Thank you for using Questetra BPM Suite.
This tutorial is intended for those of you who are planning to use Questetra BPM Suite in their organization, or who are creating workflow applications with Questetra BPM Suite for the first time.
In this tutorial, you will learn step by step how to manipulate Questetra BPM Suite and its functions. It also shows how to use Questetra BPM Suite in real business operations.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the tutorial. After explaining the outline of Questetra BPM Suite, we will go through the general steps to start using the workflow application, relating them to the contents of each chapter.
What is Questetra BPM Suite?
Questetra BPM Suite (hereafter, Questetra) is a platform for creating and executing all kinds of workflows. You can create “workflow applications” (also known as workflow apps, or just apps) based on business rules in your organization, and use the apps on the platform. You can exchange data between users or with external systems via the apps.
For example, once a “business trip application” app is created, employees can use it to complete multiple travel-related applications from a Web browser. And the apps can automatically perform tasks according to your business rules, such as changing the travel expense approval path based on the amount, or sending the travel data to the appropriate people, and so on. In this tutorial you will create the “business trip application” so that you can feel the power of Questetra.
Apps and Processes
There are two important ideas in Questetra: “Apps” (workflow apps) and “Processes” (instances).
An “app” is a defined set of rules for a business operation. It defines the flow of work (the order of tasks), the person in charge of each task, and the data to be handled in the operation, etc. For example, the “business trip application” can be defined as follows: an employee makes an application for date of trip, destination, traveler, purpose, and cost, and the applicant’s supervisor makes an approval/rejection decision.
The “process” represents each specific case that proceeds according to the definition of the app. For example, a decision to open a new store in the AAA district, an application for a business trip to BBB on YYYY/MM/DD, a response to an inquiry about XXX from YYY (customer), and so on. In the process, processing proceeds according to the rules defined in the app.
Procedures to Use Workflow Applications
You may want to create workflow apps using Questetra right away and use it for your business, but please wait a moment. In order to actually use and operate apps, it is necessary to set up user and organization information and the apps themselves in Questetra according to the business rules.
Roughly, the procedure is as follows.
Now each procedure is presented below, along with an overview of each chapter of this tutorial.
1. Signing Up for the Workflow Platform
In Questetra, the environment for creating and executing workflow apps is called the Workflow Platform, and when you manipulate Questetra you need to log in to the Workflow Platform. To log in you need an account for the Workflow Platform, so please register and create your account.
The workflow platform provides a dedicated (independent) environment for each account.
A free two-month trial is available and will be introduced in the next chapter.
Relevant Chapter
2. Setting Up Users and Organizations
User registration is required for each individual who uses Questetra. In many cases, multiple staff members are involved in the business operations, so user registration is required for all people who will use Questetra to proceed their business. Such user registration and basic user settings are explained in Chapter 3.
In addition, to handle business processes related to organizational structure, such as work performed between different departments or application work that requires approval from a supervisor or the head of the department to which a user belongs, it is necessary to set up the system in advance to correspond to your company’s organizational structure. The basics of setting up an organization are also presented in Chapter 3.
Relevant Chapter
3. Creating an App
To create a workflow application, you need to define and set up the following three things:
- How the work will be conducted (workflow diagrams)
- Who will be in charge of processing the tasks (processing personnel)
- What kind of data will be handled (data items)
The details are explained in Chapter 4, but here is a brief introduction of what to set up.
3.1. How the work will be conducted
When creating an app, it is necessary to determine and set up the types of tasks to be processed and the order in which they will be processed. To specify these, you draw a workflow diagram by placing icons for each type of task or process and connecting them with arrows to indicate the order of processing.
In Chapter 2, the minimum required icons for an application are explained, and in Chapter 4, you will learn how to actually create a workflow diagram by placing icons by yourself. In Chapters 7 and 8, we will introduce icons for more advanced processing.
Relevant Chapters
- Chapter 2: Experience Using Workflow Apps
- Chapter 4: Create a Minimal Workflow Application
- Chapter 7: Switch Processing Flows Depending on the Situation
- Chapter 8: Automated Processing in the Middle of a Workflow
3.2. Who will be in charge of processing the tasks
In Questetra, related processes can be grouped together and users can be assigned to handle them. In chapters 2 and 3 you will learn how to directly assign a user to the grouped tasks. In chapter 4 you will look at how to set up the person in charge and in chapter 5 it will be explained in more detail.
Relevant Chapters
- Chapter 2: Experience Using Workflow Apps
- Chapter 3: Running a Workflow App That Involves Multiple Users
- Chapter 4: Create a Minimal Workflow Application
- Chapter 5: Create an App that Involve Multiple Users
3.3. What kind of data will be handled
In a workflow, various types of data are transacted. Chapter 4 introduces the basic types of data types (data formats) available in Questetra and explains the basics of form settings for data entry and check. Chapters 5 and 6 will explain further about data types and the display/hide settings for each type of data at each task.
Relevant Chapters
- Chapter 4: Create a Minimal Workflow Application
- Chapter 5: Create an App that Involve Multiple Users
- Chapter 6: Handle Data in a Variety of Formats
4. Release and run an app
Once you have completed creating your workflow app, publish the app. This will allow you to get the app up and running.
As mentioned earlier, in Chapter 2, you will first use a pre-implemented app. Then, in Chapter 4, you will experience the procedures of creating and publishing your own app. In other chapters, you will learn the functions and how to use Questetra by publishing and running the app.
Relevant Chapters
Now, let’s start actually operating Questetra from the next chapter.
In Chapter 2, you will run the workflow apps that have been prepared in advance. Let’s get a feel for how the apps work!