Basic Concepts

Overview

To get the most out of the Plan view, it's helpful to understand a few key terms and concepts. These terms and concepts also correspond to Appian design objects.

The application plan is the centerpiece of the Plan view. It provides a clear, structured model that defines the application's requirements, components, and architecture. By detailing every necessary part of your application, it acts as the essential guide for building and bringing your application to life.

Requirements

In the Requirements tab, three key terms are essential: activity, step, and action. These terms help you plan your application's journey from big ideas to specific tasks.

• Activity represents a large piece of functionality in your application.
• Step breaks down the activity into major components.
• Action details the specific tasks or requirements within a step. Action types identify the specific requirements that drive actions.

For those familiar with agile development, these terms align closely with feature, epic, and story.

The following image provides a visual breakdown of how activities, steps, and actions are structured within the Requirements tab, illustrating the flow from a high-level activity to specific tasks. Your requirements can include an unlimited number of activities, steps, and actions.

Action types

Action types represent the specific requirements that drive the actions in your application. Each action type serves a specific purpose and is mapped to an appropriate Appian concept or design object.

The following table outlines the available action types and provides a brief description of each.

Icon	Term	Description	Appian Concept/Object
	AI Process	Starts an action that utilizes an Appian AI capability.	Appian AI
	Assigned Task	Sends a task to an individual or group for completion.	Tasks
	Automated Process	An automated action that is handled within a process model.	Process Model
	External Integration	Executes an action that connects to a third-party system or service.	Integration Types
	Interface Display	Displays user-facing screens such as landing pages and reports.	Interface Object
	RPA Process	Initiates an action that involves Appian RPA.	Appian RPA
	User Action	A direct interaction by the user with the application, involving actions like entering data or making selections.	Related actions
	User Notification	Delivers notifications via email or custom messaging.	Notifications

Personas

In Composer, a persona represents a user role or group of users with similar responsibilities and permissions within an application. Personas help define who interacts with different parts of the application, ensuring the right users can access and perform the appropriate actions based on their roles.

In Composer, a system persona represents Appian itself. This persona handles system-driven tasks such as requirements, integrations, and system processes, ensuring that routine operations are executed as designed. When you're using AI Copilot, it may automatically create this and other personas for you.

Process

A process in Composer is a visual diagram that represents the flow of work within your application. Using the interactive canvas, you can map out how tasks move between people and systems, where decisions are made, and what outcomes are expected. You build your process using nodes such as events, swimlanes, activities, gateways, and connectors.

In Composer, a process is a logical model, not an executable process model. It is designed to capture the business view of a process so that business and technical teams can align before development begins. Once finalized, the process serves as the foundation for generating executable process models when you generate objects.

Business rules

A Business rule is a plain-language definition of your business logic that guides how your application should make a key decision or perform a specific calculation. These rules ensure consistency and accuracy by clearly constraining every decision or calculation. For example, "If a customer's credit score is above 700, then approve the loan."

Composer analyzes your application requirements and suggests an initial set of business rules for your review. Each business rule then corresponds to an expression rule that Composer creates when you generate objects. This gives business and technical teams a shared, readable view of the logic before it becomes code.

Data model

A data model in the Plan view is a visual representation of the information your application will work with and how that information is connected. It helps you plan and organize your application's data, such as what tables (like users or tasks) are needed and how they relate to each other.

The data model itself doesn't create record types or store data in Appian—it's a design tool that guides you in structuring your data to align with your application's requirements. Once the data model is finalized, you can use it as a blueprint to create the actual record types and set up the data in Appian.

Screens

Screens are the user-facing pages that make up your application. They define how users interact with your app, from landing pages and forms to record views.

When you create an application plan, Composer automatically generates a set of starter screens based on your requirements, personas, and data model. These initial screens give you a foundation to build on as you design your user experience. The generated screens display mock data to help you visualize the layout, with some components mapping to data tables in your data model.

When you generate an interface, Composer connects screen elements to existing record types and record actions. Any component backed by a field from your data model appears in the generated interface. If a mapping is missing, the interface may not fully match your original design. You can then open the interface in Appian Designer to make refinements and complete the configuration.

You can see which sites and interfaces were generated from the application plan by reviewing the Screens tab. Each screen includes a link that opens the corresponding object in Appian Designer, so you can quickly view and modify it.

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