After you identify the main elements of your case types, and the relationships and
dependencies in a case type hierarchy, start dividing your business cases into smaller parts
so that you can use Pega Platform to visualize and then process your work
to achieve your goals.
In Pega Platform, when you model a path that your case follows to a
resolution, you define a case life cycle that consists of tasks grouped in a logical and
practical way. By taking this approach, you can design your application to function in
the same way that you think about your work. Pega Platform offers you
flexibility to seamlessly move between tasks in an order that matches your unique
business requirements, so that you can efficiently react in changeable situations.
When you model your business process, divide work into the following elements:
Stages
A stage is the first level of organization for the tasks that are required to
complete a work process. Stages visualize milestones or significant events in a case
life cycle. Stages can also indicate a transition of work from one person to
another. For example, in a case type for Job application reviews, you can create the
following stages:
Submission, in which an HR worker collects personal details and relevant
documents from a job applicant.
Review, in which a hiring manager conducts an interview with the job
applicant and reviews submitted documents.
Approval, in which an HR worker prepares onboarding information for the
approved new hire.
The stages that are necessary to resolve a case by following a default path are
primary stages. To increase the flexibility of your application and resolve cases
that alter from the default path, you can add alternate stages to your case life
cycle. For example, in the job application review process, you can create a
Rejection alternate stage that the case follows after a hiring manager rejects a
candidate, as in the following example:
Figure: Case Designer displaying primary stages and an alternate stage
Modularity in case types provides for more flexible work processing, because a case
can reenter any stage, for example for additional input, or enter a stage only when
the stage is relevant to a specific scenario.
To define a stage, which represents a milestone in your business case, you create
processes that are collections or individual tasks.
Processes
A process consists of a series of tasks, or steps, and visualizes a set of actions
within a stage. You can create a sequential process that is a basic set of tasks,
and for each stage you can create multiple processes. By creating multiple
processes, you group tasks into logical phases, instead of having a list of tasks
that might seem to be loosely connected. For example, for the Submission stage of a
recruitment process, you can add processes for Collect personal information and
Collect documents. By adding multiple processes, you also model the order in which
case workers complete tasks, because a case moves to the next process when all of
the steps from the previous process are complete. To speed up case processing, you
can also create parallel processes that can involve more case workers
simultaneously. For example, one HR worker might collect personal details from a job
applicant, while another HR worker collects the applicant's documents at the same
time, as in the following example:
Figure: Parallel processes in Case Designer
Creating processes saves time because you can reuse a process in different
stages and case types.
You populate processes by adding steps.
Steps
Steps are the smallest elements of a case life cycle and represent single tasks or
assignments. A step can be a user action or an automation that an application
performs. Pega Platform offers a wide choice of both user actions
and automations that you can add to your case life cycle. As a result, you can model
case types that exactly meet your business requirements. For example, for a Collect
personal information process, you can add the following steps:
Send email, which is an automation that sends a message to a job
applicant.
Collect information, which is a user action that a job applicant performs by
providing personal details.
Generate document, which is an automation that creates a document with an
applicant's details.
The following figure shows visual representation of assignments in a
process:
Figure: Steps in a process in Case Designer
You can modify additional options for steps, such as the content of an email
that the application sends.
Reusing assets in case types
To save time when you create a case type, you can reuse assets from an existing case
type immediately upon creation. You can reuse data, views, and even an entire life
cycle. For greater flexibility, you can go further and modify reused elements. For
example, after you create a case type for reviewing job candidates, you can reuse
its case life cycle in a case type for reviewing candidates for managerial
positions, and then modify it to add additional actions.
