Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide > Using Predefined Workflow Policies > About Workflow Policies >

Structure of a Workflow Policy

A rule includes an IF/THEN structure that provides the basic underlying logic of a workflow policy. The following statement describes the structure of a rule:

If the conditions are true, then an action occurs.

A rule includes a workflow policy condition and a workflow policy action. If the workflow policy conditions are met, then Siebel CRM calls an action. Figure 21 includes an example workflow policy.

Figure 21. Parts of an Example of a Workflow Policy

Explanation of Callouts

A typical workflow policy includes the following items:

1. Workflow Policy. Includes workflow policy conditions and workflow policy actions. A workflow policy represents rules that the Siebel database monitors.
2. Workflow Policy Condition. A situation that causes something to happen.
3. Workflow Policy Action. An action that Siebel CRM calls if a workflow policy condition is met.
4. Workflow Policy Program. A predefined program that provides arguments for the workflow policy action.
5. Duration. The amount of time that workflow policy conditions exist to allow the conditions of the policy to be met. For more information, see Determining Requirements for the Workflow Policy.

A workflow process can support the functionality that is available with a workflow policy. It is recommended that you use a workflow policy to start a workflow process and to use a workflow process to define an action.

Workflow Policy Condition

A workflow policy condition is an object that expresses an object or the relationship of an attribute to a value. For example, a workflow policy condition can target data, such as the severity of a service request. The workflow policy condition compares severity data to a value, such as 1-Critical. In this example, the combination of the following items define the condition:

• Data element
• Service request severity
• A comparison operation, such as the equal sign (=)
• The value, such as 1-Critical

The fact that the severity of a service request is 1-Critical is a problem only if the workflow policy condition remains valid for an extended amount of time, such as two hours. In this example, to make sure the condition remains valid, you can set a two hour duration on the workflow policy. This duration is part of the condition. Siebel CRM runs the policy actions only if the conditions are met in the time period that the duration measures.

A workflow policy action can occur if a duration is not set. For example, Siebel CRM can send an email to a sales manager each time a sales representative quotes a discount rate that exceeds 25 percent on revenue that is less than $100,000.

A workflow policy can contain more than one workflow policy condition. These conditions must be met before an action can occur. For example, a service request with a 1-High severity and a two hour duration might be important only if another comparison is also valid, such as if the service request status is Open. The condition is the combination of the following comparison operations:

SR Severity = 1-Critical AND SR Status = Open

A workflow policy supports only the AND operand between workflow policy conditions. It does not support the OR operand. To monitor the service request severity to be 1-Critical or 2-High and the status to be Open, you can use the IN operand to evaluate the OR logic of the severity:

SR Severity IN ('1-Critical','2-High') AND SR Status = Open

To implement OR operand logic, you can define multiple workflow policies for each workflow policy condition. For more information, see Examples of Configuring Workflow Policies.

Workflow Policy Action

A workflow policy action is an event that occurs if the workflow policy conditions are met. It includes the following items:

• An action, which is a type of request, such as Send an Urgent Page
• The action parameters, which are the arguments, such as the name of the recipient of the page and the alphanumeric text that Siebel CRM transmits with the page

You can define multiple actions for one workflow policy, such as sending a page to one person and an email to another person. You can reuse an action in multiple workflow policies. For more information, see Customizing Workflow Policy Objects

You can use a workflow policy action to start a workflow process.

You can pass a constant from a workflow policy action to a workflow process. For more information, see Passing a Constant from a Workflow Policy Action to a Workflow Process.

Workflow Policy Program

A workflow policy program is a predefined program that provides arguments for a workflow policy action. It identifies the action that Siebel CRM runs if the workflow policy conditions are met. A workflow process can run the action that a workflow policy program defines.

You can use a workflow policy program in multiple actions and you can use actions in multiple workflow policies.

A workflow policy program can be of the following type:

• Send Message. Sends an email to one or more recipients.
• Send Page. Sends a page to one or more recipients.
• Send Broadcast Message. Inserts a message broadcast for one or more recipients.
• DB Operation. Inserts or updates the records of a Siebel database table.
• External Program. Runs an executable.
• Assignment Request. For internal use only.
• Generic Request Server. Sends a server request to a server component.

For more information, see the topic about the Workflow Policy Program and Workflow Policy Program Argument object types in Siebel Object Types Reference.

Predefined Workflow Policy Programs

A workflow policy uses workflow policy actions that reference workflow policy programs that are predefined. The following items are examples of workflow policy programs that are predefined:

• Send Broadcast Message
• Database Operation

For more information, see Types of Predefined Workflow Policy Programs.