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You can use CA Workflow to automate your business processes. If your business process can be clearly defined and accomplished using tasks assigned to people and interaction with other systems, then it is a candidate for automation using CA Workflow. A business process is defined in CA Workflow as a process definition. A process definition has roles that represent people and other systems and activities connected by logical connectors. Each role uses an actor which is the CA Workflow element that represents a person or other entity which can perform an action.
Several process definitions and actors are provided with CA Service Catalog to handle several business processes related to request approval and fulfillment.
Note: Prior to using or altering any of the supplied process definitions, review CA Workflow-Driven Approval and Fulfillment for more details.
After a process definition is designed and built, it needs to be started to actually do its work and execute the business process it was meant to automate. A process definition can be started manually by using the CA Workflow IDE, Worklist, or Workflow Manager. Frequently it is useful for a process designer to use the IDE to start a process definition during the development and testing phase. An end user can use Worklist to start a process definition if it is clear which process definition is meant to be started to accomplish some business process.
With CA Service Catalog, a process definition can also be automatically started by using a scheduled task or an event rule action.
The first step in creating a process definition is to design it on paper. Identify the people and other systems which play a role in the business process you are trying to automate. The next step is to ensure that each role can be realized through an actor.
With CA Service Catalog, each role that represents a person (such as an approver) uses a Global User List actor. A role using a Global User List actor assigns a task to one or more CA EEM users or groups.
Each role that represents a system (such as an application or suite) typically uses a Web Service actor.
After the actors are defined, the next step is to define the activities or steps (nodes) in the business process being automated and the logical flow of those nodes.
Note: For more information and examples of how to use actors and nodes, see the CA Workflow IDE Online Help.
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