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Setting up your first business process

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Overview

This tutorial walks you through creating a complete business process in Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) using the Custom Logging (Push Model) deployment type. By the end, you will have a configured business process with at least one transaction and two stages, and you will be able to see tracked data flowing into the transaction instances view.

Business value

Setting up a business process is the foundational step for gaining end-to-end visibility into your Azure integration workflows. Once configured, every event your Logic App or .NET application sends to BAM is correlated into a single trackable unit — giving your operations team a clear view of what succeeded, what failed, and where to investigate.

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, confirm the following:

  • A BAM environment is deployed using the Custom Logging type. See Deployment details for deployment options.
  • You have access to a Logic App or .NET application that can be instrumented to send tracking events.
  • Your Turbo360 account is active and you can access the Business Activity Monitoring module.

Required permissions

Action Minimum role
Create a business process Contributor
Create a transaction Contributor
Configure stages Contributor
View tracked instances Reader

Dependencies

  • A deployed BAM Function App is required to receive tracking events. Confirm the Function App is running before sending test events.
  • The Logic Apps custom connector or .NET library must be configured in your application. See Logic Apps custom connector and .NET library.

How it works

Business Activity Monitoring organises tracking data in a three-level hierarchy: business process → transaction → stage. A business process is the top-level container representing a logical workflow (for example, "Order fulfillment"). A transaction defines the shape of each workflow instance (for example, "Process order"). Stages represent discrete checkpoints within a transaction (for example, "Order received", "Payment validated", "Order dispatched").

When your Logic App or .NET application sends a tracking event to BAM, the runtime correlates it to the correct transaction instance using the tracking name and correlation ID you supply. The instance then progresses through its configured stages as events arrive.

Steps

This tutorial walks through four sequential tasks: creating a business process, adding a transaction, configuring stages, and verifying tracked data. Navigate to Business Activity Monitoring in the Turbo360 tree view to get started.

Step 1: Create a business process

Creating a business process establishes the top-level container that groups all instances of your workflow.

  1. In the tree view, click the Context menu ( ⋮ ) next to a business process group (or use the Actions dropdown on the BAM homepage) and select New Business Process.
  2. Enter a Tracking name — for example, order-fulfillment. This name is used at runtime to correlate incoming events. It must be unique across the BAM product.
  3. Enter a Friendly name — for example, Order Fulfillment. This is the display name shown in the tree view.
  4. Optionally, configure a Purge policy to automatically delete archived messages and transaction instances older than a set number of days.
  5. Click Save.

Your new business process now appears in the tree view under the selected business process group.

Note:

The purge policy option is available only in the Custom Logging type of BAM.

Step 2: Add a transaction

A transaction defines the structure of one workflow instance — including the stages it passes through and whether failed instances can be reprocessed.

  1. Click the Context menu ( ⋮ ) next to the business process you just created in the tree view.
  2. Select New Transaction.
  3. Enter a Tracking name — for example, process-order. This value is sent at runtime in the tracking event payload to identify which transaction an event belongs to.
  4. Enter a Friendly name — for example, Process Order.
  5. Set the Direction to One Way or Request-Response based on your workflow.
  6. Optionally enable Reprocess if you want failed instances to be reprocessable from the transaction instances view.
  7. Click Save.

Step 3: Configure stages

Stages define the checkpoints within a transaction. Each stage corresponds to an event your application sends to BAM.

  1. Click the Context menu ( ⋮ ) next to the transaction in the tree view.
  2. Select New Stage.
  3. Enter a Stage name — for example, Order Received.
  4. Set the stage type. For a standard intermediate checkpoint, leave the type as the default.
  5. Optionally mark the stage as the final stage so BAM knows when to close the transaction instance.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Repeat to add a second stage — for example, Order Dispatched — and mark it as the final stage.

:::(Info)(Note:)
At least one stage must be marked as the final stage for BAM to automatically close transaction instances when that checkpoint is reached.
:::

Step 4: Instrument your application and verify tracking

With the business process, transaction, and stages configured, trigger your workflow to send tracking events to BAM and confirm data appears in the transaction instances view.

  1. In your Logic App, add the BAM Checkpoint action from the Logic Apps custom connector at each stage of the workflow.
  2. In each checkpoint action, supply:
    • Tracking name — the business process tracking name (order-fulfillment)
    • Transaction name — the transaction tracking name (process-order)
    • Stage name — the stage name matching the checkpoint (for example, Order Received)
    • Correlation ID — a unique value that links all checkpoints for the same workflow instance (for example, the order ID)
  3. Run the Logic App to trigger the workflow.
  4. In Turbo360, navigate to Business Activity Monitoring > Order Fulfillment > Process Order in the tree view.
  5. Select View Instances from the Context menu ( ⋮ ) to open the transaction instances view.
  6. Confirm the new instance appears with the expected stages populated and a Completed or In Progress status.

Troubleshooting

  1. Business process does not appear in the tree view after saving
    Cause: The page may not have refreshed after creation.
    Fix: Refresh the browser or collapse and expand the business process group in the tree view.

  2. Transaction instances view shows no data after triggering the Logic App
    Cause: The tracking name or transaction name in the Logic App checkpoint action does not match the values configured in BAM.
    Fix: Open the checkpoint action in the Logic App and confirm the tracking name and transaction name exactly match the values set in BAM (case-sensitive).

  3. Correlation ID is not linking stages into a single instance
    Cause: Different checkpoint actions are supplying different correlation ID values for the same workflow run.
    Fix: Ensure the same correlation ID (for example, the order ID from the trigger payload) is passed to every checkpoint action in the same workflow run.

  4. Stage does not appear as complete in the instance view
    Cause: The stage name in the checkpoint action does not match the stage name configured in BAM, or the final stage event was not sent.
    Fix: Confirm exact stage name matches (case-sensitive) and verify the Logic App run completed all branches that send BAM events.

  5. Logic Apps custom connector action is not available in the Logic App designer
    Cause: The custom connector has not been added to the Logic App's connections.
    Fix: Add the BAM custom connector as a connection in the Logic App. See Logic Apps custom connector for setup instructions.

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