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Connect your diagram to the enterprise model

A drawing shows boxes; a model knows what they mean. In this tutorial you connect the shapes of your diagram to enterprise objects, so the same Process can appear in many diagrams, carry relationships, and show up in reports.

What you'll build​

Your tutorial diagram from Build your first process diagram, now connected: a shape that proposes a new ActivityActivity A named step in a process (e.g. "Approve Invoice"). Each event in an event log records one activity occurrence for one case. object, that object created in the repository, and a Responsible assignment on it. Plan for about 15 minutes.

Prerequisites​

  • The diagram from the first tutorial, checked out to you.
  • A license that includes creating enterprise objects from web diagram proposals — Creator, or Architect under the older license model. See the License capability matrix. Without it you can still propose objects; someone who has it turns your proposals into objects.
  • Whether your Describes relationships need explicit acceptance, and when they reach the model (at check-in or at approval), follows your repository's modeling policy — if something doesn't appear immediately, that's usually why.

Step 1 — Propose an object from a shape​

Usually the diagram runs ahead of the model: the work you drew has no object yet. Propose the object from the shape, and it's created where you say it belongs.

  1. In the checked-out diagram, select a task shape. Give it its final text first — the proposal takes the object's name from the shape's text.
  2. Select Describes in the panel rail on the right. The panel offers two ways to connect the shape: Choose Object to Describe for an object that already exists, and New Object for one that doesn't.
  3. Click New Object. The panel shows the shape's text as the proposed object's name, with a Proposed Object section under it. The shape itself picks up the proposed object's type icon.
  4. Check Type. A task shape proposes an ActivityActivity A named step in a process (e.g. "Approve Invoice"). Each event in an event log records one activity occurrence for one case.; a pool or sub-process proposes a Process, and a lane a Resource. Pick a different type if it suits the shape better.
  5. Set Location — the folder the object will live in. Click Edit, choose a folder in the Choose Location dialog, and click Confirm Selection. The dialog offers only the folders that hold the type you chose. (Suggest derives a location from what the diagram, pool, or lane describes, so it has nothing to work from until one of them describes an object.)
  6. Describe the object while you're there, if you want: Summary, Purpose, and Instructions each have their own Edit, and you can add relationships under RACI and Supports, Other relationships, and Work Product Flows before the object exists.

Step 2 — Turn the proposal into an object​

  1. Click Accept on the proposal row at the top of the panel. The object is created in the folder you chose, the shape takes the object's name as its text, and the shape now describes that object.
  2. Find the new object in the tree, in that folder.

Accept stays disabled until the proposal has both a name and a valid location — hover over it to read which one is missing. If the button isn't there at all, your license doesn't include creating objects from proposals: leave the proposal in place and check the diagram in, and whoever has that license accepts it later.

When the object already exists, connect to it instead: click Choose Object to Describe in the same panel and pick it. There's a shortcut, too: as you type a shape or lane label, the editor suggests matching repository objects — picking one labels the shape and creates the describes connection in one move, and renaming the object later updates the diagram automatically.

Step 3 — See the object side​

  1. Check the diagram in (toolbar → Check In) so the connections reach the model — or at approval, if your repository promotes them then.
  2. In the tree, open the object you created in Step 2. Its Described By view lists your diagram — the object knows where it's drawn.
  3. Open the object's Relationships tab to see everything else it's connected to, grouped by relationship kind.

Step 4 — Assign who's responsible​

  1. Still on the object, open its Relationships tab and find Responsible under RACI and Supports.
  2. Add a Resource — click Add on the row (or drag a Resource from the tree onto it) and pick, for example, a role from the Resources branch.
  3. The assignment also shows in the RACI section of the object's primary tab — and diagram shapes describing the object can display it as a field.

What's next​