Process Automation Overview

Introduction

Process automation is a series of automated actions to achieve a certain business goal. Using process automation, processes can be automated to sequentially transition from the next task to the next.

For example, the following processes can be automated:

• Responding to a platform event.
• Scheduling a job.

The benefits include:

• Automation is totally driven by the user.
• Automation is implement with a simple architecture that uses drag-and-drop options.
• Custom business logic can be defined without any programming skills.

Key terms

The following are the list of common process terms:

• Process: A process is a series of elements that work towards achieving a business goal. A process can contain multiple process flows, which represent multiple paths in a process.
• Process Diagram: A process diagram is a graphical representation of a process. The process diagram can have events, tasks, sequence flows, and sub-processes.
• Process Flow: A process flow is one possible path that can be taken in a process, as represented by following a sequence of arrows from left to right in a process diagram.
• Events: Events determine how a process flow must start/end/send signals to other elements in the middle. In a process diagram, events are represented in circles. All processes must start and end with an event.
• Tasks: A task refers to a single unit of work to be performed in a process. The task is represented as a rectangle with rounded corners.
• Gateway: Gateways are flow elements that define the flow of your process.
• Sequence flow: A sequence flow is an arrow that connects one element with the next element.

Process automation workflow elements

List of element icons used in process automation:

Icon	Name	Description
	Start Event	Start events help you to define how a process must start.
	End Event	End event defines the process is complete.
	Signal Start Event	A signal start event runs processes when a specific event is triggered. For example, when an alert is created from a certain metric with a Critical state.
	Timer Start Event	A timer start event runs processes based on a schedule that includes start time with a recurrence schedule. For example, a process can run every on the first Monday of every month at 9 AM.
	Task	A task refers to a single unit of work to be performed in a process.
	Send Task	A Send task represents a task that sends a notification to one or more users at a specified point in the process.
	Script Task	A script task is used to run a script in the process. You can either run an Agent based script or Agentless script via Ansible control node. Agent based script can be created in the following languages: POWERSHELL Python SHELL
	Service Task	A service task is used to perform a service. The service can either be a service provided by OpsRamp or an external service.
	Gateway	Gateways control the flow of execution in a process. The gateways can split one process flow into multiple process flows when a decision is made in the process. In addition to splitting a process flow, gateways are categorized by how they interact with the process flows.
	Exclusive gateway	Exclusive gateway allows you to model a decision in your process and to create alternative flows in a process. It represents an EITHER/OR decision.
	Parallel Gateway	A parallel gateway allows you to execute activities concurrently. When a parallel gateway splits one process flow into multiple, it represents an AND decision, meaning all outflow paths will be considered.
	Sequence flow	A sequence flow connects two elements in a process. In a sequence flow, after the execution of an element in the process, all the outgoing sequences are followed.
	Conditional flow	A conditional flow is for executing a process under certain conditions.
	Default flow	The default flow refers to the flow that has to be followed when none of the conditions are met.

Process definition steps

Process definition involves the following steps:

1. Creating a process workflow.
2. Deploying the workflow.