Pega 7.3 Module Definitions

Urgency calculated from the service level rule. The value is the sum of the initial urgency and the urgency increments for the goal, deadline, and passed deadline intervals. As an assignment ages in a workbasket or worklist, Pega increases the value of .pxUrgencyAssignSLA according to the configuration of the service level agreement.

.pxUrgencyAssignSLA

Default urgency for the case type with a default value of 10

.pxUrgencyWork

Manual adjustment for the assignment urgency. This value enables a user to increase the urgency of an assignment by running a local action.

.pyUrgencyAssignAdjust

The rule variant is effective after a certain date, or during a range of dates. After the specified date or during the specified range, the application applies the circumstanced variant of the rule, rather than the base rule.

As-Of Date

.pxUrgencyWork .pxUrgencyAssignSLA .pyUrgencyAssignAdjust

Assignment Urgency Factors (three)

In a declare expression means that a target property value is not automatically updated when other declare expressions in a network update their target values. An expression using backward chaining only updates its target property when the application references the property by name. A form, a decision table, or a data transform can reference the property. When the property is referenced, the expression goes back in the network to reference the source property or properties the expression needs to update its target.

Backward Chaining

A dynamic layout is a general purpose layout used to a organize a single set of fields. Dynamic layouts support responsive behavior to support use on multiple devices (computer, tablet, phone). As the screen size changes, the layout shifts its contents to wrap content on-screen.

Dynamic Layout

Adding in instruction descriptions in Pega helps let the end-user identify what should get accomplished.

Instructions

Contains the rules that describe how the application interacts with other systems, such as a customer database or a third-party web server.

Integration Class

Layouts contain rows and columns, defining a set of cells.

Layouts

Add the ruleset to the application rule as a production ruleset. A production ruleset is a ruleset containing rules that can be modified after the application deploys.

Production Ruleset

In Pega, data elements are called properties or fields. Property and field are different names for the same thing. Properties can be either single value with no intended correlation with any other value, or a collection of related values. This distinction is explained by the mode of a property. System architects typically work with two types of property modes: value modes and page modes.

Properties/Fields

A step can be an action that a user performs, an automatic action performed by the application, or other processes that contain a separate set of actions.

Step

Used to organize process steps that are not part of the "normal course of events" but must be available under certain circumstances.

Alternate Stages

Value mode properties store single strings of data such as text, numbers, or dates. Page mode properties act as a container for value mode properties.

Briefly describe the two types of property modes.

Work that delivers a business outcome. The outcome of a case is a meaningful deliverable provided to a customer, partner, or internal stakeholder. A deliverable can be processing a health insurance claim, onboarding a new mortgage, or designing and releasing a new product.

Case

The primary indicator of progress of a case towards resolution. The case status is updated as the case moves through the case life cycle. For example, a case status of New is assigned to each case when the case is created. As the case progresses through the case life cycle, the status of the case is updated at each step.

Case Status

A case type is an abstract model of a business transaction, while a case is a specific instance of the transaction. You can think of a case type as a template for creating and processing cases. When a new transaction starts, a new case is created based on the case type definition.

Case Type

A modeling technique Pega uses to describe, in business terms, how a business application should work. Case life cycle design allows business users to see, and interact with a case in the same way they think about it.

Case life cycle design

A cell can be empty or contain various fields and controls.

Cells

A case that is covered by a parent case. When you configure a case as a child case, Pega maintains a relationship between the parent an child cases. Child cases represent work that must be completed to resolve the parent case.

Child Case

In Pega applications, you model complex exceptions through circumstancing. With circumstancing, you create a variant of a rule—such as a decision or a service level—tailored to a specific circumstance. When an application uses a circumstanced rule, the system determines which rule variant best satisfies the need. Circumstancing allows you to customize the behavior of your application to address each exception condition you identify using a collection of targeted rules rather than one complex, difficult-to-maintain rule.

Circumstancing

Within an application, Pega groups rules according to their capacity for reuse. Each grouping is a class. Each application consists of three types of classes (Work, Integration, Data). A class can also contain other classes. A class that contains another class is called a parent class, while a class that is contained by another class is called a child class. A child class can reuse, or inherit, any of the rules defined for its parent class.

