Intro
This blog is a bit complementary to material in SAP Learning material related to SAP Signavio Process Intelligence. The data set used for this demonstration is the same one provided in the course Analyzing Business Processes with SAP Signavio Solutions
Objective
In this blog I will focus quite specifically on analyzing Events that failed ❗to execute at 1st attempt in the process, thus a second attempt took place for successful execution, via the creation of a widget that can be used for further action and deeper process execution analysis.
Since I am using simple data sets, in order for the audience to relate to the content to the learning material 🤓 in the course above listed, I will stay high level and will not go into cost analysis in this blog. The storyboard for this blog does create awareness however, on the need to analyse the cost associated with events/tasks that are failing to be completed in alignment with defined cycle times.
This blog does not focus on process set up and data loads.
Process Discovery
An investigation in Process Intelligence is created and the inital Process Discovery widget becomes available automatically.
Taking a first look at it with “Low Path Granularity” allows for a quick assessment of the general flow and the potential variant proliferation. The Case Count View displays the following information.
The above information rapidly provides info that the total number of case_ids in the data set to be analysed is 877.
We see 877 ‘Receive Customer Order’ count at the START and at the END by 805 ‘Receive Delivery Confirmation’ + 72 ‘Order Canceled’ = 877
It is also noticeable that event “Ship Goods Standard” is part of 445 case_ids.
Let us take a look at the same diagram but with event Event Count View.
The Event Count View now allows for better understanding on the execution of the process and already it is clear that some events for ‘Ship Goods Standard’ and ‘Ship Goods Express’ have failed at first attempt and had to be executed twice. The diagram displays a “loop” on the side of the Event.
Let us focus on ‘Ship Goods Standard’ . We can determine visually that 106 occurrences out of the 551 were executed twice, which is in alignment with the unique case_id / event information of 445 case_ids from the Case Count View
We can do the math simply here at high level: thus for 339 case_ids ‘Ship Goods Standard’ was executed successfully at first try ✔️, and for 106 case_ids ‘Ship Goods Standard’ was executed twice ⚠️for the event (process task) to be executed to completion.
But as we all know, there are many ways to slice and dice the process executions 😅 and as part of the Investigations different widgets are needed to better understand where the issues are 🤔. Many widgets in the investigation can be used to achieve that.
Process Variant Explorer Widget
Creating a Chapter called: High Level Analysis and adding widgets there is a recommended first step to identify insights at a higher level (Let us assume that I am doing the first initial sweep through the process to determine what to focus on in more depth), which later on can be looked into by other process stakeholders (i.e Business Analysts, Process SMEs) after formal actions are assigned.
Taking a look at the Variant Explorer widget with No Filters on Attributes, provides information that there are 2 Variants where the double execution is taking place for event ‘Ship Goods Standard’: variant 5 and 8
Process Conformance Widget
Let us now take a look at the Process Conformance widget as well (without filters) to analyse the Hot Spots and confirm the inital observations.
(Note: When a filter is added to the widget, variant numbering can change, since less Case_IDs might be related to the attribute thus perhaps reducing the total number of variants for analysis)
(Note: the AS-IS Diagram was modelled also for another blog, related to conformance, thus I am not pointing out conformance issues in this blog, another blog coming later on that)
The Hot Spot view in this widget, after analysing all variants, Confirm the information that Variant 5 and 8 are the ones where ‘Ship Goods Standard’ is executed twice:
72×2 occurences for variant 5
34×2 occurences for variant 8.
With the above information we are starting to go deeper into the analysis and have better ideas of what further investigation actions will be needed and ideas on how to pepare for collaboration with other stakeholders and improvement.
Based on these observations, an Insight can be created to be assigned and shared with others (i.e. Business Analysts)
Creating Actions
In this blog’ storyboard, I am taking the role of Lead Process Owner, and I am starting to define what actions are important in relation to tackling issues impacting Value Drivers (i.e Fill related Value Drivers)
With the information so far in this Investigation, I can now create a special query using SIGNAL that will support me in engaging other stakeholders and request to deep dive in the investigation, so they create their own Chapters with further Widgets. This is an important point in Process Intelligence, Different Investigations can be created, each with its own chapters, thus good collaboration and the involvement of the right stakeholders is key for success.
Let us assument that there are different Business Analysts focusing on the Orders in different locations. “City” is an attribute in the log for this data set, thus I as Lead Process Owner will delegate furhter deeper analysis to the business analysts per City.
So I will create an additional table for overall awarness on how the ocurrences of ‘Ship Goods Standard’ are distributed across all cities, and which cities have a higher ratio of failture at first try.
In this action, I am using SIGNAL to create a brand new table that will be shared with all Business Analysts, for each to focus on situation per City, and how ‘Ship Goods Standard’ occurrence data changes while the investigation is open.
In this scenario, the idea behind this Action is to paint a picture of issue across all cities for all Business Analysits to see in the table, however tasks can be sent individually to each of them with specific comments and instructions. I as a Process Owner Lead, have created all the Widgets in Chapter One as View for all, so they will be able to go into the investigation and review all the widgets already created.
To follow up on my initial comment about cost analysis; perhaps an seperate action could be taken by the Process Owner Lead and a Financial Analyst to create a chapter in the investigation that focuses on creating widgets and tables that focus on process cost for both events ‘Ship Goods Standard’ and “Ship Goods Express’ together, since both events have failures at 1st try.
Lets get back to the current Action, here we are using “CITY” as location example based on the data set, but lets say that we were analysing similar issues in double execution events in a Supply Planning process across different Plants. A Process Owner could determine to breakdown the analysis in Chapters per “PLANT”.
Different tasks can be added under an Action as seen in the below screen shot, each can be sent to different collaborators and data will be updated according to the information in the General section. The updated data can also be attached as CSV or Excel file.
Summary
Investigations in SAP Signavio Process Intelligence provide the Process Owners, Business Analysts and and other involved stakeholders with numerous ways to zoom into different issues via the use of standard widgets but also via the creation of additional views or adjustments to standard widgets when using SIGNAL queries.
Each organization might decide on specific (WoWs) Ways of Working using investigations in Process Intelligence; one important aspect is to use the Investigation / Chapter / Action feature in way that breaks down the analysis per order of impact to business and promoting further deeper analysis depending on the complexity of the process execution issue to be tackled.
About the Author
JD Wong-Loera is a Stockholm/Toronto based Project Manager, Business Architect and Process Management consultant who enjoys supporting others in understanding the Businesss Architecture and Business Process Management Capabilities. In his free time he enjoys camping, reading and boxing.
Check out my other blogs at: About JD_WongLoera – SAP Community
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