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280 M. Adams
1. First, the resource map is checked to determine whether a familiar task constraint
is set. If so, any participants who have previously completed work items of the
designated familiar task for the current case are added to the distribution set, and
the set composition completes (all other offer interaction settings are ignored –
a familiar task constraint takes precedence over specified participants, roles, and
net-level variables). If there is no familiar task constraint set, then the process
moves to step 2.
2. Each specified participant is added to the distribution set. Note that it is a set in
the strict sense – all duplicate participants are discarded.
3. Each specified role is deconstructed into its corresponding set of participants, as
are each of its descendant roles (i.e., any roles that belong to the role specified).
Each of the resultant participant-sets are added to the distribution set. Again, all
duplicates are discarded, which may be a quite common occurrence as partic-
ipants may be members of more than one role or may have been individually
specifiedin step2.
4. Each specified net-level variable is inspected for its corresponding participant
or role value. Net-level variables are nominated to contain values that are popu-
lated at runtime with either a participant or role reference. Participant values are
determined and added to the distribution set as per step 2; similarly, role values
as per step 3.
5. Each specified filter is applied to the distribution set. Filters are set at design
time to ensure that the distribution set includes only those members who have
some specified capability and/or hold a certain position and/or belong to a certain
org group. Filters are also “pluggable,” so that user-defined filters may also be
specified.
6. Each specified constraint is applied to the distribution set. One constraint is
provided by default, the so-called four-eyes or separation of duties constraint,
which, conversely to familiar task, will remove from the distribution set any par-
ticipants who have previously completed work items of the specified task for
the current case. Like filters, constraints are “pluggable” and so may include
user-defined constraint methods.

The final distribution set is then checked for a chaining participant. If a partic-
ular participant has chosen to chain the work items of the current case, and the
participant is a member of the distribution set for a work item, the work item is
immediately started and placed on the participant’s started queue, and the distribu-
tion process completes; chaining overrides all subsequent design time resourcing
specifications for the work item in the current distribution process. If the case is not
being chained, or the chaining participant is not a member of the distribution set, the
process continues by removing from the set any participants who have previously
been allocated the work item and have chosen to deallocate it.
At this stage, the distribution set is checked to ensure it is not empty, whether
as a result of the initial set composition process or after the removal of deallocated
participants. If it is empty, then the work item is placed on the administrator’s Unof-
fered queue to await manual offering (as per a user-initiated start interaction) and