Creating a governance process for installing a process application

Before governance can be applied to a process application, someone must design and create the governance process. The governance process defines the steps that are required before the process application snapshot can be installed on a process server.

About this task

IBM Business Process Manager includes the System Governance toolkit, which supplies the templates, services, and business objects that you need to create a governance process. This topic describes creating a process relating to the installation of a process application snapshot. You can also create a governance process relating to changing the status of a snapshot for a process application or a toolkit.

By default, when anyone tries to install a snapshot of a process application, an instance of the default Installation Requested BPD from the System Governance toolkit is started. That default business process definition just allows the installation to proceed. If you want to apply governance to that process application, you need to replace that default BPD with a governance process that is customized to your requirements. You can use the governance process to notify people of the installation or you can set approvals in place so that no one can install it from IBM® Process Center on a process server until those approvals have been completed. Governance can provide a way to ensure that proper testing is done and approvals are secured before a snapshot of a process application is installed.

A governance process created in IBM Business Process Manager V8.0.0 cannot be used in this version. You must use a governance process from V8.0.1 or later. You must use the process described here to create a governance process. You must build your governance BPD using a template from the System Governance toolkit.

Procedure

In IBM Process Center, create a process application to use for governance. This process application will contain your installation governance process. (You cannot create a governance process in a toolkit. Only process applications can be used to create governance processes.)
In Process Designer, add a dependency on the System Governance toolkit to your process application. The process application must have a direct dependency on the System Governance toolkit snapshot to be able to create governance processes. Indirect dependencies are not supported.
Create a BPD. In the New Business Process Definition window, give the BPD a name that will be meaningful to potential users, and click the Select button to open a window where you can choose which governance template you want to use. For this governance process, choose the Installation Requested template. Click Finish.
The governance templates are only available for use with a process application when a dependency on the System Governance toolkit has been established. Once you save the BPD after making the governance template selection, the input variable, ProcessAppInstallationRequest, that has been set by the template cannot be changed.
Using the template as a base, develop a BPD to meet your organization's requirements. You can build upon the BPD using the governance services; see the related link. For more information, see Enabling email for Process Portal notifications.
1. Add an activity that calls the Install Snapshot service, which is located in the System Governance toolkit, similar to what is done in the Default Installation Requested BPD (the product default). The installation will be considered finished once the Install Snapshot service or the Cancel Snapshot Installation service has run.
2. Add activities and email to customize the BPD to fit your governance requirements.

What to do next

When the governance process is complete, take a snapshot of the process application, label it, and set the status of the snapshot to "Released." Only a released snapshot can be applied to a process application by an administrator.

Apply the new BPD as the governance process for process applications that you want to govern. See the related link to instructions for that task.

When the governance BPD from a released snapshot is in use for governance, users cannot change the status of the snapshot of the governance process until one of the following conditions is met:

An administrator changes the association to the default governance process from System Governance toolkit.
An administrator changes the association to a different released snapshot of the same governance process.
An administrator changes the association to a released snapshot of a different governance process application.

When an administrator changes the association of any governance BPD, process instances already running continue to run, unless an administrator terminates the instance.