Dynamics CRM 2013 – Processes Overview

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Defining and enforcing consistent business processes is one of the main reasons people use Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Processes

(Processes) are a group of features that can be used to define and enforce consistent processes for your organization
These help make sure users can focus on their work and need not to be worried to remember a set of manual steps
These are designed to be used by people who aren’t developers [ developers may use them to take advantage of course ]
- For example processes in Dynamics CRM 2013 allow Business Analyst or other non-technical users to enforce complex business logic without writing any code
Processes are user-owned just like accounts and contacts

Types of Processes

Workflows	To automate business processes behind the scenes typically initiated by system events (users do not need to be aware that they are running can also be configured for users to manually initiate them workflows can be configured to run in background (asynchronously) or in real-time (synchronously). These are referred as background workflows and real-time workflows (new feature in Dynamics CRM 2013)
Dialogs	To create a user interface to guide people through a script for customer interaction or a wizard to perform complex actions consistently
Actions (new feature in Dynamics CRM 2013)	Actions are verbs (a.k.a. messages by developers) that can be defined for an entity Existing verbs (or messages) include Create, Update, Set State, Assign, Delete etc In Dynamics CRM 2013 you can create custom actions like Escalate, Convert, Schedule, Route, or Approve Once an action is defined and activated, a developer can use that action (message) like any of the other messages provided by the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform Actions can be built using CRM user interface just like other processes, but can’t be used anywhere without custom code
Business Process Flows (BPFs)	To define steps in which people should enter data to achieve an outcome BPFs add a control to the top of a form that show people what data they need to enter to move to the next stage and finally to the completion of a business process BPFs can span multiple entities

Who can create processes?

Users with System Administrators, System Customizers or CEO-Business Manager security roles (or equivalent access) can create processes that apply to the whole organization (Click the image below)

Other people can create processes with limited access level

While people may be able to create business process flow, real-time workflow, or action processes, they’ll need to have the Activate Business Process Flows or Activate Real-time Processes privileges to activate them (Click the image below)

Table: Access level of processes based on default security roles

Security role	Access level
CEO-Business Manager	Organization
System Administrator	Organization
System Customizer	Organization
Vice President of Marketing	Parent: Child Business Units
Vice President of Sales	Parent: Child Business Units
CSR Manager	Business Unit
Marketing Manager	Business Unit
Sales Manager	Business Unit
Schedule Manager	Business Unit
Customer Service Representative	User
Marketing Professional	User
Salesperson	User
Scheduler	User

Where are processes located in the Dynamics CRM 2013 system?

Two paths to navigate to processes
- Settings > Processes
  - This is the easiest to access the Process entity (click the image below)
- Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Components > Processes
  - Using this path workflows are convenient to access while you are doing customization work in the Customization tool (click the image below)
- Business process flow can also be accessed for editing using the Edit Process button on the entity form

What can processes do?

Processes (other than Business Process Flows) can:
- Check conditions
- Apply branching logic
- Perform actions
They perform actions in a series of steps
Business process flows are different from the other types of processes
- These contain stages, and
- Control advancement to stages
- Do not provide any of the other capabilities

Available steps in workflow, dialog, and action processes

Step	Process Type	Description
Stage	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Make the workflow logic easier to read, and explain the workflow logic Do not affect the logic or behavior of processes If a process has stages, all the steps in the process must be contained with a stage
Check Condition	Workflow, Dialog, Action	A logical “if-<condition> then” statement You can check values for The record that the workflow is running on Any of the records related to the current record with an N:1 relationship Any records created by earlier steps Based on these values you can define additional steps when the condition is true
Conditional Branch	Workflow, Dialog, Action	A logical “else-if-then” statement You can add a conditional branch to define additional steps when the check condition returns false
Default Action	Workflow, Dialog, Action	A logical “else” statement You can use a default action to define steps for all cases that don’t match the criteria defined in condition or branch elements
Wait Condition	Background Workflow only	Enables a background workflow to pause itself until the criteria defined by the condition have been met Starts again automatically when the criteria have been met
Parallel Wait Branch	Background Workflow only	Defines an alternative wait condition for a background workflow with a corresponding set of additional steps that are performed only when the initial criterion is met You can use parallel wait branches to create time limits in your workflow logic They help prevent the workflow from waiting indefinitely until the criteria defined in a wait condition have been met
Assign Value	Dialog, Action	Sets a value to a variable or output parameter in the process.
Create Record	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Creates a new record for an entity you choose and assigns values
Update Record	Workflow, Dialog, Action	You can update The record that the workflow is running on Any of the records that are related to current record with an N:1 relationship Any records created by earlier steps
Assign Record	Workflow, Dialog, Action	You can assign The record that the workflow is running on Any of the records that are related to current record with an N:1 relationship Any records created by earlier steps
Send Email	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Sends an email You can choose to create a new email message or use an email template configured for the entity of the record that the workflow is running on any entities that have an N:1 relationship with the entity the entity for any records created by earlier steps
Start Child Workflow	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Starts a workflow process that has been configured as a child workflow
Change Status	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Changes the status of the record that the process is running on Any of the records that are related to current record with an N:1 relationship Any records created by earlier steps
Stop Workflow/Stop Dialog	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Stops the current workflow, dialog, or action You can set a status of either Succeeded or Canceled and specify a status message
Page	Dialog	A container for prompt and response steps in a dialog
Prompt and Response	Dialog	Displays a prompt in a dialog page and may provide a field to capture data from a response
Query CRM Data	Dialog	Defines a query that returns data to provide options for a response in a prompt and response step of a dialog
Link Child Dialog	Dialog	Starts a dialog process that has been configured as a child dialog.
Custom Step	Workflow, Dialog, Action	Provides extensions to the logical elements available by default in CRM. Steps can include conditions, actions, other steps, or a combination of these elements. Developers can create custom workflow steps. By default, there are no custom steps available in CRM. For more information for developers, see the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK topicCustom workflow activities (workflow assemblies).

For more detail see the topics for each type of process in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide.

This was originally posted here.

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