Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
municipalities (municipality of Jönköping), where it helps to conduct investigations
on suspected child abuse.
A process map in iPB is a drawing that consists of boxes placed in some order, see
Fig. 3. Each box represents a step of the process, and the name of the step appears
inside the box (no lines or connecters between the boxes). A textual description is
attached to each step that explains the work to be done. Each process instance gets its
own copy of the map that serves as a table of contents for its shared space, see Fig. 3.
The map is used for multiple purposes: as an overview of the case, guidelines for
handling the case, and a menu for navigating inside the shared space. The user
navigates through the shared space by clicking on the boxes of the steps with which
he/she wants to work. Not all boxes are clickable at the beginning; those that are
grayed require that one or several previous steps are dealt with first, see Fig. 3. These
constraints are defined with the help of so-called business rules.
Fig. 3.
A map used for structuring the shared space of a process instance
A click on a step box redirects the end-user to a web-form that assists him in
completing the step. The form contains text fields, option menus and radio-buttons to
make choices, checkboxes, as well as more complex fields. The form may also
include “static” texts that explain what should be done before one can fill some fields.
From the shared spaces architecture point of view, the iPB solution can be
interpreted as follows. The total process instance shared space is divided into a
number of subspaces called process steps. The steps are graphically represented to the
end-users as boxes. Subspaces may or may not intersect. The structure of a step
subspace is represented to the end-users as a form to fill. Intersecting subspaces
means that forms attached to different steps may contain the same field(s). Usually, in
this case, the intersecting fields can be changed only in one form; they are made read-
only in the second one.
The progress in filling the step forms is reflected in the map attached to the shared
space via steps coloring. A gray box means that the step form has not been filled and
cannot be filled for the moment. A white box means that the step form is empty but can
be filled. A step with a half-filled form gets the green color, and additional information
about when the work on it has been started, and who started it. A step with a fully
filled form gets the blue color, and additional information about the finish date.
The primary way of “forcing” a person to visit a particular shared space in iPB is
by assigning him/her to become an owner/co-owner of some step. Such an assignment
results in an email message being delivered to this person, and the process to appear
