IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Get started with IBM BPM > Key concepts > BPEL processes and human tasks > Human tasks overview > Authorization and people assignment

Substitution for absentees

The substitution feature allows you to specify absence settings either for yourself, or for members of the group that you administer. A substitution policy defines how to deal with tasks and escalations that are assigned to absent users.

The substitution policy is defined when the task template is modeled. The same policy is applied for all of the task roles that are associated with a task template. After the task template is deployed, you cannot change the policy.

If a user is absent, the substitution policy is applied to the results of the people resolution to determine who receives the work items instead of the absent user. It is applied only to task roles that have people assignment criteria. This means that task originators, starters, or owners are not subject to substitution. Similarly, substitution is refreshed if the people assignment criteria get refreshed.

To limit the substitution in time, you can specify a start and end point. If only a start point is specified, then the user will be considered to be absent from the specified starting point.

Depending on the specific substitution policy, the following actions are applied:

No substitution (default)

The set of users remains unchanged

Replace absent users with their substitutes

• For every user that is present, the user itself is used.

• For every user that is absent, the first substitute that is present is used.

• If none of the users and none of their substitutes are present, then the default people assignment rules apply.

Prefer present users

• For every user that is present, the user is used.
• Substitutes are not taken into account.

• If none of the users is present, then the original set of users is used, that is, the fact that they are absent is disregarded.

The substitution feature requires virtual member manager as the people directory. To make virtual member manager available for substitution, the federated repositories must be configured as the active security realm in WebSphere Application Server. Ensure that you enable substitution for Human Task Manager in the administrative console. If you deploy a task template with a non-default substitution policy to a people directory provider other than virtual member manager, the deployment fails.

Authorization and people assignment for human tasks

Related information:
Configure people substitution
Specifying absence settings
Specifying absence settings for users
Federated repositories