Electronic Banner Access Request (eBAR) Workflow Presented by: Mike Gostomski & Shari Powell Portland State University April 12, 2010 Session ID 1058

2 Session Rules of Etiquette Please turn off your cell phone/pager If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible Please avoid side conversation during the session Thank you for your cooperation!

Session ID Presentation Agenda Project Overview Demonstration of our Banner Access Request Workflow eBAR Internals Problems encountered during development Lessons learned about developing Workflows Question & Answer

Project Overview What we set out to do, and why we decided on Workflow for our new Banner access request system.

Session ID Project Definition Decrease turnaround time to activate a Banner account Find a more sustainable approach that supports sustainability by eliminating paper forms Project Goals Replace paper Banner Access Request document and its campus mail routing with an electronic document (eBAR) having electronic routing and signatures

Session ID Paper Form Routing Two hard-copy request forms »FIS / HRIS »SIS / FA / AR Campus mail routing »Supervisor (dept. head / director) »Dean / VP (for FIS / HRIS access only) »Banner Coordinator(s) »OIT Create new account Grant security Access »Requestor (username and password) FIS Coordinator processes FOMPROF; Approval queues

Session ID Electronic Routing One electronic request form (in Banner Self-Service) Workflow routing »Supervisor (dept. head / director) »Banner Coordinator(s) »BAO Director »OIT Create new account Grant security Access FOMPROF record is now automated Requestor retrieves password via Banner Self-Service

Session ID eBAR Advantages Faster than paper request forms routed via campus mail »Can now be routed to multiple users in parallel »No time wasted delivering paper between offices »No paper forms get “lost” on people’s desks Password delivery via Banner Self-Service »More secure than sending password via campus mail Request status viewable in Self-Service at any time Approves can view both existing and requested access Automatic checking for segregation-of-duty conflicts

Session ID eBAR Features Ability to copy permissions from an existing user »Existing user’s permissions are displayed within Workflow “I Agree” checkbox »I have read and agree to the PSU Acceptable Use Policy Dynamically routes to supervisor »Based on org code of requestor’s position and Banner Finance org code hierarchy Auto-creates Workflow account for supervisor »Using predefined external authentication Supervisors can assign any Workflow user as proxy »Workflow admin must assign supervisor role to the proxy

Session ID Banner Workflow Installation: Business Decisions Authentication »Banner INB »Enterprise LDAP User Creation »Create all users during initial Workflow installation »Create users in Workflow as needed

Session ID Banner Workflow Setup Workflows cannot span organizations… but a Workflow in one org can initiate a Workflow in another org Design organization structure around your institutional organization, not Banner modules root psu_orgbao_orghr_org Organizations

Session ID Administrative Workflow Roles System Administrator »Who: IT Staff »Access: Create/modify business components Create/modify external events Manage users and roles Create/modify work calendars Delete workflows Business Analyst »Who: IT Staff, Banner Coordinators »Access: In-process monitoring Workflow modeling

Session ID eBAR Workflow Roles eBAR_Request_Approver eBAR_HR_Employee eBAR_%_Coordinator eBAR_BAO_Director eBAR_Account_Creator eBAR_Security_Admin eBAR_Administrator (supervisor) (assigns supervisor if needed) (e.x. eBAR_HRIS_Coordinator) (Business Affairs Director) (DBA) (GSASECR) (eBAR model administrator) Each Workflow activity is tied to a role

Session ID Project Team Office of Information Technologies Workflow development: Self-Service Development: Workflow Installation: Project Manager: Mike Gostomski Programmer Analyst David Shapiro Programmer Analyst Lance Hoover Oracle DBA Shari Powell Banner FIS/HRIS Manager

eBAR: Live Demonstration Run through a Banner access request, from start to finish, and discuss the details of our eBAR Workflow

Session ID Live Demo: Overview Request is submitted via Banner Self-Service Requestor’s supervisor must approve the request Coordinators review the request and approve security groups/classes/objects that should be assigned The Business Affairs Director reviews the coordinators’ approvals and chooses to approve, rework, or reject the request Banner account is created (if new Banner user) Approved security is assigned Requestor obtains temporary password from Banner Self-Service (if new Banner user)

Session ID Live Demo: Request Form Request form is filled out and submitted via Self-Service Each user can have only one open request at a time. (If user has a request in progress, form will not be displayed) JavaScript validation ensures form is completely filled out before the user can submit it Requestor’s supervisor is automatically selected Form values are saved in a table so that the form will be pre-populated if the request gets rejected and must be re-submitted Requestor’s spriden_id is passed into Workflow so that the form data can be loaded from the table when the Workflow is initiated.

