BMC Remedy IT Service Management - Process Designer Configuration Guide

© BMC Software, Inc.2012 This document is the property of BMC Software, Inc. and the information contained herein is confidential. This document, either in whole or in part, must not be reproduced or disclosed to others or used for purposes other than that for which it has been supplied, without BMC's prior written permission, or, if any part hereof is furnished by virtue of a contract with a third party, as expressly authorised under that contract. BMC shall not be liable for any errors or omissions.

BMC Remedy IT Service Management

Process Designer Configuration Guide

Version: 8.3.2

Date: April 2012

BMC Remedy IT Service Management Process Designer Configuration Guide

© Copyright 2012 BMC Software, Inc. Version:8.3.2 Date: April 2012

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Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Creating Process Designer application user(s) ......................................................................................... 3 Configuring the Process Designer Integration ........................................................................................... 4 Configuration of Process Mappings for ITSM ............................................................................................ 7 Configuration of Process Mappings for SRM .......................................................................................... 10 Maintaining Process Designer Configuration Data .................................................................................. 11

Maintaining Task Assignment Rules .................................................................................................... 13 Maintaining OLAs and SLAs ................................................................................................................ 13 Business Time ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Task Types and Properties .................................................................................................................. 16 Locks .................................................................................................................................................... 17 Auditing ................................................................................................................................................ 18 SQL Queries ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Logging ................................................................................................................................................ 20

Process Tracker Configuration ................................................................................................................ 22 Process Designer Approval Configuration .............................................................................................. 23

Approval Configuration for Change Management 7.6.04 .................................................................... 25 Approval Configuration for Service Request Management 7.6.04 ...................................................... 29

Additional Process Designer Wizard Configuration ................................................................................. 31 Previous Step Navigation ..................................................................................................................... 31



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Introduction This document provides information on configuration of Process Designer version 8.3.2 This document is intended to be used by Remedy Administrators or process owners responsible for the management of the behavior of processes created using the Process Designer client.

Creating Process Designer application user(s) This section applies to all installations of Process Designer and is required to allow users to logon to the Process Designer client application and to configure Process Designer data from within BMC Remedy. This step is normally completed as part of the product installation.

The Process Designer application provides two roles; ProcessDesignerAdmin and ProcessDesignerSubAdmin, each with corresponding groups Process Designer Administrator and Process Designer Sub Administrator. For users to login to the Process Designer client or to update Process Designer configuration data in Remedy, they must be assigned to one of these groups.

Login to the BMC Remedy Mid-tier as a Remedy Administrator, then select AR System Administration Console from AR System Administration menu on the home page.

Select Application, then Users/Groups/Roles, then Users. Now select an existing user, or create a new one. On the Group List field, select the Process Designer Administrator group from the menu and add this to the group list and save. This user must be given a fixed or floating licence.



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This user can then be used to login to the Process Designer client or update Process Designer configuration data in Remedy.

Configuring the Process Designer Integration This section applies to all installations of Process Designer and is required for the integration to BMC Remedy to work correctly. It is normally completed as part of the initial installation but can also be updated using the information provided here as necessary. Login to Mid-tier on your Remedy server as a member of the Process Designer Administrator group (see last section). From the Home Page, select Process Designer Configuration from the Process Designer 8.3.2 menu.

Select the Configuration Tab to reveal this page:



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Set each of the field values as follows:

Field

Description

ARID Configuration Path The full path on your BMC Remedy server where the Process Designer server software and aradminpass file is installed. Use the Default button to select the default location.

ARID Configuration User The name of the BMC Remedy user with Remedy Administrator permissions and application permissions where necessary*

ARID Configuration Password The Remedy password for the ARID Configuration user selected. Please use the Update Password button once you have selected the username and password.

Pause Between Job Initiation (ms) The ‘wait’ period for the manager thread between assigning a job and checking for more jobs (in ms - default is 100).

Job Timeout (secs) The timeout period for a worker thread to complete a job.

Number of Worker Threads The maximum number of worker threads - this should be set to one less than the number of threads assigned to the Private Thread on your Remedy server.



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Delete Successful Jobs (Yes/No) Set to Yes to delete all jobs that complete successfully.

Logging Type (Form / File) Select Form if you want the process runtime logging information to be written to a Remedy form so that it can be viewed from the Logging Tab under Process Designer Configuration.

