Each playback has stages of requirements gathering, designing, building, and testing. Each of the stages is relatively short and the cycle will be repeated several times during a playback phase resulting in a final playback. After a final playback in a phase, you can move to the next playback phase of development.

For different projects, there are a variable number of playback phases, but generally, you will have 4-5 numbered phases including playback zero. There is also variability in length of playbacks. Keep this in mind as you cover the specifics of each playback. The most important key is that you define goals and objectives for each of your project’s playbacks and communicate these themes before the project is implemented.

Playback 0 focuses on high-level business process understanding and building consensus. This playback is done at least once at the beginning of a project as part of the process discovery phase.

The goals of a typical Playback 0 are:

• Consensus building and discovery of business process among stakeholders
• Further understanding of implementation scope
• Alignment of bottom-line expectations, KPIs, and high-value metrics from executive sponsors
• Transferring context and responsibility from the BPM Analyst to the BPM Developer

The deliverables typically include:

• An executable process definition (BPD)
  • Modeled to the level of depth necessary to show each discrete user task encountered in the process.
  • Does not need to include the specific implementation of each activity. A placeholder is sufficient.
• A participant and user group model
  • As denoted by swim lanes in the BPD or as notes on the diagram when routing rules are more sophisticated than a single participant group
• Notes on the diagram to denote user activities that require information from external systems (integrations)
• A basic data model using IBM Business Process Manager 7.5 variable types Should cover all
  • process data (as one subvariable type) and as much
  • business data (as another subvariable type) as reasonably as possible to discover in the time frame
• Mocked-up reports that demonstrate a combination of the following BPM principles:
  • Visibility
  • Analysis
  • Control
• A focused demonstration of the previously mentioned deliverables, run within the default user portal interface, implemented by the BPM Analyst, and delivered by the process owner with coaching from a BPM Analyst

After conducting Playback 0, the next step in subsequent playbacks is for the BPM Analyst to act as the executive-level voice of the customer, through playback alignment with the executives.

Playback 1 focus on users interface design and implementation.
This playback is typically done at least once, and in concept it can be done as many times as is necessary to realize the theme of user interfaces.

The goals of a typical Playback 1 are:

• Consensus on and implementation of all necessary user interfaces
• Consensus on required data model to support user interfaces and business decisions

By working together with the BPM Analyst, the BPM Developer defines and implements each human interface that the process requires. This process should include all human tasks in the process, any ad hoc interfaces that exist outside the process, and any reports, dashboards, and scoreboards that are needed to elevate visibility and control of the business process.

The major deliverables of this playback typically include:

• A definition of the data model necessary for the business process
• A definition of what parts of the data model are captured through human tasks or interfaces
• A definition of the business actions that need to be enabled in each interface
• A definition of all possible next steps for each action
• A definition of the required validation necessary to maintain data and decision integrity
• The general appearance of the process solution (styles, themes, headers, consistent layout guidelines)
• An implementation of all required user interfaces as informed by the previous points

It is assumed that this deliverable does not include the implemented integrations, reference data (auto-population of choices), or system-of-record population that would eventually be required for the full solution.

A focused demonstration of the previously mentioned deliverables, run from the default user portal interface, implemented by the BPM Developer, and delivered by the process owner with coaching from the BPM Analyst and BPM Developer

The next steps after Playback 1 use the understanding of the process from Playback 0 with the data model and user interaction understanding from Playback 1 to focus on building the necessary integrations to support the process, and its decisions and human interactions.

Playback 2 focuses on integrations. This playback is typically done at least once, and in concept it can be done as many times as is necessary to realize the theme of integrations.

The goals of a typical Playback 2 include:

• Implementation and exception handling for all integrations that are needed to support the business process
• Definition and acceptance on all service level agreements and expectation settings with the owners of any external systems involved in the integrations

The major deliverables of a typical Playback 2 include:

• Definition of the interfaces required for each integration point
• Definition of the data transformation required to send and receive information from these external systems
• Definition of all the fault codes that could possibly be returned from the external systems in response to starting an integration point
• Definition of the exception handling mechanism around handling any of the fault codes
• Definition of the required validation against these integration points necessary to maintain data and decision integrity
• Implementation of all required integrations as informed by the previously mentioned points

A Playback 2 deliverable does not constitute a fully functional solution that is ready for user acceptance testing. Additional elements that finalize the process implementation from Playback 0, the UI items from Playback 1, and the integration items from Playback 2 remain to be implemented.

The next steps after conducting Playback 2 use the understanding of the process from Playback 0, the data model and user interaction understanding from Playback 1, and the finished integration points from Playback 2, to focus on consolidating all themes into an end-to-end solution that is ready for user acceptance testing.

Playback 3 focuses on consolidation of the previous themes and producing an end-to-end solution.

This playback is typically done at least once, and in concept it can be done as many times as is necessary to accomplish the theme of the end-to-end solution.

The goals of a typical Playback 3 are:

• Completing all necessary implementation details to consolidate the process automation, user interfaces, and integrations necessary to deliver a full BPM solution
• Delivering a fully deployable and testable solution that is ready for user acceptance testing

The BPM Developer defines and implements all remaining functionality points necessary to complete the end-to-end process solution. This final playback theme should not introduce any entirely new functionality to the solution. The focus should be on completeness, refinement, and stability.

The major deliverables of a typical Playback 3 include:

• An user testable solution, ready to be deployed to the user acceptance testing environment
• Documentation (beyond what is already built into the solution) needed to empower users, administrators, and system-level developers
• A clear description of all functionality that is deferred to the next revision of this project (after the current iteration is deployed to production)
• Implementation of all required functionality necessary for an end-to-end solution
• A focused demonstration of the previously mentioned deliverables, run from the user interface, implemented by the BPM Consultant, and delivered by the process owner with coaching from the BPM Consultant

The next step after conducting Playback 3 is to submit the project to the user acceptance testing phase, and prepare for a production deployment.