Than. Value must be less than the comparison value.
Between. Value must be between a range of values.
Not Between. Value cannot be between a range of values.
Is Null. Value must be null.
Is Not Null. Value cannot be null.
Enter an applet name and applet field, if applicable.

Applets function like business components, except that applets have translatable names and picklists. Only list applets can be used in conditions.

Enter any appropriate values in the Values form.

You can enter multiple records in the Values form. Workflow Processes assumes an OR condition between values.

If you selected Expression in the Compare To field, enter your expression in the Values form. The syntax is the same as the syntax used in Siebel Tools. For more information, see Siebel Tools Reference.

NOTE:  You can define multiple conditions for each branch. Workflow Processes treats multiple conditions with the AND operator. To define multiple OR conditions, use expressions.

The following example shows an expression comparing a business component field with today's date, using the OR operator, which allows you to compare multiple conditions.

([Close Date] <= Today()) OR ([Name] = 'Opportunity test1')

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