Logging Level (None, Error, Milestone, Detail, Debug)

Set to the required level for viewing log information. Each log level includes logging from the previous level, so Detail logging includes Errors and Milestones. Debug level logging is only visible to Administrators.

Log File The full path of the log file, for recording Process Designer Integration events. Use the Windows Server Default button to select the default location on your server.

Auto-Release Tasks Set to Yes for automatic task creation (normal operation)

Cancel Redundant Tasks Set to Yes to set redundant process tasks to a cancelled state at run time (Default to No)

The following field is only required if you using Process Tracker or running Process Designer from a cloud/OnDemand server.

Process Tracker Address

The web server address on your Mid-Tier server where the Process Tracker Servlet is installed. Use the Default button to select the default location.

* If you are using Process Designer with ITSM or SRM applications, to ensure that Process Designer can update records in these applications, the ARID Configuration user also requires certain BMC application permissions as follows:

Application Permission Required Licence Required Incident Mgmt Incident User Incident Fixed or Floating Change Mgmt Infrastructure Change User Change Fixed or Floating Problem Mgmt Problem User Problem Fixed or Floating SRM Service Request User N/A

Enter the user with the required permissions and their Remedy user password, then click on the Update Password File button to update this setting. (Note this user must also have Remedy Administrator permissions). Click the Apply button to confirm all changes.



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Configuration of Process Mappings for ITSM This section applies to installations of Process Designer with ITSM 7.6.04 Incident, Problem or Change Management applications. It assumes that the installation of Process Designer for these applications has already been completed. Processes defined within Process Designer can be selected from within a Change Request, Incident or Problem by defining the relationship between the Operational Categorization, Product Categorization or Status on the Change Request, Incident or Problem and the Process Name.

To automatically select a process and generate tasks for a given request, you will need to create a mapping between the application and Designer Process:

1. Log into Remedy as a Remedy Administrator and from the Home Page click on the Process Mapping Form under Process Designer 8.3.2 on the home page.

2. This will open the Process Mapping Form in Search mode.

3. To create a new mapping click New Request on the Web Toolbar.

4. You will now see that the form is divided into sections depending on the level of detail you wish to define for the mapping. (see screenshot below)

5. Select a Company which the mapping will be for, this can be a single company or for any company select Global.

6. Select the Force Restart Flag if you want the process to run more than once against the same request.

6. Choose which of the ITSM Applications you wish to integrate with – Incident, Change, Problem Management or Work Order.



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7. Choose a Designer Process and whether you would like to use the Process Designer Wizard (optional end-user process navigator where data-input is required at runtime).

8. Choose Operational Categorizations if applicable

9. Choose Product Categorizations if applicable

10. Choose a request Status if you wish the process to attach at a particular point of the request lifecycle.

11. Click save

Below is a screenshot of the Process Mapping Form – showing the various parameters.

Figure 3: Process Mapping Form

Once you have created a mapping between an ITSM Request and a Designer process, whenever the request meets all of the specified mapping parameters the process will attach to the request and create the appropriate tasks.



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The following table shows what parameters can be used to define a relationship between an ITSM Request and a Designer Process. Any one of these parameters can be used in isolation or in conjunction with the other parameters:

• Operating Company

• ITSM Application

• Request Status

• Operational Categorisation

• Product Categorisation

The conditions for task generation can be customised further to suit specific implementations. Contact BMC support for details of how to customise the conditions for task creation further.



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Configuration of Process Mappings for SRM This section applies to the use of Process Designer with BMC's Service Request Management application, release 7.6.04 It assumes that the installation of Process Designer for SRM has already been completed and that you have installed version 8.3.2 or later of Process Designer. For more information on installation, refer to the Process Designer Installation Guide.

The integration between Process Designer and the BMC SRM application is performed by using Process Designer to generate and control the assignment and progression of tasks within Service Requests and/or Work Orders.

By defining a process using Process Designer and selecting it within a Service Request Definition (SRD) Process Designer will automatically generate tasks that correspond to each of the process steps. Tasks can be considered to be automated process steps or manual steps such as questions or approval steps depending on the intended usage of the particular process.

A process defined in Process Designer needs to be mapped to a Service Request Definition in order to be used with the BMC SRM application. Follow these steps to setup the mapping:

• Login Remedy Mid-Tier as a user with permissions to create and update Service Request Definitions.

• Select the “Service Catalog Manager Console” from Service Request Management on the Home Page

• Create a new Service Request Definition.

• Click the “Select” button to bring up the “Select Process” dialog.

