Dividing work with child case types

Description	When to use a sub-case to assist with processing work
Version as of	8.4
Application	Platform
Capability/Industry Area	Case Management

Sometimes work might break down into multiple pieces that have a relationship or dependency with one another. These separate pieces are called a child case. A child case is a case which represents a different, but related piece of work to the original or parent case. Use the following to help identify when to use a child case:

• Is there a distinct case life cycle from the top-level case type?
• Can this work be run independently or by many top-level case types?
• Will you need to report on the work independently?
• Will this work progress in parallel to other child cases or the top-level case?

Example

At a bank, opening a new bank account requires that the applicant has a credit check. Opening a new bank account is visualized in a case type, but the credit check has a case life cycle all on its own that is critical to the overall Microjourney™ of opening an account.

The Credit Check would be a child case since a credit check may be run independently from the other aspects of opening a bank account.

By separating the credit check into its own child case, it can be reused by other top-level case types, such as applying for a loan.

Related information

Creating a case type

Creating a top-level case type

Creating a child case type

Understanding case hierarchy

A business solution that automates workflows in your organization. Multiple, unrelated applications can be hosted in the same system. You create an application by running the New Application wizard.

A method of delivering goal-oriented results by handling business cases from start to a resolution and combining human actions with digital automations. In case management, you use data and people that are involved in a business process to visualize and model work, so that you can prepare a set of actions that lead to your objective. For example, you can model a process of approving candidates after reviewing job applications, from collecting documents from a candidate, through the job interview, to the final approval.

Actual work that is performed by application users and automations that consists of a sequence of tasks and leads to an intended business goal. An example of a case is a process of hiring a particular job candidate, where an HR worker collects necessary documents, a hiring manager conducts a job interview, and an application sends an automated email with onboarding information after the candidate is approved. To create a case, you first build a template of your business process that is a case type, and then apply the template in multiple cases, for example, to review applications from many candidates.

Represents work in your application that can contain other case types, known as children or child case types. Unlike child case types, top-level case types are not covered by a parent, and are typically instantiated by case workers using the Case Manager portal. Your application can have many top-level case types. You can view your top-level case types in the Case Type Explorer.

A template for a case in an application.

One of the business outcomes included in a journey.