SAP Workflow

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 What ... is workflow?

Chapter 2 Why ... is workflow useful?

Automating Corporate Processes

S Saalleess S Saalleess M Maannaaggeemmeenntt P Prroodduucctt P Pllaannnniinngg C Cuussttoommeerr S Seerrvviiccee Proof of Delivery Trouble Report Sales Order Budget Forecast P Prroodduuccttiioonn P Pllaannnniinngg C Cuussttoommeerr O Orrddeerr P Prroocceessssiinngg AAsssseemmbbllyy S Shhiippppiinngg&& R Reecceeiivviinngg AAccccoouunnttiinngg Packing Slip _Invoice P Prroodduucctt Assembly

Order Assembly_Order

Packing Slip Shipping Order Packing Slip P Prroodduucctt Invoice

Business processes

Treasury

Financial

Accounting

Risk manage-ment Credit control Exchange _Handling hedging _payments Customer invoice posting

Controlling

Costing document Order

profit-ability Service profit-ability Sales profit

Sales and

Distribution

Logistics

Incoming

order Financingdecision

Vendor selection Transfer order Evaluation Vendor selection Incoming order posting Inter-company billing Inter-company billing External billing

Production

Production

What does workflow do?

Risk _Exchange

Treasury

Financial

Accounting

manage-ment Credit control Handling hedging _payments Customer invoice posting

Controlling

Costing document

Order profit-ability Service profit-ability Sales profit

Sales and

Distribution

Logistics

Incoming

order Financingdecision

Vendor selection Transfer order Evaluation Vendor selection Incoming order posting Inter-company billing Inter-company billing External billing

Production

Production

Workflow Management

"A Workflow Management System is one which

provides procedural automation of a business

process by management of the sequence of

work activities and the invocation of appropriate

human and/or IT resources associated with the

various activity steps."

The Workflow Management Coalition, "The Workflow Reference Model"; Version 0.6, 28th June, 1993, page 7.

Benefits of Workflow

Reliability

Productivity

Quality

Consistency

modeling - definition - control - monitoring

Less complexity

through powerful applications

Integration

with the organizational model

Openness

through interfaces

Short Implementation

Pre-built workflow examples

ABAP/4 development workbench support

Workflow: Advantages of the SAP Solution

Consistency

modeling - definition - control - monitoring

Less complexity

through powerful applications

Integration

with the organizational model

Openness

through interfaces

Short Implementation

Pre-built workflow examples

With and without workflow

TRADITIONAL

WORKFLOW -

_SUPPORTED

Initiative

Monitoring

Documents

Flow of information

Flow of control

Unit of control

In a nutshell

User

Supervisor

Paper

passive

Sequential

Hard coded in application

(transaction t1 calls t2 ...)

Individual function

(atomic transaction)

"Stop and Go"

System (user)

System

Electronic

active

Parallel

separate programming level

-> reusable transactions

-> small size

Whole process (beyond

transaction boundaries)

Work flow

Chapter 3

How workflow is done in SAP R/3

The definition of a workflow The workflow at runtime Additional Comments

Position of the workflow in the system

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Chapter 3

How workflow is done in SAP R/3

The definition of a workflow

The workflow at runtime Additional Comments

Structure of a Workflow Definition

Conditional Process Loop Activity _Parallel Process Loop IF Loop Deadline Monitoring

Workflow-Definition

Workflow-Definition

• Activity to be executed:

Task,

Workflow task

• Responsibilits for the execution: Actor, Role • Deadlines, costs • Responsibility if there is no user action: Person in charge concerning deadlines

• Notificaton when action has been taken:

Person in charge

concerning taken action

• Activity to be executed:

Task,

Workflow task

• Responsibilits for the execution: Actor, Role • Deadlines, costs • Responsibility if there is no user action: Person in charge concerning deadlines

• Notificaton when action has been taken:

Person in charge

concerning taken action

Workflow definition

Workflow definition

Activity

Task

Task container Workflow definition

Workflow task

Task

(customer defined) Object method

Standard task

(SAP defined) Object method Workflow definition Task container

Task Definition

Standard task

(SAP defined)

Task

(customer defined)

Workflow task

C_Cr_re_ea_ati_tn_ing_g e_ev_ve_en_nts_ts O_Or_rg_g._.o_ob_bje_jec_cts_ts D_De_efa_fau_ult_ltr_ro_ole_le,_, r_ro_ole_le