Class

The classes that comprise an application are called a class hierarchy. The class hierarchy determines how system architects can reuse rules within the application. The class hierarchy consists of several groups of classes: Classes that describe a specific case type, such as expense reports or auto insurance claims. Classes that collect common rules and data elements. These classes allow the reuse of rules at the division and organization level, such as an approval process shared across the entire IT department. Classes from other applications, such as industry-specific Pega applications. You can use a generic application for policy administration as a base for customizing versions for different policy types. Base classes provided by the Pega platform. These classes contain rules that provide basic functionality for processing cases. For example, the Pega platform provides data elements that record who created a case and the time needed to complete an assignment.

Class Hierarchy

The clipboard consists of all of the pages used to track the name-value pairs that represent case and session data. The clipboard receives its name because pages can be added to or removed from memory as needed to track case or session data. Therefore, when a value is assigned to a data element, the data element and its value are said to be on the clipboard.

Clipboard

The Start shape indicates the beginning of flow processing. Each flow rule must contain a single Start shape. A single Start shape is automatically added to every flow rule. The Assignment shape creates a task in a work list or work queue so a user can provide input to the case. The Subprocess shape indicates a reference to another flow rule from the current flow rule. Portions of a process can be divided into a smaller process to enable reuse in other flow rules. The standard Approve/Reject step completes via subprocess. The Utility shape indicates an automated system action. Pega executes automated system actions without requiring human intervention. Examples of automated system actions include changing the stage of the current case, sending an email, or creating a new case. The End shape indicates the end of flow processing. Each flow rule may include one or more End shapes to represent the potential end points of the process. Each flow shape connects to other flow shapes through the use of a connector. The Connector defines the sequence of flow execution. The flow execution begins with the Start shape and proceeds from one shape to the next in the order the shapes connect to each other.

Common Flow Model Shapes: Start (Green Circle) Assignment (Green Rectangle) Subprocess (Blue Rectangle) Utility (Orange Rectangle) End (Red Circle) Connection (Gray Arrow)

A conditional path is a branch in the life cycle of a case that is contingent upon run-time values. By defining the business logic decisions that cause a case to follow different paths, you can improve the flexibility of your application.

Conditional Path

Controls are another way you restrict users from entering or selecting invalid values on a form. For example, when a view requires a date, using a calendar control ensures that users enter a date value. If the user needs to enter free-form data such as an address, you can use a text input control. You can also use controls to allow users to select only valid values. For example, you can use drop-down lists or radio buttons so that users can select only the available values. In addition to ensuring valid values, you can make required fields. This ensures that users enter a value before they can complete an assignment.

Controls

Contains the rules that describe the data objects used in the application, such as a customer or collection of order items.

Data Class

Each data element in a Pega application is a pairing of two pieces of information: the name of the data element, and the value assigned to the data element. For example, when you use a data element to capture the date of birth of an person, the data element name is date of birth, and the corresponding value is a date such as July 20, 1969.

Data Element

The data elements or collection of related data elements in a case type. The data model defines the case type data structure.

Data Model

You use a data page to retrieve data for your application, regardless of the source. Data pages cache data on demand to a clipboard page and have a scope.

Data Pages

Data propagation is the mechanism of copying data within the case hierarchy. By sharing data among cases, you save time by eliminating the manual task of copying data and you provide relevant information to caseworkers. Data propagation ensures that the appropriate information is moved into a child case. In Pega, data propagation happens on case creation. When you propagate a property from a parent case to a child case or to a spin-off case, and the property value later changes on the parent case, the property on the child case or spin-off case does not get updated.

Data Propagation

For list structures, the sourcing options include, connector, data transform, report definition, or a load activity. For page structures, the lookup data source replaces report definition as an option. Connector: Use a connector to obtain data from an external data source as specified by the connector type. Data Transform: Use the data transform option to populate a data page using a data transform. Report Definition: Use a report definition to return a list of data objects mapped in the application. Look-up: Use the look-up to return a specific data object mapped in the application. Load Activity: The activity can be used for special situations where none of the other options are suitable.

Data Sources: Connector Data Transform Report Definition Look-up Load Activity

One option for copying and manipulating data is the data transform. The purpose of a data transform is self-explanatory: it transforms data in the application. You can use data transforms in several ways. For example, you can call a data transform from a flow action rule or from a connector. Also, you can use special data transform rules — pyDefault or pySetFieldDefaults — to initialize property values when creating a case. Data transforms can be used to iterate over page lists or page groups, and copy entire pages at a time.

