Key Concepts & Glossary

This page defines the terminology used throughout this documentation. Read it once early on — many of these terms have specific meanings in Workbench that differ slightly from their general insurance usage.

Core platform concepts

Risk — the central record in Workbench. A risk represents one insurance submission or transaction. It has a placing type, a business class, a status, and a set of risk actions.

Risk Processing Status — the high-level status of a risk. Common active values include PRE_SUBMISSION, LOGGED, WORK_IN_PROGRESS, QUOTE, QUOTED, BOUND, BOUND_NOT_BOOKED, COMPLETE, plus inactive values such as DECLINED, WITHDRAWN, NTU, LAPSED, CANCELLED, EXPIRED. The full list is defined in RiskProcessingStatus.java in Riskwire common. These drive the Kanban columns on the dashboard.

Risk Action — a discrete step in the underwriting workflow. Examples: appetite check, structured quote, document creation. Each action has a status (not started, in progress, complete) and may have a pop-up form.

Risk Action Instance — the database record tracking a specific underwriter's completion of a risk action on a specific risk.

Pipeline — a sequence of REST endpoint calls triggered at a specific point in the risk action lifecycle (when an action becomes available, or when the user completes it).

Operation — one of the buttons within a risk action pop-up. A single action may have multiple operations (e.g. Save Draft, Submit).

Sub-status — a more granular status applied to a risk action instance, beyond the top-level action status. Used to drive display logic and pipeline behaviour.

Configuration concepts

Business Class (LOB) — the top-level product category, e.g. Property, Casualty, Professional Lines. Defined in business-class/{name}.json.

Placing Type — the type of transaction: OPEN_MARKET, MASTER, DEC, FAC_RI, CLAIM, COVERHOLDER.

Sub-Placing Type — a further refinement of the placing type, e.g. FACILITY, SCHEME, INBOUND_BORDEREAU, INDIVIDUAL_DEC.

Business Constant — a shared lookup dictionary mapping codes to display labels. Stored in business-constants/{name}.json. Examples: currency, country, product, action labels.

Screen Meta Data — JSON files that define the layout and fields of a custom risk action pop-up. Two-file pattern: a config file (links operation to layout) and a layout file (groups → sections → elements).

Trading Party — the insurer organisation definition. Mandatory for Workbench to start. Must match the homePartyId in be_config.json.

Business Config — JSON files under config/ in the repository. Includes business classes, workflow, forms, documents, rules. Deployed via the Send Partner Portal on request.

Environment Config (DynamoDB) — JSON files in dynamodb/{env}/. Feature flags, credentials, external service URLs. Edit these files directly in the config repository like any other config file. Raise a Deploy DynamoDB Changes request in the Send Partner Portal to deploy — DynamoDB changes require a service restart, which is handled as part of the portal request.

Workflow concepts

displayCriteriaExpression — a JSONPath expression (ExpressionDO.jsonPathExpression) evaluated against the risk context, with an operatorType and testValue. Controls whether a risk action is visible. Returns true = show, false = hide.

displayExpression — a JavaScript expression evaluated against the risk model (response from GET /v2/risks/{id}). Controls visibility of individual fields on the risk record view.

Rules Engine — a separate service that evaluates configured rules against a risk. Can produce ERROR (blocking) or WARNING (informational) results. Triggered as a pipeline component using componentType: RUN_RULES_ENGINE.

Document generation concepts

Handlebars — the templating engine used to render HTML document templates. Placeholders like {{risk.inceptionDate}} are replaced with actual risk data at render time.

Partial Template — a reusable HTML snippet (header, footer, insurer info) stored in document-template/files/common/. Referenced in full templates using {{>partialName}}.

Clause Library — an admin feature that allows privileged users to manage document clauses (standard forms, subjectivities) that are attached to generated documents.

Document Type Code (DTC) — for DUA declarations: 1 = individual declaration, 2 = bulked (bordereau) declaration.

DUA concepts

DUA — Delegated Underwriting Authority. A contract where an insurer delegates part of the underwriting process to a coverholder or MGA.

Master — the framework DUA contract (binding authority, lineslip). A MASTER placing type risk.

Declaration — a child risk under a Master contract. A DEC placing type risk. Can be individual or bordereau-based.

Certificate — an auto-generated risk record created from bordereau processing. Represents an individual insured item.

Bordereau — a spreadsheet of risk, premium, or claims data submitted by a coverholder. Ingested into Workbench to create or update Certificate risks.

Exemption — an ad hoc override to a bordereau validation rule. Follows a governance lifecycle: PENDING → APPROVED / DECLINED → REMOVED.

UMR — Unique Market Reference. The identifier for a risk in the Lloyd's market.

Infrastructure concepts

PDE (Personal Development Environment) — the local development environment. Runs all Workbench/Riskwire services as Docker containers (see docker-compose.yml) and is configured via pde.dev.json so developers can run a full stack locally.

JDWP — Java Debug Wire Protocol. The mechanism used for remote debugging of Docker-hosted core services from IntelliJ IDE.