Loan Process Demo User Guide
Overview
This sample demonstrates how Web Services and human workflow can be used together within a single business process orchestration. The demo leverages ActiveVOS Central for working with human tasks, shows how to incorporate helper widgets and services in task forms, and also highlights how to use deadlines and escalations with regard to human facing tasks.
The Loan Process reads an XML document from the resoruce catalog, which controls branching logic within the process. If too many loans are being routed for human review, a manager is assigned a task automatically via the Complex Event Processing engine (CEP) to set a new threshold for loan amounts which can be automatically processed by the system.
Scenario
Title: Loan Processing
Actors
Steve: Customer Service Representative
Wendy: Loan Representative
Marcy: Loan Processing Manager
Mike: Operations Staff
Description
Steve is a Customer Service Representative for a financial
services
firm. Customers who call to request a new loans
(personal or professional) are routed to his group for processing.
Steve enters the customer information into a request form
which kicks-off the Loan Request process. Depending on the
risk level of the customer and the amount being requested, the loan
will either be automatically approved, automatically declined, or
placed into a work queue for a loan representative to review.
Process Steps
The Loan Process contains the
following high-level activities:
- Steve, a Customer Service Representative submits a loan request on behalf of a customer
- A new instance of the Loan Process is instantiated
- The ActiveVOS Resource Catalog is accessed to determine the maximum loan amount that can be automatically processed without the need for a loan representative to review
- The initial 'cutoff amount' registered in the catalog is set to $10,000. Loans exceeding this amount are considered to be 'large loans' which will be reviewed by a loan representative.
- A partner service is called to determine the risk-level of the customer
- The sample partner service returns the following
- If the rate >= 6 and loan-amount >= 50000 the risk-level returned = 'high'
- If the rate <= 8 and loan-amount <=5000 the risk-level returned = 'low'
- All other combinations return a risk-level = 'review'
-
If the loan amount >= 'cutoff amount' (initial default = 10,000) OR the risk-level is 'review', a task is created for a person in the loan representative group to review the loan application
-
If the loan amount < 'cutoff amount' AND the risk-level is 'low', the loan is automatically approved
-
If the loan amount < 'cutoff amount' AND the risk-level is 'high', the loan is automatically declined
- Wendy, a loan representative claims and complets loan reviews that require human approval.
- A business rule has been established to ensure loans are processed in a timely fashion. Using Complex Event Processing, loan applications are monitored over the course of a 'rolling' one-hour interval. If more than 5% of the loan applications within that window require human approval, Marcy, the loan manager is assigned a task where she can adjust the 'cutoff amount'.
- Increasing the threshold will potentially result in fewer loans requiring human approval.
Running the Demo
The demo application takes you through the loan approval process from the viewpoint of the customer service representative, the loan representative, and the IT / Management. With those roles in mind, and assuming the setup instructions have been carried out, the following links are used for the demo:
| Actor(s) / Action | URL | ID & Password (same value for both) |
| Steve: Enters a new loan request on behalf of his customer | http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central/login.jsp | loancsr1 |
| Wendy: Reviews loan applications that are either 'large' loans or customers with an unknown credit history. | http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central/login.jsp | loanrep1 |
| Marcy: Can also claim and work on loan reviews. She can also adjust the 'cutoff' threshold used to determine if loans can be automatically processed or require human review. | http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central/login.jsp | loanmgr1 |
| Mike: Reviews activity from within the ActiveVOS Console | ActiveVOS Console | ccuser |
Steve: Submits a loan request on behalf of his customer
1) Open a browser and navigate to ActiveVOS Central (http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central)2) Log on as loancsr1 / loancsr1
3) Select the Request category in the left navigation pane
4) Select the Loans and Credit folder
5) Select Personal Loan Application
6) Select the Open in Tab button to open the form in its own tab (giving you a little more realestate to work with)
7) Enter loan details and press the Submit button at the bottom of the form
- Remember, to ensure a task is created to review the loan, either enter a loan-amount > 50000 or an interest rate > 8 (or containing string data as seen below).
- Notice how the form contains embedded web pages and links to assist the CSR in finding the best available interest rate and additional documentation that needs to be provided by the loan applicant
Mike: Views the ActiveVOS Console
The ActiveVOS Console provides a wealth of information for both business users and IT personnel. For security reasons, access to various pages within the console can be restricted from use.Process instance information and data logs are persisted to a database. By using the console, it is possible to view details about processes in any state (running, completed, suspended, faulted, etc.). It is also possible for administrators to suspend or terminate running processes. If a process is suspended, process variables can be modified and the process can be resumed – allowing owners or administrators the ability to 'fix' a process that may be in trouble.
