Oracle BPM 12C Case Management new features

Oracle has released Oracle BPM 12C which includes some new features for case management list below :

• Case as a first­ class entity whose life cycle is managed by the Case engine
• New! Case relationships ­­ support for run time linking of cases as sub­cases, duplicates, dependents etc. Sub­-cases can also be defined at design ­time.
•  Stakeholder model definition – this can be design­ time as well runtime.
•  Case Activities – implementation in dependent activity definitions that define who can perform the activity, if it can be repeated, whether its required and if its manually or automatically initiated.
•  Case Data – structured data used by the activities, stakeholders and rules to progress the case. Case Data can be defined as internal or as external.
•  New! Milestones with due dates – are used to mark the progression of a case, Milestones can be defined to have due dates. In case a milestone crosses the due date an event is raised.
•  Content – Webcenter Content backed content management that allows managing all unstructured content for individual cases. Optionally, CMIS ­compliant Content Management Systems can be configured in place of Webcenter Content
•  Case Rules – Oracle Business Rules authored rules for handling various case events. These rules allow you to control activity availability, case life cycle and mark milestone completions. They can also be used to react to external events as well as case events such as milestone expiration, stakeholder addition, document changes and data modifications.

Oracle BPM - What is Case Management?

I have been working on various BPM products for last few years. Recently, i got a chance to work on BPM  Case Management . It also called Adaptive Case Management(ACM). So, i decided to write my understanding about case management.

To understand case management, first we have to understand different types BPM processes. We can divide BPM processes in two categories predictive and non-predictive BPM processes.

Predictive BPM Processes :  It's tradition BPM processes whose outcome is already defined and it's repeatable. e.g. Leave Management , Expense Re-reimbursement , Account Management etc. These processes implementations presume a level of repeatability in the steps taken to accomplish a goal and to complete work.By nature it requires a predefined process model, tend towards an approach where choices and order are predefined to the greatest extent possible.

Non-Predictive BPM Processes : These processes are non-repeatable and non-predicable. We don't know the outcome of the process in the beginning. e.g Insurance Claim, Incident Management etc.

What is Case Management?
Case Management is a approach that is useful when processes are not repeatable.Case Management doesn't presume that there is always an order and structure to work. This is consistent with the way many knowledge workers approach their jobs,tasks are completed in different orders based on how and when events happen. In a case management approach participants control the process, and change it on a case-by-case basis. They have complete control over the case. They suppose to manage Participant Changes , Activity Changes and Flow changes.


The unpredictability of the process is a key indicator of whether the work should handled via a case management approach, or via traditional process management approach.

In the following blogs, i will write more about case management and it's real time examples