• Check the “Use Designer Process” check box to display a list of all the ‘live’ processes as defined in the Process Designer client for your company.

• Click on and highlight the required process.

• A second checkbox will become visible, Launch Wizard, check this box if you want the Process Designer Wizard to launch as soon as a user submits a Service Request. Leave unchecked if you want a fully automated process to run that requires no user input.

• Click “Select” and save the Service Request Definition. The Process Designer process has now been associated with that Service Request Definition

• Make sure that the Service Request Definition is on-line (Deployed) before attempting to use it.



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Mapping a Service Request Definition to a Process

Maintaining Process Designer Configuration Data This section deals with the maintenance of configuration data used by Process Designer processes. It applies to all installations of Process Designer regardless of whether you are using it with ITSM or SRM applications.

This configuration data is maintained from within the Remedy application and can be accessed by logging in to Remedy as an Process Designer Administrator and selecting Process Designer Configuration from the Process Designer 8.3.2 menu on the Home Page:



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The following supporting data can be maintained from this area:

• General Configuration Options (see section on Configuring Process Designer Integration)

• Task Assignment Rules

• Request SLAs (and their notifications)

• Task OLAs (and their notifications)

• Business Time

• Task Types and Properties

• Locks

• Access Control

• Auditing

• SQL Queries

• Logging

Maintenance is controlled by the following methods:

Used to add new items Used to delete existing items

Existing items can be modified by double-clicking their entry in the table.



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Maintaining Task Assignment Rules Task Assignment Rules can be created as an additional control over whether a task can be assigned or not.

When a task in the process uses an assignment rule, its status will remain on hold (Pending Task Rule) until the rule’s condition is met. For example, you may have a set of tasks which should only fire when or if the Change Request’s approval is rejected. The rule details are entered in the Rule definition window.

Maintaining OLAs and SLAs Operating Level Agreements are used in association with Tasks while Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are used for Requests. Otherwise they are defined in exactly the same way. OLAs and SLAs defined against a Task or Process Template will generate escalation points that correspond to the target completion time for that Task or request in BMC Remedy. You will be prompted to enter details for a new OLA or SLA should you enter a new OLA Name on the Task or a new SLA Name on the Process Template form respectively. An `SLA cannot be deleted if it is currently referenced by an existing process or task.



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Field Descriptions

Field Description

Name A name of your choice but must be unique.

Business Holiday Tag Link into Business Time Holidays

Business Workdays Tag Link into Business Time Workdays



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Field Description

Offset An offset allows you to support clients in a different time zone from your BMC Remedy server.

Breach Time – Days, Hours, Minutes On the Escalation Points tab. The time required to meet the Service Level Agreement. NB: This value relates to working time, not elapsed time.

Send Warning At (%) of breach time On the Escalation Points tab. The percentage of the breach time at which to send a warning notification.

Notifications Create notifications for different stages of the SLA, including Creation, Warning and Violation

The OLA/SLA form also provides the ability to create notifications that will fire on the creation, warning or violation of the Operating/Service Level Agreement. These notifications can be added or removed on the Notifications tab using the “New…” and “Delete” buttons as shown below.



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Field Descriptions

Field Description

Type The event on which the notification will fire – Creation, Warning or Violation (of the OLA/SLA)

To Specifies the type of recipient – Assigned Individual, Assigned Group, Defined Individual or Defined Group

Recipient If the type of recipient is defined then the defined recipient must be named here. The list will show all current BMC Remedy groups or users as appropriate.

Business Time The OLA/SLAs make use of the standard Business Time functionality provided by BMC Remedy. You can access the existing entries from within the OLA/SLA definitions above.

Task Types and Properties Task Types are automatically created for each unique category, type and name of a process task. Additional properties can then be applied to support additional workflow or simply for informational purposes. When a process is executed in Remedy, each task in the process stores a ‘Task Type Id’ against which it’s property values can be read (from the ABYD:Task Type Property form).



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Properties can be defined with a default value. When selected, it can then be applied to the task type selected within the task types table, all task types of the selected category and type, all task types of the selected category or even all tasks types.

Note that the property values are applied not to individual tasks but their task types. For example, in the above screenshot, the Cost property has been applied to the Allocate Initial Priority task. Every instance of ITIL/Change Management/Allocate Initial Priority will have the same value, irrespective of which process template they exist or instance executed within a Remedy request.

