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User-interaction patterns for business process management

The user interactions that your users perform depend on their individual roles and responsibilities. User interaction patterns describe typical ways in which business users interact with business processes to achieve their business goals. You can use patterns to identify the interactions that are relevant for the users of your business spaces.


Common user-interaction patterns

The following list contains examples of common user-interaction patterns.

Assigning work

Work can be assigned in different ways, for example:

  • Participants receive the tasks assigned to them in their personal inbox. They then choose a task to work on.
  • Several participants share a list of tasks to be worked on. One participant takes a task to work on.

  • A participant completes a task and gets the next task assigned automatically (get-next style).
  • Tasks can be assigned to work groups or participants automatically by the system based on rules, or delegated by a manager who selects and assigns the tasks from his or her inbox.

Completing work

A participant works on a task, fills out the form with the required information, and then completes the task. Work can be interrupted, and the current input is stored.

Handling situations

A situation might occur during the lifetime of a task that prevents a participant from completing the task. To handle these situations, participants can, for example, use a backlog, transfer work, reprioritize work, delegate, or escalate.

Initiating a process or service

A participant selects a process or service to start, enters the required data, and submits the task to start the process or service.

For example, an employee starts a travel reimbursement service, or a call-center agent is called by a customer and the agent creates a new order.

Checking status

Participants and managers need to check the status and progress of processes.

Performing actions on processes

A process might allow specific participants and managers to perform selected actions on processes depending on the process status.

For example, a call-center agent gets a call from a customer, and then cancels the customer's order before it is shipped to delivery.

Assessing workload and assigning work

Participants and managers assess the available tasks and the workload of groups based on the start date, due date, priority, business-specific data, and KPIs.

For example, a tax consultant chooses the next task based on due date and priority.

Assigning and transferring tasks

Participants claim tasks, transfer claimed tasks to other participants, or release the tasks for others to claim. Managers assign tasks to their team members, or transfer the tasks from one team member to another.

Notifying participants about work and status

Alerts and notifications inform participants and managers about situations so that they can take action.


Common social-BPM patterns

Social-BPM patterns describe typical patterns that business users adopt to work effectively together while participating in processes. The following list contains some common examples of these patterns.

Sharing notes

Participants share and view notes attached to tasks.

Collaborating to complete work

Participants assign to-dos to other participants to complete tasks.

Organizing work

Participants organize tasks and to-dos in to-do lists.

Building Process Portal spaces using the Human Task Management templates