AWE Right AWE Right Case Study Workflow Workshop

AWE Right, AWE Right Case Study: Workflow Workshop Session August 14 th 2017 3: 00 PM – 5: 00 PM

Presenter Dan Moran People. Soft Campus Solutions Solidan Inc. dmoran@solidan. net Rob Ratway Along for the ride! rratway@solidan. net

Overview l Northwestern University is upgrading to 9. 2 l Solidan has 4 resources assisting in the effort l Northwestern University wanted to look at existing tools that they were not utilizing currently in 9. 0 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. AWE Rules Engine(special GPA) Comm Gen(customization) Message Center(Univ of Missouri) XML Transcripts

Resources Utilized l Oracle Red Paper – Approval Workflow Engine (AWE) for HCM 9. 0 l Peoplebooks l HEUG Presentations - Grade Change Workflow 2014 UW l People. Soft Peopletools Advanced Tips and Techniques(2010) by Jim Marion l Tons of Trial and Error!!!

What to do? l Northwestern wanted to use AWE and prototype it for Campus Solutions needs l Identify a business process l Non-Student/Non-Faculty facing transaction for first item l Records Office worked best for our resource availability l We chose the Student Medical Withdrawal Process

Student Medical Withdrawal Process l Student currently has to go through a workflow(manual) process to get the proper authorizations l Once authorized the signed form is sent to the Records Office l This is where we started the AWE process since it was all back office users at this point l We have interactions with the Records Office, Office of Student Accounts, and notifications to various internal constitutents

Back to the drawing board l At first it appeared that this would not be a good fit for AWE. There was no true approval function. l The process seemed like it would make a fine candidate for just a batch App Engine l Workflow is not normally “initiated” by the same user that is the approver l The “deny” function was not needed since this process would push through all of the steps

What is AWE? Approval Workflow Engine l Framework for creating, running, and monitoring business approval processes l Released in 8. 49, but mostly used in HR Finance and Supply Chain l Campus Solutions has lagged in the area of workflow l The old workflow was based mainly in app designer l The AWE was brought to the PIA with some backend app designer integration needed

Components of AWE Transactions

Points of Approval l Initiation to start workflow l Failure of the withdrawal will be routed to the records office l Failure of tuition calculation will be routed to the office of student accounts l Should we use a final approval to close out the process? l We decided not to add a final step

What tools to use? l Most interactions required a component interface l Service indicator delete used peoplecode to do the delete and update the service indicator audit record l Remote Call to Cobol for Withdrawal and Tuition Calculation l App Package to handle transactions and business logic l Component interface

Custom Pages l Transaction approval page l Service Indicator Setup page l Email Notification page

Custom Email Notification Page(1 st Tab)

Custom Email Notification Page(2 nd Tab)

Custom Service Indicator Setup

Include the Monitor Subpage and the Approval Buttons

Custom Workflow Screen

Work Record for Approval Buttons

Header Record

Cross Reference Record

9. 0 AWE Setup

Worklist

Email Notification for Users

Final Email Notification l Uses query based checks for the emplid. This met the users need to identify different populations such as Visa students, athletes, student housing, etc. It also provided a framework for future additions. l Uses custom setup page to assign the users l Allows manual email entry for distribution lists or system users that are not OPRIDs in People. Soft l Uses mail framework to allow for HTML branded email(still need to decide what setup page to use)

Component Interfaces l Academic Plan Component for discontinuation of program plan stack l Service Indicator for adding registration holds l Term Activation for deleting records and updating the eligible to enroll flag l Term History for completing the withdrawal process

Application Package and App Classes l People. Soft’s built in Fluid features result in an adaptive not responsive design

Ad. Hoc. Access. Logic

approval. Event. Handler

thread. Descr

student. Check. Points

AWE Security (Web Libs) Requesters & approvers will need a Permission List with Full Access to these Web Libraries: l Web Library: WEBLIB_PTAF, All Functions l Web Library: WEBLIB_PTAFEMC, All Functions

Testing Tips l Create sql scripts to clear out your tables. This is especially helpful while you are creating your workflow. l Have multiple accounts setup in order to test the flow as users with different roles. l Make sure to delete term withdrawal and session withdrawal tabs l For emails and notifications ensure you are not sending out emails to user populations in test environments(schools handle this differently) l For purposes of emulating tuition calc failures, I updated the billing career to an unused value

Changes coming in 9. 2 l All workflow tables have changed underneath the hood l Improved functionality

Next steps… l Migrate project to 9. 2 l Reconfigure workflow in 9. 2 l Test, test, and more testing! l Add updates from testing, error handling, etc. l Find other processes that are candidates for AWE

Q&A Any Questions? dmoran@solidan. net