Property

Description

To

This property specifies the resource(s) who have to take up the Checklist action. It is tagged with the Ignore Unavailable Resources property which in turn is tagged with Alternate Resource Allowed. This will be explained in detail later.

Subject

This is the subject of the Checklist. The subject can be customized for each resource. To assign a subject to the Checklist action, click the 'Subject' button in the Properties pane for the Checklist action. A new window pops up. In this window, customize the subject by appending the various fields to the subject.

Notes

This is the actual content of the Checklist sent to the resource(s). The notes can be customized for each resource. To assign the content of the Checklist, click the 'Notes' button in the Properties pane for the Checklist action. A new window pops up. In this window, customize the content by appending the various fields to the notes.

Questions

You can define Question and Answer Types in a Checklist Action; the Answer Types provided are Textbox, Memo, Checklist, Dropdown, and RadioButton. The attributes of this property are given below.

1. The user interface displays the Question and Answers.
2. Decision Maker functionality.
   • There can be a Decision Maker associated with a Checklist. The outcome of the Checklist Action is determined by the Answers tagged with the Decision Maker. Only Dropdowns can have the Decision Making functionality tagged.
   • Whenever a resource acts upon (submits) the checklist the engine is notified with the answer to the question, provided the question is marked as a decision maker.
3. Mandatory Functionality.
   • If an answer type is marked as mandatory the resource will be prompted to enter the value before submission.
4. Default Functionality
   • Inputs given as default will be shown as the default answer for the answer type in the resource interface.
5. Edit and Delete options have been provided.
6. To add Questions and Answers,
   • First the user clicks on the Add New button (the option to add more than one question has also been provided.)
   • Then the user is asked to enter the question and the answer type,
   • Based on the answer type the user is asked to enter the values (for example, if the answer type is Drop Down, the user has to enter "display text" and the value for the display text.)

Min. Acknowledgements

This property (referred to as Min.Ack), which can be specified as a number or percentage, is the minimum number of resources who should acknowledge receipt of the Checklist request. This property is related to the 'Timeout warning for Acknowledgement' and 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' properties. To illustrate, when 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' is reached, the activity first checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Min.Ack (if it is set). If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. If the 'Min.Ack' has already been satisfied, then the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' lists. If the Min.Ack value is 0, then the activity checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack (if it is set). If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are set to 0, then there should be at least one acknowledgement within the set time, otherwise the activity will be removed from all activity lists.

Max. Acknowledgements

This property (referred to as Max.Ack), which can be specified as a number or percentage, is the maximum number of resources who should acknowledge receipt of the Checklist request. If 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' is specified and achieved, and the 'Min.Ack' is also satisfied, then the activity waits for action from those who acknowledged. If the Min.Ack value is set to 0, then it checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack. If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are set to 0, then there should be at least one acknowledgement within the set time, otherwise the activity will be removed from all activity lists.

Timeout for Acknowledgement

This property (referred to as Time For Ack.) specifies the time until which acknowledgement is allowed i.e. the time until which the Checklist action will wait for acknowledgement. If Min.Ack is set and is not reached, the activity is removed from all activity lists. If Min.Ack is 0, it will check if acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack. If it is, the activity is removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. The activity will remain in the acknowledgers' activity list and wait for action from them.

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout for Acknowledgement.

Timeout Warning for Acknowledgement

This property (referred to as Time Out Warning For Ack.) specifies the time at which a warning is provided to a resource to acknowledge the activity assigned to him/her. If the resource does not acknowledge within this time the engine is notified with a warning. Thus if 'Min.Ack' is set, and it is not satisfied before the given time then a warning is sent. If Min.Ack is 0, it will check for Max.Ack. If the acknowledgement count does not reach the Max.Ack value within the set time, a warning is sent. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are not set, this property is ignored.

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout Warning for Acknowledgement.

How Acknowledgement Properties relate to each other:

Affirmative Answer for Checklist Completion [% or Number]

This property is used to check what percentage or number of persons should take action for Checklist. Decision on the Checklist is taken only after the specified number or percentage of resource(s) have taken the action. The activity waits for the resources' action until the 'Timeout for Action' is reached.

Action Min Limit for Checklist Completion [% or Number]

This property specifies the minimum number of resources to act on the Checklist before the 'Timeout Warning for Action'. If the action limit is reached before the 'Timeout Warning for Action' then the warning message is not shown.

Timeout Warning for Action

This property specifies when a reminder has to be provided for the resources to act on the Checklist, if the action count has not been reached. If properties such as Max.Ack, Affirmative Action for Checklist Completion (AAC), and Action Limit (AL) are set, once the property values are reached then a warning is sent to the participant. When the timeout is reached, the following checks are made:

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout Warning for Action.

