Oracle Process Automation Training

Refined topics

• What OPA is and the problems it solves: approvals, onboarding, requests, exception handling
• Where OPA sits in Oracle Integration 3 and how it relates to integrations, Visual Builder and AI
• Key features: visual process modeling, web forms, decision models, connectors, monitoring
• Why it matters: low-code speed, business-led design, end-to-end visibility
• Use cases walkthrough: expense approval, purchase request, employee onboarding, customer onboarding
• Choosing the right tool: OPA vs OIC integrations vs Visual Builder vs custom code

Hands-on: tour of a finished sample process and the outcome you will build in the capstone.

Takeaway: a clear decision guide for “is this a process problem?”

Refined topics

• Prerequisites for creating an instance
• Ways to get an instance: trial, existing tenancy, Oracle Free Tier options where applicable, and training access
• Licensing and cost overview in plain terms (message packs, what consumes usage)
• Provisioning an Oracle Integration instance from the OCI Console
• Understanding Oracle Integration application roles and which roles a process developer, tester and admin need
• Creating users and groups, assigning roles, and testing access
• Common setup errors and how to fix them

Hands-on: create users and groups, assign roles, and log in as developer and as approver.

Takeaway: a working environment with at least three test users.

Refined topics

• Composer: the design-time area for building applications, processes, forms and decision models
• Composer capabilities and a navigation tour
• Workspace: the run-time area where users work on tasks and managers monitor work
• Workspace capabilities: task lists, filters, delegation, reassignment, dashboards
• Creating an application and understanding its structure
• Exploring the built-in recipes and sample applications
• Naming and organization standards from the first day

Hands-on: create the first application, open a sample recipe, and find the same task in Composer and Workspace.

Takeaway: a mental map of design-time versus run-time.

Refined topics

• What a process is and the building blocks of a process model
• Structured processes: sequence flows, start events, end events, and when to use them
• Dynamic processes: case-style work, stages and activities, and when to use them
• Structured vs dynamic: a simple decision table for choosing
• Swimlanes and roles: modeling who does what
• BPMN actions: human task, service call, send notification, and others available in your release
• Gateways: what they do and common mistakes
• Exclusive gateway: one path chosen by condition
• Inclusive gateway: one or more paths
• Parallel gateway: all paths at once, and joining them
• Modeling best practices: readable diagrams, clear names, no crossing lines, one purpose per process

Hands-on

• Create a basic process and add swimlanes for requester and approver
• Use exclusive, inclusive and parallel gateways in a single example
• Peer review: find the modeling error in a prepared diagram

Takeaway: correct gateway choice is the most common interview question and the most common design bug.

Refined topics

• Application data and why data design comes before forms
• Business objects: fields, types, relationships
• Data objects used inside a process
• Mapping data between process, forms and external systems
• Common design patterns: request header and line items

Hands-on: create a business object, and a web form generated from the business object.

Takeaway: a reusable data model for the capstone.

Refined topics

• Web forms using the built-in form builder
• Form presentations: multi-presentation forms for different roles
• Validations: required fields, formats, cross-field checks
• Form events and dynamic behavior: show or hide, enable or disable, calculated values
• Populating select lists and radio buttons from external APIs
• Human task configuration: assignees, outcomes, due dates, priorities, expiration
• Saving drafts: how to draft a particular action
• Attachments and comments on tasks

Hands-on

• Build a request form and an approver form from one business object
• Apply validations and events
• Populate a dropdown from a REST API
• Draft and submit an action

Takeaway: a polished form pair that works end to end.

Refined topics

• Single-level and multi-level approval using additional swimlanes
• Assigning tasks dynamically to approvers from data or rules
• Sequential approval and parallel approval, and choosing between them
• Reminders and escalations: timers, thresholds, escalation targets
• Notifications: enabling, disabling, and customizing email content
• Rendering form data in custom emails and sending attachments
• Approving or rejecting from the email itself
• Assigning and managing roles at run time
• Due dates, priorities and expiration in approval flows

Hands-on

• Three-level approval with dynamic approver
• Parallel approval joined by a parallel gateway
• Reminder and escalation on a task
• Email approval with a customized template

Takeaway: a reference pattern library the learner can reuse.

Refined topics

• What a decision model is and why rules should not be hard-coded in gateways
• Use cases: approval routing, discount tiers, eligibility, priority
• Workflow to create a decision model: inputs, decision tables, outputs
• Testing a decision model inside Composer
• Calling a decision model from Postman through its REST endpoint
• Calling a decision model from a process and using the result in a gateway
• Maintaining rules over time: versioning and change impact

Hands-on: build an approval-routing decision model, test it, then call it from Postman and from the process.

Takeaway: rules that business users can change without redesigning the process.

Refined topics

• Understanding connectors and when to use each
• REST connector: create, configure authentication, test, and call from a process
• Integration connector: create, link to an Oracle Integration flow, and call from a process
• Getting data from external APIs and mapping the response
• Handling common API errors: timeouts, bad responses, authentication failures
• Exploring OPA REST APIs for starting and managing processes from outside
• Security basics: credentials, least privilege

Hands-on

• Create and call a REST connector
• Create and call an Integration connector
• Start a process using the OPA REST APIs from Postman

Takeaway: a process that talks to the outside world.

Refined topics

• Calling a child process from a parent process and passing data both ways
• Designing reusable subprocesses
• Error handling: failed service calls, rejected tasks, retries
• Testing approaches: test users, test data, and a simple test checklist
• Debugging with instance data and the audit trail
• Design standards checklist: naming, documentation, modularity

Hands-on: split a process into parent and child, then simulate a failed connector call and handle it.

Takeaway: a standards checklist the learner takes to a project.

Refined topics

• When to use a built-in form and when to use a custom Visual Builder UI
• Creating the OPA service connection in Visual Builder
• Initiating a process from Visual Builder
• Retrieving tasks and approving or rejecting from Visual Builder
• Security and user identity between the two
• Redwood-style UX considerations where available in your release

Hands-on: build a simple Visual Builder page that starts the capstone process and lists and approves tasks.

Takeaway: a custom front end on top of a process

Refined topics

• Export and import of an application
• Cloning an application for new versions
• Publishing and activating an application
• Versioning and rollback approach
• Promotion across development, test and production
• Process applications inside Oracle Integration projects and how deployment works in your release

Hands-on: create a snapshot, export the application, import it into a second environment or clone, then activate it.

Takeaway: a repeatable release routine.

Refined topics

• Monitoring process applications and tracking process instances
• Altering a running flow when allowed, and what to avoid
• Viewing the audit trail
• Monitoring dashboards and business analytics dashboards
• Managing the runtime environment and runtime settings
• Managing credentials
• Working with administrator privileges safely
• A short troubleshooting guide for stuck or failed instances

Hands-on: find a stuck instance, read its audit trail, and fix it.

Takeaway: a first-response playbook for production issues.

Refined topics

• Capstone review against a checklist: model, forms, rules, connectors, error handling, deployment
• Demo and feedback session
• Interview preparation: common OPA questions
• Learning path: what to take next, such as Oracle Integration, Visual Builder, Agent Studio

Deliverable: a working process application and a short demo.

Suggested capstone use cases

Learners choose or are assigned one:

• Supplier creation approval: email approval, reminders and escalation
• Purchase request: decision model routes by amount, multi-level approval, ERP lookup through REST
• Employee onboarding: parent and child processes, tasks for HR, IT and manager