> #### 1.2.9 What Happens When You Publish a Process Definition?

> As mentioned above, you use the Process Definition Summary page for publishing a draft process definition:

> When you publish a process definition in Interstage BPM, the process definition's state changes from an editable or draft state to a non-editable or published state. It is recommended that you publish a process definition before it is put into production use, because publication protects the process instances started from the process definition. Completed or closed process instances created from Draft process definitions are deleted when the Draft process definitions are changed. Process instances started from Published process definitions are not deleted automatically. Thus, your historical process data is protected.

> Publication of a process definition makes it available to all Interstage BPM users on the same Interstage BPM Server. While a process definition is in the Draft state, it is available only to the process definition owner and the Interstage BPM Administrator. The process definition owner is the user who created the process definition.

> Often, changes to Published process definitions are necessary. Since a Published process definition cannot be changed, you need to create a new version of it. The recommended procedure for doing so is to make a copy of the Published process definition and assign it the same name. This copy will be in the Draft state. You can make your changes to the copy, and then publish the new version. This makes the previously published version of the process definition obsolete.

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