Assigning tasks to BPS groups

Applies to version: 2020.1.x and above; author: Marcin Pisarek

Introduction

In WEBCON BPS the individual steps require tasks to be performed by a specific user or group of users. The appropriate design of a process and the correct assignment of tasks can improve the performance of daily duties, document processing and company management. The article describes the idea of assigning tasks to groups – on the example of BPS groups, available from the 2019 version. Detailed information about groups can be found at BPS groups in standalone installation type.

Tasks

Tasks in the system can be assigned to the specific users, defined at the level of a specific workflow. However, when the company structure changes, then it will be necessary to make additional changes in the workflow configuration in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio. The solution is to assign a task to the “role” presented by a group instead of to individual users.

More information about defining and assigning tasks can be found at Managing tasks assignment in multi-company environments.

Assigning tasks to the group

A simple workflow was created in which we use the functionality of assigning tasks to the users in the specific BPS group. Similarly, you can also use the AD or SharePoint groups.

Fig. 1. The workflow configuration – schema

The “Assign a task” transition path is configured to assign tasks to s group by using the “Department responsible for” field.

Fig. 2. The path configuration – tasks assignment

The “Registration” step starts the workflow in which the user defines the tasks to be performed and indicates a group which will perform the task in the “Department responsible for” field.

Fig. 3. The form – completing data and selecting group

Going through the “Assign a task” path will allow you to move an instance to the next step and assign a task to the group. This means that the task will be assigned to all users in the given group at the time when the task is assigned.

The users will receive information about the necessary changes to be made and then, they will receive the ability of confirming their realization by completed the “Completed on” field and going through the “Completed” path.

Fig. 4. The form – assigning tasks to the group

In this case, the task was assigned to all users found in the “IT (KR)” group.

Fig. 5. Managing BPS groups – a local group

Often changes occur in groups such as:

• Adding new users
• Deleting existing users

The changes described above will not affect to currently created and assigned task on the selected steps.

To present this issue, one of the users will be removed from the “IT (KR)” group and new users will be added in their place.

Fig. 6. Managing BPS groups – introducing changes in the group (delete, add users)

Moving to the previously created instance, you can see that the tasks assigned at the “Implementation” step remained unchanged. At this step, a user completes the date and sends the instance for verification.

According to the presented workflow, the user at the “Verification” step has the ability to approve changes which causes completing the workflow or withdrawing the instance for improvement.

Fig. 7. The form – moving back the instance to the previous step to reassigning tasks to the group

On the “Reject” path the task assignment is configured in the same way as for the “Assign a task” path based on the “Department responsible for” form field.

Fig. 8. The form – reassigning a task to the group

After going through the “Reject” path by the user, the task assignment to the group took into account the changes made to it (according to Figure 6).

Summary

Changing the users in the group (AD, SharePoint, or BPS) does not require additional changes in the workflow/workflows configuration compared to assigning tasks to the specific users. You need to remember that all changes in groups will affect new instances/task assignments but they will not modify the tasks that are already assigned. As you can see, using the right workflow management software can save your company time and money.