Managing Windchill Processes

Windchill provides you with the following types of Windchill data processes that can be used with the business objects stored in Windchill:

•A life cycle process defines a set of phases and gates that manage the life of an object as it progresses from conception to obsolescence.

•Aworkflow process defines rules which allow workflow participants to view and pass along information, tasks, and documents.

•A change process establishes how to get changes made to parts and many other data types including documents, document soft types, and product instances.

These three processes work together to help you manage data. Workflows are often used to drive the life cycle. That is, the workflow process is used to transition from one life cycle state to another. In most cases, a workflow process is initiated from a life cycle. In any case, life cycle-managed objects obtain a life cycle when they are created. In obtaining a life cycle, an object can have a workflow process instance created as well. Change objects are life cycle-managed objects. Each change object starts a change process when it obtains its life cycle.

Use the Life Cycle Template Administration utility to manage the life cycle templates that can be used. For details on managing life cycle templates, see Life Cycles on page 299 .

Use the Workflow Template Administration utility to manage the workflow templates that can be used. For details on managing workflow templates, see Workflow on page 337 .

Planning Object State Change Policies

Business information and business objects become more mature throughout the product development cycle. During this cycle, circumstances change, such as who can access data, what processes are related, and where an object can mature to next. Life cycles define the way in which these business objects mature, providing a model for a product’s commercialization process.

A life cycle is an automated, graphical model, employing phases and gates, used to manage business objects as they progress from conceptualization through obsolescence.

While an object is in a specific life cycle phase, certain business rules apply, such as access control rules or a specific workflow defined for that phase.

When created, an object modeled to be life cycle-managed enters a life cycle phase, where it is assigned an initial state, and is then associated with the initial phase of its life cycle.

Users can change the life cycle state of an object using one of three methods:

•New Promotion Request action—Users can create a promotion request to

request a state change for a set of objects that reside in products or libraries when there is need for some oversight or review of the state change. The promotion process usually includes assigned participants to review and approve or deny the promotion of the object to the new state.

For more information, navigate to the following topic in the Help Center: PTC Windchill Fundamentals > Collaborating with Others > Promotion Requests > Creating a Promotion Request.

Windchill provides two out-of-the-box workflow processes for promotion requests: Promotion Request Approval Process and Promotion Request Review Process. Administrators can edit these workflows or create additional promotion workflow processes as necessary.

•Set State action—Users can manually change the state of one or more objects

if they have the appropriate permissions. The Set State action does not require review or approval.

For more information, navigate to the following topic in the Help Center: PTC

Windchill Fundamentals Working with Windchill Objects Actions Common Among Objects Setting the State of an Object.

A user can change the state of an object using the Set State action if they have one of the following two types of access control permissions for the object:

○Permissions to the Set State action specifically for the object—Users who have permissions to use the Set State action for an object can only change the state of the object if an administrator has defined a valid transition for that object. A transition specifies one or more destination states that are possible for an object in a specific originating state. Administrators control the available destination states for an object based on the originating state of the object by specifying transitions for the Set State action. For example, consider that an object life cycle has three defined states: In Work, Under Review, and Approved. Administrators can choose to define transitions from any originating state to any destination state. If an originating state is In Work, a transition can specify a destination state for the object is Under Review. Assuming that there are no other transitions defined for the object, if a user has permissions to the Set State action for the object in the In Work state, they can modify the state of the object to Under Review.

For more information about granting users permissions to the Set State action, see Giving Users Permissions to Perform the Set State Action on page 56 .

○Administrative permissions for the object—User who have administrative permissions for an object can use the Set State action to modify the state of the object to any of the states defined in the life cycle associated with the object, irrespective of whether any transitions have been defined from the originating state to the destination state.

•Change Management process—The change management process formally manages the release of objects to the organization. This can be leveraged any time there is a need to formally introduce a revision to an organization and could be a prototype level or production level release. The change management process provides robust methods of reviewing justification, planning, and implementation, as well as auditing the change. During the change process, a team defines who is involved in the various roles for review and execution of the change.

Windchill provides several out-of-the-box workflow processes for change management. Administrators can edit these workflows or create additional change management workflow processes as necessary.

The method used to change the life cycle state of an object depends on the needs or requirements of a site, the business processes and procedures, the type of object, the type of state change, and other possible factors. Administrators should consider such factors when making decisions about which method of state change is appropriate. The following table outlines a few specific considerations.

Giving Users Permissions to Perform the Set State Action

Users who do not have administrative permissions for an object can be given permissions to perform the Set State action on that object. Use the following steps to grant the appropriate permissions:

1.Identify the life cycle template used by the object by reviewing the object initialization rule for the object type.

a. Launch the Object Initialization Rules Administration utility from the Utilities page.

b.Download the object initialization rule XML file for the appropriate object type using the Download action.

c.Open the XML file in a text editor to identify the life cycle state.

2.Define a valid transition for the life cycle template by selecting one or more destination states for the object in its originating state using the Life Cycle

utility. The originating state is the state the object is in when you want participants to be able to use the Set State action. A destination state is a valid state that the participant is able to select for the object when they use the action.

a.Go to Site Utilities Life Cycle Template Administration.

b.In the Life Cycle Template Administration window, select the desired life cycle template and click Edit.

c.In the Edit Life Cycle window, select the originating state, and then click the Transitions tab.

d.In the Set State row, select one or more destination states.

e.Save and check in the life cycle template.

3.Grant the appropriate participants Set State access permissions for the desired object in the originating state using the Policy Administration utility.

a.Launch the Policy Administration utility from the context in which you want to create the access control rule. If you want the participant to be able to use the Set State action in all contexts in which the participant is a member, set the permission at the organization or site level.