Data Transforms.

A collection of related elements

Data Type/Data Object

In Pega, work parties derive from the Data-Party class. Data-Party contains rules to describe a party, such as properties to store identifying information. Pega also provides five child classes that build upon the rules in Data-Party. Data-Party-Com models a business that has a web domain ending in .com, such as a corporation. Data-Party-Gov models a government agency, such as the Department of Revenue. Data-Party-Org models a non-profit organization that has a web domain ending in .org, such as a charity. Data-Party-Operator models a case participant with a Pega login and represents a case participant, such as a case worker or case manager. Data-Party-Person models a case participant who lacks a Pega login, such as a customer. Typically this class is used to describe a work party that receives correspondence about a case, but who does not perform any actions on the case.

Data-Party Class

The Database Table Class Mapping tool provides a wizard to generate all the artifacts needed to interact with reference data in an external database. These artifacts include a data class, a database table instance, and a link between those two artifacts. The data mapping creates a pass-through from your application to the table in the external database. When enabled, you can access data in the external database as if the data were within your application. Using the Database Table Class Mapping tools is preferred when integrating with external databases.

Database Table Class Mapping tool (one method to connect to an external database)

The rule variant is effective whenever the value of a date property satisfies the circumstancing condition. This condition can be either a single date or a range of dates. If the value of the property is later than the specifies date or falls within the range of dates, the application uses the circumstanced variant of the rule, rather than the base rule.

Date Property

You can use a sequence of interdependent declare expressions in a declarative network. A declare expression in a network can use a target property from another declare expression as a source property. For example, assume you added an Order Total field to your purchase order form. This field uses a declare expression to calculate its target property — order total. The source property in this expression uses the item total target value.

Declarative Networks

Allows you to configure your application so that the system automatically updates property values such as a total order amount. Declarative processing identifies and maintains computational relationships among properties. When input values change, the declarative process automatically updates related property values. The primary benefit of declarative processing is that updates occur only when triggered in the application. You use declarative rules to define the trigger event. The system monitors the application to determine when a trigger event occurs.

Declarative Processing

Declare expressions contain an expression and a target property. The expression calculates and updates the target property value. The expression uses source property values in its calculation. Referencing a source property used in the expression initiates the calculation. The calculation then updates the target property value.

Declare Expressions

System architects delegate rules to business users to allow business users to update case behavior as business conditions change. The business user updates the delegated rule, while other parts of the application remain unchanged. For example, expense reports that total USD25 or less receive automatic approval. You create a rule to test whether an expense report totals USD25 or less and delegate the rule to the Accounting department. The Accounting department can then update the rule to increase the threshold for automatic approval increases to USD50, without submitting a change request for the application.

Delegation

Pattern inheritance allows you to reuse rules within a single application. Directed inheritance allows you to reuse rules in other applications, including standard rules provided as part of the Pega platform.

Difference between pattern inheritance and directed inheritance

Describes the functional relationship between classes. Directed inheritance allows your application to reuse rules from classes in other applications and standard rules provided with the Pega platform. For example, a class that describes automobile insurance policies can inherit from a class that describes a generic insurance policy, and even the generic case type defined by the Work-Cover class provided by the Pega platform.

Directed Inheritance

Enables a project team to directly enter business requirements for an application into Pega. DCO helps eliminate translation errors, saves the team time and effort, facilitates direct engagement of business and IT resources around visible working models, and enables project participants to optimally review work progress. Pega recommends that all projects leverage DCO as a core part of the delivery process.

Directly Capture Objectives (DCO)

Used with single value, value list, and value group properties to test for patterns. For example, you can configure a zip code property to reference an edit validate rule that tests whether the entered value has five digits.

Edit Validate Rules

Whenever you add a process to a case life cycle in Case Designer, Pega automatically creates a flow rule. The Process Modeler provides the graphical interface to edit the flow rule, which stores the sequence of events for your business process.

Flow Rule

In a declare expression updates the target property value when a source property value changes. For example, when you display a shopping cart where users add items and need the cart to reflect the total based on the changes immediately, choose forward chaining. By default, declare expressions use forward chaining.

