Capturing a Happy Path

As a Designer, you can capture the standard flow of a process as a Happy Path.

The Happy Path is the tabular shortcut: you enter the steps of the standard flow one below the other, and Bpanda creates the process diagram alongside them. You add branches and further BPMN elements afterwards in the Modeler — see Creating a diagram.

Prerequisites

You are assigned as a Designer in the Process Space.

You have named and described a process draft.

Background

The so-called Happy Path is where the actual capturing of a flow begins. A Happy Path presents the standard flow quickly and easily in table form. At the same time, Bpanda creates a process diagram that you can extend later in the Modeler.

The Happy Path editor offers the following working areas.

Top toolbar

The toolbar offers functions for the draft as a whole. If you position the mouse pointer over an icon, the function is displayed.

• New draft
• Open draft
• Save draft
• Delete draft
• Export (Save as BPMN file, Save as PNG image file, Save as SVG image file)
• Translate into other languages
• Print draft
• Change participants

Prerequisite for participants: Participants can only be added once the process draft has been saved. Participants can only be added if they have permission to model. Only one participant at a time can work on a draft. Two or more participants cannot work on a draft at the same time. If another participant is currently working on the draft, you can take over the editing with Take over editing.

The draft is saved automatically on an ongoing basis; Last saved is displayed at the top. A draft is only visible to its participants until you submit it.

Descriptions

The expandable Descriptions area contains the description of the process and formatting icons.

When collapsed, only the existing description is displayed.

In the Happy Path, you can assign tasks (activities) to different responsibilities (lanes).

Table for capturing tasks and assigning lanes

The table consists of three columns.

• Element

  The entry under Element is displayed as the name in the automatically created diagram, and as the task name in the case of tasks. The first and the last row are the start and end events. An activity should always be used as the task name.

• Description

  Describes the activity in more detail.

• Responsibility (lane)

  A lane represents responsibilities within a process, such as the roles or systems involved.

  An entry leads to a lane being created in the diagram. Lanes with the same name are combined into one lane.

Every process in the Happy Path editor has a start event and an end event. The start event is always in the first row of the table. The end event is always in the last row of the table.

In the ⋮ menu, you can position a new task using the commands Insert task above and Insert task below, and delete it using Delete task. Start and end events cannot be moved or deleted.

You can insert tables from Microsoft Word or Excel via the clipboard. Tables with the same three columns in the same order are best suited: Element, Description and Responsibility (lane).

Preview of the process diagram

While you fill in the table, Bpanda automatically creates the corresponding process diagram for the Happy Path.

A draft is only visible to its participants until you submit it. You can therefore edit and save it as you like beforehand.

How to proceed

1. If you have named and described a process draft and saved it as a process sketch, click the draft under Drafts.

   The input screen for a process draft appears with the Happy Path section.

2. If the input screen for a new draft is still open, click Capture the ‘Happy Path’ first.

   The Happy Path section appears.

3. To create a task, click the plus icon or use the ⋮ menu.

   A task row is added and the default name appears.

4. To name a task, enter its name in the input field under Element.

   The name appears in the diagram.

5. To describe a task, enter its description in the input field under Description.

6. To assign a task to a lane, enter the name of the responsibility in the input field under Responsibility (lane).

   The task is assigned to the lane in the diagram. Responsibilities that have already been assigned are suggested below the input field when you click in it.

7. To reposition a task in the sequence, move it with the mouse or use [Alt]+[Shift]+[Up] or [Alt]+[Shift]+[Down].

   The task is moved. Start and end events cannot be moved.

8. To save the Happy Path and the associated diagram, click Save draft.

   The process draft is saved under the name entered. A confirmation message appears.

9. To add the process draft to the Process Space, click Submit.

   The Submit as process revision dialog appears.

   The draft is added to the Process Space under the name entered.