Getting Started With Approvals Management Engine

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Getting Started With Approvals Management Engine

• John PetersJRPJR, Inc.
• john.peters_at_jrpjr.com

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Before We Start A Quick Audience Survey

• How many of you have used approvals in Workflow?
• How many of you have had to customize the
  Workflow to accomplish the required approvals?
• How many of you have tried Approvals Management
  Engine?

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What we are going to cover

• E-Business Suite Modules that currently utilize
  Approvals Management Engine
• Technically where is AME
• Where does Approvals Management Engine fit into
  the Workflow approvals processing
• System Administration steps to enable Approvals
  Management Engine (briefly)
• Definition of AME processes
• Testing AME processing
• Quick Demo of AME (time permitting)

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Modules that currently utilize AME
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Many OraApps Modules Have Restrictions

• Requisition Approvals can not be forwarded to
  other approvers
• Quote Approvals can not process approvals in
  parallel
• Please review the restrictions for your OraApps
  Module on Metalink

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Technically Where is AME

• Tables exist in HR schema
• Tables begin with AME_
• This tells us that Oracle views this as a
  component of HR
• This is very important to realize since the
  functionality is HR centric in the approval list
  building process

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How does AME fit in?

• AME builds approval lists.
• AME uses the logic you setup to control the
  building of the approval list.
• AME does not send notifications or handle any of
  the other required glue in an approval process.
• Typically AME is just a few new
  processes/functions on an existing approval
  process defined in Workflow.

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Using the Requisition Approval process as an
example
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Using the Requisition Approval process as an
example (cont.)
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Using the Requisition Approval process as an
example (cont.)
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Sysadmin steps to enable AME

• Assign responsibilities/roles to your system
  administrators
• Setup AME System Wide Configuration
• Setup module specific Profile Options
• Assign responsibilities/roles to your functional
  users who will be setting up AME
• Setup AME functionality for module
• Steps 1-4 are only covered briefly here and are
  quite involved, we are going to instead
  concentrate on step 5

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Assign resp/roles to Sys. Admins

• AME uses the new User Management functionality
• You must assign the responsibility User
  Management to the people who will assign AME
  responsibilities to others
• Have to do this assignment as the SYSADMIN
  OraApps user
• The role to be assign is Security Administrator
  

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Setup AME Configuration Parameters

• Using the responsibility Approvals Management
  Administrator the SysAdmins can assign setup
  the AME Configuration Parameters.
• For the most part these parameters can remain
  with their default values.

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Assign resp/roles to functional super users

• The SysAdmins must assign AME functional roles
  to the required OraApps user accounts using the
  User Management
• The responsibility Approvals Management Business
  Analyst is assigned along with the required
  roles, viewable in the Indirect Responsibilities
  tab of the Define Users form.

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Setup AME Profile Options

• 'AMEInstalled' at the Application Levels
• Oracle Quoting Yes
• For quoting there are several others to setup,
  these are module specific
• 'ASO Enable Approvals' Yes
• 'ASO Allow Skip Approvers' No

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AME Approvers

• AME Approvers must be setup as FND_USERs
• AME Approvers must be setup as Employees

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Setup AME Module Functionality

• The responsibility to be used is Approvals
  Management Business Analyst
• Each OraApps module has different specific
  values, but the same general setup process holds
  true for each.

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AME Allows For Very Complex Approval Rules

• An example of Quote Approval Requirements
• Discounts have different approval limits by
  product line by operating unit
• Terms non-standard (non-default)
• If the Sales Person is New
• Sales Person Technical Review Required
• Total Quote Price is 0
• Verify quote total is not less than GSA total
• Remove Service Agreement items from
  quote/discount totals
• Quote approvals go no higher than the VP of Sales
• All of these were implemented through
  customized of AME Attributes

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Definition of the AME Process

• Define Attributes
• Define Conditions
• Define Action Types
• Define Approval Groups
• Define Rules
• Test Process
• All of this takes place on the AME Business
  Analyst Dashboard

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Example of Approval Rules
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AME Dashboard
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AME Attributes

• AME Attributes are the variables which are
  evaluated by your AME Process as it runs
• AME Attributes can be Header or Line Item
• Dynamic Attributes are filled in at run time by
  an SQL query
• AME Attribute values are all stored internally as
  string values limited to a length of 100
  characters
• Most customization activity is around Attributes

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AME Attributes Data Types

• Boolean
• True or False
• Currency
• (amount,denomination,conversion method)
• Date
• YYYYMONDDHH24MISS
• Number
• Integer or decimal (using users character set
  decimal point)
• String
• Up to 100 characters in length

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Currency Attributes

• An SQL routine which populates a Currency
  Attribute must return three columns
• Amount decimal value
• Denomination 3 Char Currency Code
• Conversion Method Corporate
• Static definitions are like the
  following5000.00,USD,Corporate

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Number Attributes

• SQL routines should run the numeric values
  through the PL/SQL function fnd_number.number_to_
  canonical

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Date Attributes

• Stored as a string
• There is a PL/SQL date format mask you can use to
  format datesame_util.versionDateFormatModel
• YYYYMONDDHH24MISS
• Notice there are no spaces.

