| # Glossary for Enterprise Modeler A specification of the number of possible entities per entity type of a pairing. activity Part of a business process that depending on the type of activity requires a certain action by ERP LN or an ERP LN user: Manual activity A task that cannot be automated Business process A hierarchical expansion of the business process Application A program that can run on the client or server and is defined within a component release File-based (client) A file for which, based on the file extension, the associated application on the client is started Sending trigger An attached business process that is started without user interaction activity instance Represents an (executable) activity within a single enactment of a process instance. actual identification The name that is given to a business process, workflow attribute, or external state during the modeling process. See: formal identification AO document A document that is part of the administrative organization in a company and which you can link to an activity. application An application that is defined within a component definition. application An application that is defined within a component definition. apply constraint Determines the setting of parameters in the ERP LN database based on wizard-step answers. argument Additional information that is delivered to a component, as a result of which predefined actions are carried out. associative entity type An entity type that is used to link two other entity types that have a many-to-many relationship between them. bill of enterprise A set of data indicating the various child companies that make up a parent company and that are used to aggregate the value of the parent company's performance indicator. The child companies must have the same package combination as the parent company. buffer A stock point that is located on the primary flow in a business control diagram. business control diagram A graphic design that visualizes the primary process that takes place within an organization and shows the business functions that are used to control that process. business control model A part of a reference model or project model that is built from a selection of business control diagrams that are initially created in the repository (library of model items). business function A model item that defines relevant business issues. A business function is used in business control diagrams to show how the primary process of an organization is controlled. In addition, a business function is the primary part of a business function model, which is a multilevel structure of the functions used in the business control model. A business function model provides a hierarchical breakdown of the business function. You can also use a business function to transform a function model to a process model. business-function diagram A graphic design that visualizes the multilevel relationships between business functions. Note The lowest level of business functions is used to set the value of static conditions. The level above the lowest level is used to link business processes to business functions. business-function model A part of a business model that is built from a selection of business functions that are initially created in the repository. business model A model that represents the organization. There are two types of business models: Reference models apply to specific industries or business typologies. Project models apply to a specific organization. business process A set of one or more activities and states that collectively realize a business objective. business-process diagram A graphic design that visualizes the business objective via a process structure in the Petri Net format. business-process model A part of a reference model or project model built from a selection of business process diagrams that are initially created in the repository (library of business processes). calendar code Identification of a calendar year that is subdivided into year parts and periods. The start date and end date of the year can fall in another year than the calendar year. In the calendar, the different periods are defined by their start and end dates. category A division within a system of classification. Most model items can be categorized. central company The company in which all DEM model item data is stored. Central storage facilitates the retrieval of enterprise modeler data. child business control diagram A business control diagram that is linked to another business control diagram. One or more child diagrams can be linked to a parent diagram. A child diagram can also be linked to several parent diagrams. child employee group An employee group that is linked to another employee group at one level below the latter. company A working environment in which you can carry out logistic or financial transactions. All the data concerning the transactions is stored in the company's database. Each company has its own database tables and its own data. The company number identifies the data. Depending on the type of data that the company controls, the company is: A logistic company. A financial company. Both a logistic and a financial company. In a multisite structure, the company database can partially exist uniquely for the company, and partially consist of database tables that the company shares with other companies. component A set of applications and their related data. component release The identification of the issue of a component. consistency rule An expression containing one or more business functions on the basis of which one or more business functions must be present in the business model. control activity An activity in the business process that represents a decision moment. The designer of the business process defines with the help of static and dynamic conditions for the outgoing transitions the route through the process (which of the succeeding activities will be carried out and in which order). The different types of control activities are, for example, XOR, OR, and AND. current modeling version The version you currently use to create and modify model items. data model Consists of one or more entity relationship diagrams that together represent the way