Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide > Developing Workflow Processes > Process of Planning Workflow Processes >

Determining the Actions the Workflow Process Must Perform

This task is a step in Process of Planning Workflow Processes.

You can determine the actions that the workflow process must perform.

To determine the actions the workflow process must perform

• Identify the type of actions that the workflow process must perform to meet the business requirements.

  For more information, see Objects That Siebel Workflow Uses, and Data Manipulation in a Workflow Process.

Data Manipulation in a Workflow Process

A workflow process operates on business objects and business components. It references a single business object. In the context of these data layer objects, Siebel CRM creates or updates data while the workflow process runs. A workflow process can modify the following data:

• Business component data
• Process property data
• Siebel Common Object data

Siebel Tools creates a set of predefined process properties when you create a workflow process. You can think of a process property as a local variable that is active while a workflow process instance runs. Siebel CRM can use the process property as input and output to various steps in a workflow process. The Process Instance Id is one example of a predefined process property. For more information, see Using Process Properties.

Uses and Limitations of Actions That the Workflow Process Performs

Table 10 describes the uses and limitations of actions that the workflow process performs.

Using the Business Service Step

A business service step can run a predefined or a custom business service method. The following items are examples of predefined business services:

• Assignment Manager requests
• Notification through the Communications Server
• Server requests
• Integration requests from Siebel EAI

You can write a custom business service in Siebel VB or Siebel eScript. If you add a business service step, then you must define the business service, the business service method, input arguments, and output arguments for that step. Siebel CRM passes input arguments in a process property, business component data, or as a literal value.

The following list includes some business services that a workflow process typically uses:

• Outbound Communications Manager
• Synchronous Assignment Manager Requests
• Server Requests
• Report Business Service
• Audit Trail Engine
• EAI business services, such as EAI Siebel Adapter, EAI XML Converter, and so on
• FINS Data Transfer Utilities and Data Validation Manager

For more information, see Adding a Business Service Step, and Predefined Business Services.

If you require specialized functionality, then you can define a custom business service that performs a specific action. You can define a business service in Siebel Tools or in the administration screens of the Siebel client. For more information, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

Using the Siebel Operation Step

The Siebel operation step allows you to configure Siebel CRM to do database operations. For example:

• Query
• Insert
• Delete
• Update
• NextRecord
• Upsert
• PreviousRecord
• QueryBiDirectional

A Siebel operation step references a single business component. After you define a Siebel operation step, you can use the Search Specification property to locate the records that Siebel CRM must use or modify. Examples of a Siebel operation step include creating an activity if the user creates a new service request, or updating a comment field if a service request is open too long. For more information, see Adding a Siebel Operation Step.