ProcessMaker Glossary ABC

ProcessMaker Glossary ABC
This ProcessMaker Glossary describes some of the terminology used inside ProcessMaker BPM and Workflow Management Software version 3.0. Feel free to leave a comment below if you feel that a term is missing and should be included in this documentation.

ProcessMaker Glossary A
Ad Hoc User: Users can be assigned to tasks on an ad hoc basis, meaning that the user will not be assigned to work on the task by ProcessMaker when a case is run, but the user is available to be manually reassigned to the task.

Administrator role: Users have roles which define what actions can be done by the user and what parts of the ProcessMaker interface the user can access. The administrator role by default has all permissions, so a user with this role can do all actions and access all parts of the ProcessMaker BPM interface. Therefore, a user with an administrator role can do actions such as create, edit and delete users, processes, report tables, etc.

Application: Originally cases in ProcessMaker were called “applications”. See case.

API: An application programming interface (API) is a particular set of rules (“code”) and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate with each other. ProcessMaker 1 and 2 uses web services as its API and ProcessMaker 2.8 and later has added REST as its API.

Artifacts: Artifacts provide additional information about the process in the process diagram. There are two artifacts available in ProcessMaker: Annotations and Groups.

ProcessMaker Glossary B
Business Process Model: BPMN defines a Business Process Model as a network of graphical objects, which are activities, and the flow controls that define the order of execution.

Business Process Management (BPM) : The term Business Process Management (or BPM) refers to activities performed by businesses to optimize and adapt their processes. Although it can be said that organizations have always been using BPM, the advent of software tools (business process management systems or BPMS) allow for the direct execution of the business processes without a costly and time intensive development of the required software. In addition, these tools can also monitor the execution of the business processes, providing managers of an organization with the means to analyze their performance and make changes to processes in real-time. Using a BPMS the modified process can then be merged into the current business process atmosphere.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) : Business Process Modeling Notation, or simply BPMN, is a standard notation that is readily understandable by all business users, from the business analysts that create the initial drafts of the processes, to the technical developers responsible for implementing the technology that will perform those processes, and finally, to the business people who will manage and monitor those processes.

Business Rules: Rules in a particular organization that define how work is done and how it flows in that organization.


ProcessMaker Glossary C
Cancelled case : When the status of a case is changed to “cancelled”, the case is stopped and will never complete its process. The case can no longer be opened and worked on. Only users who have the PM_CANCELCASE permission in their role may cancel a case.
Case : A case is single instance when a process is executed. A running case passes through activities (tasks or subprocesses) in the process. For example, for an insurance process, a case might be one insurance claim and for a hospital process, a case might be the treatment of a patient. Each case in ProcessMaker has a unique ID which is a 32 hexadecimal number to uniquely identify it and it also has a case number which counts cases starting from the number

Case Due Date: The due date is when a task is expected to be completed in a particular case. The due date is recalculated with each new task in the case. If a case has passed its due date, the date will be shown in red in the cases list. The amount of time which a task is expected to take can be configured in the task’s definition, but calendar determines how the time is counted.

Case History: The case history lists all the tasks and subprocesses executed in the case and the steps executed in each task (DynaForms, Input Documents, Output Documents, and/or external steps).
Case Notes: Case Notes are used to add comments and observations about cases. Before version 2.5.0, any user with rights to open a case could view its notes. In version 2.5.0 and later, case notes can only be viewed by users who have been given process permissions to view the notes for a case.

Case Priority: The case priority indicates the relative importance of a case to indicate to the user how important it is to work on the case. Case priority is on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “Very Low”, 2 meaning “Low”, 3 meaning “Normal, 4 meaning “High” and 5 meaning “Very High”. The case priority for a case can be set using a variable.

Case Statu