the information is stored in a database. deadline date/time The date and time when a process instance must be finished. See also: target date mode derived-from version Defines from which version the model item is derived. diarising A Workflow user can diarise a work item, that is to put it in resubmission mode, so that it does not appear in the worklist. If the work item must be carried out, the user must resubmit it. Diarising can be done individually per work item, or collectively per process instance or per folder. distribution algorithm Distributes activity instances to Workflow users according to a mechanism of free definition. The distribution algorithm is defined by a special script language and is saved in the Workflow Database. DLL See: dynamic link library dummy A place holder. Nothing happens in dummy activities but they are needed to avoid deadlocks in Petri nets. dynamic condition A condition that can be linked to an outgoing transition of a control activity. The outcome of the condition (true or false) is determined at run time by Workflow and is used to determine the path through a business process. Dynamic Enterprise Modeler A tool that enables you to create a multilevel structure that represents an organization using ERP software. The multilevel structure consists of the following model items: Enterprise-structure model Business models Data models dynamic link library A feature of operating systems that allows executable routines to be stored separately as files with DLL extensions and to be loaded only when needed by a program. Synonym: DLL dynamic menu browser A personal menu structure that shows the business processes and activities for which an employee is authorized. employee A human member of an organization model. Typically, employees are Workflow users who carry out activities with the Worklist Handler. employee group An organizational unit of employees. For example, sales department or purchase department. employee group types A label that can be used to categorize employee groups. enterprise model A complete design that visualizes a multisite organization. An enterprise model consists of an enterprise structure model and related business models. enterprise model browser A browser that graphically presents (parts of) the enterprise model. enterprise-modeler component A building block within Enterprise Modeler. enterprise modeler editor The tool that enables you to create and modify the enterprise-structure diagram (enterprise-structure model), the business-control diagram (part of a business model), the business-function diagram (part of a business model), the business-process diagram (part of a business model), and the entity-relationship diagram (data model). enterprise period table For each calendar the EIS period table contains the data that defines the periods within a year and year part. The maximum number of year parts within a year is 99. The maximum number of periods within a year part is 13. enterprise-structure diagram A graphic design that shows the geographic location of enterprise units and the relationships between these enterprise units in a multisite organization. You can model various kinds of relationships between enterprise units; this includes goods flows, financial flows, and information flows. enterprise-structure model An enterprise structure diagram that shows the geographic location of enterprise units and the relationships between these enterprise units in a multisite organization. enterprise unit A financially independent part of your organization that consists of entities such as departments, work centers, warehouses, and projects. The enterprise unit's entities must all belong to the same logistic company, but a logistic company can contain multiple enterprise units. An enterprise unit is linked to a single financial company. When you carry out logistic transactions between enterprise units, these are posted in the financial companies to which each enterprise unit is linked. The enterprise-structure models define the relationships between the enterprise units, and the goods transfer that can take place between the enterprise units. To use invoicing and pricing between enterprise units, you must link the enterprise units to internal business partners. You can use enterprise units to perform separate financial accounting for parts of your business. For example, you can define enterprise units for separate parts of your organization that belong to one logistic company but which are located in different countries. The accounting of each enterprise unit is performed in each country's national currency and in the financial company linked to the enterprise unit. enterprise-unit category type Identifies the kind of flow between two enterprise units. ERP LN distinguishes the following category types: A document flow A goods flow A money flow An order flow enterprise-unit relationship A description of the relation between two enterprise units. entity A separate and independent building block for a cluster and/or an enterprise unit. For example, warehouse, work center, employee, sales department, purchase department, project, customer, supplier, financial company. entity-relationship diagram A graphic design of the relational data model structure. The diagram shows a (multilevel) structure that consists of entity types and entity type relationships. entity type An object (person, place, thing, or concept) for which you must record information. ERP LN provides the following entity types: Logical entity type: a meaning to the real world and is comprised of one or more physical entity types. Physical entity type: database tables in the ERP LN application packages. Associative entity type: an entity type that is used to link other entity types. entity-type relationship A reason of relevance for associating entities of one or two entity types. ERP An accounting-oriented information system for identifying and planning the enterprise-wide resources needed to take, make, ship, and account for customer orders. An ERP system differs from the typical MRP II system in technical requirements, such as graphical user interface, relational database, use of fourth-generation language, and computer-aided software engineering