Integration between Signavio and Effektif. Philipp Giese, Signavio GmbH

Transcription

1 Integration between Signavio and Effektif Philipp Giese, Signavio GmbH Whitepaper January 2016

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Why two Tools? 3 3. The Example Process 4 4. Approving the Process with Effektif 4 5. Processes must be Lived Side Note: Agile Process Evolution 8 6. Roundtrip between Signavio and Effektif 9 7. Summary Contact 10 Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 2 of 10

3 1. Introduction Process management is a team effort! Signavio s focus for many years has been on collaboration and processes. Alongside the well-known Signavio Process Editor, which enables collective process modeling, Signavio offers customers a collaborative process execution platform with the intuitive workflow engine, Effektif. With both software solutions, the focus is on accommodating both expert users as well as complete beginners, therefore making process modeling and automation accessible to all. But how can you best harness the potential of your process models and software solutions? What possibilities do you have to bring the processes you have modeled to life and to execute them? What benefits will you gain by using both products simultaneously? Below, in addition to answering these questions, we will demonstrate the seamless integration between the Signavio Process Editor and Effektif by means of an example process. For this example, we chose a process that will invariably come to pass in almost all companies: the vacation request process. The process has intentionally been written in simple terms and yet it offers extensive potential for demonstrating what users can achieve with Signavio and Effektif. The following aspects will be explained below in further detail: > > Why is it necessary to use two tools? > > The example process: requesting vacation > > Approval in Signavio with help from Effektif > > The process will be brought to life using Effektif > > No modifications are lost: Changes made in Effektif are synchronized with Signavio 2. Why two Tools? We firmly believe that the strength of a software does not lie in its complexity or in its ability to carry out an above average amount of tasks. It is much more important that it completes the tasks for which it was created in the best and most effective way possible. For exactly this reason, we decided not to make the Signavio Process Editor unnecessarily complex with an integrated workflow component but to develop this as a separate software solution. The Signavio Process Editor offers process modelers optimal support for recording processes collaboratively. The tool is therefore perfectly suited to establishing collaborative process modeling throughout an organization. For the execution of the processes you have modeled with Signavio, the web based workflow solution Effektif provides the perfect platform. Create your processes in the Signavio Process Editor and execute them with Effektif. The focus lies not so much on the modeling or on elaborate processes, but much more on the specific, concrete tasks that must be completed. Effektif ensures that tasks land in the respective inboxes of your employees, it sends reminders if a deadline is getting closer and brings all employees together in one space to work collaboratively on cases. In this way, no task is overlooked, handovers are clearly structured and responsibilities are clearly defined. Thanks to the seamless integration of the Signavio Process Editor and Effektif, you decide which process is to be executed. The user-friendly interfaces of both solutions allow professionals with no great IT expertise to record and execute their processes very easily. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 3 of 10

4 But what does this seamless integration look like in practice? Below, we will show you how you can optimally integrate Signavio and Effektif into your day-to-day processes. We will use the vacation request process as an example. 3. The Example Process The vacation request process (see figure 3.1) occurs when an employee would like to take leave. For absences of more than two weeks, the employee must request the permission of the department manager, who then checks if the employee in question has sufficient vacation allowance remaining. The results of this check are always shared with the employee in the final step of the process. Figure 3.1 The vacation request process as an example. The process has been modeled in the Signavio Process Editor so it is clear to see what steps must be performed. However, at this stage of modeling, it is not possible to see from this process model who should carry out the individual steps and how. The process has also not yet been internally approved, therefore, we will now have a look at how we can request and grant approvals on processes which start in the Signavio Process Editor. 4. Approving the Process with Effektif Before a process can be productively integrated into a company, it should firstly be checked for correctness and completeness by the person responsible. Once this is done, it can then be approved. This can be easily done by Signavio users, using the integrated approval workflow, based on Effektif. When you start the approval of a process, relevant data is automatically transferred from Signavio to Effektif. You have full access to this information in Effektif and you can therefore define the approval process according to your expectations. During the time in which a process is being approved, its progress can be displayed in Signavio. This is shown in figure 4.1 in our vacation request process. In the first step, the approval for the process Vacation Request has not been started. When an approval workflow is started for the process, the status changes to pending approval, indicated as shown with a cogwheel symbol. When a process is successfully approved, a green tick appears. Furthermore, you have the possibility to publish the process automatically in the Collaboration Portal. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 4 of 10

