Flow form
Process Modeler — Interacting with the Diagram tab

Use the Diagram tab to:

• Explore the flow presented as a diagram
• Review or edit shape properties
• Open other rules referenced in shape properties

To work more easily with a large flow diagram, temporarily hide the Explorer panel by clicking one of the toggle arrow icons in the portal's vertical divider (). When you finish working with a large diagram, click the toggle arrow again and redisplay the navigation panel.

Diagram modes

When first opening a flow, the Diagram tab displays the flow in Process Modeler.

To review or change values in the Properties dialogs

You can change the flow structure itself — the layout of its shapes — by starting the Process Modeler.

You can edit many of the attributes of the flow and its shapes by updating the Properties dialog for that shape. In the dialog, you can create, review, or update the rules and properties for most shapes in a flow.

1. Do one of the following to open the Properties dialog:

• Double-click the shape.
• Right-click the shape and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
• Click the shape, then click the toolbar View Properties icon .

2. When the Properties dialog appears, complete edits.

3. Click OK or click elsewhere on the canvas to save your edits and close the dialog.

If the flow is presented in read-only format, you can review, but not alter, the contents of the Properties panel.

Shape	Help for the Property dialog
Assignment	Flow form — Editing assignment shape properties
Assignment Service	Flow form — Editing assignment service shape properties
Decision	Flow form — Editing Decision shape properties
Connector	Flow form — Connectors and flow actions
End	Flow form — Editing End shape properties
Integrator	Flow form — Editing Integrator shape properties
Split For Each	Flow form — Editing the Split For Each shape properties
Split Join	Flow form — Editing the Split Join shape properties
Start	Flow form — Editing the Start shape properties
Subprocess	Flow form — Editing Subprocess shape properties
Swimlane	Flow form — Editing Swimlane shapes
Utility	Flow form — Editing Utility shape properties
Wait	Flow form — Editing Wait shape properties

Smart Shapes

The Smart Shapes menu on the Flow Shapes palette provides a set of frequently-used, pre-configured utilities and subprocesses that you can easily add to your process flows. For information about how they work and descriptions of their properties, see Flow form −Process Modeler —Smart Shapes.

To access the principal rule associated with a shape

Right-click a shape and select from the context menu to access the rule that is most directly associated with that shape. If the shape references a rule that does not exist, the New dialog box appears and you can create the missing rule.

Shape	Right-click to open or create
Assignment	The harness.
Assignment Service	The service rule.
Connector from Assignment	The flow action rule.
Decision	The decision rule.
Integrator	The connector rule.
Split For Each	The flow to iterate.
Split Join	The first flow within the split.
Start	For flows that have Creates a new work item? selected on the Process tab, the harness is used to enter a new work item.
Subprocess	The flow that is called.
Utility	The activity referenced in the shape.
Wait	The harness.

To access Overlays

Use the Overlay drop-down menu to:

• Display the flow diagram view of the flow (None). This is the default.
• Display metrics associated with the flow such as:
  • The volume of assignments at any given step (Task Volumes)
  • The flow path analysis (Flow Analysis)
  • The average task duration for any given assignment (Task Duration)
  • Identify flow actions subject to policy overrides (Policy Overrides). See Understanding policy overrides and suspended work items.
  • Perform probability analysis on assignments in your flow (Optimization). See About the process optimization tool.
  The metrics are displayed as overlays on the flow diagram view.

About the metrics overlays

• Task Volumes — Select to display the current volume of work item assignments for each step in the process. Those that are on time, past goal, and past deadline are indicated as such. Click the link (total number) to open a list view of the items comprising the assignment. The report includes a graphical representation of the data for all the assignments in the flow.
• Flow Analysis — Select to display the summary statistics describing the flow action path that work items have taken at each assignment.  The percentages displayed represent the actual usage patterns in the system and may be used to benchmark and update the design-time percentages that are defined when editing the flow. Click an action link to open a summary view of the items comprising each assignment. You can open a summary view for all the assignments in the flow by clicking Flow Analysis in the Design tab.

• A flow action that displays in gray text, such as ResolveAsDuplicate in this example, previously had work routed through it. However, the flow action is no longer associated with the assignment.

• Task Duration — Select to display the average time that an operator takes to process each of the assignments in a flow. The duration appears in the HH:MM:SS format. Click a link to open a summary view of the items comprising each assignment. The report includes a graphical representation of the data for all the assignments in the flow.
• Policy Overrides — Select this option to identify those local or connector flow actions that include properties that are linked to a declarative OnChange rule that may suspend execution of this flow (for the current work item) or start an additional flow. Each such action is marked with an override icon(). The overlay displays the Override Property and Declare OnChange rule. Results are ordered by rule so that properties are grouped together.

  Notes

  • The Policy Overrides item appears in the Overlay menu only for users who hold the @baseclass.ViewProDex privilege.
  • The icon does not appear on flow actions for which the Auto- generated HTML box (on the HTML tab) is not selected.
  • The icon does not appear when the Policy Override is on a harness.

  See:

  • Understanding policy overrides and suspended work items 
  • How to implement business exception processing with policy overrides 
• Optimization — Select this option to perform probability analysis on the assignments in your flow. Click to open the Optimization Criteria panel, complete the fields including date range, maximum results, and optimization properties. For each assignment the tool generates an array of outcomes showing the likelihood that a work item, given a set of input conditions (properties), will result in a given output (flow action). See About the process optimization tool.

About Flows