Applying governance to a process application

You can apply a governance process that provides control over the installation of process applications or notifies people when a snapshot is installed or changes status. When an Installation Requested governance process is applied to a process application, requests made from Workflow Center to install a snapshot of that process application trigger the governance process. When a Snapshot Status Change governance process is applied, all changes to the status of a snapshot are reported.

With governance applied to a process application, requests to install a snapshot of the process application from Workflow Center are referred to a governance process. You can use a governance process to install to a connected server or to generate an installation package for an offline server. Beginning in Version 8.5.0, the governance process is also started by the installation of snapshots using the BPMInstall wsadmin command and the creation of offline packages using the BPMCreateOfflinePackage wsadmin command.

An installation governance process is a process application in the Workflow Center that is active and uses the Install Snapshot service flow defined in the System Governance toolkit. The governance process application is not installed on a workflow server. To install a process application snapshot for a workflow server that depends on the governance toolkit, delete all application artifacts that depend on anything from the governance toolkit.

The following steps explain how governance is applied to the installation of a process application, referred to as MortgageApp in this explanation.

  1. An administrator or developer creates a process application to be used for governance and sets a dependency on the System Governance toolkit.
  2. A business analyst or developer creates a new process using the Installation Requested template. The dialog for a new process contains an option to use the Installation Requested template in the System Governance toolkit to create an installation governance process. The template ensures compatibility between the process and the specific governance event.
  3. When the governance process has been created, the developer can use Process Designer to add email notifications and other activities that customize the governance process. The developer can then connect the activities, take a snapshot of the process application, and set the status to "Released".
  4. When the governance process is released, it is ready to be applied to a process application. The developer tells an administrator the name of the governance process or applies a governance tag to the process so the administrator can easily find it.
  5. Typically, the administrator would now remove the developer's access to the governance process application so it is now only available to administrators.
  6. An administrator can now open the MortgageApp process application, select the Governance tab, and change to the new governance process that you created. (The governance option is exposed only to users who have administrative authority for the process application.) Once the new governance process has been selected, it is instantly active on Workflow Center. As long as this governance process is applied to the MortgageApp process application, snapshots of MortgageApp cannot be installed on any process server until the conditions set in the governance process have been completed.
  7. Subsequently, whenever a developer selects a target workflow server and completes an installation request to install a snapshot of MortgageApp on a server, the installation request starts the registered governance process.
  8. If status messages have been enabled, the status in Workflow Center changes as the approval process progresses, using default states or status messages customized and set in the governance process. The status messages change when the installation service is called, but the Set Installation Status service flow can still be used to alter the value. Once installation is complete, the status looks just the same as if governance was not used.
When the governance process 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 process, process instances already running continue to run, unless an administrator terminates the instance.

The person who creates a process application has administrative authority to change the governance process being used on that process application. Take this authority into consideration when establishing governance practices. In most cases, the prudent practice is to limit the number of people who create process applications.