tools." ERP user A person who is authorized to log on to the ERP LN applications, and for whom data such as a startup menu, an operational language, and roles (authorizations) is defined. estimated duration Average time needed to finish a business process or an activity. external agent External parties (such as customers, suppliers, and governments) that affect the business functions in a business-control diagram. external code A user-definable code that indicates the position of a model item relative to other model items. factor by period by seasonal pattern The relative ratio for the norm values for the periods within a calendar. financial company Part of an ERP LN database in which you can store all data concerning financial transactions. fixed date and time formula A formula to calculate the target date and time that can be linked to a business process or activity to determine the time frame in which the business process or activity must be accomplished. folder In DEM, a collection of process instances. These process instances can be derived from different process definitions. A folder can represent a logical group of process instances. For example, a folder for customer Jones. formal identification A version-specific reference to the actual business process, states, and Workflow attributes to be used in program scripts and during activity modeling. See: actual identification Ishikawa diagram A graphical representation of the hierarchy of used performance indicators. The Ishikawa diagram is represented as a fish bone chart. logical entity type An entity type that has a meaning to the real world and that contains several physical entity types. For example, an item or a warehouse. logical server See: Workflow Server login The logon name (logon code) an employee uses to log on to the server (UNIX, Windows) on which the ERP LN applications run. logistic company Part of an ERP database in which you can store data concerning logistic transactions. logon The user ID and password that the Worklist Handler user must enter to log on to the Workflow Server. Main (run-time) project model A run-time project model that functions as default for the company to which the project model is linked. There can only be one main project model per company. map A graphic design that is used to visualize geographical locations of the enterprise units in an enterprise structure diagram. model specific help Help that is linked to a model item and provides information about the function of that model item in a business model. operational enterprise-structure model An enterprise structure model of a specific version that reflects the transactions in the current organization (enterprise). optimization phase A phase in the business-improvement cycle in which new business functions and business processes are implemented in an organization. optimization relationship A relationship, graphically represented by a curved arrow, connecting two business functions. The functionality can either represent: A variant (replaces the business function). An option (additional business function). optional relationship A relationship between two entity types that is not mandatory. To identify the optionality of the relationship, the N side of the relationship is equal to zero. organization diagram A formal representation of an organization, which distinguishes employee groups, employees, and roles. owner An ERP user who has created a model item or version, or the ERP user who is responsible for the model or version. parameter A variable that directs the software to meet the specific requirements of an organization. parameter setting rule An expression containing business functions and/or business processes whose presence or absence determine the value of one or more parameters in a business model. performance indicator A value that indicates the achievements of company units. The value varies by time unit (such as week and day) and is calculated by means of a script. If the value is a figure, it is displayed as a chart. If the value relates to a collection of data, it is stored in an ASCII file. You can link performance indicators to business functions to monitor and improve the performance of these business functions. performance-indicator data by period The results of the calculation process, stored for the particular periods of the year. It concerns calculated results, norm, minimum, and maximum values (both periodic and cumulative), but also the owner of the performance indicator and, if applicable, the reports of output files. physical entity type Database table definitions of the ERP LN application, for example the general item (tcibd001) data table. The entity type code is usually equal to the table code. position number An internal number that indicates the place of the activity, state, or control activity in the business process diagram. primary activity The representation of an organization's basic activity, situated on the primary flow. Examples are: receipt of raw materials, production of sub-assemblies, final assembly, and delivery of the final products. primary flow The primary process that is controlled in the business control diagram. Per diagram, only one flow can be inserted. This flow can represent a goods flow, an information flow, or a financial flow. On the primary flow, primary activities, buffers, and one customer order decoupling point can be inserted. priority An indication of how urgently work items must be processed. The activity instance priority can be the decisive factor for sorting work items in the Worklist Handler. process browser The Process Browser is a menu tree in Worktop or WebUI. It is the DEM runtime user interface and consists of a window from which employees can start the activities for which they are authorized. In the Process Browser you see roles by employees. To these roles Business Processes with activities are linked. process instance A single representation of a process definition, which consists of a sequence of activity instances and state instances (connected by transitions). Their relation is defined in the process definition. Process Viewer A client application that graphically displays a business process. If you have the appropriate