Blueworks Live

Blueworks Live User Types 

After creating your team and defining roles, the next step is to map participants to user types to maximize collaboration and business insight for meaningful transformation. There are many ways to participate in digital transformation and Blueworks Live. Based on your role and involvement, Blueworks Live provides three different licensing and user types: editor, contributor and viewer. These types are designed to facilitate collaboration, ensuring the necessary SMEs, business analysts, architects, developers and stakeholders provide their needed inputs and have direct access to information for the project to be successful. The figure below explains the three Blueworks Live user types. 

Figure 3: Blueworks Live Users 

It is important to remember that you don’t have to be technical to use Blueworks Live. From process SMES to business analysts and quality assurance managers, proper business representation and participation in Blueworks Live is critical. As an intuitive tool, business users can quickly and easily use Blueworks Live successfully, along with technical roles that are vital for process discovery and business transformation. 

Mapping Roles to User Types 

After establishing your team and defining each member’s role, you need to map them to Blueworks Live user types. Core SMEs should be Editors so they are able to have hands on the keyboard, collaboratively documenting and validating the process while providing key information and insights. Additionally, those facilitating the project, such as a Project Manager or Business Analyst role, should be an Editor so they have full access to the artifacts produced to review, edit, progress, and keep the project on track. Furthermore, it is recommended the technical lead of the project, such as an Enterprise Architect or Technical Lead role, should be an Editor to provide process parameters such as the Systems used, required inputs and outputs to each activity, and other important data to allow for productive collaboration between business and IT. The technical representative can support the business discovery and process, learn where improvements can be made and provide the needed IT resources. 

Editors can create, copy, modify, and publish artifacts, such as process blueprints and decisions, and automate and launch process apps. They can add comments on blueprint processes, and they can configure, launch, and participate in work. If administrators enable the option, editors and contributors without explicit edit privileges in a space can see unpublished artifacts. 

Supporting roles, such as supporting SMEs, Application Architects or Compliance Managers, can be Contributors so they can add comments and participate in the review process. A productive way to involve Contributors is by creating Process Apps with checklists and to-do lists that provide structured and organized work queues for participants to provide their needed inputs. This keeps projects on track, on time and on the path to success. 

Contributors can create, configure, launch and view process apps as well as participate in work. They can also view process blueprints, decisions, and policies. They can add comments on blueprint processes. If administrators enable the option, Contributors can also see unpublished artifacts in a space, as long as they are participants in that space. 

Lastly, stakeholders, managers and others that have a vested interest in the project and scoped business process can be Viewers. Viewers can view spaces, processes, decisions, and policies. However, they cannot participate in work in spaces, blogs, or activity streams. 

Blueworks Live is an online, collaborative tool where multiple users of each type can be working together, in the same space and on the same model, with instantaneous, real-time updates. This feature makes co-located and remote participation efficient and productive. When any Editor makes a change, or Contributor adds a comment, all other users will immediately see those updates and can edit or contribute together. Online chat, commenting and an activity log also make it easy to work with others and follow along the transformation journey.  

Adjusting User Types 

The user types in Blueworks Live are flexible and interchangeable among team members in the account. Although each team member is invited to their Blueworks Live account with a specific user type, that user type be changed at any time by a Blueworks Live Account Administrator. If one project starts when another is finishing, the user type of one team member can be adjusted to promote or demote their access and participation level and then be exchanged with another team member based on need. As long as the total number of licenses and user types are within the entitlement limit, then this exchange and flexibility provides easy ways to share and leverage the capabilities of Blueworks Live. All Account Administrators have access to users and their assigned type to make these adjustments. 

Consider the following example scenario to see how the flexible user types can be applied. Joe is a business analyst who is an SME and has been key to driving process transformation for the Accounts Payable process. This project has been a success and is finishing implementation, that is, wrapping up with new initiatives about to start. Joe was an Editor in the Accounts Payable project. The next project is focused on automating call center processes, where Joe is not an SME, but he can still assist the project with his business transformation experience and leadership. Susie, who is an SME for call center processes, was a Viewer for the Accounts Payable project, but she can now switch user types with Joe and become an Editor so she can directly edit the call center process blueprints. Since Joe doesn’t need to provide updates to the call center processes, his Blueworks Live user type can be demoted to Viewer, allowing Susie to gain the Editor access she needs to make the project successful. This interchangeability and flexibility allows the right people to participate at the right time and with the right level of access. 

Mapping team members to user types described above will provide everyone with the recommended amount of involvement and participation, ensure confidence in the discovery and artifacts produced and set the team and project up for transformation success. 

In this article, we introduced Blueworks Live user types and how to map to project roles for your digital transformation initiative. Assembling a team led by the business, but supported by deeply skilled technical experts, leads to the strongest results in digital transformations. In our next posting, tune in for specifics on scoping the process and how to get started with standardized modeling in Blueworks Live.