Workflow Object Components

Object type

Key structure Attributes Field references Status attributes virtual attributes Workstation program Transactions Implementation Function module Methods Parameter container Return values Report ABAP coding Events

SAP Business Workflow uses the Organisational Model as the

basis for the workflow routing structure

The Organisational Management

z Organisational units

Î

Departments, groups, projects

z Positions

Î

Purchasing Manager

Î

Purchasing Agent

z Jobs

Î

Purchase computers

Î

Establish vendor contracts

z Workplaces

z Role Restrictions

Roles are restricted based on the data and item being processed

z Task

(definition)

Post document

Î

Linked to position

Person in charge of Finance

z Role

(definition)

Person in charge of posting

Î

Attributes of the role Customer

Invoiced amount

z Work Item

(activity at runtime)

Post document 4712

Î

Customer H. R. Miller

Î

Invoiced amount $258,300

z

Role Restrictions

Roles are restricted based on the data and item being processed

z

Task

(definition) Post document

Î

Linked to position

Person in charge of Finance

z

Role

(definition)

Person in charge of posting

Î

Attributes of the role

Customer

Invoiced amount

z

Work Item

(activity at runtime) Post document 4712

Î

Customer H. R. Miller

Î

Invoiced amount $258,300

Role Based Routing

Workflow Manager

Person in charge of Finance Customer _Customer O - Z _{H - N} Customer A - G Invoiced amount: < $250,000 Invoiced amount: > $250,000

Chapter 3

How workflow is done in SAP R/3

The definition of a workflow

The workflow at runtime

Definition and Runtime Components

Definition

Runtime

Workflow definition

(Workflow editor) Graphic implementation of Workflow procedures

Workflow

Workflow control Workflow coordination

Activity

Object method Linkage with persons,

groups and roles

Workitem

Deadline monitoring Escalation Method call

Object type

Enhanced object description Methods Attributes Events

Object

Activation of methods Accessing attributes Creation of events

Integrated Inbox

Functions:

z

Process mail and workflow items

z

Send and receive notifications

Internal and external systems Fax, E-mail, Internet, etc.

z

Reschedule work

z

Attachments to inbox items

Notes, documents, objects, etc.

Workflow Manager

Create work items

Workflow

Manager

SD FI Record history Resolve messages Evaluate conditions Process events Monitor deadlines MM R/3 Client / Server QM ABAP/4 PS Manage cross application flows Allocate agents Organize data flows Synchronize process

EDI pre-entry complete invoice release invoice post invoice

Background Scheduling

and Deadline monitoring

Workflow System

Start date

waiting for events

latest end

Background

Start date

Example

Release of invoice

Dialog

latest start

latest end

Key:

Background Dialog

Monitoring Processes

How many customer problems are in

process?

What is the status?

How old are the problems?

How is the work distributed?

What is the resolution status

for a specific customer?

Process reporting

How many problems have been

reported in the last quarter?

How many problems were

reported by problem type?

What was the average

processing time by problem

types?

How often did processing

exceed deadline?

How many exceptions were

processed?

Chapter 3

How workflow is done in SAP R/3

The definition of a workflow The workflow at runtime

What does SAP deliver

A table driven Workflow Definition tool

An application independent Workflow Management engine

A new user interface (work list client)

Workflow enabling in SAP applications

Ready-to-use standard SAP task definitions

Sample SAP workflow templates

SAP workflow templates

EDI / ALE: Error handling

PP: engineering change management

PM: malfunction messages

PS: changes in corresponding purchase orders

SD: contract management

LIS: triggering events when reaching threshholds

MM: release of requisitions: events for selected codes

FI: Preliminary posting, budget release, Financial Calendar

AM: mass processing of assets

Desktop Integration

Other applications

SAP System

Windows *

WinHelp

WinWord

Excel

Project

Access

MS Mail

Visual Basic

OLE Automation Clients

Direct RFC Server ODBC MAPI RFC Server

No. 1 front end for R/3

On-line Documentation

R/3 Applications

R/3 Basis System DB

R/3 Mail

External applications External objects OLE automation External worklist client External workflow manager

The Openness of SAP Business Workflow

Integration and openness

External worklist

client OLE automation External workflow manager External applications External objects Workflow management Tasks /

Work items Objects

SAP transactions z SAP provides easy-to-use interfaces

at all levels of the SAP Business Workflow architecture:

Îworkflow management level

Îwork queue / work item management level

Îobject management level Îevent level

z SAP is an active member of the Workflow Management Coalition to ensure that the interfaces of workflow products and