What is the PEGA

PEGA is a platform which provided a systematic approach to build and deploy process-oriented and rule
based solution and applications. Business Process Management, Customer relationship management,
Decision management and case management solutions are some of the examples where process and
rules are integral part of application development.
What PEGA provides to a developer is a Designer studio which acts as an Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) to build applications. The best part is this Designer studio is web based so a developer
can work and create solutions from anywhere in the world.

PEGA main focus are Processes. If you are planning to learn PEGA or if you are already working with
PEGA tools you should keep this in mind is "Process is King, Queen and everything in PEGA". Every
business solution is process oriented.

Technically PEGA is not a language or database or operating system. What PEGA provides us is a
framework which is process driven; everything that we do in traditional programming such as designing
user interfaces, writing business logic, applications logic, creating physical and logical mode of databases
etc. we do the same thing in PEGA. The difference lies between PEGA and traditional programming is
that in PEGA to build or develop anything (UI, data access logics, validation rules etc) there are
processes and gadgets that we have to use.

In the heart of PEGA is PRPC server (PegaRULES Process Commander) which provides the platform
and interfaces to business analyst, system analyst and developers to design and build applications in
PEGA. The main focus in PEGA is on automation of works and program code.

PRPC server is written in Java. To setup PRPC server to function smoothly we need an Operating
System, a Java application server, a database and Java JDK.

PEGA is a BPM tool. BPM stands for Business Process Management. The current version of PRPC
server is v6.2 sp2
PEGA Installation with Exercise System

This article is next in series of our learning PEGA PRPC System. In this post we will learn how we can
setup PEGA PRPC Exercise System on our desktop or laptop for learning purpose.

If you are new to the PEGA PRPC system it is recommended that you download the Exercise System to
learn the bits and pieces of PRPC components and workflow system. To download a copy of exercise
system you need to first visit PEGA Academy and register for a course. The course offered by PEGA
academy is not free and one needs to pay for the course. Once you are enrolled into one of the course,
PEGA academy let you download the exercise system.

To successfully run the PEGA PRPC system you need following components available to your local
machine.

Once you have downloaded the Exercise System you need to install it on your desktop or laptop. The
Exercise System is a standalone application which bundles into it all the required components such as
operating system (Ubuntu), database (DB2), and web server to successfully run the PRPC system. It
creates a Virtual Machine in your desktop. This article will show you all the steps that one needs to
perform to install PEGA PRPC system.

The first step involves downloading the Exercise system. I have downloaded the required application
which is a single application file. When you click on the Applications it extracts the files to your local
machine. PEGA PRPC recommends that you keep 15 GB space to run the PEGA PRPC system on your
machine.

Once the applications has extracted all the files you can see that it has extracted two folders
?application? and ?Server? and a text file named ?pvs_release_note?.
The second step involves running the VMware_64bit_check applications from applications folder which
basically checks your system compatibility to see if it can run the PEGA PRPC system on not.

The third step involves running the VMware-player-4.0.2-591240 application file from applications folder
which basically installs a virtual machine in your local machine. This VM machine has all the required
components to run PEGA PRPC system.
Once the VMware Player setup is complete you can navigate to Start->Program Files->VMWare to launch
the PEGA PRPC system.

To login to PRPC system you need to provide login id and password which is shown in the VMware
player screen. Once you are successfully login into the system, you need to open Internet Explorer and
visit to http://prpc:8080 and you will be presented with the PEGA PRPC login screen.

You can login to PEGA PRPC system using any of the credentials which is supplied to you by PEGA
PRPC installation guide.

So you are all set to learn and experiment with PEGA PRPC Exercise System.
What are different Operator Roles in PEGA?

This article is next in series of our learning PEGA. In the first article we learnt what is PEGA and the
subsequent articles talked about WorkType and WorkItem concepts in PEGA. We also learnt what are
business rules in PEGA? In this post we will examine what are Operators and their roles in PEGA?

In any project team we have different team members playing different roles. There are project manager,
business analyst, architects, designers, developers, testers, quality analyst etc in the team to who play
different role in the team.

Anyone who can login into PEGA PRPRC system is called Operator. Each of the operators has an
Operator ID and password and they are attached to a access group.

In PEGA PRPC system there are seven pre-defined standard roles. These are following

1. Work users
2. Work Managers
3. Business Analyst
4. System Architects
5. Project Managers
6. System Administrators
7. Executive Sponsors

Every role has its own portal. A business analyst role requires capturing requirements and design process
and workflow for the application. To perform their role business analyst goes to the Business Architect
Portal.

A System Architects or application developer need to design the user interface, business logic, process
rules etc. so they go to Designer studio portal to do their work.

An End user or work user is one who actually uses the application. The end user has their own Case
Worker portal where they go and create work items.

A Work Manager goes to the Case Manager Portal to approve or reject the works submitted by the work
users.
PEGA PRPC system allows us to create additional roles.

What are WorkType and WorkItem in PEGA?

What is it that an Organization does? The answer is every organization do some Work to accomplish their
objective or vision or mission. A work in any organization is done by the people and applications. People
create, receive, route, report and resolve work.

In PEGA, Work Type is fundamental unit of work that is process by the people or applications. Each of
the work has their own attribute or set of principle or steps to follow. To understand it more clearly let us
take an example of a Bank. Bank is an organization and it does some work like providing loan, opening
account, doing transaction etc. So, each of this work is a WorkType from PEGA prospective.

Now for each of the WorkType there are systematic processes that need to be followed. In case of Loan,
a person who wishes to apply for loan has to submit a loan application with the bank. This Loan
application is called WorkItem in PEGA world. So, WorkItem is the unique instance of work.

What are Business Rules in PEGA?

This article is next in series of our learning PEGA. In the last two articles we learn what is PEGA and what
are Work Type and Work Items in PEGA. In this post we will learn what are Business Rules in PEGA? In
the traditional programming such as Java, .NET or C++ we use IF-ELSE-THEN or WHERE or WHILE to
evaluate a property or data to make decisions. In PEGA we achieve it through Business Rules.

Business Rules are set of policies and principles that are applied by an organization to conduct business.
There are set of rules setup by the company to conduct business. For example: A Bank might setup a
rule to give XX amount of loan to people who have an annual income of $ 100,000 and credit score of >
700.

How to define Business Rule in PRPC?

Just like an Organization defines rules to conduct business PRPC provides functionalities to define
business rule.

Decision tree,
Decision table,
Map value
When

Decision Tree: Decision tree is similar to IF-ELSE-THEN evaluation criteria we have in traditional
programming. We can apply any number of criteria to evaluate the conditions. The works from Left to
Right and Top to bottom. When a particular condition is meet the evaluation process is stopped. If none of
the conditions are meeting a default or other value is return back to the calling function.

Decision Table: Decision table are similar to our SQL Tables where we apply WHERE clause to put
conditions. We can write more than one condition. The table returns number of rows that meet the
specific criteria.

Map Value: As per PRPC rule book Map Value allows us to look at one or two properties over any
number of conditions to return any number of results. Map values only support two properties which can
be evaluated.

When: Business Rule can be defined using When functionality. When functionality can evaluate any
number of conditions. It works in similar fashion as IF-THEN-ELSE. It returns either True of false after
evaluation.