Defining Statistical Override rules

The Statistical Override rule evaluates data gathered by a Signature Accumulator rule or by the , and determines whether the process should immediately conclude with an Approved or Rejected state, or should continue using the default  behavior.

To define a Statistical Override rule

1. Follow the procedure in Creating-a-rule to complete the basic information about the rule.
   • Select Statistical Override from the Rule Type list.

   • In Statistical Override rules, the Run If condition specifies the condition to be evaluated. For example, to check if 50 percent or more of the signatures have been approved, you create a Run If condition as follows:

     $Total Approved$ / $Total Signatures$ >= .5

     To derive the statistical override value, you can use static values, arithmetic operations, keywords, the results from functions, and values from the record that the  is processing in the AP:Detail-Signature form.

2. Click the Set Fields tab.
3. In the Set Fields Type field, select the appropriate action type.
    See Defining-actions-for-a-rule.
4. For a query, select a form name from the From Form menu.
    This value indicates in which form to search for the query.
5. In the On Serverfield, select the server where the form is located.
   • Current—The form exists on the current server.
   • Alternate—The form exists on another server. In this case, type the remote server name in the Server field.
6. Enter a qualification statement, if any.
7. In the Fields Data area, type one of the following values (or its integer equivalent) into the first entry in the Value list:
   • Approved
   • Rejected
      In a Statistical Override rule, the Field column on the Set Fields tab is automatically populated with the statistical override field name. The Set Fields function sets the specified value in the statistical override field on the Detail form. The only valid statistical override values are Approved or Rejected.
8. Click Save.

Example of decision-making rules in a sample application

The Get Agreement sample application uses an Ad Hoc process that contains four interrelated statistical decision-making rules. These are Issue Retrieve Signature Limit and Issue Increment Signature Limit (Signature Accumulator rules), and Issue Statistical Approval and Issue Statistical Boundary Condition (Statistical Override rules). For more information about the Get Agreement sample application, see Using-the-Lunch-Scheduler-sample-application.

Activating the sample rules

When the sample application is installed, these rules are set to Inactive status. To follow the procedures in this section, you must change the status to Active.

To change the rules to active status

1. Open the Rule tab on the AP:Administration form.
2. In the Show For Process field, select the process Issue Approved.
3. Check the Status column. If any rules are set to Inactive, click View to open the rule.
4. In the Status field of the Basic tab, select Active.
5. Click Save, and Close.

Sample data for the statistical decision-making rules

The approvers in this example have the following signature authority:

• Jack Miller's signature limit is $100.00.
• Larry Goldstein's signature limit is $500.00.
• Violet Anderson's signature limit is $2000.00.

The signature authority data that supports these sample rules is imported with the sample applications and stored in the Signature Dollar Limit field of the AP-Sample:Signature Authority form, as shown in the following figure.

Dollar signature limits in the AP-Sample:Signature Authority form

Rule functionality

When one of the sample approvers responds to a request, the sample statistical decision-making rules run. Signature Accumulator rules run before Statistical Override rules. In this case, they both have a Run If condition that causes the Set Fields action to occur only when the approver's signature is set to Approved. (If the approver's signature is set to Rejected, these rules do not run and default behavior causes the request to be rejected.)

• The rule Issue Retrieve Signature Limit has execution order 0, so it runs first. It retrieves the Signature Dollar Limit for the current approver, and sets the value in a temporary field (Temp Decimal 1) on the Detail form.
  For this rule, the Set Fields qualification used is:

  'Login Name' = $Approvers$

  This qualification retrieves the signature authority amount for the current approver by matching the current approver's login name to the Login Name field on the AP-Sample:Signature Authority form.

• The rule Issue Increment Signature Limit has execution order 1, so it runs next. It increments another temporary field in the Detail form with the current cumulative signature dollar value for all approvers who have responded.

The example Statistical Override rules run after the Signature Accumulator rules are complete.

• The rule Issue Statistical Approval has execution order 0. The Run If condition causes it to run only when the Approver response is set to Approved.
  • It checks the current cumulative signature authority. If the current cumulative signature authority is greater than $500, the Set Fields action sets Statistical Override to Approved.
     This approves the request, regardless of whether all approvers have responded. In this way, the rule preempts the default  behavior and approves the request. In this case, the other Statistical Override rule does not run because the request is done.
  • If the current cumulative signature value is less than $500, the Set Fields action does not occur, and the request is not yet done.
• The rule Issue Statistical Boundary Condition has execution order 1. It runs only if the first Statistical Override rule did not result in approving the request.
  • If signatures are still pending, the Set Fields action does not occur, and the approval process continues.
  • If a hold exists or a More Information request is pending, the Set Fields action does not occur, and the approval process continues.

  • If approvers remain, and the current cumulative signature authority is not greater than $500, the Set Field action sets Statistical Override to Rejected, and the request is done.
    
    These two Statistical Override rules work together to assure that the approval process always ends with the request set to either Approved or Rejected.

    This example assumes that the request is for an amount greater than $500. The Get Agreement sample application does not include a field for the amount of the request. In an actual approval process, you would also need a field to gather the amount of the request, and a Run If condition to test the amount.

Using the sample application with statistical decision-making rules

This section describes how to create a request that will activate the example Signature Accumulator and Statistical Override rules, and how to observe the action of the rules after each approval. Use a browser to perform these procedures.

To create a request that activates the example rules

1. Log in to the appropriate  as the sample user Frank Williams.
2. Open the AP-Sample2:Get Agreement form in New mode.
3. In the Summary field, type:
   I want to purchase a new laser printer.
4. In the Details field, type:
   A really nice new laser printer costs $600.
    This entry is only a comment, and does not affect the behavior of the rule.
5. In the Initial Approvers field, type:
   Jack Miller; Larry Goldstein; Violet Anderson
    Make sure to type a semicolon between each approver's name.
6. Click Save. To illustrate how statistically driven approvals work, the following procedure uses the AP:Detail-Signature form to view the approval status after a response by each approver.

To observe the approval process in the AP:Detail-Signature form

1. Using a browser, log in to  as an administrator, and open the AP:Detail-Signature form in Search mode.
2. In the Approval Status field, select Pending, and click Search.
    The approval request created by Frank Williams is pending for Jack Miller, Larry Goldstein, and Violet Anderson.
3. Log in as Jack Miller, open Approval Central, and approve the request from Frank Williams.
   Observing rule activity in the AP:Detail-Signature form
   
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
    The sample statistical decision-making rules require the cumulative signature authority to be greater than $500. Because Jack's signature authority is weighted at $100, the approval is still pending for either Larry or Violet's signature.
5. Log in as Larry Goldstein, open Approval Central, and approve the request from Frank Williams.
6. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
    The request is no longer pending when you search the AP:Detail-Signature form. Because the cumulative signature authority of Jack Miller and Larry Goldstein is $600 ($100 + $500), the approval condition in the Issue Statistical Approval rule is met, and the request is approved, even though Violet has not responded.
    Violet's signature authority is weighted at $2000. Therefore, Violet could have approved Frank's request without requiring either Larry or Jack's approval.

Example of a Statistical Override rule with default data

The  automatically populates the hidden Total fields in the join forms with the number of signature records in Pending, Approved, Rejected, Hold, More Information, Cancelled, Error, and Closed states. You can use these field values in Statistical Override rules. In this case, no Signature Accumulator rule is necessary. For example, the following Run If condition would check if 50 percent or more of the signatures have been approved:

When the Run If condition has been met, the preempted decision is specified on the Set Fields tab.