Hi Ashwini,

Yes, there are several ways to transition to other Stages and Steps within the Case Life Cycle. By using a combination of the following Techniques you can easily move the Case around between different Stages and Steps:

Making a Stage Conditional:

In the Case Designer select "Configure stage behaviors" and use the "Skip stage when" option. The Boolean logic in the When rule can be as simple or complex as you need it to be.

Make Starting a Stage Conditional:

In the Case Designer select "Configure stage behaviors" and use the "Stage entry validation" option. The stage will only be allowed to begin when the conditions of the Validation rule are satisfied.

Making a Step Conditional:

In the Case Designer select "Configure step behaviors" and use the "Start Step upon completion or skip of previous step...and when" option. The Boolean logic in the When rule can be as simple or complex as you need it to be.

Making Steps Optional:

In the Case Designer select "Configure stage behaviors" and use the "Optional Processes" option in the Stage Configuration Dialog.

Jump to Another Stage:

In the Process (Flow Rule) for any Step you can use the "Change Stage Utility" Smart Shape.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Henry

Pega Academy

Thanks Henry. Your response certainly helps. Specially "Change Stage Utility" smart shape.

Not sure if there is any utility which can allow jumping from one step of a stage to another step in a different stage. Idea is to skip unnecessary "When" evaluations if we know upfront that we do not need to evaluate remaining steps of a stage and few initial steps of another stage.

Do you see Ticket as an option for achieving this as similar to "Change Stage" utility, it has to be used inside process flow?

Regards,

Ashwini

Hi Ashwini,

In Pega 7 every Step in the Case Life Cycle is represented by a Process (Flow Rule). Another technique you can use, is to simply invoke or call the Flow Rule that represents the Step from another Step's Process (or Flow Rule) using the SubProcess Shape. If the execution of the Process (Flow Rule) that represents the Step is optional or conditional you can also add a Decision Shape to the calling Flow Rule (the Process representing the Calling Step) to decide if the SubProcess Shape should be invoked or bypassed. There are several ways to solve the scenario you are describing in Pega 7.

Sincerely,

Henry

Pega Academy

Thanks Henry for the insight.

We do have a similar requirement. In this case, workflow has to go back to a previous step (which is in a previous stage) and continue from there again. How do we achieve it?

Example:

Ex:

Stage1: Background Data Validation

Step1: Validation process

Stage2: Customer - Loan data entry

Step1: Loan Data entry

Step2: Apprvoal process

Stage3:

Step1: Loan Mandate process

Step2: Loan data Enrichment

From Loan data Enrichment (Step2 of Stage3) is it possible to take the work flow back to Loan data entry (Step1 of Stage2)?

Note: I tried several combinations of Change Stage smart shapre (utility) in the flow. It also took the case to next stage and not the stage specified. I checked the audit log. System seems to move the case to specified stage but then issues an auto-stage-transition to move it to next stage!

Depends upon what you are trying to accomplish. If you are simply wanting to see and update the data associated with the Loan Data entry step you could simply add a Local Flow Action referenced in that step to either an assignment, stage or whole case that would allow you to bring up the Loan Data entry information.  All the while you would not force your users to go back to that step.  Once you are finished modifying the loan data you would continue the process in the step you chose to review/edit/modify the loan data.

Hope this helps,

Sean

Pega Academy

Depends upon what you are trying to accomplish. If you are simply wanting to see and update the data associated with the Loan Data entry step you could simply add a Local Flow Action referenced in that step to either an assignment, stage or whole case that would allow you to bring up the Loan Data entry information.  All the while you would not force your users to go back to that step.  Once you are finished modifying the loan data you would continue the process in the step you chose to review/edit/modify the loan data.

Hope this helps,

Sean

Pega Academy

Hi HEDES, i have the same problem but the current user who process the case have'nt acces to the previous step (another user have to do it and modify information). I tried Change stage smart shape but the process will also continuous to the next stage.

We tried several combinations of Change Stage utility / flow action. It did not work. System tries to go back to previous stage but auto-pushes it back to the next stage. Also, in some cases we noticed duplicate work item creation. 

We have now added previous steps' functionalities as local actions in the subsequent stages. Problem with this approach is that the top chevron still shows the latest stage highlighted and not the earler stage. We have somehow able to convince business on it. 

If the system thinks all steps in a stage have been completed then it will transition to the next stage if the automatically transition to next stage option is selected. You have the option to only make the transition via a user action -- say a local action that calls ChangeStage.

You also have the option if running processes on stage re-entry. This option is available for the first steps that start upon stage entry so if you set the first step to run on re-entry all subsequent processes will also run (sequentially) on re-entry.

Hi,

I'm having strange problem like, I'm able to go to Last stage and wrap up the case. But when I try change stage from 1st step in 1st stage which is having one assignemnt. I'm checking condition after 1st assignment and go to last stage wrap up. Flow is moving to last step and coming back again to 1st step. there are couple of ways to do it, but i'm looking for best approach and OOB.

Hi,

You can use OOTB activity pxChangeStage by passing to which Stage it need to be jumped, if the case to be jumped for the particular step under that stage, configure the step behaviour option can be used.

Hi,

You can use OOTB activity pxChangeStage by passing to which Stage it need to be jumped, if the case to be jumped for the particular step under that stage, configure the step behaviour option can be used.

So it looks like you can go to the next stage or the previous stage and manipulate the when coditions to go to the desired step in that stage, but for a complex back and forth scenario this could result in a various flags being created for the when conditions. What is the reason behind not providing an option to go to "Any step in any Stage" option.

Great discussion all. In the future, I highly recommend posting similar questions in the new Product Support Community that just went live on the PDN today!

Thanks.

B.

Recently I've got similar requirement where in I need to implement back button functionality and should be able to jump to some alternatives stages. I could have used screen flows to meet the basic requirement of moving back and front, but decided to go with stages considering the ease of implemenation, Express capabilities, Demo perspective etc.

as per requirement, i couldn't show drop down/links to select the stage. I've maintained the Decision table which has info about stages, what would next, previous, alternative stages. Using this decision table, i've implemented the requirement of back button and capability of jumping to another stages. Ofcourse, this has few limitations (fixed navigation) but fullfilling my requirement. I could see there is a possiblity in this approach to extend to meet future rquirements as well.