authorizations, you can use the Process Viewer to start activities. project model A model that represents a specific organization. . A project model is built from a library (repository) of the following model items: business-control model business-function model business-process model query The act or process of extracting data from a database to present it for use. reference model A model that represents a line of business or business typology. A reference model is built from a library (repository) of the following model items: business-control model business-function model business-process model repository A library of model items. ERP LN distinguishes the following repositories: Business functions Business processes Business-control diagrams In coherence with each other the repository model items can form a business model. repository help Help that provides general information about a model item. Repository help can also be viewed from a business model. reroute An authorized Workflow user can reroute work items to another Workflow user, a group, or a role. Rerouting can be done individually per work item, collectively per process instance, or per folder. responsibility code A task that can be linked to a role, and which is used for authorization purposes. If a responsibility code is linked to a role, at least on of the responsibility codes must have the value Yes to authorize the role. reverse engineering The opposite of the (normal) engineering process. Instead of creating new data for a software product, you extract information from an existing database. The data structure information is generated and can be used to design anew interface or to describe the current software. You can either select entity types that were not used before in the entity relationship diagram, or generate a new set of entity types for which entity relationships or entity relationship diagrams already exist. role In DEM a role is a set of specific qualifications and/or skills that an employee must have to be authorized to carry out a business process, activity, or subapplication. rule An expression. A rule is used to: Check the consistency of a business function model (consistency rules). Transform a business function model to a business process model (transformation rules). Assign a value to the application parameters (parameter setting rules). Assign a value to static conditions (static condition setting rules). rule condition An expression that contains business processes and/or business functions and determines which of the following model items are included, or assigned a value in a business model. The assigned value can be: Business function Business process Parameter Static condition running ERP component The ERP component that is currently active. running ERP component The ERP component that is currently active. running ERP component release The ERP component release that is currently active. run-time optimization phase The optimization phase that is used at run time. Combined with the run-time version and run-time project model, the run-time optimization phase determines which processes are displayed and how to displayed these processes in the dynamic menu browser. run-time project model A project model (within a company) that is used at run-time. Combined with the run-time version and run-time optimization phase, the run-time project model determines the processes that are displayed in the dynamic menu browser. run-time version The version that contains the run-time project model. Combined with the run-time project model and run-time optimization phase, the run-time version determines the processes that are displayed in the dynamic menu browser. seasonal pattern code The code to identify a seasonal pattern. A seasonal pattern describes the relative ratios for norm values for one or more periods in a year. These values can be linked to performance indicators. sequence number A number that determines the sequence in which records are displayed in an overview session or list box. state Part of a business process that is used internally to control the path through the business process. static condition A condition that can be linked to an outgoing transition of a control activity. During the implementation of ERP LN, the static condition values are evaluated by static condition-setting rules and can result in activating/deactivating parts of business processes. static condition setting rule An expression containing business functions and/or business processes whose presence or absence determine the values of static conditions in a business model. status The stage in the development of a model item. subapplication An application defined as accessible from a defined component application. If the component application is an ERP LN session, the subapplications are equivalent to ERP LN subsessions. sub-role A regular role that is linked to another role at one level below the latter. subtype relationship An entity relationship between two entity types (a subtype and a supertype) that is used to indicate that the supertype's attributes also apply to (are inherited by) the subtype. supervisor The employee that manages one or more employee groups, as a result of which he gets distributed all business processes that belong to the employee group(s) he/she supervises. support application One or more applications that can be linked to a business process or an activity to help the employee carry out the process/activity. Note that a support application can contain both applications and other support applications. table definition The definition of a table and its fields/columns and so on, in the ERP LN data dictionary. target date A date on which the process instance should have reached a specific state. If the state is not reached, the Workflow Management System initializes a predefined action. A deadline is a special target date. target date mode Determines how the deadline date must be interpreted by the Workflow Management System. See: See also: deadline date/time tools role transformation rule An expression imposing a unilateral dependency of business processes in relation to business functions. By carrying out the rules, business processes are imported into the business model