Adding activities

A case activity is a automated set of actions that are performed on a case instance to help drive it to a successful outcome. These activities are orchestrated by the case or case worker in the Case Client and can perform various functions depending on its type, including launching a process, adding a to-do list to a case at the appropriate time, and acting as a container for other activities to control when they are available.

Your case projects can include activities that start processes. These processes can use all the capabilities described in Business process management as well as additional integration features that are available when these processes run in a case activity.

About this task

Instead of adding a new activity, you can create an activity from a business process workflow if your administrator configured access to a business process management system.

Activities are shown in two views on the Activities page: priority and sets. In the priority view, the activities are displayed with required activities first, optional activities are next, and discretionary activities are last. In the sets view, the activities are displayed by whether the activities are mutually exclusive, all-inclusive, or neither.

Procedure

To add an activity:

  1. After you create a case type, open the Activities page and click Add Activity to choose the type of activity to add.
    Activity type Description
    Activity with New Process Adds an activity with a new process that is defined in IBM® Business Automation Workflow. For more information, see Adding an activity with a new process.
    To-do Task Adds a task that provides a checklist of items that must be completed or information that must be collected for a case type. A to-do task does not have an associated workflow.
    Container Activity Adds a container in which you then add subactivities. The subactivities can be activities, to-do tasks, or even other container activities.
    Activity with Existing FileNet® P8 process Adds an activity based on an existing FileNet P8 process. For information about creating these processes and making them available for reuse in Case Builder, see Adding an existing FileNet P8 process as an activity.
    Activity with Existing Process Adds an activity that is based on an existing IBM Business Automation Workflow process. For more information, see Adding an activity with an existing process.
    Activity with New FileNet P8 Process Adds an activity for which you define the process in FileNet P8 IBM FileNet Process Designer. For information about defining the process, see Building new FileNet P8 processes to complete activities.
    Activity with Existing FileNet P8 process Adds an activity based on an existing FileNet P8 process. For information about creating these processes and making them available for reuse in Case Builder, see Adding an existing FileNet P8 process as an activity.
  2. On the General page, specify a name and unique identifier for the activity.
    The unique identifier is added to the name that you entered for the activity.
    The name of an activity must conform to the following rules:
    • Begin with an alphabetic character
    • Can contain letters, digits, underscores, or spaces
    • Can have up to 64 characters although character limits might vary depending on your language
    • Not use F_ or two tilde (~) characters as the first two characters
    • Be unique among workflow definitions in the production environment
    • Not use the same name as a role in the same solution
  3. On the General page, define the behavior of the activity:
    1. Define how the activity will start by specifying Automatically, Manually, or Discretionally.
      If you select Discretionally, the activity must be added to a case programmatically or by the case worker in Case Client.
    2. Optional: Add the activity to a set.
      In the Add Activity window, you can add the activity only to an existing set. You can create new sets in the Manage Sets window or drag activities around to different sets in the Activities page.
      Activities can belong to a mutually exclusive set, an all-inclusive set, or no set.
      Mutually exclusive set
      If the activity is part of a mutually exclusive set, the user can complete only one of the activities in that set.
      All-inclusive set
      If the activity is part of an all-inclusive set, the user must complete all the activities in that set.

      Activities that belong to a set must have preconditions.

    3. In the Process Task Details Adapter drop-down list, choose an item. By default, the Process Task Details Adapter page is already selected when a BPM process task is opened for a parent case activity. You can create your own Task Detail pages from the default Process Task Details Adapter page and add additional case widgets to the page (such as the Case Information widget).

      acmsdh18

      Note: When a page is created for a BPM process activity, it must contain both the Task Toolbar widget and the Website Viewer widget.
  4. On the Preconditions page, define any preconditions that are required before the activity can start.
    You can have no preconditions, or you can have the activity start only if one of the following preconditions are met:
    • When one or more documents are added to the case
    • When a condition is met on a property
    • When a property is modified
    You can also define a property expression for any of the precondition types.

    If you want the activity to start when one or more documents is added, select A document is filed in the case in the case precondition and specify an additional property expression.

    For example, you might require that a loan application document is added to the case before the loan application activity can start.
  5. On the Activities Properties page, add and configure the properties that are associated with this activity.

    Activity properties provide a mechanism for tracking activity-specific information beyond the scope of the activity. For example, you might have a repeating activity to process witness statements. Each instance of a witness statement activity has properties to record information, such as who processed the witness statement and the date that the statement was taken. This information can be maintained through the activity properties rather than through case properties.

    For to-do tasks, which are displayed as checklists, all associated properties are shown as to-do items in the default view.

    You can create properties for an activity or reuse existing properties from the solution or object store. When you create an activity property, that property becomes one of the solution properties and can be used as a property for a case type or other activities. You can also use an activity property in an in-basket.

  6. Optional: On the Design Comment page, add a design comment that explains, for example, the reasons that this activity was created, or what the imported process does, or how it works with the solution.
  7. Click OK.

What to do next

To create steps for an activity, click the Edit steps icon. To customize the view for a to-do task, click the Open To-do View Designer icon.