The next thing we'll need to add in our process are routes. Routes are typically nodes where decisions are made and (based on the rules of your process), the flow of the application maybe be altered. Strictly speaking, the position of a route in a swimlane doesn't really matter and will not change the logic of your process. For practicality sake tho, its probably best to make it as legible as possible. Before modifying our process, there are 2 general concepts that you should be familiar with when dealing with routes. Given that routes are generally used to affect flow and insert logic and rules into your process, there are 3 types of common constructs for routes. These are:
Decisions
Decisions are used when you want to insert a point in your process, where the flow will be determined by a set of rules. For instance, given our current example, once a requestor submits a leave request, the supevisor will review. The transition from the requestor to a supervisor happens in a straight line (That's to say once a requestor submits, it will always go to the supervisor. There are no other circumstances or conditions in which that will not be true). Now what the supervisor decides to do will cause a decision. The supervisor could choose to accept or reject the application. If the supervisor rejects it, a mail gets sent to the original requestor. Otherwise, it will be forwarded to the HOD.
Given those scenarios, our process will look along the lines of:
Now the scenario above would work but there is a very important caveat to insert here. Based on the rules above, if the approval value is "accept", it will route to the HOD. If the approval value is "reject" then a mail would be sent. However, if a mistake is made in the form or during user input and the value of approval is neither accept or reject, the process gets stuck since there's no valid rule to follow. To that end, the best practices of decision routing recommends that we use the otherwise operator in all circumstances. If we make a slight change to the scenario above, and set the transition to system as otherwise, we'll end up with:
Now effectively the processes remains unaltered. If the value of approval is "accept" it will route to the HOD. Any other value, and the email will be sent.
Forks
A fork is used when your process needs to split separate ways concurrently. That essentially mean that your process is now travelling to 2 separate paths (hence, fork). Lets say for an instance that in our given example, once the requestor submits his leave application, a notification gets sent to *both* his supervisor and the HOD at the same time. If that was the case, we'll need to add a route, set the split type to "and" and our process will look like:
NOTE: If done correctly, you'll see a little plus sign (+) show up in your route.
Joins
Joins usually occur when you have separate paths (usually caused by previous forks) in your process that you intend to merge. Lets expand our example a little father. Once the requestor as submitted his leave application, the both the supervisor and HOD are notified. Once they have responded, the application now ends up at the back office desk for farther processing. Now there are 2 types of joins available to you:
- XOR (or exclusive ORs in geek talk). Means the route is active and considered fulfilled once *any* of the transitions reaches it. Effectively, if you use the XOR option in your join route, the back office will be notified the moment either the supervisor or HOD responds.
- AND. Means the route will hold in wait for *all* the transitions to complete reaching it. Effectively, if you use the AND option, the back office will only be notified once both the supervisor and the HOD responds.
In any case, once we understand the essential route concepts, we'll move back to our application. Now we know that once the requestor submits an application, the supervisor will approve. If the supervisor approves, it will go to the HOD for approval. Given those circumstances, there are clearly 2 routes we'll need. One for when the supervisor approves and one for when the HOD approves. Again, while the position of the routes in specific swimlanes doesn't really matter, there's much to say for keeping our process legible; so after adding the routes, your process should look like:
