Creating Cases and Child Cases

Creating Cases and Child Cases

In Pega, you create a template called a case type for processing work. You can create more than one case type if your business process is too complicated to model with a single case type. Each case type you create represents a part of the business process, so you establish relationships between case types to reflect dependencies.

Case Type and Case

A case type is an abstract and repeatable model of a business transaction.

A case is a specific instance of the transaction.

Think of a case type as a template for creating and processing cases — when a new transaction starts, a new case is created based on the case type definition.

The case type:

1. Contains data models for holding patient information and dental procedure information.  
2. Defines processes for reviewing and approving or rejecting claims.  
3. Provides user forms for attaching medical documents.

Case Type and Case Example

A case is created for each dental claim filed by a patient.

1. Case 1 — Teeth cleaning for John Smith on May 3 
2. Case 2 — New crown for Linda Wise on January 15

Each case moves through the processes as defined in the case type. 

Case Type Relationships

A business transaction can be complicated and its processing involves multiple cases that must be worked in parallel.

You can model this parent-child relationship with a case type hierarchy that contains a top-level case type and child case type.

A top-level case type does not have any parent case type, but can cover, or become a parent of, other case types.

A child case type is covered by a parent case type. Child case types represent work that must be completed to resolve the parent.

Case Type Relationships Example

Business process: Car Accident Claim. 

1. Top-level case type: Accident Claim. 
2. Two child case types: Vehicle Damage and Bodily Injury. 
3. Each child cases is addressed by a different parties. 
4. Both child cases must be addressed before the Accident Claim can close.

Adding a Top-level Case Type in an Application

To add a top-level case type to your application in the Case Designer:

1. In the navigation panel, click Cases to view the list of current case types in your application.  
2. Click + Add a case type. 
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the case type. 
4. Optional: Expand the Advanced Settings section to configure inheritance for the case type. Accepting default settings should suffice in most cases. 
5. Click Finish.

Adding a New Child Case Type to your Application

To add a new child case type to your application in the Case Designer:

1. Open the Case Type Explorer. 
2. Hover over a parent case type name and click the options menu. 
3. Select Add a child case type. 
4. Click New case type. 
5. In the Name field, enter a name for the child case type. 
6. Optional: Expand the Advanced Settings section to configure inheritance for the case type. 
7. Click Finish.

Adding an Existing Child Case Type to Your Application

To add an existing child case type to your application in the Case Designer:

1. Open the Case Type Explorer. 
2. Hover over a parent case type name and click the options menu. 
3. Select Add a child case type
4. Click Existing case type. 
5. In the Name field, enter a name for the child case type. 
6. Click Finish.

Creating Another Case During the Case Life Cycle

Follow these steps to add and configure a process step to create a case during case processing:

1. In the Life cycle tab of the case designer, identify the process where you want to add a step for creating a case. 
2. Click + Add step. A pop-up opens to select the type of step to add. 
3. Select More > Utilities > Create Case(s). 
4. Click this new step to configure the Create Case shape. 
5. Indicate how to create the new case — as a top-level case, child case, or multiple child cases.

Creating a Top-Level Case

Create a top-level case when you want the new case to be independent of the current case:

1. Click Create a case. 
2. In the Case type list, select the case type to create. Specify the name of the case type, or select Other to specify the case type using a parameter or property. 
3. In the Starting process list, select a flow that creates the case. 
4. Optional: In the Property to store ID of case field, enter the name of a single-value property that you can reference from the current case to open the new case.

Creating a Child Case

Create a child case when you want the current case to be dependent upon the new case. Processing on the current case cannot be completed until the child case is resolved.

1. Click Create a child case. 
2. In the Case type list, select a case type that is a child of your current case type. If you do not know which case type to select at design time, you can select Other from the list to create a case based on the run-time value of a parameter or property. 
3. In the Starting process list, select a flow that creates the child case.

Creating Multiple Child Cases

Create multiple child cases when you want to create a child for each item in a list. Processing on the current case cannot be completed until each of the child cases are resolved.

1. Click Create multiple child cases.
2. Enter a page list property (also referred to as a field group list) in the For each item in list field. (At run time, a child case is created for each entry that is found on the page list.)
3. In the Case type list, select an allowed child case type.
   • If you do not know which case type to select at design time, you can select Other from the list to create a case based on the run-time value of a parameter or property. 
   • If no case type is selected, the class of the page list (field group list) that is provided in the For each item in list field is used to create the child cases.
4. In the Starting process list, select a flow that creates each child case.
5. Optional: Enter a page name in the Source page parameter name field that you can reference in a data transform to copy information to each child case.
6. In the Data transform field, enter a data transform that sets initial property values for the case. If you are creating more than one child case, you can select the Copy page data to new child case check box instead.
7. Optional: In the Audit note field, press the down arrow key and select the name of a field value that is added to the history, or audit trail, of the case when the Change Stage shape is processed.
8. Click Save.