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Dynamic Attributes

• Dynamic attributes can be populated by an SQL
  expression.Select to_char(sysdate,
  ame_util.versionDateFormatModel) from dual
• All Attributes are stored internally as strings.
• Must return one row.
• The transactionid is passed as a bind variable
  to the query. This is the key for the AME
  processes execution.
• Limitation on SQL of 2000 characters

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PL/SQL Usage

• It is often advantageous to call a PL/SQL
  function rather than embed an SQL script in the
  attribute definition.
• This has the added benefit of preventing
  functional users who can setup AME from modifying
  the underlying SQL.
• Drawback is that Currency values require three
  PL/SQL function calls.

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PL/SQL Example
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PL/SQL Currency Example

• You end up with Currency PL/SQL calls like the
  following.
• select MY_PACKAGE.GET_MY_AMOUNT(transactionId),
  MY_PACKAGE.GET_MY_CURRENCY(transactionId),
  MY_PACKAGE.GET_MY_CONVERSION_TYPE(transactionId)
  from dual

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Conditions

• There are two types of conditions
• Regular ConditionsSimple logic statements
• Technical Review Required Y
• Discount is greater than -12 and less than or
  equal to -7.23
• List Modifier Conditions
• Any approver is Adams, John

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Regular Conditions
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Regular Conditions
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List Modifier Conditions
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Action Types

• Action Types are groups of similar actions that
  build your approval list for you.
• Common Predefined Action Rule Types are
• Chain of authority action types
• List Modification action types
• Post List Approval Group
• Pre List Approval Group

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Some of the Chain of Authority Action Types

• Job Level
• absolute job level
• chains of authority based on absolute job level
• relative job level
• chains of authority based on relative job level
• final approver only
• chains of authority containing only the final
  job-level approver
• Position
• hr position
• chains of authority based on a particular HR
  position
• hr position level
• chains of authority based on HR positions
• Hierarchy
• manager then final approver
• chain of authority includes requestor's manager
  and then the final approver
• supervisory level
• chains of authority based on number of
  supervisory levels

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Job Level
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Chain of authority action types
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Absolute Job Level

• Actions
• Require approvals up to at most level 2
• Require approvals up to at most level 3
• or
• Require approvals up to at least level 2
• Require approvals up to at least level 3
• Whats the difference
• Chain of approvers have levels 1,2,3,5 (4 is
  missing)
• Requires Level 4 approval
• At most gt 1,2,3
• At least gt 1,2,3,5

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List Modification Action Types

• final authority
• grant final authority to an approver
• nonfinal authority
• extend the chain of authority past an approver

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List modification action types
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Pre or Post List Approval Groups

• These actions add a list of approvers either
  before or after the approval is built.
• Approvals in group can be serial or parallel.

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Pre or Post List Approval Groups
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Approval Groups

• Either static or dynamic lists of approvers
• Approvals can be
• Serial Voting (one after another, all for
  approval)
• Consensus Voting (majority wins)
• First-Responder-Wins Voting (parallel voting)
• Order-Number Voting (one after another, all for
  approval)(allows for parallel voting)

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Approval Groups
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Rules

• Rules are where one or more conditions result in
  an action.
• This is what everyone has been waiting for.

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Rules Level 2 Approval

• Actual Definition form

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Rules List Modification

• Actual Definition form

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Testing the Process

• AME has an excellent Test Workbench for seeing
  how all these rules will actually work in real
  life.

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Testing the Process

• Put in Transaction ID. For Quoting that is the
  Quote Header ID.
• Historical transactions are required.

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Testing the Process

• This dumps the attribute values

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Testing the Process

• This dumps rules and final approver list

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My Suggestion

• AME is complex, dont try to understand it all at
  once
• Put in some OraApps Module Transactions
• Dive into AME and just try some simple test cases
• You will end up making changes
• With the Test Workbench you can easily see how
  your setups are working

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Summary

• Approvals Management Engine allows for complex
  approval processes
• Customizations are primarily accomplished with
  minimal code to pull in new Attribute values
• This product is complex and the documentation is
  very difficult to understand, hopefully this
  presentation has given you a brief introduction
  to Approvals Management Engine

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• My contact information
• John Petersjohn.peters_at_jrpjr.com
  http//www.jrpjr.com
• Additional reference papers can be found
  athttp//www.norcaloaug.org
• http//www.jrpjr.com