You may wish to use properties to apply a cost value to tasks so that when a process has completed execution, you can run Remedy workflow to total the cost of the request from the process tasks completed.

Another example would be to define workflow rules in Remedy to be applied to specific types of task across all process templates. In the above screenshot, an Approval property is available and when applied to a task, Remedy workflow could be triggered to fire for tasks with their task type has the Approval property value set to Yes. Using this method, approval type tasks are handled differently from non-approval tasks independently from the process definition.

Locks Locks are created when a Process Template is opened in Process Designer client for editing to prevent multiple users editing simultaneously. In circumstances when the lock needs to be release, this can be performed from the Locks tab on the Process Designer Configuration form.

Select the Process and click the Release Lock button to release it.



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Auditing Individual changes to Processes and Tasks, SLAs and OLAs and Assignment Rules can be tracked against the user making the change and the time it was made. To enable this auditing, select the Audit tab on the Console screen and check the boxes to indicate what you need to audit.

The table will then display all changes made thereafter.

You can filter the table to find results faster using the fields for User, Date From and To and the Audit Type. Apply the filter on the search using the Search button.



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SQL Queries This tab provides a list of SQL Queries that are provided as part of the standard installation. These queries can be used in conjunction with the Set Fields action in Process Designer to simplify the counting of records where this is required as part of the process logic. Each query includes:

the application that it relates to;

the text description of the query presented to the process designer

the SQL string used at runtime to return a numeric value.

The list of SQL Queries can be supplemented by adding new queries and descriptions to this list. These will automatically add to the list of queries displayed in the Set Fields action in Process Designer when the Count option is selected.

To add a new query, double-click on one of the existing entries then select New Request from the web toolbar (see screen on next page).

Select the application that the query relates to, then enter the text description of the query. To enter the SQL string required, use the Fields menu to retrieve field labels for the corresponding form and use the Add to Query button to add the field reference.

The rest of the query can be constructed using the SELECT, COUNT, FROM, WHERE, AND, OR buttons provided.



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No validation is provided on this form, it is expected that the individual responsible for creating the query has a good understanding of SQL and the underlying constructs.

Logging This tab provides details of log entries when the logging option is set to 'Form' on the Configuration tab. The fields on this form provide search filters to help locate the log entries that relate to a particular request.

Select a username to restrict the output to those entries created by that username within your company.



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Enter a Log Level to control the level of logging information to show in the table (either Milestone, Error or Detailed). Note that the level of logging shown will never be more detailed than the level selected on the Configuration Tab under Logging Level.

Enter an application to restrict the output to entries that relate to that application.

Enter a specific request number to restrict the output to entries that relate to that request number only.

Use the refresh button to refresh the list of entries after changing any of the search filters.



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Process Tracker Configuration Process Tracker is a component of Process Designer that is used by end-users to graphically track the progress of their requests based on the process steps that have been completed, assigned and outstanding (pending). Process Tracker is installed as a Data Visualisation Module and viewed in a data Visualisation field. The installation of the Data visualization Module is performed automatically as part of the PDICT Core application installation. If this needs to be performed or updated manually, please refer to The Core Installation steps in Appendix A or the Installation Guide and the Data Visualization Configuration entries in Appendix F of the Installation Guide. Process Tracker runs on the mid-tier and errors will occur in the display of Process Tracker diagrams if:

1. The mid tier configuration is incorrect 2. The server is not connected to a mid tier server. 3. A valid remedy connection is not available to the session or was broken during generation of

the diagram. The Default Web Path must also be configured correctly on the Advanced tab of the Server Information entry.

A re-start of the web server and remedy service may be required following either a manual or automatic (via PDICT) creation or update of the data visualization configuration entries. Internet Explorer Setting As the diagrams generated by Process Tracker are displayed in a view field or browser certain browser settings can have an impact on whether the diagram will refresh correctly when using this functionality. One setting which is known to prevent the diagrams from Displaying correctly is the “Check for Newer Versions of Stored Pages ” Setting under Browser History in Internet Explorer’s Internet options. This setting needs to be set to be set to “Every time I visit the page”, failure to set this will impact the refreshing of the Diagrams.