Timeout for Action

This property's value is used to decide until what time the activity should wait for resource action. If properties such as Max.Ack, AAC, AL are set, once the property values are reached the activity is removed from the task lists of all the resources. When the timeout is reached, the following checks are made:

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout for Action.

Hide Responses?

If this property is set to 'No', then the resource’s details will be visible to the resources who have acknowledged.

Consider only Business Hours for Timeout?

If this property is set, all the time out calculations will be done based only on the business hours, i.e. leaves and organization holidays will not be considered. Business hours for the Organization and Resource can be set using the calendar controls (Organization, Resource) provided.

Forwarding Allowed?

If this property is set then the resource is provided with a Forward button. Using this the resource can forward the activity to another resource.

Ignore Unavailable Resources?

If this property is set, when the Checklist action is assigned to the resources list, a check is first done to see whether the resource is available. If the resource is not available then a check is made for an alternate resource assigned to the unavailable resource. Simultaneously the value of the property 'Alternate Resource Allowed' is checked. If that is also set, then the Checklist task is assigned to this resource.

Alternate Resource Allowed?

This property is set to assign a particular task to an alternate resource in the absence or unavailability of any resource.

Severity

This property is set to indicate the severity of the Checklist. It can be set to 'Low', 'Medium', or 'High'.

Show Custom Document View Window

If this property is set, then the Custom Document View Window will be shown.

Send Notification Email

If this property is set to 'Yes', then notification emails will be sent to the resources.

Multiple TimeOut Warning

This is used to set recurring timeout warnings that will be sent to the resources who have to take action. To set multiple timeout warnings, click the 'Multiple TimeOut Warning' button in the Properties pane for the Checklist action. A new window pops up. In this window, set the interval for the recurring warning as well as the output message.

 Property settings for Checklist

To add the Checklist action to the workflow click on the Checklist button in the toolbox. An icon for the Checklist action will be added in the design area. The action can be linked with the workflow by clicking on the Link button in the tool box. To set the properties for the Checklist action click on the Checklist icon in the design area. The properties corresponding to the Checklist action will be displayed in the Properties pane of the Process Designer.

To select the resources to whom this Checklist is to be sent, click on the button for the 'To' property. A window pops up (Fig 2.), in which the resources can be selected. An expression can be built to select the resources based on the resource properties. Select a property from the list, then select the operator, type of value (Value, Variable, Content), corresponding value for the property and the logical operator. Add the condition to the expression by clicking the Add button. To end the expression select the 'End' instead of a logical operator. To remove a condition already added to the expression, click the Undo button. After building the expression, click the Update button.

The subject of the Checklist can be customized. To prepare the Checklist subject, click on the button for the 'Subject' property. A window pops (Fig 3.) up where the subject can be typed and customized by appending the resource property values. Click the Update button to save the subject.

Notes is the content of the Checklist. To prepare the notes, click on the button for the 'Notes' property. A window pops (Fig 4.) up where the notes can be typed and customized by appending the resource property values. Click the Update button to save the notes.

Questions Property in Checklist Action provides the interface to add Questions and Answers. The functionality of the Checklist Action is achieved through this property. A Question marked as ! is said to be the 'decision maker' for the Checklist action. There can be only one 'decision maker' for a checklist action. The outcome of the checklist action is notified to the Workflow engine through the 'decision maker' functionality. Only Dropdowns can be set as 'decision makers'. For example, if the decision maker is tagged with a Question which has 'Approved' & 'Rejected' as values, and the checklist is submitted with 'Approved' selected in the dropdown, then the engine is alerted about the 'Approved' status and the engine executes the next process in the workflow. A Question marked as * is set as 'mandatory' when the resource fills up the Checklist. The resource cannot submit the checklist answers without filling the 'mandatory' questions. There is also a provision to add 'default' values, the values added as 'default' will be displayed when the resource views the Checklist.

The interface shown in Fig 5 is to Add, Edit and View the Questions and Answers added in the Checklist action.

The interface shown below is the second step for adding a Checklist. This interface is displayed after the user selects Add New or Modify from the interface shown in Fig 5. The following parameters can be set here

Multiple TimeOut Warnings are repeated warnings sent to the resources regarding timeout of the Checklist. To set multiple timeout warnings, click on the button for the 'Multiple TimeOut Warning' property. A window pops (Fig 6) up where the Time Interval can be typed and the Recurring? option set to 'Yes'. The output message can also be typed here. More than one timeout warning can be set by clicking the New row button and entering the new timeout warning settings. Click the Update button to save the settings.