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In this section, you run a series of checks, model your approval processes, and define how the agents responsible for approving documents are determined.

Prerequisites

You have checked if the Business Rule Framework (BRF) events and BRF expressions needed to evaluate process schemas and process levels are available in the system, or you have created new events and expressions as required.

Note Note

For a list of BRF expressions delivered with SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) and descriptions on how you can use them, see SAP Service Marketplace under http://service.sap.com/srm-inst   SAP Business Suite Applications   SAP SRM   SAP SRM 7.0   Workflow in SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0  .

End of the note.

Process

To configure process-controlled workflows, you must perform the steps described below. You can find these steps in SAP Solution Manager under   <project name>   Configuration   SAP SRM <release>   Basic Settings for SAP SRM   Cross-Application Settings   Business Workflow   Process-Controlled Workflow   Define Settings for Workflows  .

Workflow Activation Checks

Perform the following workflow checks:

  • In the Customizing activity Check Event Type Linkage, ensure that the event type linkage is activated for the main workflow template (WS40000014). By default, the workflow template is active.

  • In the Customizing activity Check Event Trigger Configuration, ensure that the triggering event READY_FOR_WORKFLOW has been linked to the main workflow template. A triggering event is required to start the workflow.

  • In the Customizing activity Check Event Type Linkage, ensure that the triggering event READY_FOR_RELEASE has been linked to the receiver type SRM_PROCESS_START. This event is required to trigger the event handler.

  • In the Customizing activity Check Task Generalization, ensure that the related tasks have been delivered as general tasks and that they are consistent. General tasks are tasks for which user assignment is unrestricted. The tasks belonging to task groups TG 40000003 and TG 40000007 must be defined as general tasks.

Filter Value Definition

Define filter values for the Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) Define Agents (/SAPSRM/BD_WF_AGENTS) and Define Reviewers (/SAPSRM/BD_WF_REVIEWER_RULE) to determine which user is assigned to a process level.

Approval Process Definition

In the Customizing activity Define Processes, you define process schemas for each business object. Process schemas contain all possible process levels of an approval process for a specific business object. You can define more than one process schema per business object. Each business object is assigned a BRF event. Using the BRF expression assigned to this BRF event, the system determines the correct process schema.

Note Note

If you use Business Configuration Sets (BC Sets) to set up your approval processes, you do not have to perform this Customizing activity. For more information, see Business Configuration Sets for SAP SRM.

End of the note.

For each process schema, you define the necessary process levels. For each process level, you specify the following:

  • Level type: approval, approval with completion, or automatic. Note that completion levels always run before approval levels.

  • Responsibility resolver name and responsibility parameter that you have defined as filter values for the BAdI Define Agents. For information on the values you can use, see the BAdI documentation.

  • Evaluation ID: the BRF event to be used to evaluate the process level. Whether or not the process level is performed depends on the result returned by the BRF expression assigned to this BRF event.

  • Task ID: assign a workflow dialog task to each process level. Tasks contain the text for the work item that the responsible agents receive.

  • Decision type: see SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com   SAP Supplier Relationship Management   Functions   Business Workflow   Process-Controlled Workflow   Decision Types  .

  • Changeable checkbox: By default, document changes are allowed on completion levels only. Therefore, this checkbox is selected for completion levels, and deselected for approval levels. You can, however, override this setting, and define for both completion and approval levels which fields are changeable and which actions are allowed. You do so in Customizing for Supplier Relationship Management under   SRM Server   Cross-Application Basic Settings   Extensions and Field Control (Personalization)  . For more information, see SAP Note 1277921.

    Note that changing fields during an approval process can result in the process being restarted. You can use the BAdI Manage Process Restarts (/SAPSRM/BD_WF_PROCESS_RESTART) to specify whether a complete process restart or a level restart is required.

Note Note

The design time version of the process schema serves as a template for the runtime version. At runtime, additional process levels can be inserted, for example, by using the BAdI Process Level Configuration (/SAPSRM/BD_WF_PROCESS_CONFIG), or by adding ad hoc agents.

End of the note.

Optionally, you can also make the following settings in this Customizing activity:

  • You can define defaults for ad hoc process levels.

  • You can determine whether the contact person receives a work item when the approval process is finished.

  • You can define rules based on which reviewers are added to the approval process.

Responsibility and Agent Determination

Agent determination is performed using the BAdI Define Agents(/SAPSRM/BD_WF_RESP_RESOLVER). SAP SRM delivers implementations for typical scenarios. For more information on the strategies on which these implementations are based, see SAP Service Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/srm-inst   SAP Business Suite Applications   SAP SRM   SAP SRM 7.0   Workflow in SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0  .

To determine the agents responsible for completing or approving purchasing documents, the BAdI is called three times and completes the following steps:

  • Each item is assigned an area of responsibility. Areas of responsibility can be, for example, departments, product categories, or cost centers. All items with the same area of responsibility form a decision set. For each decision set a new subworkflow is started.

  • The responsible agents are determined for each area of responsibility. For example, if the area of responsibility is a department, the system assigns all employees belonging to this department as responsible agents. For a cost center, the cost center manager is the responsible agent. Each responsible agent receives a work item.

  • If the system cannot determine a responsible agent, a fallback agent is determined.

For more information, see the BAdI documentation.