Forward Chaining

The rule variant is effective whenever a combination of property values satisfies the circumstancing condition. Multiple value circumstances are based on a circumstance template and circumstance definition. The circumstance template defines the properties on which to circumstance a rule. The circumstance definition defines the combination of conditions in which a property uses a variant of a rule. You apply the circumstance template and circumstance definition to the rule variant. If the case matches a combination in the circumstance definition, the application uses the circumstanced variant of the rule, rather than the base rule.

Multiple Value (Circumstancing Condition)

A process contains a series of tasks, or steps. A single process has an average of five steps (+/- 2)

Process

Optional actions supplement the tasks users can do as they work on a case. Optional actions allows users to leave the primary path of a case to complete another task or process.

Optional Actions

You can use an optional process when you need multiple steps to update information. An optional process allows users to run a new process from within the case. An example would be if a user decides to cancel his order instead of confirming it.

Optional Process

You configure an optional user action when the case can update in a single screen. Think of an optional user action as a screen that is accessible to users. An optional user action enables users to perform a single task outside of the primary path of a case. After completion of the optional user action, the user may or may not return to the primary path of the case.

Optional User Action

Each data element is stored in memory on a page. A page is a structure for organizing data elements in an application. Some pages are created by the system to track user or session data. Other pages are created by system architects to describe a data object, such as a hotel reservation or a customer.

Page

Page modes describe a data object such as a customer.

Page Modes

A page is a single entity. The customer is an example of a page property. A page is also referred to as a field group. A page list is a numerically ordered list. The line items that make up the purchase request is an example of a page list. A page list is also referred to as a field group list. A page group is an unordered list. The address property is an example of a page group.

Page mode properties: Page Page List Page Group

The User Pages category contains pages created due to user action, either directly or indirectly. User pages contain data related to work being performed in the selected thread. While a user processes a case, all the pages used to store data about the case are listed in the User Pages category. Likewise, when a system architect configures or tests a rule, all the pages that store data used by the rule are listed in this category. The Data Pages category contains read-only data pages defined by data page rules. Data pages are persistent pages in memory, used to cache data. This data is often sourced from outside the application, such as from a third-party or a system of record. The Linked Property Pages category contains read-only pages created by linked properties, which contain information from data objects referenced by a linked property. Linked properties are advanced data constructs, typically created and configured by Senior System Architects (SSAs) or Lead System Architects (LSAs). The System Pages category contains pages that describe the current user session, such as the active user and the active application. For example, while a user is logged in to Pega, Pega maintains a clipboard page containing information about the user, such as their current time zone.

Pages on the clipboard are organized into four categories: User Pages Data Pages Linked Property Pages System Pages

Pattern inheritance describes the business relationship between classes. Pattern inheritance indicates the re-usability of rules throughout an organization, such as whether a rule is usable by a single case type, an entire department, or even an entire organization.

Pattern Inheritance

Pega guardrails help ensure that you use best practices for configuring Pega applications. Pega's powerful capabilities offer many possible approaches to create a specific design requirement. Not all of those approaches are the best solution. Pega provides standard guardrail capabilities that enable development team members to track compliance with Pega best practices. Compliance with the guardrails results in applications that are easier to maintain and upgrade, and have significantly fewer defects than non-compliant applications.

Pega guardrails

In a case life cycle, stages that lead to the expected outcome are called primary stages. The sequence of primary stages is often referred to as the happy path.

Primary Stages

Depends upon rules, such as data transforms, activities, or user interface (UI) rules, to instruct the application when to look for a trigger event. For instance, to trigger updates to the order total, you add a data transform to a flow action. When a user enters values, nothing changes until the user submits the form. The updates are not automatic. The submit process triggers the data transform to perform the update. In order to make the changes visible to users as they enter values, you must configure sections to use the data transform to refresh the fields.

Procedural Processing

Pega comes with a set of standard property rules. The standard properties have names that start with px, py, or pz. You cannot create new properties starting with px, py, or pz. px: Identifies special properties — your application can read but not write to these properties. py: You can use these properties in your application. pz: Supports internal system processing — the meaning of values may change with new product releases. Your application can read but not write to these properties.

