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Case Life Cycle

Business applications help automate work that is necessary to achieve specific outcomes. Traditional business applications are based on individual transactions and are built on standalone applications for different departmental functions. Siloed applications make it difficult for various business departments to work together and effectively achieve business outcomes.

Pega thinks applications should function the same way that users think about and describe their work. For example, consider an online order process: the customer submits the order, and the company processes and then delivers the order. A Pega Platform™ application that models the online order process follows the same sequence.

Online shopping case overview

Case Types and Cases

A Case Type is an abstract model of a business transaction. Case Types model repeatable business transactions. A Case is a specific transaction instance. To model the online order transaction in Pega Platform, you define an online order Case Type that advances from submission to processing and then delivery. As shown in the following image, each time a user submits an online order, Pega Platform creates an order Case and assigns the Case a number.

Online order case type and case example

 

Case Life Cycle

You define the Case Life Cycle for a Case Type to help you visualize the work that must be completed as part of the desired business transaction. The Case Life Cycle represents the business model of the Microjourney™. The Case Life Cycle models the path your case follows to resolution. The major building blocks of the Case Life Cycle are Stages, Processes, and Steps:

  • Stages represent the Case transfer from one caseworker to another or a significant change in the status of the Case. When you design a Case Life Cycle, you begin by organizing work into Stages.
  • Processes contain a series of Tasks, or Steps, that users complete as they work on the case. Each Stage can contain one or more Processes.
  • A Step within a Process is either a user Action or an automated Action. Automated Actions, also referred to as Automation Steps, are performed by the system.

The following image depicts the Case Life Cycle for the online order Case Type. 

In the following figure, click the + icons to learn more about the building blocks of a Case Type:

Naming conventions

Consider the following naming conventions when you create Stages, Processes, and Steps in a Case Life Cycle.

Name Stages by using a noun, noun phrase or gerund (which acts as a noun phrase) to describe the section context. As much as possible, try to use no more than two words. Use names that are meaningful and relevant to business users. In the previous example, the company processes the order in the second Stage of the order Case Life Cycle, so you name the Stage Processing.

For Stages that do not resolve the case, test your Stage naming choice by checking if it sounds correct in the following test sentences:

  • This Case is in <Stage name>.
  • When does this Case move to <Stage name>?
  • How many Cases are in <Stage name>?

Read the sentence aloud with your proposed Stage name. If the Stage name does not correctly fit in these sentences, consider revising. 

Name Processes and Steps by using the verb + noun naming convention. In the order case example, in the Processing Stage, you name the process Process order. You name the Steps in this Process Check inventory and Pack items.

Check your knowledge with the following interaction:


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