Adding decisions to processes

Make your business processes flexible and responsive by providing conditional paths that a case can follow to reach a resolution. By adding a decision point to your case, you support more than one outcome for your business process, and adjust the case to changing business needs and circumstances.

Before you begin: Configure a process:
  1. Add a process to a stage in your case life cycle. For more information, see Adding a process to a stage.
  2. Define the steps for your process. For more information, see Adding a step to a process.
  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click Case types, and then click the case type that you want to open.
  2. In the case working area, on the Workflow tab, click Life cycle.
  3. In the Case life cycle section, hover over a process in a stage, and then click the Configure process icon.
  4. Above the canvas, click the Add a flow shape icon, and then click Decision.

    For advanced decisions that you cannot define in when conditions, configure the Decision shape to use a different logic type, such as a Boolean expression or a decision tree. For more information, see About Decision Trees.

  5. In the Decision shape, click [Decision], and then replace the default label with a descriptive name.
    For example: In the Decision shape that represents a decision about an approval or rejection, enter Approved?.
  6. Drag the Decision shape onto the canvas, to a position where the decision occurs in the process.
  7. Connect the Decision shape to the process:
    1. Drag a connector from a shape that precedes the decision in the process to the Decision shape.
    2. Drag the end point of the connector from the Decision shape to the connection point of the shape that follows the decision on the canvas.
    Tip: The Decision shape works correctly when the connector is green.
  8. Click the Decision shape.
  9. In the Decision shape property panel, define at least one conditional path:
    Choices Actions
    Create a custom condition
    1. In the When list, select Custom condition.
    2. Click the Configure conditions icon.
    3. In the Configure condition window, select a condition, a comparator, and a value to compare with the condition.
      For example: Case status is equal to New
    4. Optional: To define more conditions, click the Add row icon, and then repeat substep 9.c.
    5. Optional: To group the conditions, select comparators from the list.
      For example: To make only one condition compulsory, from the list, select OR.
    6. Optional: To reuse the condition in the future, click Actions > Add to when conditions library.
    7. Click Submit.
    Use an existing condition
    1. In the When list, select Existing condition.
    2. In the list of conditions, select a condition.
  10. In the Go to list, select the shape to which the process advances when the case meets the conditions that you define.
  11. In the Otherwise go to list, select the alternative shape to which the process advances when the case does not meet the conditions.
  12. Click Save.
Result: At run time, when the case reaches a decision point, the system evaluates the conditions. If the case meets the conditions, the process moves to the step that you defined. If the case does not meet the conditions, the system moves the case to the alternative step.