Exercise : Create a new Process

In this exercise you will learn how to create a new Process. The process will handle a request, by notifying the requestor, asking approval from a Group, and notify the requestor of the decision.

With this exercise you will learn the following competences:

• Understand the building blocks of a process

• Understand the basic steps : Notification, Approval & Decision Point

• Learn what Actors are and how to set them

• Work with email definitions.

Access the Processes

To create a new process, go to the Admin menu (/common/admin/admin.aspx) and look for Processes:

Create a new Process

Click on + Add Process.

Create your Process and give it a Title. Select 'Yes, send all emails to' in the field 'In test mode' & Fill in your email address. Now the process will only email you, regardless of the selected Actor.

Create the Process Steps

An SSP process is created by adding process steps. Go to the tab 'Edit Steps' and click on + Add Step.

Step 1 : Notifcation step

We will first make the step that sends an email to the requestor, to notify him/her that the request was received and a ticket has been started.

Enter as Step name: 'Notify Requestor', and select as Type: Notification Step. The screen will refresh to adjust for the needed input for this step type.

Click on the blue header 'Initial Email'. We will not select a template, but instead, we will enter the email details right in this step. In the field 'Select template' select 'Use step specific content'.

The screen will refresh and we can now enter:

• Subject Line English: We received your request - ticket Nr:

• Main Copy English

We will add the ticket number to the subject line, therefor, select in the first dropdown under the field for subject line 'Process' and then select the value 'Ticket Number' in the second dropdown. Click on ADD:

Please note that the reference is entered, it starts & ends with a #.

Now complete the email body.

Finally, we need to tell SSP who should receive this email.Click on the blue header 'Actor Settings'.

As Actor type, please select 'Requestor', and as Type, select 'Requestor'. Click on ADD.

The Current list now holds this new entry.

Click SAVE and his step is now complete.

Step 2 : Approval step

Add a second step below the step we just created, set the Step Name to 'Approval 1' and select as type 'Approval step'. The screen will refresh. An Approval step will create automatically the 2 fields that we need 'Decision' & 'Comments'. Comments are only required in case of a decline. Open the blue header 'Form' to check these fields. No changes are needed here.

Enter the email details under the header 'Initial Email' as done for the previous step.

Select as Actor Type 'group' and then select any of the presented Groups. If no Groups are present, access Admin > Groups to create a Group and refresh this page.

Click SAVE and his step is now complete.

Step 3 : Decision Point

We will now define what happens after the decision has been made in the previous step. We will first create a decision step, that defines the different paths that can be taken. In this case, we will focus on 'Approved' & 'Declined'.

Add a new step under the Approval step. Select as Step name : 'Treat Decision', and select as Type 'Decision Point'. The screen will refresh.

Click on the blue header 'Decision Step' and select as Type 'Approval Step'. Click on APPLY and OK in the popup window to confirm this choice. A new dropdown appears, that shows all steps of the type 'Approval Step'. Select your approval step that we created in the previous step.

Click SAVE and his step is now complete.

Your screen will now look like this:

SSP has preset 4 possible outcomes:

• Approved

• Declined

• Timed out: YES

• Interrupted: YES

Nothing has been defined in the paths, so feel free now to add more Notication steps into the 'Approved' & 'Declined' paths to finetune the email being sent to the requestor.