This topic applies only to the IBM Business Process Manager Advanced configuration.

Business process management and case management

Business process management and case management are two approaches to build a process. The type of business situation you are addressing determines which approach you use.Case management functions are only available if you have IBM BPM Advanced with the Basic Case Management feature installed.

IBM® Business Process Manager provides tools for the approaches to define and then improve a process: business process management and case management. Learn the differences so that you can select the best approach for your situation.

Consider two types of situations that a corporation faces. In the first situation, the corporation wants more customers to use its credit card. In the second situation, the corporation wants a process to handle calls about credit card billing problems. The following sections describe the design and implementation you would likely use for each situation.

Designs for two types of business situations
Building and running a business process
Building and running a case
Key differences between business process management and case management

Designs for two types of business situations

If you needed to get more customers to use your credit card, you might come up with the following activities:

Define the type of customer you think might benefit from your credit card.
Use an application to search a database for potential candidates.
Use an application to email the candidates.
Review the candidates who responded to assess the effectiveness of the email and determine patterns in the list of interested customers.
Use an application to check the credit rating of the respondents.
Use an application to mail the credit cards to candidates with good credit ratings.

The activities are in order and their order follows a predictable and repeatable process. The process determines the sequence of events. It is a stable process that likely remains unchanged over many years. A number of the actions can be automated. In this scenario, a business process would most likely be your implementation choice.

If you wanted to handle customers with credit card billing problems, you might come up with the following unordered activities:

Capture the complaint when someone called or sent an email.
Get information about the customer.
Get information about the vendor.
Collect receipts and invoices to verify the complaint.
Notify Customer Records if unusual information was found.
Notify system administrators if the billing system caused problems.
Notify Vendor Records if unusual information was found.
Resolve the dispute.

The activities are unordered because the sequence of activities is unpredictable. The events determine the order in which the activities in the process are followed. People rather than programs interact to resolve the dispute. External documents are needed for verification. In this scenario, a case would most likely be your implementation choice.

Example of building and running a business process

The following business process might get more customers to use the corporation's credit card. It is a wired process. You can see which activity follows the other. At run time, the activities drive the events. For example, a worker defines the type of customer that the worker is looking for and then starts the application to get the candidates and email the candidates. Then, the worker waits until there is a list of candidates to review based on the people who responded to the email. Finally, the worker starts the credit check application. The credit check application is followed by the application that mails out the credit cards. A worker at run time does not select the next activity from a set of choices to choose what comes next; the next activity is predetermined at development time.

The activities are in swimlanes that define the type of activity. The team lane is for activities that people do and the system lane is for activities that programs do. Programs automate and complete many activities. To implement these activities with human services, subprocesses, services, and teams, you use the same set of tools as you do to implement a case.

Business process definition

Example of building and running a case

The following case might handle credit card billing complaints. The activities are not wired. No predetermined sequence is set at development time. A worker would likely start by describing the complaint and finish by resolving the dispute. However, whether the worker receives the customer information before the vendor information would likely be determined by what the worker read in the complaint. The information that is retrieved about the customer would determine whether the worker would check with the people who handle the customer records. The information that is retrieved about the vendor would determine whether the worker would check with the people who handle vendor records. The information that is retrieved about either the customer or the vendor might lead to investigating the computer billing system for problems.

The activities are not in a swimlane that determines their type. Although the worker controls the process at run time, the process is dynamic and influenced by current events. As in a business process, the required activities must be completed. However, optional activities do not need to be completed.

People who interact with other people, rather than automated programs, determine the activities. To verify the complaint, receipts and invoices, which are external documents independent of the case, must be captured. To implement these activities with human services, subprocesses, services, and teams, you use the same set of tools as you do to implement a business process.

A case

Key differences between business process management and case management

Considering the previous scenarios, the following table summarizes the characteristics of business process management and case management. Examining these characteristics, you can select which type of process might best suit your situation.

Table 1. Characteristics of business process management and case management
Business process management	Case management
You can define an ordered sequence of activities that can be completed to solve a business challenge.	You can define an unordered set of activities that can be completed to solve a business challenge.
The sequence of activities is stable and seldom changes; that is, the process is predicable and repeatable.	The activities occur in an unpredictable order.
The process determines the events. The first activity determines the first set of events, which then leads to the next activity and the next set of events. The activities are wired to one another, which determines the sequence.	The events determine the process. As events occur, a worker selects the appropriate activity. The resulting process can vary depending on the current event and the subsequent selection by the worker. Activities are not wired to one another.
The activities are often programmatic. A repeatable sequence, such as selecting a set of potential credit card owners from a database, can be automated.	People primarily determine the activities. Handling a customer with a billing error is done by a person who uses judgment to determine the best resolution of this particular case.
External documents are not part of the process.	External documents play a key role. For example, receipts provide a record for how the problem that must be resolved began.