Property Prefixes and their meanings: px py pz

Reference data defines permissible values for data fields. Limiting the input values to valid options reduces errors and allows for automation. Reference data gains in value when it is widely reused and referenced. Reference data should be distinguished from master data. Master data represents key business entities, such as customers. Master data contains all the necessary detail. Reference data consists of a list of permissible options with relevant metadata.

Reference Data

Every data page defines a refresh strategy. The refresh strategy defines when the data page is considered stale and needs to be reloaded. Data pages are created and updated on demand. Even if a data page is considered stale, the page is never reloaded until it is referenced. The available refresh strategy options depend on the scope of the page.

Refresh Strategy

A repeating layout is used to organize lists, tables, and other repeating structures. Repeating layouts reference a page list or page group, either by referencing a clipboard property or a data page. As the screen size changes, elements display or are hidden to maximize the value of the displayed content.

Repeating Layout

System architects reuse rules whenever an application needs to incorporate existing case behavior. Otherwise, you must reconfigure the behavior every time you need the behavior. For example, you create a UI form to collect policyholder information for auto insurance claims. You can then reuse this UI form for property insurance claims and marine insurance claims.

Reuse

Routers contain logic that determines the appropriate user or work queue based on parameters that you define. Pega provides many standard routers to suit your specific requirements.

Router Rules

Helps promote an agile response to continuously changing business conditions. It can also help reduce the workload for architects of minor, low risk maintenance items and provide a degree of empowerment to those closest to the day-to-day operations.

Rule Delegation

Each rule is an instance of a rule type. A rule type is an abstract model of a specific case behavior. Pega provides many rule types. For example, Pega provides one type of rule to describe a process flow, and another type of rule to describe an automated email notification.

Rule Type

When you model a case type in a Pega application, you configure the application with instructions to create, process, and resolve a case. These instructions are rules. Rules describe the behavior of individual cases. The Pega platform uses the rules you create to generate application code.

Rules

Each application consists of a sequence of rulesets, called a ruleset stack. The ruleset stack determines the order in which Pega looks through rulesets to find the rule being used. Each entry in the ruleset stack represents all the versions of the specified ruleset, starting with the listed version and working down to the lowest minor and patch version for the specified major version.

Ruleset Stack

The major version represents a substantial release of an application. A major version change encompasses extensive changes to application functionality. The minor version represents an interim release or enhancements to a major release. The patch version consists of fixes to address bugs in an application.

Ruleset Version: 01- 01- 03 (Major, Minor, Patch)

The SQL connector requires you to write SQL queries to interact with the data in the external database. Use a SQL connector when you need to perform advanced queries (such as advanced joins), or when you need to use vendor-specific SQL syntax. Setting up a SQL connector is a Senior System Architect or a Lead System Architect task. In this course, you use the Database Table Class Mapping tool to set up your integration.

SQL connector

The scope defines who can access the data page. You can make the data retrieved accessible for all applications, or limited to the logged in user or specific case only.

Scope

In Pega, you build user forms with sections. Sections group information and functionality by context and purpose. Inside a section, you organize UI elements with layouts.

Sections

Organizations often establish service level agreements to enforce on-time performance. These obligations range from informal promises of response times to negotiated contracts. A service level agreement (SLA) establishes a deadline for work completion. When you establish a goal and deadline in Pega Express or the Case Designer in Designer Studio, Pega creates a service level agreement rule for you.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

The rule variant is effective whenever the value of a single property satisfies the circumstancing condition. You specify the property to evaluate a comparison value when circumstancing a rule. If the value of the property matches the specified value for a case, the application applies the circumstanced variant of the rule, rather than the base rule.

Single Value (Circumstancing Condition)

The thread level scope is useful when the data page is context-sensitive to a particular case. For example, if a customer service representative (CSR) is working on several cases for different customers, the data page must be defined as thread scope because the customer data should be limited to a specific case. Setting the scope to thread ensures that the CSR sees only the data relevant to an individual customer's case. If the data can be shared across cases, then a broader scope, such as requester or node, should be chosen. The requestor scope lets you share data pages for a given user session and is often used when the data page contains data associated with the logged-in operator. The work list or local weather information are both examples of data associated with the logged-in operator. The node option makes a single data page instance accessible by all users of the application and other applications running on a given node. On a multi-node system, each Java Virtual Machine instance has one copy of the node level data page. Node level pages reduce the memory footprint by storing only a single copy of the data available to all users. Node level pages are an excellent option for storing common reference data such as currency exchange rates.