Session ID Live Demo: Workflow Initiation Input from the request form is loaded into context parameters by an automated activity / business component A second automated activity calls a function that: »Ensures the requestor’s supervisor is a valid user »Sets up the supervisor with a Workflow account and the eBAR_Supervisor role (if they didn’t already have it) »Creates HTML “views” which will be displayed later in the workflow »Based on requested access, the function decides which Banner Coordinators need to be involved in the request »All the data/views generated in these functions is saved in a temporary table A third automated activity grabs the data from the temporary table and loads it into context parameters

Session ID Live Demo: Approvals Supervisor Approval »Approve: Request continues »Reject: Request is terminated. Requestor receives with note from supervisor Coordinator Approval »Approve: Each coordinator (up to five users, in parallel) chooses the groups/classes/objects to be assigned »Reject: Cannot reject a request; can only choose not to assign security for their module BAO Director Approval »Approve: Request continues »Reject: Request is terminated. Requestor receives with note from BAO Director »Rework: Request returns to coordinators with a note from the BAO Director

Session ID Live Demo: Assign Approved Security Banner account is created (if new user) Security is assigned »Administrator reviews approved security Request can be returned to BAO Director with a note Security can be assigned with the click of a button »FOBPROF record automatically created (if needed) Requestor is notified via that the account is ready Temporary password can be obtained via Banner Self- Service (for new users)

eBAR: Problems Encountered Solutions/Enhancements we added to resolve problems we encountered.

Session ID Modeler Hangs When Trying to Validate Model Problem Large Workflow with many activities and many parallel paths cause the validator to hang Solutions Increase memory allocations in the Workflow configuration script This helped temporarily… but not a permanent solution Change parallel paths to run activities one-at-a-time This also helped temporarily Reduce the number of activities in the model Move as much processing as possible to DB procedures Save results into temporary tables Load all resulting data into context parameters with one Workflow activity

Session ID Mapping External Event Parameters to Workflow Model Problem For every change we made to the Workflow model, we had to manually re-map 30 event parameters to their corresponding context parameters Solution 1.Load all 30 parameters into a temporary table before the event fires 2.Map one parameter from the event to a context parameter 3.Use the one mapped parameter to select and load the rest of the values from the temporary table

Session ID Using JavaScript in Custom Activities Problem If JavaScript is entered directly into an activity, even a small change requires dropping and re-creating the entire activity Solution 1.Use a database procedure to generate the JavaScript code 2.Save the generated code into a context parameter 3.Create a local parameter in the custom activity, and map the JavaScript code (context parameter) to the local parameter 4.Display the local parameter on your custom activity form

Session ID Custom Activity Forms Are Very Limited Problems Custom Activity formatting options are limited Select menus are tedious to populate and maintain Certain input types are not allowed (i.e. checkboxes) JavaScript form validation is tricky at best Solution 1.Create your Custom Activity with nothing but a few text areas (one for each context parameter you plan to map in/out) 2.Create your own custom HTML view using a database procedure 3.Use JavaScript to hide the Workflow text areas and submit button, or position your HTML view on top of the Workflow form 4.Use JavaScript to pass values from your HTML view to the Workflow text areas

Lessons Learned Tips to keep in mind while developing Workflows

Session ID Design For Easy Maintenance Make decisions and send s from your DB proc Avoid passing too many parameters into Workflow via External Events (require remapping after any change to model) Keep the number of activities in the model to a minimum Generate dynamic select menus in your database procedure rather than entering static values into the Custom Activity Validate forms with JavaScript BEFORE they are submitted, which will reduce the number of decisions needed in your Workflow model Making changes to the Workflow model can be tedious and time consuming. Do as much processing and content generation as possible in a database procedure

Session ID Design For User-Friendliness Use drop-down menus or checkboxes to reduce user error Use queries to dynamically create menus and checkboxes so that the user’s options will stay current as the data changes Use JavaScript to validate forms. Highlight errors in Red so the user knows what needs to be changed Generate your own HTML view to display over the Workflow form

eBAR: Question & Answer We will now take any questions you have about our Banner Access Request Workflow

Session ID 1058 Thank You! Mike Gostomski Shari Powell Please complete the online class evaluation form Session ID SunGard, the SunGard logo, the Open Digital Campus, Banner, Luminis, and PowerCAMPUS are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. © 2009 SunGard. All rights reserved. © 2010 SunGard. All rights reserved.