based on the business functions that are already present. transition A directed link or connection between an activity and a state in a Petri-net. You can link a static and/or dynamic condition to a transition. trigger An arrow in a business-control diagram that can be drawn between business functions, external agents, primary activities, and buffers. An incoming trigger (request loop) represents the cause/origin of a business function; the returning trigger (feedback loop) reports the confirmation/result of the action to the invoking function/agent. Note: an incoming and outgoing trigger must be present between each type of model item. unit The physical quantity in which goods are managed. For example, wood can be expressed by length in meters, or by volume in cubic meters. URL Uniform Resource Locator (URL). An address for a resource on the Internet. URLs are used by Web browsers to locate Internet resources. A URL specifies: The protocol to be used in accessing the resource (such as http: for a World Wide Web page, or ftp: for an FTP site). The name of the server on which the resource resides (such as www.whitehouse.gov). The path to a resource (such as an HTML document or a file on that server). user authorization The level of authorization that is given to a user to work with a component activity. The following levels of authorization exist: Display Print/Display Modify/Print/Display Insert/Modify/Print/Display Full Authorization version A group of model items that share some characteristics, such as the customer, owner, and effective date. version tree Shows the derived-from structure of versions. wizard A special form of user assistance that automates a task by setting the parameter values within a business model and which directs the software to meet the specific requirements of an organization. wizard constraint Determines what you must do when a wizard step is carried out. You must only apply a wizard constraint if the actions involve more than simply setting a parameter; for example, starting a nested wizard. wizard dll function A DLL contains one or more functions to accomplish a certain task. Among other things, these functions can be used in constraints to check the answer given by the user against certain conditions, to check on the presence of a business function in the business function model, to read parameters, or to read wizard step answers. wizard end text A text that explains the result of the wizard after the ERP user has completed all wizard steps. wizard Help text Text that contains background information or a detailed description of the wizard-step question. wizard hint text Text that contains information for wizard-step answers based on common practice. wizard question text The question that a user is asked in a wizard. The question is displayed in the wizard step dialog box. wizard start text A text that explains the function of the wizard. wizard step The section of a wizard that accomplishes the dialog with the ERP user. wizard-step answer The answer to a wizard step which the user can select from a range of possible answers. Usually, ERP LN automatically creates answers based on the domain linked to the parameter that can be set in the wizard. workflow attributes A variable for use in Workflow that transfers a value along activities in a business process. workflow Database The data required for the Workflow Management System is stored in this database (except of data host and configuration files). All programs of Workflow can access it. The Workflow Administration System serves the database administration. workflow enabled A parameter of an ERP LN session that indicates the session can be started through Workflow. workflow engine A software part of the Workflow Server. The Workflow Engine uses the Workflow API to provide data and services to the Workflow Processing Clients. The Workflow Engine consists of several workers, the Job Manager and the Operator Manager. Workflow Management System A system that uses software to define, create, and manage the execution of business processes. The WMS runs on one or more Workflow Servers. The WMS can interpret process definitions, interact with Workflow users, and, if required, use IT tools and applications. workflow processing Comprises all actions to realize current business processes. The process instances are subdivided into single steps and are given to the appropriate Workflow users. Responsibilities and access rights are checked. Workflow processing provides the right people with the right tools and the right data at the right time. Workflow Processing Client A software component for the Workflow user to carry out work items, for example, the Worklist Handler. The client is connected to the server by means of a network. workflow-process status The development stage of a business process. The stage determines whether: You can modify the business process Workflow can use it Workflow Server The Workflow Engine and the Workflow Database running on the (physical) server. In case of several logical servers, this is called a multiserver. Synonym: logical server Workflow System Administration This administration tool is a graphical user interface to the Workflow Database. Each database table has a corresponding form for searching and data entry, and the option for report generation. Abbreviation: WSA workflow system attributes Variables and constants containing workflow system data. workflow system data Workflow data managed by the Workflow Management System and/or the Workflow Engine. Such data is internal to the WMS and is usually not accessible for applications. workflow user A user of the Worklist Handler. Workflow users can be employees and system-internal users. work item A user-related activity instance that is entered in the user's Worklist. The Workflow Management System schedules an activity instance to all authorized Workflow users, so that one activity instance can have more than one work item. worklist A complete list of work items for a specific Workflow user in the Worklist Handler. Worklist Handler A software component that manages the interaction between the Workflow user and the Workflow Engine to carry out work items. WSA See: Workflow System Administration |