Three Options For Scope: Thread Requestor Node

A goal milestone defines how long the assignment should take. It is typically measured from when the step or case begins. A deadline milestone defines the amount of time the step or case may take before it is late. The deadline is also measured from when the step or case begins. A passed deadline milestone defines when to take further action because the step or case is past the deadline. The passed deadline interval measures the time that has passed since the deadline for a still-open assignment.

Three Time Interval Milestone for SLA's: Goal Deadline Passed Deadline

A case that does not have a parent case, but can cover, or become a parent of other cases.

Top-Level Case

Single Value, Multiple Value, Date Property, As-of Date

Types of Circumstancing Conditions (four)

To update any rule on a production system, an unlocked ruleset must contain the rule. An unlocked ruleset is a ruleset in which rules can be modified and saved.

Unlocked Ruleset

You define an urgency between 10 and 100 for each milestone. The higher the value, the higher the urgency. Typically, the urgency increases as an assignment advances to the next milestone.

Urgency

Pega's term for a user form is a user view. Views are designed so that users can complete tasks. Users complete task by entering data. The system stores the data and the application uses that data to process a case. The data is reusable.

User View

Used to compare a property against a condition when the user submits a form. If the user enters a value that fails to meet the condition, the form displays an error when the form is submitted.

Validate rules

You use validation rules when you cannot predict or control the value a user enters in a form. There are two types of validation rules: validate and edit validate.

Validation rules

Value modes describe a single piece of information such as a total.

Value Modes

A single value or scalar property stores text, numbers, dates, Boolean values, and amounts. A value list acts as a container for an ordered list of single values. The discount codes property is an example of a value list. Each code is a single piece of information, but a clear relationship exists between the codes. A value group acts as a container for an unordered list of single values. The customer's phone numbers are defined as a value group identifying the contextual meaning of each number: home, work, or mobile.

Value mode properties: Single Value Value List Value Group

System architects create a new version of a rule whenever case behavior needs to change. Pega maintains a history of changes to a rule, allowing system architects to review the change history and undo changes if needed. Since each rule describes a specific case behavior, the rest of the case remains unaffected. For example, a system architect updates a UI form with instructions and removes a critical field. You can review the history of the form and revert back to the version before the changes were made, without changing other rules in the application.

Versioning

Configure a static list for a limited set of values Configure local data storage to store data records for a data type, without having to create or maintain database tables Connect to an external database to retrieve data

Ways to use reference data in a Pega Application: Static List Local Data Storage External Database

Most data transforms occur between assignments.

Where do most data transforms occur in a process flow?

If you omit the class information, Pega cannot obtain property values from the correct page. Pega does not know if the properties are valid, and the rule that references the properties does not function correctly.

Why is it important to include class information when you reference data on pyWorkPage?

Contains the rules that describe how to process a case or cases, such as processes, data elements, and user interfaces.

Work Class

In Pega, you create a work party to describe each role. Work parties allow you to refer to a case participant by role, without knowing any identifying information. For this reason, applications commonly use a work party as the recipient of correspondence. Also, work parties are sometimes used to assign work.

Work Party

A work queue is a list of all open assignments, ordered by urgency, for a group of users.

Work Queue

A worklist is a list of all open assignments, ordered by urgency, for a specific user. For example, an assignment that requires a human resources manager to approve employee time off requests routes to the human resources manager's worklist.

Worklist

Pega Platform provides a pair of data transforms (pyDefault and pySetFieldDefaults) that are used to automatically set default property values and page properties when you create a case. The first time you create a view for your case type in the Case Designer, Pega Platform creates these data transforms. You can also create these data transforms manually. When a new case is created, the pyDefault data transform is invoked by the process. pyDefault then invokes the pySetFieldDefaults data transform.

pyDefault/pySetFieldDefaults

If the case is a child case, the clipboard also contains the page pyWorkCover. pyWorkCover contains the case data for the parent case. This enables you to copy data between the parent case and the child case.

pyWorkCover

pyWorkPage stores all the data generated while creating and processing a case. pyWorkPage is a specific page on the clipboard. For example, pyWorkPage stores data such as the case creation date or the case ID.

pyWorkPage