Combining Integration Processes with Human Workflows

Overview Divider Page Section B Divider Page Section C

Divider Page Section D

Process Integration in NetWeaver 04

Within SAP NetWeaver, separate tools are used to define Integration Processes and Human Workflow Processes Integration Processes are:
Message-based Interface-focused Cross-Component (Inter-Application) Have no support for human interaction Enabled with SAP XI

Human Workflow Processes are:

Object-Based Human-focused Intra-application Have no support for mapping, routing or message transformations Enabled with the SAP Web AS

However, most automated business processes involve a combination of the two.

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Ad Hoc Enhancements and the Universal Worklist

Once the human workflow has been triggered, work items will appear in the Universal Worklist The user can then design and initiate Ad Hoc Workflows, which supplement the standard business process for example by:
Requesting additional information from expert colleagues Polling opinions Getting additional managerial support/consent

To achieve this, no additional modeling in the integration process or Business Process is required.
The Universal Inbox and the Ad Hoc Workflow are enabled with SAP Enterprise Portal

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Short Excursion: Universal Worklist (UWL)

Ad Hoc Workflow

Business Workflow

This provides the integration between Ad Hoc Workflow and SAP Business Workflow
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BPM in SAP NetWeaver 04

SAP NetWeaver
PEOPLE Multi channel access Portal Collaboration INFORMATION Knowledge Mgmt Business Intelligence Master Data Mgmt PROCESS Integration Broker Business Process Mgmt Ad-hoc Workflow

Business Process Management

SAP EP

UWL

Human Interaction Collaboration

SAP BI Cross-Component BPM SAP XI m m

Inter-Application Process Automation

m
APPLICATION J2EE ABAP DB and OS Abstraction

ERP alert CRM

w

SRM

3rd party WMS

3rd party ERP

Intra-Application Process Automation

m = Message/ Document w = Workitem

= Adapter

SAP Business Workflow

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Complete Business Process Automation

To automate the complete business process you will want to make use of the different workflow engines. There is clearly an overlap in how much of the business process takes place in one engine or the other and this needs to be decided on at the beginning of the project.

Considerations:
TCO/Versus Simplicity Aggregating the complete process into as few as possible sub-processes spread around the different engines will make the modeling simple and flexible. But if the strengths of any one tool are not utilized the total cost of ownership will be high. Process Transparency The more distributed sub-processes involved in the complete process, the less overall process transparency will be achieved. Build-in-advance versus handle-on-the-spot Exception handling is one of the most dynamic parts of the process. Initially, ad hoc workflow can be used to handle the exceptions migrating to standard workflows for the commonest exceptions later.

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Overview The Problems to Solve Divider Page Section C

Divider Page Section D

The Problem to Solve

Combining Process Integration with Human Workflow requires merging the message-oriented approach of SAP XI with the objectorientated approach of SAP Business Workflow. Hurdle 1: How do you correlate a message, with a payload consisting of raw data tags to a single instance of a business object? (Integration Process-> Workflow) Hurdle 2: How do you convert a business object consisting of a virtually infinite tree of data attributes to a single message? (Workflow -> Integration Process) Any user can create their Ad hoc workflows through the Universal Worklist so no development work is required to enable this.
Integration Process Workflow

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Hurdle 1: Transferring data from SAP XI to the workflow Best-practice mechanisms to leap this hurdle: 1. Determine a unique object key from a message tag 2. Send the object key to the system and allow the application to trigger a human workflow indirectly 3. Convert the message data to workflow container data and use the workflow to manipulate forms instead of business objects

4. Use Wf-XML (message protocol from the WfMC)

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Mechanism 1: Determine a unique object key

Method:
Use the XI mapping to determine the business object key from the message and generate a new message which is sent to the destination component to trigger a workflow based on this business object

Advantage:
Simple to implement. Error-handling (such as when the tag is missing) can be handled withint XI

Disadvantage:
The integration process assumes that the message will be routed to a component where the business object exists. This will only be the case when there is very static routing. A representation of the object must exist and the instance itself must reside in the workflow component. Often there is no business object representation of the message data. I.e. Forms processing is required rather than business object methods.

This scenario will be the exception rather than the rule.

Object key

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Mechanism 2: Trigger a human workflow indirectly

Method:
Send the object status to the system and allow the application to trigger a human workflow indirectly The workflow can be triggered via standard component customizing such as status/change-document workflow triggering.

Advantage:
No special development necessary and no customizing in XI. Different components can follow their own policies. E.g. one could choose to trigger a workflow whereas another could handle the scenario with custom transactions.

Disadvantage:
The process loses transparency

In terms of adaptability and agility this is better than mechanism 1.

Data Message Event

Application

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Mechanism 3: Send the message data to a workflow

Method:
Convert the message data to workflow container data and use the workflow to manipulate forms instead of business objects The data is transferred from XI via a proxy which calls an API

This is pure process-to-process implementation. The workflow can use forms or create an object to control the flow.

Advantage:
There is no need to correlate the data to a business object. The data can be processed independently. Process transparency is retained.

Disadvantage:
Workflow performance suffers if a lot of data is carried in the container. Forms-processing in workflow is not optimized for the Web. Development work is required for web-based forms (e.g. WebDynpro, HTML forms, Webflow services). This is the preferred method for starting a workflow from SAP XI.
Data Message
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Overview The Problems to Solve Cookbook for Integration

Divider Page Section D

Detail: Send the message data to a workflow

Skills required: ABAP, SAP Business Workflow, XI Steps (following the mechanism 3 or the previous section):
1. Generate a Proxy in the workflow component (this generates an ABAP function module which can then be edited. If the workflow component is based on a release earlier than Web AS 6.20 then an RFC Adapter. 2. Develop a short routine that fills a workflow container and triggers the workflow. Note: If you are using simple forms you will need to use the function SWW_WI_START_SIMPLE instead of the preferred SAP_WAPI_START_WORKFLOW API so that a structure container element can be passed to the workflow. If you are using another forms technique (e.g. Adobe via WebDynpro or ITS HTML forms) then you should use the standard API. 3. Develop the forms and the workflow.

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Transferring data back to SAP XI

No business object is involved and only the forms data needs to be transferred back to SAP XI. There are two alternative ways to transfer the data back:
a) Create a final step in the workflow to call the proxy and return the results to XI

or
b) Use a destructor method in the workflow to call the proxy when the workflow ends. The destructor method is an elegant way of replying to XI because it is always called, no matter how the workflow terminates but requires more detailed development skills and knowledge of SAP Business Workflow so it is out-of-scope of this cookbook.

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Checklist for Testing

As with integration scenario, the time invested in checking the individual components independently and making them robust always pays off in the long run. 1. Check that the integration process with SAP XI executes independently of the trigger-workflow step (create a bypass route for testing purposes) 2. Create a test report in the workflow system to make sure that the workflow executes properly (or use the workflow test environment). 3. Allow the workflow to be triggered from the integration process, and make sure that the workflow does start with the correct container elements filled in the workflow component.

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More Information

Additional Sources of Information

Online
http://help.sap.com Online help and tutorials for SAP NetWeaver www.sdn.sap.com NetWeaver Developers Cookbook http://service.sap.com/bpms Presentations about the capabilities of BPM in SAP NetWeaver

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Colors

R G B

0 51 102

239 159 0

77 77 77

191 191 191

R G B

124 30 31

87 129 174

190 102 0

80 34 71

33 87 71

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