Websphere Business Modeler 6.1 Certification

You can perform a variety of analyses on processes before you simulate their operation. This topic describes how to perform these static analyses.

For each of these analyses, you must have the process diagram open in the process editor. Process model analysis provides information on the contents of a specific process model and therefore must be completed from the process diagram rather than from the Project Tree view.

After you have run each of these analyses, you can select the rows in the Analysis view, and the process diagram highlights the related elements in the process diagram. For example, if the Analysis view lists paths within the process, you can click a path to cause the process diagram to highlight all elements in the process diagram that are included on that path. If an element listed in the Analysis view is contained within an unexpanded subprocess in the process diagram, you can cause the process diagram to expand the subprocess and highlight the specific element by double-clicking the element in the Analysis view.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Analyzing element types

Perform the element type analyses to extract information regarding the usage of different element types, and their relationships to one another. These analyses are useful when you are validating your business models.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Analyzing resource roles
You can perform a resource roles analysis to show the qualifications of resources in terms of their roles and the scope of those roles.

Use this analysis to obtain a complete view of all the roles your resources are able to take part in, and the qualifications they have for those roles. This information can be useful in validating your model, to confirm that all the existing resources have their roles correctly identified, and to identify where qualifications are missing or incorrect.

Analyzing qualified resources for role
Perform a qualified resources for role analysis to view a list of the resources that are qualified to perform each role defined in your model.

Use this analysis to obtain a complete view of all the resources able to act in each role. This information can be useful in validating your model, to confirm that all the existing roles have sufficient resources to take them on, and to identify resources that are incorrectly associated with roles.
Analyzing resource availability
Use resource availability analysis to determine the periods of time that specific resource is available to do work.

This analysis displays a table of all time intervals that a resource is free to work within a specific time period, and a total of the available time.

Knowing when a specific resource is available can enable you to structure a process flow to coincide with resource availability, thus improving throughput. Use this analysis to determine the best times to start a process that requires a specific resource requirement. This information can help you structure your process flows so that they do not have to wait for the resources they need, improving the throughput of the process.

The availability of a resource is determined by the intervals specified in its availability timetable, after excluding any exempted periods and considering the validity periods.
Analyzing resource availability for duration
Use resource availability for duration analysis to identify the earliest possible time past a given date that a resource is available to do a specified number of hours of work.
Analyzing qualified resource availability
Perform a qualified resource availability analysis to determine the time periods during which one or more resources qualified for a specified role are available
Analyzing qualified resource availability for duration
Perform a qualified resource availability for duration analysis to determine the earliest time after a selected date that one or more resources qualified for a specified role are available for a specified duration. You can require the duration to be continuous or you can allow it to be divided into separate segments, depending on a setting you choose when defining the analysis.
Analyzing role availability
Use role availability analysis to determine the periods of time during which a role can be filled.
Analyzing role availability for duration
Use role availability for duration analysis to identify the earliest possible time past a given date that a role is available to be filled for a specific duration of time. The duration may be continuous or it may be divided into separate segments, depending on a setting you choose when defining the analysis.
Analyzing resource cost
Perform a resource cost analysis to determine the cost of a resource each period of availability between a specified start and end time.
Analyzing a summary of resources costs
Perform a resources costs summary analysis to determine the costs of multiple resources for all time slots during which the resources are available within a defined period of analysis.
Analyzing qualified resource cost
Perform a qualified resource cost analysis to obtain cost information about the resources that are qualified for a particular role during a specific time period.
Analyzing qualified resources costs summary
Perform a qualified resources costs summary analysis to gather and compare high-level information about the costs of the qualified resources in your model to perform the roles required by a process during a specific time period.
Analyzing role cost
Perform a role cost analysis to examine the costs associated with performing a role during a period of time.
Analyzing roles costs summary
Perform a role costs summary analysis to gather and compare high-level information about the costs of performing the roles required by a process during a specific time period.

Parent topic: Analyzing static process models

Related tasks

Analyzing type structures
Perform a type structure analysis to find out where an organization definition appears within the structure definition diagrams of your project.

Organization definitions can appear within multiple structure definition diagrams, and in multiple places within a single diagram. This analysis enables you to identify the location of any specific organization definition within the project's structure definition diagrams. You can use this analysis when you need to validate the positions of an organization within your structure definitions diagrams.
Analyzing entity structures
Perform an entity structure analysis to find out the where an organization unit appears within in the structure diagrams of your project.

Organization units can appear within multiple structure diagrams, and in multiple places within a single diagram. This analysis enables you to identify the location of any specific organization unit within the project's structure diagrams. You can use this analysis when you need to validate the positions of an organization unit within your structure diagrams.

