A role is a type of actor that dynamically resolves to a participant or BIC. Rules can be built to define how a given role is resolved. A role can be assigned as an actor on any type of activity within a process flow or subflow.
Roles are actors that resolve to one or more participants based on a rule. This allows participants within process flows to be specified in terms of organizational responsibilities. For example, rather than assigning a particular participant to an activity in a process flow, you can define a role named Technical Support Engineer, add a technical support engineer to the role (or multiple engineers, depending on the role rule used), and assign this role to all activities within all process flows that require this type of worker. EPX supports multiple rules that you can specify for the roles you create:
Alias Rule — a single participant has the responsibility for all activities assigned to this role. For example, if you use an Alias role called Accountant in a process flow, the participant assigned to the role receives the work items in their Inbox.
Cascading Rule — allows you to arrange a specific order in which multiple participants will receive a work item, based on a predefined sequence. When the work item time limit expires for the first participant in the sequence, the work item is automatically assigned to the next actor in the sequence, continuing down the list of participants. You may specify how many times the work item cycles through the list of participants before expiring.
Dynamic Actor Rule — a manual or automatic activity selects a specific participant or role to perform all activities assigned to the Dynamic Actor role. The participant or role is selected by the activity at runtime, based on the value of a work item property that is specified for the Dynamic Actor role. This work item property’s value must be either a participant’s login name, or the name of another role. The Dynamic Actor role first checks for a login name equal to the work item property’s value, and if it finds the login name, assigns the work item version to the named participant. If the participant’s login name is not found, then the Dynamic Actor role checks for a role name equal to the value, and if it finds one, assigns the work item version to that role.
Role Pool Rule — multiple participants are assigned to a single activity, which allows all participants in a group (pool) to view any work items that are sent to the activity. When a given participant within the group opens a work item, it is inaccessible to other participants in the group. The participant can then release the work item, making it available to all assigned participants on the activity. Only one participant is required to complete the work item.
Schedule Rule — a specific participant performs all activities assigned to a specific role during a specified period of time. For example, if you use a Schedule role called Accountant, the participant assigned to the role between midnight and noon would receive work items in their Inbox during that time period, and another participant assigned to the role between noon and midnight would receive work items in their Inbox during this time period.
Selection Rule — multiple participants are assigned to a single role. A participant using TaskManager can choose which one of the role participants will receive the work item. For example, if a work item needs to be processed by any accountant in a firm of 20 accountants, the work item will be sent to the selected accountant. This type of role cannot be used after either a DPA or an Automatic Activity. Selection Rule roles also cannot be used in a subflow if the subflow has been designated as remote.