Streamline Your Processes

One way to increase organizational efficiency is by automating processes and well ProcessMaker lets you do just that and more

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

Twitter

As organizations grow the need to automate processes becomes even more critical to keep functioning normally. ProcessMaker is an open source business process management (BPM) and work flow software that lets you design and implement processes without any programming knowledge. Work flow increases transparency and with ProcessMaker one can easily design documents, manage users and designate routing rules. This package is simple to install and easy to use and requires minimum resources. Once implemented, this package can considerably reduce paperwork and streamline process flow.

Implementing ProcessMaker
We downloaded 'ProcessMaker-1.1-2063-windows-installer.exe' from www.processmaker.com and installed it on our Windows XP-based machine. Installation process is very simple becasue it requests for only a few inputs. The installation package is bundled with LAMP server stack that includes Apache, PHP, and MySQL, so the installation wizard will ask for Apache web server port, MySQL root password and PHP administrator password ('administrator' is default user name). Once installed, one can launch ProcessMaker using IP address of the machine. Log on to ProcessMaker using 'admin' as both user name and password with workspace as 'workflow,' these credentials are for administrator.

Now that our ProcessMaker is up and running let's show how it works. In this implementation we would be creating a sample process to show steps of building a business process. In this package there is a particular kind of hierarchy that is followed with a process constituting of tasks on top. And every task has a fixed number of steps associated with it; so a step can be a sequence of 'DynaForms' that are forms associated with tasks, input documents and output documents. Before designing and executing business process using ProcessMaker we need to have following information with us: a diagram of business process, users who will interact with the process, and list of documents and forms used during the process. The first step is to create a Process Map of business processes. In this example, we would be creating a process named 'PCQuest' comprising of two tasks: generation of documents by author and designing of documents by a designer. As we login as administrator in ProcessMaker, we are automatically directed to 'PROCESSES' tab. Click on 'New' button to create a new process. One can also import previously created processes. Click on the 'Edit' link in front of created process. This will direct you to the area where one can create 'Process Maps'. Right click on process map area and click on 'Add Task' to add a new task to the 'PCQuest' process. In this example we created two tasks 'AUTHOR' and 'Designer;' right click on the task and go to 'Properties' for defining tasks. One can input a lot of information through tabs on this window like task description, assignment rule that defines how task is assigned, timing control to keep tab on time, permissions, case labels, and notification that makes it possible to send email when moving from one task to another. To setup email notification, click on 'SETUP' tab and then click on 'Email' link and check in front of 'Enable Email Notification' and fill in details.

This is the process area where one can create a 'Process Map.' On top one can find links for creating 'DynaForms' and input/output documents.

To keep things simple in this example we created two tasks: 'AUTHOR' being the starting point and 'Designer' being the end of process. Drag and drop 'Starting task' and 'Sequential' tools from Tools menu on 'AUTHOR' and 'End process' on 'Designer'. Connect 'AUTHOR' and 'Designer' using 'Sequential' tool. One can also use other tools from the Tools menu to define the sequence of tasks.

This is the view of a user with 'PROCESSMAKER_OPERATOR' role. One can find all relevant tabs under 'CASES.'	Detailed information regarding a business process ('PCQuest') can be obtained from 'CASES' tab (click on 'INFORMATION').

Now that we are ready with 'Process Map,' we need to create files and documents associated with each of the task. In this example, we created two 'DynaForms,' for author and designer and an input document for author and output document for designer. To create DynaForms click on 'DYNAFORMS' and then click on 'New' to add new form. A click on Edit button will direct you to the page where one can create customized forms. In our example we added title bar and 'SUBMIT' button on each of the DynaForms ('for_author', 'for_designer'). Similarly, create input and output document by clicking on 'INPUT DOCUMENTS' and 'OUTPUT DOCUMENTS'. Next step is to associate these documents and forms with tasks. Right click on each task and click on 'Steps', click on 'New' on top to get list of DynaForms and documents. Select appropriate form and document. In this example, we selected 'for_author' and input document for 'AUTHOR' task and 'for_designer and output document for 'Designer' task.

Up to this point we have defined the process with tasks along with the sequence in which tasks are completed with us and the final step is to assign these tasks to the appropriate user. In our example, we created two employees using 'USERS' tab. Click on 'New' button to create two users with 'PROCESSMAKER_ OPERATOR' role namely author and designer. Give password details to respective users so that as soon as user logs into ProcessMaker all associated tasks are shown under 'TO DO' list. In our example, once the author finishes his/her work, the designer gets a new task under his/her 'TO DO' list. One can also associate a process supervisor by clicking on process map area and clicking on 'Process Supervisors>Supervisors'. In our example we assigned supervision task to administrator. Now the administrator can get all relevant details regarding process from 'CASES' tab. Click on 'INFORMATION' link to get more information including graphical information regarding the business process in question.

Page(s)   1