This is an old revision of the document!


Use process modules

To efficiently manage a large process landscape, it can be broken down into modules. These modules can be connected via interfaces. Process modules can form a hierarchy or process architecture.

Typical process modules are Requirements Engineering, Design, or Project Management. As process modules can be used to separate common from specific processes, a “Design” process module could be used to contain the common elements in a “Engine Design” and “Transmission Design” process module. See process variant management for more info.

The only difference between a process and a process module is that a process module can be added to other processes or process modules, whereas a process can not be added anywhere else.

Define a process module

A process module resides in a workspace just like a normal process. In fact, the only thing that differentiates process modules from processes is this setting, which can be changed via the Management > Settings menu.

SCREENSHOT

If this setting is set to “Process Module”, the module can be added to other processes.

Adding process modules to a process

Only specific versions of process modules can be added to other processes. This increases the consistency within your process architecture. Before adding modules to another process, a process version needs to be created for each one of them. See process version management for more info how to do this.

Although it is technically possible to add the Working Version of a module to a process, it is not recommended to do so, because the content in the Working Version can change, so you do not know which version of the module content is being added.

To add modules to a process, switch to the process you would like to add the modules to, and go to the Management > Process Modules menu.

SCREENSHOT: modules main dialog

In the first tab, you can find the list of already added modules. In the second tab you can find the list of processes that the current module has been added to.

Click or tap on Add module to add new process modules. Select the modules either via browsing or by typing their names. Already selected modules will show up on the right side.

SCREENSHOT: add module dialog

Click or tap Next to select the versions for each module. Per default, the Valid Version of each module is selected.

To add the modules, click or tap Next once more. The operation will run in the background, so you can continue working while the modules are being added.

If the added modules have interfaces to other modules, which are already added, those interfaces will be converted to normal associations.

Create a new process from process modules

- Create new workspace

- Select “Add Modules”

Update process modules

- Spot the outdated modules

- Update them one by one or multiple in sequence

Define interfaces between modules

- Remote associations

- Become normal associations when both modules are added to one process