1. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved.
DOMOREA C E 2 0 1 3

2. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved.
A C E 2 0 1 3
Customizing Change Management
Learn how to modify Workflows &
Lifecycles to match your business
processes

3. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 3
Agenda
 Review a Standard Change Process (ECN)
 Change Process Customization:
 Add steps to a workflow
 Disable unneeded validation rules
 Rename a Lifecycle state
 Add a validation rule
 Set a property on change item release
 Creating a new Change Process
 Conclusions

4. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 4
Standard ECN Process
 Customizable
 Easily modify workflow to match your business process
 Modify Activities, Life Cycle states, etc.
 Add or change data validations
 Extensible
 Solution framework designed for expanding existing
functionality
 Majority of logic contained in a single method
 Core behaviors driven from Life Cycle, not Workflow

5. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 5
Standard ECN Workflow
Submit ECN
ECN
Planning
Update
Documents
Review
Documents
ECN Audit
ECN
Released
 Workflow models activities that people perform
 Based on the CMII standard
 Assume analysis of the change is done upfront on an ECR
 This is mostly sequential process with only a review loop
 Other change items have different workflows

6. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 6
New In Planning In Review ReleasedIn Work
Standard ECN Lifecycle
 Lifecycle models all possible states of an item
 State tells anyone looking at the item where it is in
its lifecycle
 Lifecycle drives change logic

7. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 7
New In Planning In Review ReleasedIn Work
Standard ECN Process
Submit ECN
ECN
Planning
Update
Documents
Review
Documents
ECN Audit
ECN
Released
 Workflow drives Lifecycle, Lifecycle drives Logic
 Workflow Promotions used to move the ECN from
one state to the next

8. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 8
New In Planning In Review ReleasedIn Work
Standard ECN Process
Submit ECN
ECN
Planning
Update
Documents
Review
Documents
ECN Audit
ECN
Released
Completion Check Validation
Transition Validation
Affected Item Processing
Release Logic
Method PE_ChangeItemTransition
Method PE_OnChangeItemRelease

9. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 9
PE_ChangeItemTransition
 Validation and Affected Item Processing for:
 ECN
 Simple ECO
 Express ECO
 Express DCO
 Primary Methods:
 ValidateState: Completion Check Validation
 ValidateTransition: Transition Check Validation
 ProcessTransition: Affected Item Processing

10. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 10
PE_OnChangeItemRelease
 Calls PE_update_has_change_pending method to
update the Changes Pending flag on Affected Items
 Calls Set Release Date to set the release date on the
ECN

11. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 11
Common ECN Customizations
 Adding steps to the workflow
 Disabling an unneeded validation rule
 Renaming a Lifecycle state
 Adding a validation rule
 Setting a property on ECN release

12. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 12
New In Planning In Review ReleasedIn Work
Custom ECN Workflow
Submit ECN
ECN
Planning
Update
Documents
Internal
Review
ECN Audit
ECN
Released
 No code changes necessary
 Just make sure the Promotions are on the first
workflow activity within the State
Assign
Resources
Customer
Approval

13. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 13
Custom ECN Workflow
Promotions Tab
Promotion from
In Work to In Review
Need to update PE_ChangeItemTransition to support new LifeCycle states and transitions

14. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 14
Disabling a Validation Rule
class ECN : ChangeItem
{
...
protected override ResultStatus ValidateState()
{
...
switch (this.State)
{
case "In Planning":
//thisValidationRules.IsAffectedItemExists(status);
...
protected override ResultStatus ValidateTransition()
{
switch (this.Transition.ToString())
{
case "In Planning->In Work":
//thisValidationRules.IsAffectedItemExists(status);
Search for the
class for your
change type
ValidateState()
does Completeness
Checks
Comment out the rule
you want to disable
ValidateTransition()
does transition rules
NOTES:
1. ValidateState is on line 554
2. ValidateTransition is on approximately line 600
a. Matches on specific transition such as ‘In Planning->In Work’ and then calls a set of
individual methods to process validations such as:
i. Check Affected Id and New Item Id

15. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 15
class ECN : ChangeItem
{
...
protected override ResultStatus ValidateState()
{
...
switch (this.State)
{
case "Scheduling ":
...
protected override ResultStatus ValidateTransition()
{
...
switch (this.Transition.ToString())
{
case "Scheduling->In Work":
...
public override Item ProcessTransition()
{
...
switch (this.Transition.ToString())
{
case "Scheduling->In Work":
...
Renaming a Lifecycle State
ValidateState()
does Completeness
Checks

16. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 16
Adding a Validation Rule
Add to the Validation
Rule Interface
…
interface IChangeItemValidationRules
{
…
void isChangeItemTitlePopulated(ResultStatus status);
}
…
abstract class ChangeItem : ItemContext, IChangeItemValidationRules
{
…
#region Validation Rules
void IChangeItemValidationRules.isChangeItemTitlePopulated(ResultStatus status)
{
string title = this.Item.getProperty("title","");
if (title==""){
status.AddError("ValidateChangeItem_IsAffectedTitlePopulated",this.Type,this.Number);
}
}
class ECN : ChangeItem
{
…
protected override ResultStatus ValidateState()
{
…
switch (this.State)
{
case "In Planning":
…
thisValidationRules.isChangeItemTitlePopulated(status);
…
protected override ResultStatus ValidateTransition()
{
…
switch (this.Transition.ToString())
{
case "In Planning->In Work":
…
thisValidationRules.isChangeItemTitlePopulated(status);
…
Implement the rule
Add to ValidateState()
Add to
ValidateTransition()

17. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 17
Setting an ECN Property
this.setAction("PE_update_has_change_pending");
this.apply();
this.setAction("Set Release Date");
this.apply();
Item chgItem = this.newItem(this.getType(),"edit");
chgItem.setProperty("is_complete","1");
chgItem = chgItem.apply();
return this;
 Edit PE_OnChangeItemRelease
Add logic to edit the
ECN

18. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 18
Creating a new Change Process
 Create your change ItemType and a relationship
to Affected Item
 Create your Workflow and LifeCycle
 Edit PE_ChangeItemTransition
 Copy an existing Change Item class
 Copy existing validation rules and transition processing
 Add any new validation rules or processing
 Link your workflow, lifecycle and logic
 It’s not hard to do

19. aras.comCopyright © 2013 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 19
Conclusions
 Existing change processes can be adapted
 Workflow changes typically need no scripting updates
 Lifecycle changes may require minor scripting changes
 Validation or transition changes require some scripting
 Setting change item properties is straightforward
 Once you understand where everything is done, changes
become much faster & easier
 New change processes can be created
 Copy workflow, lifecycle and code from existing items
 Leverage existing validation rules and processing logic
 Customize as needed… quickly, easily and can be upgraded

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