What is the Terminology used by AMX(Oracle SOA Approval Management extensions)?
- RULES - Based on Oracle Business Rules (OBR), this allows customers to setup rules based on the context within which they operate, allowing logic to be based on almost every known attribute of the document, the requester, the buyer and the supplier (to name only a few). A different set of rules is setup within each Business Unit (BU) for each different document type: Requisition, Purchase Order, Contract Agreement, Blanket Agreement.
- RULESET - one or more Rules. As a child of the stage, they are required for setup. Each RuleSet must have a Participant Type, Voting Regime and List Builder defined.
- ACTION - An Action is an instruction to AMX to include a given set of approvers in a transaction's approver list. Example of an action: Require approvals up to position = VP.
- TASK - Each approval type is setup in AMX as a TASK, such as ReqApproval for requisitions and DocApproval for PO's/Agreements.
- TASK TYPE -This is a categorization of tasks, with Approval and Change Order the key ones for Procurement.
- ALLOWSELFAPPROVAL - Owner can Approve will be obsolete within the Document Type page. A Global Attribute, AllowSelfApproval is included within all Approval Tasks. This attribute will be seeded with Allow Self Approval set to No, meaning that by default Self Approval will be turned off for all Business Units. Note: With this default setting of No, if no applicable rules apply to an individual document which is submitted for Approval, then an Error will be displayed (No Rules exist within AMX relating to this document, please contact your Administrator).
- STAGE - A stage is a specific approval point associated with a Dimension. A set of approval rules or policies are associated with each stage. A separate list of approvers will be generated for each stage, based on the rules applicable and the approval list builders defined in the rule. A purchase order may have approval rules for the Header, Line, or Line Location stages/dimensions.
- COLLECTION - A stage is also associated to a COLLECTION and this is the list of attributes (data) that can be used in the logic in the ruless within that stage. Examples are DocumentType (Standard, Contract, Blankets) or documentCurrencyApprovalTotal (order amount).
- PARTICIPANT TYPES - the users that act as approvers. The types control how they are invoked during the approval rule execution, whether it is a serial process that sends notification to only the first approver and no-one else until they have taken action, or a parallel process where all approvers get notifications straight away and responses can come in any order.
- VOTING REGIME - How the approval process will progress. Examples might be the standard serial approach where each approver must action in turn or a consensus approach where progress occurs only when every approver responds.
- LIST BUILDERS - This is the type of process by which the particiant list of approvers is assembled. It is setup to pull a hierachy or group of people from the application and pass them into the approval process.
- LIST CREATION POLICY - is made up of the setup, done through the following items:
- A List Builder
- A Stopping Rule
- A Response Type
- Whether to include all members in the list
- A Voting Regime
