Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide > Defining Custom Workflow Policies > Process of Planning a Workflow Policy >

Creating a Plan for the Workflow Policy Group

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

A workflow policy group is a collection of workflow policies that allows Siebel CRM to identify policies that include similar system requirements. It helps Siebel CRM to load balance work on the Siebel Servers and to achieve scalability. A workflow policy group allows you to run similar workflow policies as a group in one Workflow Agent process, which helps to manage and optimize performance of the Workflow Agent.

You must define a workflow policy group before you define a workflow policy. Siebel CRM assigns each Workflow Policy Agent to one workflow policy group. If you run only one Workflow Policy Monitor Agent and one Workflow Policy Action Agent, then you must assign your policies to one policy group.

It is recommended that you use multiple Workflow Policy Agents for the following reasons:

• Shorten the lag time between when Siebel CRM calls the workflow policy event and when Workflow Policies detects the event
• Spread the workload across multiple Siebel Servers
• Adjust the polling interval so that polling for a noncritical workflow policy does not prevent the timely processing of a critical workflow policy

Defining workflow policy groups and using multiple Workflow Policy Agents is part of tuning your system to realize higher performance. You can do this work while you monitor system performance.

The MaxInt parameter and the S_ESCL_RULE table determines the maximum number of workflow policies that a single workflow policy group can contain.

Grouping Workflow Policies That Include Similar Durations

It is recommended that you group together the workflow policies that include similar durations. This configuration allows you to assign the workflow policy group to a Workflow Policy Agent that includes a polling rate that matches the duration of the workflow policies in the group. This configuration results in a more efficient use of resources.