HCM Processes & Forms is delivered by SAP to enable customers to create their own HCM self-service scenario’s. These processes can be triggered by the employee, his/her manager or another HR-related employee (e.g. HR Adivsor). Customers can build various online (and offline) forms that may have different layouts per process or even per process step (fields or sections can be displayed or hidden per step).
Each process can also have its own workflow process attached in which the form may be sent to different actors or in which different others steps may be performed depending on the results (send mails, update infotypes or other data, etc.).
These capabilities make this framework very suitable for these types of processes. Different processes will often have similar steps such as Approval by Manager, Resubmit by Initiator after rejection, Saving data after final approval, sending mails, etc. In case a customer wants to implement multiple scenario’s it is therefore a good idea to develop a generic workflow solution, which can easily be configured for different processes. This will speed up development of future scenario’s and will also simplify future maintenance due to uniformity of the processes!
I have been involved in various projects at different customers where this was a requirement. Therefore a generic workflow solution was designed and implemented which was capable to support all processes required by the customer. All processes use one and the same main workflow. The process flow and steps to be performed can be configured per process using a set of customizing tables and a set of re-usable subworkflows. Actor determination per process step and other conditions (use or skip next step?) can also be configured using the customizing tables.
These projects have shown that this is a very successful way of implementing multiple forms in one organization!