5 Figure 4.1. Status of a process during approval Through the integration of Signavio and Effektif, the following is always visible: > > the processes which have already been approved > > the processes which still need to be approved > > those which are currently pending approval The detailed information for every approval is always visible. Also, through the clear division of both solutions, the appropriatelevel of detail is kept in each application. While enabled users have all the details available to them in Effektif, the Signavio Process Editor, as a process management tool, maintains an overview of all processes and their progress in the approval process. In our example, the approval request is sent to the appropriate department manager, who receives an letting them know that a process is pending approval. With just one click, the department manager can access the process and resolve the task in Effektif by either approving or declining the request. The employee who sent the request then gets an informing him of the decision. The interaction between Effektif and Signavio is realized by specific activities in Effektif. Figure 4.2 shows an activity which updates a process in Signavio. This enables you to create approvals with a level of detail which meets your requirements. Figure 4.2. Specific Signavio activity in Effektif If the standard default approval statuses in Signavio are not sufficient for your requirements, you can configure more as needed. This feature is demonstrated in figure 4.3. You can choose how you would like to name your statuses, how they should be presented and whether or not the process, after having reached a certain status, should automatically be published in the Collaboration Portal. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 5 of 10

6 Figure 4.3.Define approval in Signavio 5. Processes must be Lived A process that only exists in theory and which isn t practiced in the organization, is also only helpful in theory. Once processes have been modeled and optimized in the Signavio Process Editor, Effektif helps you to integrate them. Through automatic allocation of tasks, employees get their duties assigned and tailored to them by Effektif, allowing them to work in a more focused way. Transferring a task from Signavio to Effektif requires minimal effort, as seen in figure 5.1. All it takes is one click on transfer and your process is ready to be executed. To get an initial impression of your process, you can start it straight away and witness how the various tasks are laid out in Effektif. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 6 of 10

7 Figure 5.1. Processes can be transferred with one click Let s take a closer look at our example process. Which of these tasks could be automatically completed to save us valuable time? In the example (Figure 5.2) three tasks stand out as those which would lend themselves to automation. In the first step, the length of the vacation is determined and from this, a decision is made. The department manager only has to approve the request if the vacation is longer than two weeks, otherwise this is not required. As we know the start and end date, this calculation and decision can be taken over by Effektif. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 7 of 10

8 Figure 5.2. The synchronized process from Signavio to Effektif In the final step of the process, a response is sent in each separate case to the respective employee, who started the process with a vacation request. Here too, Effektif can help with a predefined activity. Figure 5.3. Process with execution information Figure 5 shows the process after the activities that can be automated have been replaced by the appropriate building blocks in Effektif. The first task has been replaced with a script task. Here, small programs can be implemented with the help of JavaScript, currently the most popular programming language in the world. In our case, the length of the holiday is automatically calculated by the start and end dates entered by the user. The last two tasks have been replaced by tasks. These ensure that the employee is informed about whether or not the holiday has been authorized. As the automation of a process represents an entirely new challenge, with Effektif we use the APE (Agile Process Evolution) approach to take processes from a technical model to an executable version as fast as possible Side Note: Agile Process Evolution One of the biggest problems of contemporary workflow solutions is that changes made to processes cannot be tested easily. This is mainly because new versions of a process cannot easily be put into execution. Effektif changes this through the APE approach. In Effektif, a new executable version of a process is always only a mouse click away. The simple versioning of processes allows changes to be made to processes at any time without incurring any risk. This also enables workflows to be extensively tested. If at any stage you ask yourself, is this working the way I expected it to? - Then simply test it! Release a new version of the process and test it out to make sure it functions as you want it to. Figure shows the version of APE expanded by Signavio. Initially, a technical representation of the process is recorded in Signavio and then approved using Signavio and Effektif, as described above in section 3. Once the process has been synchronized to Effektif, APE is used to automate certain activities. You can check at any time that all automated steps are working as you require by executing the process in a test version. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 8 of 10

9 Figure Extended APE process 6. Roundtrip between Signavio and Effektif After you have configured the technical process in Effektif, it will most likely have a higher degree of detail. Added to this, every necessary step is depicted in exactly the same way as it will be implemented in your organization. Thus, the gap between the target performance and the actual performance, which exists in processes that are only theoretical, is closed. This information should, of course, not be lost. In figure 6.1 you can see the process that has been synchronized back to Signavio from Effektif. In all tasks it is now clearly recognizable whether they are completed manually or automatically. Here, concepts already available in BPMN, such as service, script and human tasks are used. Figure 6.1. Fully specified process If you need to modify this process in the future then you can make these changes easily in the Signavio Process Editor and synchronize the new version with Effektif. Thus you have up-to-date process models at all times, which form a solid basis for the automation of individual process steps or entire processes. Thanks to the integration of Signavio and Effektif you can collaboratively create processes, which you can share throughout your organization and ensure that tasks are completed within deadlines. Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 9 of 10

10 7. Summary The integration of Signavio and Effektif brings together intuitive process tools which allow you to better manage your daily operations. Often, it is discovered that many steps of a company s processes can be very easily automated. This means that you avoid unnecessary work for your employees who can then focus on the really important things. If you have any questions, or would like to see one of our live web demonstrations, please send us an or give us a call to make an appointment for a personalized presentation. 8. Contact Signavio GmbH Kurfürstenstraße Berlin Germany info@signavio.com Integration between Signavio and Effektif Signavio GmbH, December 2015 Page 10 of 10