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Process Designer Approval Configuration Process Designer makes use of the BMC Remedy Approval engine to implement approval actions that are defined as part of Process Designer processes. New BMC Remedy approval processes need to be created if using the Process Designer Approval action with either of the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.6.04 or Service Request Management 7.6.04 applications. (For SRM 7.6.04, the “Service Request - Ad Hoc” OOTB process is used.) Note: to perform this configuration, you will require a user login setup with Approval Admin permission. Approvals are configured through two stages:

• Administration (for the approval process creation and associated rules) • Configuration (to setup the request status flows)

Approval processes are created through the Approval Server Administration form, accessed through the AP:Administration link on the Home Page.

AP:Administration link

While Approval Configuration is accessed through the Application Administration Console

Note: If you have run the Process Designer Integration and Configuration Tool (PDICT), then all the steps described in this chapter for setting up approvals will be performed automatically as part of the automated integration. You only need to complete the steps for configuring approvals for Change Management and/or SRM if you have NOT run PDICT. Please refer to the What's New guide for clarification on which versions of ITSM and SRM are currently supported by this tool.



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Approval Process Configuration link



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Approval Configuration for Change Management 7.6.04

Approval Administration

From the Approval Server Administration form, click the Create button to create the new approval process. Use the following details to Create this process.

Process Designer Approval Configuration

Only the fields on the Basic page are required. You may configure the approval process if required, but the Form, Type, Request Owner Field and First Approver Field values must be equal to the values shown above. The approval process also requires rules configured. As a minimum you should configure two “Approval Process Done” rules, one for Approved and the other for Rejected.



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Example Basic configuration for the Approved rule

The Set Fields page details how the rule will update the change request, once the approver approves the approval and should be configured as seen here.

Set Fields configuration for the Approved rule

The Rejected rule should be configured similar to the Approved rule.



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Example Basic configuration for the Rejected Rule

Again the Set Fields configuration will detail how the change request is updated if the approver rejects the approval and should be configured as seen here.

Set Fields configuration for the Rejected rule



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Approval Configuration

Once these have been created, access the Approval Process Configuration via the Application Administration Console. Create an entry for the approval process created.

Approval Process configuration

Additionally, setup the Status Flow

Status Flow configuration

Once the approval process has been created and configured it can be selected when creating an Approval action within an Process Designer process that is designed for use with the change request (CHG:Infrastructure Change) form.



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Approval Configuration for Service Request Management 7.6.04 The Process Designer approval action can reference the “Service Request – Ad Hoc” OOTB approval process for SRM 7.6.04 so no new approval process need be created. However, you may need to make some adjustments to the process configuration.

Approval Administration

From the Approval Server Administration form, select the “Service Request – Ad Hoc” process on the Show For Process field and select the Rule tab page.

Service Request – Ad Hoc Rules

Ensure that all of the rules have a Status of “Active”. Double click each rule to access it and update the Status as necessary. On the Set Fields tab, ensure that the Approval Status field is set, firstly for the Approved Rule:

Approval Status value of 1 for Approved



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Additionally ensure that the Rejected rule also sets the Approval Status

Approval Status value of 2 for Rejected

Approval Configuration

Access the Approval Process Configuration via the Application Administration Console and locate the configuration for the “Service Request – Ad Hoc” process.

Service Request – Ad Hoc Configuration

Ensure that the Status is set to Enabled.



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Additional Process Designer Wizard Configuration There is one additional feature which can be configured for the Process Designer Wizard: Configure optional display of a ‘Go Back’ button when navigating processes with the Wizard to return to

previous steps.

Previous Step Navigation Another optional function within the Wizard is the Back Button, this is a configurable object which allows the user to return to a previous task(s). It is not enabled as standard as all processes are different and it may not always be desirable to go backwards in a process. The main advantage is to allow users to update data in related fields and also to select different outcomes if circumstances change while the process is active. Create the Go back Property.

1) Log into Remedy

2) Click on the Process Designer Configuration

3) Click on the Task Types Tab

4) Create a Property by clicking on the Green Cross next to the ‘Defined Properties” Table The Property needs to have the Name – ‘Go Back’ and a Default Value of ‘Yes’

Map the Go back Property.



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5) From the Task Types table select the Task, Task Type or Task Category which the Go Back functionality is to be applied

6) According to what was selected in Step 5 set the Apply Property option (Task, Task Type, Task Category or All Tasks)

7) Now when you click on a task which the property has been applied to you should see the Go Back and the value yes in the ‘Properties applied to selected task’ table.

8) Now whenever tasks with this property are displayed in the Wizard the Back button will be visible and allow the user to return to the previous tasks in a process.



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BMC Remedy IT Service Management - Process Designer Configuration Guide