A typical use case for looking at the details of a process instance is to debug a process that has faulted. Root-cause analysis is a case for examining a process that completed normally - for instance an auditor may need to determine exactly what happened to cause the outcome of a specific process instance.
1) Log into the ActiveVOS Console at http://samples.activevos.com/activevos/home.action
If your Console
has been secured, you will be prompted to log-in as a user with admin
priveleges (as seen here):
3) Click on either the Process ID or Name to display instance details
- The process graph is annotated with intuitive markers to display activities that completed, faulted or were skipped
- From the Outline view (shown above) you can:
- Select process variables, activities and objects – details are displayed directly under the process graph
- Suspend or terminate running processes, and resume a
process if it’s been suspended
- From the Log view
- You’re presented with a sequential log of activity and data change events. You’ll notice that by running your mouse over items in the log, the process diagram synchronizes to the corresponding activity.
- Double clicking on a log entry will basically 'freeze' all variables at that exact point in time. When the 'execution point' is frozen, if you go back to the outline view and select a variable, you will see the value of the variable at the time of the execution point – even if the variable was within a loop.
5) As shown above, the process should be waiting for the Review Loan activity to be completed
Wendy: Reviews the loan application and makes a decision
For loan applications where the customers credit history is unknown, or any loan that is considered 'large' (as determined by a business rule within the process), the loan must be reviewed by a loan representative. All other loans are automatically either approved or denied by the process. As a Loan Representative, Wendy will claim, review and complete the next available loan application within her work queue.1) Log into the ActiveVOS Central task list with the credentials of loanrep1 / loanrep1.
3) Select the Loans waiting to be processed folder
4) Select the task containing the loan information you've just entered
5) Click the claim button
to
claim and start the task. 
- You can work on the task directly in the preview pane (the area below the task list), or click on the Open in Tab button to view and work on the task in a separate tab.
6) Approve the loan by selecting 'approved" from the Response to Loan Request dropdown list control
7) Enter additoinal text for the Response Description
8) Click on the Complete button
9) If you've opened the task in a separate tab, close the tab
10) Refresh the task list by selecting the refresh button
- The task is no longer in the work queue, but can now be view from the Loans I've processed folder
11) At this point, the ActiveVOS Console should show that the process has completed successfully
Marcy: Adjusts the "cutoff" threshold for automatic loan processing
The management team has decided that if more than 5% of the loan applications are routed for human review (during any one-hour 'window'), the loan manager can adjust a business rule used in the branching conditions within the process. By increasing the dollar amount which is allowed for automatic loan processing, fewer loan applications will be routed for human approval going forward.The power of CEP is in the fact that thresholds can be defined (e.g. 5% human review), and actions taken based on key performance indicators (thresholds) across multiple running and/or completed processes (not just a single process instance).
1) To "prime the pump", we've put together a batch file which executes 10 instances of the LoanProcess. The batch contains 2 applications which are routed through the human approval task - thus exceeding the CEP threshold of 5% within an hour.
- From the Project Explorer View, Right-Mouse on GererateLoanRequests / generateRequests.xml'
- Select 'Run As / Ant Build' from the pop-up menu
- The Console View will begin to show activity as the process instances are submitted to the ActiveVOS engine
2) View the Active Processes list in the ActiveVOS Console to ensure the Managers task was created by the CEP engine
3) Log in to ActiveVOS Central as loanmgr1 / loanmgr1
4) Select the 'Open' folder in the Tasks Category
5) Claim and Complete the 'Adjust auto-review threshold' task as shown below (enter 12500 for the new amount)
- First Name = Bob
- Last Name = Smith
- Amount $ = 4000
- Rate & Terms = 3.5
7) After submitting the request, the response should indicate that the loan was automatically approved
- In the ActiveVOS Console, select the Catalog menu item
- Select All from the Resoures category in the left navigation panel
- Enter 'approvalParameters.xml' (no quotes) in the Selction Filter at the bottom of the page (as shown below) and click the Submitt button
- Select the approvalParameters.xml resource file from the filtered list
- Note: When you redeploy the LoanProcess by executing the LoanProcess.bprd file included in this sample, the approvalParameters.xml file in the resource catalog will be replaced with the 'original' file from the project.
- Note: The value could also be replaced directly in the catalog by typing in a new value and selecting the Update button
About Active Endpoints
Active Endpoints (www.activevos.com) is the leading developer of visual orchestration systems. ActiveVOS empowers line of business project teams to create applications using services and industry standards, making their businesses more agile and effective. Active Endpoints’ ActiveVOS promotes mass adoption of SOA-enabled applications by focusing on accelerating project delivery time with a standards-based, easy to use system. Active Endpoints is headquartered in Waltham, MA with development facilities in Shelton, CT.
To find out how Active Endpoints can help your business, visit www.activevos.com, call +1 781 547 2948, or email us at info@activevos.com.