Unit 20: Monitoring Missed Deadlines 

Use

When defining steps that require dialog with the user, you can instruct the workflow system to monitor certain deadlines. The workflow system can monitor the following types of deadline:

This unit explains how missed deadlines are usually handled: The standard system response to an exceeded deadline is to notify a recipient of the message for missed deadlines by sending a work item for missed deadlines to his or her Business Workplace.

For further information, please refer to Maintaining the Deadline Tabs in the SAP Business Workflow documentation.

In this unit, the workflow is to be extended so that the requester should be notified if the superior has not made the decision about the leave request after 10 minutes.

Procedure

You start the Workflow Builder and open your workflow definition in Change mode. Proceed as described in Unit 7: Including "Check Notification of Absence" in the Workflow Definition.

Determining the recipient of the message for missed deadlines

  1. Open the step definition for the step Check notification of absence by double-clicking it.
  2. Go to the Latest end tab.
  3. Choose the entry Work item creation as the reference time.

    4. The active deadline is indicated by the symbol in the tab index of the relevant tab.

  4. Enter the value 10 in the field + and choose Minutes as the time unit.
  5. On the Display text tab, choose the entry Workflow initiator (expression) as the recipient.

    6. As a result, the entry _WF_Initiator is automatically copied to the adjacent field and the entry in the checkbox changes to Expression.

    If a deadline is exceeded, the text visible in the display is automatically copied to the work item for missed deadlines. You will now change this text in the task definition.

  6. Choose the highlighted text in the display to open the task definition.
  7. Choose and go to the Description tab.
  8. Choose the text type Text for latest end and then .

    9. The SAPscript text editor is then launched.

  9. Enter the following text:
    10.

    Your notification of absence no. &_WI_OBJECT_ID.NUMBER& from &_WI_OBJECT_ID.CREATEDATE& has not been approved yet.

    You should remind your superior.

    If you want to insert an expression from the task container as a text variable, choose Include ® Expression. Then choose the relevant expression in the Please choose an expression dialog box by double-clicking the Container node.

  10. Choose .
  11. Choose and then .

Concluding step definition

  1. Choose to check the step definition.
  2. Choose to exit the step definition.
  3. Choose .

The workflow definition is checked, saved, and, provided it does not contain any errors, activated. The system displays a message if problems are encountered during the test.

Test

  1. Choose Office ® Start Workflow.

    2. All of the workflows that you are allowed to start are listed on the left-hand side of the screen. A description of the selected workflow is shown on the right.

  2. Select your workflow and choose Start.

    3. The work item for creating the notification of absence is proposed to you immediately for processing.

  3. Fill out the form and choose .

You have submitted your request and should now allow the deadline to expire.

Once the latest end passes, a work item for missed deadlines appears in your Business Workplace notifying you of the missed deadline. This work item is a deadline monitoring work item, for which there is no executable method. You can go from the display of this work item to the work item display of the late work item.

Notes on extensions

The recipient of a message for missed deadlines is notified with a work item. The notification text is stored in the task definition of the monitored task.

If you want to customize the notification, you can define you own Text for latest end on the Description tab in the task definition for the single-step task Check notification of absence. This text can contain text variables that are replaced at execution time.