Overview
To illustrate how to perform collaboration within a process we will use the following example:
Assume that Andrea works in the administrative department of her company. She has been working on the Travel Request process, which involves employee activities to manage a request for a flight ticket, a currency advance and a hotel reservation.
She needs to share her model to collaborate with Mark on her team, allowing him to review the model and suggest any improvements.
1. To share her model, she clicks on File > Save As > Local Models > Save as Collaboration Model File. She saves the model in a shared location (using the wizard), where Mark can access it.
Upon her sharing the model, Bizagi creates a new model with a .bpmc extension, the ‘c’ denotes collaboration.
2. She grants Mark privileges to access the location where the model is shared.
Once Mark is given permission, he opens the .bpmc file.
3. Andrea and Mark can now both open the model and work concurrently on it. They can communicate with each other by entering messages in the Comments window found on the right of the screen.
Messages are displayed in real-time; hence, as soon as either party types a comment and clicks the Enter button, the comment will be instantaneously displayed.
They can also leave their comments for later review by team members. Comments in Bizagi Modeler work very similarly to Twitter.
4. Andrea asks Mark to help her with the Expenses report diagram. They can both view the Expense report diagram simultaneously and thereafter discuss it.
Mark reviews the diagram. He comments, at the Diagram level, that all the activities of the Administrative Manager are missing and stipulates that he will make the changes.
5. By default all diagrams are read-only. To change or update a diagram it is necessary to click Check Out, located in the Diagram group on the Home tab.
In the given example, this feature enables Mark to perform any changes on the diagram; however, for Andrea and other users the diagram will be locked.
6. Once Mark has completed his changes he clicks on the Check In button, located in the Diagram group on the Home tab.
7. Andrea receives a notification informing her there has been a change in the Expense report diagram.
8. Andrea reviews the model and note the last activity should have some additional changes. Consequently, she adds an Element comment for Mark's perusal.
9. Mark reviews Andrea's latest comment. Either Mark or Andrea can make the change. Whoever makes the change will lock the diagram, using the Check Out feature.
There is an Info button available for everyone to track the editing history. The History window displays the date-time and user details of each addition.
