This chapter covers the following topics:
In addition to the seeded business rules provided with the Business Rule Monitor, you can define your own business rules.
You can leave the Effective Dates field empty until the time you want to start the business rule. Once you enter the effective dates for your rule, you enable and start the rule.
After defining a rule, specify its condition for your rule in SQL format. This can be done in either of the following tabs:
Simple: Use the Simple tab to make guided SQL statements by specifying the appropriate values for the necessary fields. For example, if your rule is defined for a task with Open status, then you need to select Status (Task) from the LOV in the Left Value field, “=“ in the Operator field, and “Open” from the Right Value field.
Complex: Use the Complex tab if you are knowledgeable in SQL and want to directly write SQL statements.
Workflows. Choose the appropriate workflows, attributes, and document owners when defining a business rule.
| Workflow | Description |
|---|---|
| Notification Only | An Oracle Workflow notification will be sent. The person who receives this notification can be selected from the Value field in the Workflow Attributes window. Click the “...” button, to display this attributes window. |
| Create a Task Only | An automated escalation task will be created. This is generated through the seeded Automated Escalation Template Group for Task Manager (Service Request). The owner and assignee of this task can be selected from the Value field in the Workflow Attributes window. |
| Notification and Create Task | Besides the workflow notifications that will be sent, an automated escalation task will also be created. The owner and assignee of this task can be specified in the Value field. If the unassigned option is selected in the Automated Escalation Notification Task Assignee Role field in the Workflow Attributes window, then the task that is created has no assignee. |
| Escalated Object | An escalated document will be created. The owner of this escalated document can be specified in the Value field. |
Note: The selection in the Value field can be document owner, document owner’s HR manager, escalation territory primary contact, and business (rule) owner. If this value is not specified, it defaults to the business owner.
Since the automated escalation can happen to the document owner in addition to employee resource type, the person who will receive the notifications is determined as follows:
| Document Owner | Description |
|---|---|
| Document Owner | The Document Owner is selected as the value in the workflow attributes:
|
| Document Owner's HR Manager | The Document Owner's HR Manager is selected as the value:
|
| Escalation Territory Primary Contact | The notification is sent to the primary contact with employee resource in the escalation territory. If there is no resource that satisfies this criteria, then the notification is sent to the the primary contact with employee resource in the catch-all territory. Otherwise, the Business Rule Owner. |
Steps
Select Business Rule Monitor > Business Rule Workbench.
Enter values for the following:
Name: The name of the new business rule.
Object: The object for which the rule will operate.
Check Rule Every: The time interval that you want.
Effective: Use the LOV to select the date to start the rule.
Only put an end date to stop the rule.
Owner: Mandatory field.
Workflow: Chose a workflow from the drop down menu.
Attributes can be defined for the Workflow and an Owner for the business rule. See the Guidelines section for a description of Business Rule Monitor workflows and their attributes.
Use the fields in the Simple tab to define conditions when the business rule is triggered.
Click Validate to check the syntax of the PL/SQL statement defined in the Simple tab. The syntax check verifies whether or not the syntax is correct.
A dialog box confirms that the syntax validation was successful.
Click OK.
Click Generate.
A dialog box confirms that your business rule has been generated.
Select File > Save.
Before monitoring your business rules, you need to enable them first by entering the effective dates in the Business Rule Workbench window. Use the following procedure to first search for a rule, and then second, enable it.
Steps
Select Business Rule Monitor > Business Rule Workbench.
Select View > Find.
Enter a name, an object, or other search criteria, and click Find to return to the Business Rule Workbench. Use the up or down arrow keys to select the rule that you want to use if there is more than one rule that matches your search criteria.
Enter the effective date in the Business Rule Workbench window.
Save your work.
If this rule has been generated and the Business Rule Monitor has been started, this rule will then be monitored from the effective date. If this rule has not been generated, you can click Generate to generate your business rules. If a business rule is generated without problems, a note message displays “Your Business Rule has been generated.”
Note: The Generate button dynamically creates a view in the database. This view queries the objects that fit the conditions you have defined in the business rule and is used by the main BRM process when it checks the rule, to detect the objects that it needs to take action about.
The automatic assignment and notification of escalations depends heavily on the Territory Manager module. So what happens if escalation territories are not there?
If the identity of a person who receives notifications defined in the Workflow Attributes window cannot be determined, then a notification is sent to the primary contact for the escalation territory associated with the source document owner's territory if the territory ID exists. If the territory ID does not exist, it is sent to the primary contact in the catch-all territory, or the Business Rule Owner.
Therefore, the system administrator needs to ensure that the correct structure of escalation territories or a catch-all territory is defined at installation time.
Use the Business Rule Monitor to monitor the workflow processes. Specify the time interval in the Control Panel region. This sets up an Oracle Workflow process which continuously loops and checks at a specified interval for all active business rules.
For example, suppose the Open Task business rule is defined to be checked every hour. Now, if the interval is set to five minutes and the Start button is selected, then the BRM starts the monitoring process. The main background process (Business Rule Monitor Main Process) services the Business Rule Monitor looping workflow which itself checks all the active rules, not just your Open Task rule, every five minutes to see which of the active rules are due to be checked. If it is less than one hour since the Open Task rule was checked last time, then this rule won't be checked until it is due. For those that are due, the BRM looping workflow then goes on to see if there are any objects that violate the rule. If a high priority task has stayed open for more than four hours, then this task will be identified. The appropriate background workflow process (such as Business Rule Monitor Task Process) is then performed to service the escalation activity workflow for that business rule. If the Escalate a Task (notification only) workflow is selected in the workbench, then the task owner will receive a workflow notification automatically. Perform the following procedure to start the Business Rule Monitor.
Prerequisites
Steps
Select Business Rule Monitor > Business Rule Monitor.
Enter the time period in the Interval field. Enter a time unit (minutes or hours) in the UOM field.
Click Save.
Click Start to activate the Business Rule Monitor.
A dialog box confirms that the Business Rule Monitor started successfully.
Click Workflow Monitor to view details of this process.
After the monitor is started, the Stop button appears. Click Stop to stop the monitor.
Click Refresh Status to get an immediate status on the BRM main process.