Policy Process Flows

The processing of a policy involves sequential execution of process steps within a process flow.

A process step groups various related and interdependent process rules to be executed in a user defined order.

The processing of a policy can include callout rules, policy validation rules and pend rules.

Policy Process Flow

Field	Description
Code	The code of the policy process flow
Description	The description of the policy process flow
Default?	Is this the default policy process flow?
Active?	Is this policy process flow currently available?
Access Restriction	The access restriction restricting the configuration of this policy process flow

It is possible to attach a data access restriction that defines who can view, change or delete the configuration of this policy process flow.

Policy Process Step

Field	Description
Process Flow	The reference to the policy process flow
Sequence	The sequence of the process step
Display Name	The display name of the process step
Compare Versions?	Is a policy version compare part of this process step?
Access Restriction	The access restriction restricting pend resolution in the process step

The sequence of the process step determines the order in which the steps are executed. It is not possible to have multiple process steps with the same sequence.

If compare versions is checked in a policy process step, the process executes the policy version compare after all process rules in the process step are evaluated. Only one process step in a process flow can have a version compare defined.

When no changes are detected, the process flow ends. Process steps with a higher sequence are not executed in this situation.

Execution of a policy process step may result in a policy to be 'Pended': the processing of the policy gets suspended for manual intervention.

It is possible to attach an access restriction that defines who can resolve the pend reasons that are attached in that step.

Rule Steps

Rule steps identify which process rules (Callout Rules, Pend Rules and Policy Validation Rules) the system executes within a process step, and the order of execution within the step. A process step can have one or more rule steps.

You can only add process rules to a process step that has the same process flow as the process step, or that has no process flow. Process rules without a process flow value can be included in multiple process flows (as they are not restricted to having the same process flow as the process step).

Field	Description
Process Step	The process step that the rule step belongs to
Sequence	The sequence within the process step in which the rule is executed (not applicable for Pend Rules)
Callout Rule	The callout rule that is executed within the process step
Policy Validation Rule	The policy validation rule that is executed within the process step
Pend Rule	The pend rule that is executed within the process step

Policy Process Steps can have callout rules, pend rules and policy validation rules. Callout rules and validation rules have a sequence within the process step. The sequence determines the order in which the rules are executed within the process step. It is not possible to have multiple process rules (callout rules, and policy validation rules) for the same process step with the same sequence. Pend rules do not have a sequence within a process step; they are executed after the execution of the call out rules and validation rules. It is not possible to have the same pend rule multiple times for the same process step.

Exclude Attribute

A policy process rule can initiate a compare action between a policy version, and the last approved version of the policy. It is possible to define a list of attributes which are not part of the compare process. The compare process ignores the attributes listed in this entity.

Excluded attributes are stored as a comma separated list, without any spaces in between.

Field	Description
Subject	The subject for which fields are exluded (for example, Policy)
Field List	A list of fields in the subject which are excluded from the compare