IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Modeling processes > Create a business process definition (BPD) > Subprocess types

Work with linked processes

A process can call another process through a linked process activity. When the linked process activity is triggered at run time, the linked process is run. After the linked process is completed, the parent process resumes execution. When you group together related activities in a separate BPD, instead of in a subprocess, you can reuse that process in other processes that share that set of activities.

For example, the steps for creating a customer account might be common to several different processes. If you group these steps together in a Create Customer Account process, you can use linked process activities to call this process from all processes that require it.

Linked processes encapsulate logically related steps within a process while retaining the high-level view of the parent process. However, linked processes differ from subprocesses because they can be accessed and instantiated from processes other than a single parent process. In previous product releases, linked processes were known as nested processes.

Linked process activities are represented in the process diagram by an activity element with a thick border and an expandable subprocess marker.


Procedure

  1. Open the parent business process definition (BPD) in the Process Designer.

  2. Drag an activity from the palette onto the diagram area, and type the name of the activity in the highlighted box.

  3. In the Implementation tab of the Properties view, select Linked Process. The visualization of the activity in the diagram is updated to reflect the Linked Process activity type.

  4. Specify another process to call during the execution of your process.

    • To select an existing process, click Select, and choose the business process definition.

    • To create a reusable process:

      1. Click New.

      2. Enter a name for the new process and click Finish. In the editor, continue to specify this new process definition, or return to the parent process.

    • You can also call a linked process dynamically by using a variable defined in the parent process.

  5. In the parent process, connect the linked process activity to other elements in the process flow.
  6. Variables in a linked process activity are local to the linked process. If you want to pass data into or out of a linked process activity, you must map the inputs and outputs of your linked process to the inputs and outputs of the linked process activity in the parent. Complete one of the following steps in the Data Mapping tab of the Properties view for the linked process activity:

    • If you declared variables in the parent process that have the same names and data types as the input and output variables in the linked process, use auto-mapping to have the inputs or outputs of the linked process automatically mapped to variable defined in the parent process.

    • If the variables declared in the parent process do not match the variables of the linked process inputs or outputs, you can manually select the variables to map.

Subprocess types