Cases and workflow in Blueprint

U+ Bank is no different than many other organizations in its struggles with legacy systems and technical debt. In the following video, watch and listen as U+ Bank stakeholders describe challenges with the current customer onboarding process and other competitive pressures they face:

Before this meeting, the Solution Designer worked with the stakeholders to collect the following types of artifacts:

• Process documentation from the contact center and branch locations.
• Recordings of staff using the banking platform, credit system, and compliance database.
• Data Models from each application in the IT department.
• Regulatory compliance documentation from the compliance manager.

The Solution Designer uploaded all the material into Pega Blueprint™. The AI behind the scenes created a first draft Blueprint with Cases and workflows for discussion. Blueprint AI analyzes decades of documentation and disparate processes across broken channels to define an application based on Center-out® business architecture. This approach enables users to build once and then deploy across channels and systems.

Something that has traditionally taken months of analysis and meetings with stakeholders, process analysts, business analysts, Business Architects, and Lead System Architects is generated in minutes.

The Solution Designer presents the Blueprint and asks the Stakeholders: “Does this look like an accurate picture? Are any stages and steps missing?”

The Solution Designer begins translating the Blueprint on the screen. A Case Lifecycle with five Stages is presented. 

In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about each in the Customer Onboarding Case Lifecycle:

Cases and workflows define WHAT happens and WHEN in a business process. They map out the journey Stages, the Steps in those Stages, and the sequence of work. In our U+ Bank scenario, the Case Lifecycle will show the major milestones in customer onboarding: Intake, Identity Verification, Credit Check, Account Approval, and Account Activation.

Business Rules define HOW decisions are made in that work. Rules govern aspects such as eligibility criteria, routing logic, and calculations. For example, "If credit score is above 750, auto-approve; if between 650-750, route to underwriter; if below 650, decline."

In Blueprint, these appear as distinct design elements. The Solution Designer first maps out the journey Stages and Steps (the WHAT and WHEN), then adds decision logic at the right points (the HOW). Keeping them separate makes complex solutions manageable—stakeholders can understand the journey structure first, then dive into the decision criteria.

Think of it like designing a house: The workflow is the foundation and room layout (what rooms exist and how you move through the house), while business rules are the electrical and plumbing systems (how decisions and resources flow within that structure). Both are essential, but they serve different purposes and are designed sequentially.

In the following image, slide the vertical line to compare WHAT happens and WHEN in the process, with HOW decisions are made:

The Case Lifecycle provides a single source of truth, where everyone involved has visibility as a Case progresses. Stages and Steps are not just visual representations; they become executable workflows in Pega Platform. As shown in the following video, by understanding Pega, the Solution Designer can explain how Blueprint translates to reality and effectively respond to questions that stakeholders may have:

When a Solution Builder reviews this Blueprint later, they will have clear implementation guidance. They will see:

• The five-stage Case Lifecycle and the Steps in each Stage.
• Which Steps can run in parallel, and which must be sequential.
• Where human interaction is required and where automation is appropriate.
• Where integration points exist (credit bureaus, identity verification services, account provisioning).

If the Solution Builder asks, "How should we handle exceptions?" The Solution Designer can respond, "I've designed alternate paths in the Blueprint for scenarios like expired IDs, failed identity verification, and credit check failures. Those route to the Branch Manager for review with all the context about what failed and why."

This high-fidelity Blueprint—made possible by understanding how workflow works in Pega Platform—means Solution Builders spend less time figuring out how to implement and more time actually building.

Cases and Workflow are part of Pega's Center-out Business Architecture. By modeling U+ Bank's customer onboarding as a Case with a clear Lifecycle, the Solution Designer has given stakeholders something they can see, understand, and refine. As we continue, we'll see how data, user interface, business rules, and AI capabilities layer onto this workflow foundation to create a complete, modern onboarding solution.

The next topic explores how the Solution Designer models the data that flows through this workflow—what information needs to be captured, how it's structured, and how it enables the personalized, efficient experience that U+ Bank's stakeholders envision.