Business Processes

Transactions and collaboration are driven by business processes (BPs). Information is entered and stored using electronic Business Process (BP) forms. Each time you fill out a BP form, you are creating a new record. These forms may be routed to project/shell team members or other users by way of workflows. The information that you enter into BP form fields may be used throughout the system. Each field corresponds to a Data Element (DE) that can be identified, reported upon, and tracked; some data element values may be rolled up to sheets such as a cost sheet or resource sheet.

The look and feel of a field (Data Element) is determined by the Data Definition (DD) on which the Data Element is based. The Data Definition determines whether the field is a text-entry field, a drop-down list of options, a checkbox that you can select, a picker that is used to select an existing record, and so forth.

The BPs can be associated with a specific project/shell (Project/Shell-level BP), or they can be applicable for the entire Company (company-level BP) and not to be specific to a Project/Shell. The Administrator (Project/Shell or Company) determines which forms are to be used and how the workflows operate.

In the Upper Form or Detail form of any BP, for a field with DD set as Integer data type with input-type pull-down menu (option value for DE of type Integer), the field (and the field label) will be displayed in the BP record:

  1. If you do not select a value for the field (space), and
  2. If the Administrator has set the value of zero for that DD set (Integer data type with input-type pull-down menu).

    Note:

    The above conditions apply to Attribute Forms and Reports.

Additional information about Unifier business processes

  • BP records are stored in logs, which are accessible in the left Navigator. You can think of these logs as filing cabinets, with each drawer storing a different type of BP. Single-Record BPs are excluded from the Logs list in the left Navigator for projects/shells. However, they are included in the General section listed under Information in the left Navigator. Your company administrator can also configure the User Mode Navigator to list Single-Record BPs under the Home "" tab.
  • The non-workflow business processes will simply be stored as records.
  • Business Process forms are designed in uDesigner.

For information about internationalization and CSV files, see Internationalization and CSV Files.