IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Designing process interactions for business users > Developing flexible and efficient process applications

Defining ad hoc actions

While a process is running, a user might need to launch a new activity or set of activities, such as updating a customer's contact information or canceling the process instance.The process designer can define a set of these unplanned, or ad hoc, actions to be launched by the user from action menus in the Process Portal.

Procedure

To define ad hoc actions:

1. To model a new activity or set of activities that a user can launch in the normal process flow, add an ad hoc start event to your process diagram. Drag a start event from the palette and specify an implementation type of Adhoc in the Implementation tab of the Properties view.

2. Add the activity or set of activities that occur when the start event is triggered.

   For example, if you are designing a process application where business users can look up a customer order history at any time in the normal processing of a customer order, you might include a set of tasks for logging into the order history database and submitting a query.

3. Connect the task or tasks to the new start event. When you deploy your process application to the Process Portal, business users can launch the set of activities from the action menu in the current application. New task instances are created and appear in the task list for the user or group that is assigned to the new ad hoc task.

   Important: Ad hoc task instances that were created during the running of a process instance must be complete before the process instance completes.

4. Optional: Ad hoc actions might be associated only with a particular phase of the process.

   For example, an order can be canceled before it has been sent out for delivery, but after it has been delivered, the order can no longer be canceled. To make an action available for only a certain phase of the process, complete the following steps:

   1. Add milestones to your business process diagram to define the different phases in the running process.

      For example, you might have a pre-delivery milestone that contains all the customer order activities that occur before the order ship, and a post-delivery milestone that contains the activities that occur after the order ships.

   2. Move the ad hoc start event to the milestone in which it should be available.

   3. In the Event Visibility section, to restrict the visibility of the event by milestone select milestone.
   In the Process Portal, the ad hoc action is in the action menu only while the running process instance is in the specified milestone.

5. Optional: Limit the type of users that run ad hoc actions in your process.

   For example, you might want to limit a credit check override action to users who belong to the Managers participant group. To make an action available for only a certain group of users:

   1. Add swimlanes to your business process diagram and associate each swimlane with a specific participant group.

      For example, you might have a swimlane for customer service representatives and a swimlane for managers.

   2. Move the ad hoc start event to the swimlane that is associated with the participant group that should be able to launch the action in the Process Portal.

   3. In the Event Visibility section, to restrict the visibility of the event by swimlane select swimlane.
   In the Process Portal, the ad hoc action is in the action menu only for users who belong to the specified participant group.

Developing flexible and efficient process applications

Related concepts:
Use ad hoc events

Related tasks:
Create a participant group
Use ad hoc events