Start delivering granular applications that precisely meet your business requirements by applying low-code application development. After you familiarize yourself with low-code tools and processes, you can quickly start creating software, and as a result, achieve your business objectives.
Pega Platform supports an iterative and agile approach to building applications that is called Pega Express™ delivery approach. In the Pega Express delivery approach, achieving a main business objective is presented as a journey that you can divide into smaller parts – Microjourneys . When you focus on one Microjourney at a time, you ensure that you can deliver software that helps customers achieve their goals in the most efficient and suitable way. Then, you can iteratively expand and update your software to adjust to changing business circumstances.
Before you start creating applications to complete your Microjourneys, answer the following questions:
The goal that you want to achieve dictates the actions and processes that you need to include in your Microjourneys. You define actions in your Microjourneys by building case types that are visual, reusable, and granular templates of your business processes. During the life cycle of your application, you can expand and edit initial versions of your case types to better fit your business goal. For greater flexibility, you can define which actions you want to start conditionally or optionally, under only the circumstances that you specify. As a result, case types that you build are more flexible and adjust better to various scenarios. Because case types and their elements are reusable, identifying repeating actions in different Microjourneys saves time and other resources during application development.
With Pega Platform, you can focus on the business objectives and create flexible software that exactly suits your requirements, instead of strictly adhering to fixed solutions that over time might stop fulfilling their initial purpose. You can respond in an agile way when the path to the objective needs changing, and even when the objective itself changes.
For example: When you design an application for an HR department, think about the goals that the software needs to meet. Hiring a job candidate and reviewing expenses require different sets of actions, and breaking them into separate Microjourneys might help you focus on delivering solutions that exactly fulfill each goal. The following table lists sample actions that each Microjourney might include:
| Hiring a job candidate | Reviewing expenses |
| Collecting personal details | Collecting personal details |
| Reviewing work experience | Collecting receipts |
| Conducting a job interview | Reviewing receipts |
| Approving or rejecting a candidate | Approving or rejecting a request |
| Optional: Running a background check | Optional: Applying currency rates |
For each Microjourney, identifying repeatable elements and optional actions can save development resources when you build the software.
Although an application might include a high level of automation, in most cases, it also involves interactions with end users. In Microjourneys and in the Pega Express delivery approach, groups of users correspond with personas. Each persona has a unique set of skills, objectives, tasks, behaviors, and business roles, and might interact with an application in a different way. For example, a set of available actions might be different for an HR worker who reviews a job candidate, than for a hiring manager who either approves or rejects the candidate, because a set of skills and business requirements is different for each of these users. Personas help you visualize those groups of users so that stakeholders and the development team can better understand who uses the application. By understanding the specific needs of users you can better tailor the application process and user experience to each persona.
Additionally, consider the different channels that users might employ to interact with your application, such as a web portal or a mobile application, as well as the different devices that users might work with, such as mobile phones and tablets. Define the elements that particular participants need to access so that you can avoid exposing the users of your application to irrelevant content. Finally, decide whether your application users need both online and offline access to perform their work.
For example: Consider a scenario in which you need to create an application for the following types of personas. Each persona uses a different channel and performs different actions in an application:
By listing personas with relevant channels and actions, you can tailor your application to meet the needs of different types of users.
An important aspect of application development is accessibility, so that users who experience your application in a different way can have a successful Microjourney. Consider the following scenarios:
When you design your application, take into consideration unique scenarios and experiences that users might have, so that you can create an inclusive and flexible Microjourney. For more information, see Configuring an accessible UI.
Data is an essential element in work processing. When you design your Microjourney, think about the different data sources that you need to successfully complete your business process. Pega Platform offers multiple ways of sourcing data to meet your unique business needs. You can create an application that collects information directly from end users, reuses data that already exists in the system, or that connects to external databases to take advantage of third-party resources. As a result, you maximize efficiency during both application development and actual processing.
For example: During a hiring process, a job candidate provides personal information by completing a form in a mobile application. The candidate can also attach any relevant documents, such as scanned university diplomas. An HR worker who works on the process sources the work experience of the candidate from an external database. The personal details that the candidate provides are applicable for other processes, such as preparing an offer for the candidate, or preparing onboarding.
Consider a scenario in which a customer creates a loan request. The objective of this Microjourney is to review the request from the customer. The business process requires the following actions:
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Pega Platform offers a low-code tool that you can use to conveniently discuss and design your Microjourney in cooperation with other stakeholders. By designing your Microjourney in App Studio, you document the business process workflow and requirements, both for IT and non-IT stakeholders. For more information, see Designing and tracking Microjourneys development and Creating a Microjourney for customer success.
For example: The following figure shows a sample Microjourney that focuses on reviewing a job candidate, with the actions that users perform, the types of users represented by personas, and the data that the Microjourney requires.
For relevant learning materials, see the following modules on Pega Academy:
For more information about Microjourneys, see Pega Express delivery approach.
