Designing cases using aggregates [editor]

As show above, in DCM a case is a concept that combines many other concepts. We do not aim to give one precise definition of a case in this document, but try to explain which concepts can play a role when designing a case.

A case always has a goal, this is most likely singular. In order to reach that goal, decisions are made, in one or more processes. A case goes through phases, where a phase change is achieved formally by means of a milestone. A case can have different states, even more at once. Information is persisted within a case or outside of a case in a register. Within cases, some tasks are not really part of the main or other processes, but can always be executed. Such generic tasks are part of the case as well. Notes and appointments are similar to generic tasks, they are part of the case and are probably available throughout the life cycle of a case. Outside triggers or events can lead to actions that need to be performed in a case. Cases will most likely contain uploaded documents and will generate documents themselves as well. Finally, case management is about collaboration; people can be involved and teams, organizations and roles can be defined.

All afore mentioned concepts contribute to a case, but that does not mean that each case has to consist of all these concepts necessarily. However, most (or even all?) cases contain decisions, will have at least one process and will most likely store some data and/or produce a document.

Blueriq concept of a case

With Blueriq's proposition of Dynamic Case Management, many DCM concepts are available within the platform. However, not all concepts can be found in Blueriq Studio as a Blueriq-concept. Shown below is the same image as above, containing a case and all its related concepts. The concepts in blue deviate from the previous image; this means that the DCM concept itself is not available within the platform as such, but one or more Blueriq concepts are used to model the DCM-concept effectively.

In the diagram above, all pink concepts are DCM concepts that are part of Blueriq by default. The concept Decision is probably the most dominant one, but also processes, persistency and documents are used in many - if not all -  Blueriq applications. Teams and roles may not be as common as decisions, but are used very frequently.

The blue concepts in the diagram above indicate DCM concepts that are not available within the platform as a standard Blueriq module element, but can be modeled using out-of-the-box Blueriq functionality. For instance, the goal of a case, milestones and states; they can all be modeled using decisions, most likely decision tables or business rules. Notes and incoming documents can be modeled using specific containers. For triggers, incoming message events can be used. Appointments, involvements and organizations can be modeled with attributes.

The most protruding blue icons are that of the case and related cases; aggregates are used to model cases. This means that not only standard persistency by means of registers is done using aggregates, but also the case itself is an aggregate!

Comparison

The table below compares all DCM concepts with Blueriq concepts and briefly explains how standard Blueriq concepts can be used to model the DCM concept, if applicable.

Concept in DCM		Concept in Blueriq		Remarks
	Case		Aggregate	A case is modeled as an aggregate, meaning that for each case an aggregate is defined, containing all entities that are relevant throughout the life cycle of the case. See also Designing cases using aggregates [editor].
	Goal		Decision	The goal of the case could be to grant a permit, register an applicant, pay a benefit, sell a product etc. A goal can easily be modeled by an attribute with a default value false and a decision table or business rule which sets the attribute to true when the goal is reached.
	Decision		Decision
	Process		Process
	Milestone		Decision	Whether a milestone is reached or not is a decision, based on the context of the case. For more information on how to model milestones in DCM applications, see Designing dynamic processes.
	Phase		Process	With phases, a case can be broken down using the lowest granularity. Most cases consist of five plus or minus two phases. All phases are modeled as processes and since processes can be modeled hierarchical within Blueriq, the main process itself, containing the phases, is modeled as a process as well. For more information on how to model phases in DCM applications, see Designing dynamic processes.
	State		Decision	A state is a characteristic of a case that tells the end user not so much about the progress of the execution of the case over time (phases are used for that), but more about the progress regarding the case's identity. For instance, a case can have the state In progress (which does not tell us how far we are), but also Waiting for customer or even two states: Part of spot check and Decided.
	Persistency		Aggregate
	Generic task		Process
	Related case		Aggregate
	Note		Comment container
	Appointment		Attribute(s)
	Trigger		Incoming external message
	Document input		File upload container
	Document output		Document
	Involvement		Attribute(s)
	Team		Team
	Organization		Attribute(s)
	Role		Role

The generic case aggregate

Bla bla bla

See also

More information on how to design dynamic processes in Blueriq can be found here: Designing dynamic processes.
Everything about persistency management and aggregates can be found here: Persistency Management guide.
A visualization of most concepts discussed in this article can be found here: Blueriq visuals.
Specifically for dynamic case management and persistency management, see