Basic Business Process Terminology

Below is a list of common business process terms that you should be familiar with.

• Business process: A workflow that performs a business process, offers extensive reporting features, and can be manually started in the Laserfiche client applications.
• Business process details: Located in the Laserfiche Client and Web Access, the Business Process Details displays information about the current status, step, and history of a business process instance.
• Business process instance: A single occurrence of a business process.
• Business process definition: A repeatable pattern of activity built in the Workflow Designer that will interact with entries in a Laserfiche repository, data, or outside sources. A business process definition must be published before it becomes operational.
• Business process rule: Similar to a workflow starting rule, the Business Process Rule defines criteria for when a business process is allowed to be run, by a user, in the Laserfiche client applications.

The following are defined in Workflow and displayed in the Workflow instance details, as well as in Laserfiche Client and Web Access:

• Status: Listed in the Business Process Details, the status is configured in the Business Process Options and with the Update Business Process activity which can be inserted at any point in the business process definition.
• Step: A step is a collection of (zero or more) Workflow activities that accomplish a specific sub-goal of the business process. Steps, and their instructions, are displayed in the Business Process Details. These details are defined in the Business Process Step activity.
• Instructions: Specified in a step, the instructions explain to participants what actions are required from them at this point in the process.
• Resolution: The business process step resolution will be displayed in the history section of the Business Process Details after the step has been completed.
• Participant: The trustee involved in a business process step is called the participant. Each participant is allotted a business process role for the purposes of work delegation.
• Role: Roles represent the title or job function of a participant in a business process, such as manager, records manager, or approver.
• Due date: Each step can be configured with a due date that specifies the time by which a participant must complete his or her task.
• Duration: The amount of time a single instance of a business process has been running or took to complete.
• Average duration: The amount of time, on average, the specific business process takes to run or complete. Average Duration is calculated based on the duration of previous instances of the business process.