Parent topic: Analyzing static process models

Related tasks

Analyzing paths unable to be followed
Perform this analysis to identify the process paths that cannot be followed because they contain input criteria that the process flow makes impossible to meet.

Creating a process in which all paths have a possibility of being reached is important for simulation and for accurate communication. If there are paths within a model that will never be followed, it can indicate a problem in either the model, or in the underlying process. This analysis is especially useful for large or complex processes where it is not immediately clear there are paths that cannot be followed.

An input criterion can stop the path of the process flow from being followed for one of the following reasons:
- No inputs are specified for the criterion
- One of the inputs of the input criterion does not have an incoming connector (excluding inputs whose input source is a repository or constant value)
This analysis is different from analyzing activities unable to start because a task with one of these problems might still be invoked through another input criterion.

Analyzing activities unable to start
You can complete this analysis to show a list of activities in the process that cannot be performed due to unavailable resources, empty input criteria, or inputs that lack connections.

Creating a process in which all activities have a possibility of starting is important for simulation and for accurate communication. If there are activities within a model that can never start, it can indicate that either the model is incorrect or the underlying process has problems. This analysis is especially useful for large or complex processes where it is not immediately clear there are activities that cannot start.

An activity will not start if one of the following conditions is true:
- Each input criterion of the activity is found not to be valid for one of the following reasons:
  - No inputs are specified.
  - One of the inputs of the input criterion does not have an incoming connector (excluding inputs whose input source is a repository or constant value).
- The quantity of required resources or roles is not available.
Analyzing path cycles
Perform a path cycles analysis to identify any path in the process flow that loops back on itself.

Cycles occur when an output of an activity is connected to an input that is upstream in the path that produced the output. Path cycles can produce situations where a sequence of activities is repeated indefinitely.

Identifying path cycles is an important part of validating a process diagram. This is especially true when the process diagram to be validated is from a third-party source or was created by an inexperienced modeler. If you discover path cycles in a process, you may determine that the cycles should be remodeled as a loop.
Analyzing input and output paths
Perform this analysis to identify the paths in the process that lead to and from a specified connector.

This analysis enables you to identify all the possible input and output paths related to a specific element. You can use this analysis to navigate a particular path within a process diagram, or to verify the paths within a process.
Analyzing activity throughput
Perform this analysis to show the productivity of activities in a process. For each activity, this analysis displays the activity duration and the maximum quantity of work items that can be processed in an hour.

Productivity is a core business measure. Many organizations need to analyze the production capability of an activity, which is the amount of work each activity can perform for a given period of time.

Understanding activity throughput enables you to evaluate and compare productivity measures between activities within a process. If there is a high degree of variance between the throughput of consecutive activities, this can create a potential for bottlenecks or underutilization.

Note: If an activity's processing time is specified as a distribution, this analysis will not evaluate the values. Distribution is used by simulation.
Analyzing activity resource and role leveling
Perform this analysis to show the allocated and available roles and resources for each activity in a process.

Creating a valid process is important for simulation and for accurate communication. This analysis can help you identify whether the model contains any activities that do not have sufficient resources available to satisfy their resource requirement.

If you complete this analysis and determine from it that one or more activities is modeled in such a way that there are insufficient resources available to satisfy their requirements, you can take action to correct the model, or further explore the underlying process.
Analyzing activities by classifier
Perform this analysis to show the activities associated with each classifier.

Use this analysis to gain an understanding of which activities share common classifier values and help you to focus on those activities that have a common quality or behavior. For example, if your focus is to eliminate manual tasks, you can use this analysis to isolate those tasks that are manual from those that are automated.

Processes are multidimensional in nature and understanding the process from a specific dimension or classification enables you to dissect and evaluate the process with increased ease. In the ABC sample, you can use the Value added classifier to categorize activities under the values Business value added, Real value added, and No value added. When you run this analysis, you can see the activities associated with each of these three values. Alternatively, if you create your own classifier and classifier values to categorize activities that send or receive data to or from the global repositories in your project, you can then use this analysis to display which activities are associated with each repository.
Analyzing activities by organization unit
You can complete this analysis to show the activities executed by each organization unit.
Analyzing activities by location
Perform this analysis to show the activities associated with each location.

Use this analysis to gain an understanding of which activities take place at which locations. Having a clear picture of which activities take place at which locations can help you in finding improvements to your process. For example, if your activities are such that there is a performance improvement when they all take place at the same location, then this analysis might indicate where you can improve your process through consolidation.
Analyzing activity cost and duration
Perform this analysis to show a table summarizing the costs and durations associated with each activity in a process diagram.

Cost and duration are key factors in any process analysis. This analysis helps you to identify which activities have the potential of costing the most and taking the longest to complete. Use this analysis to help identify potential cost and time saving opportunities. You can use this analysis to determine the cost and duration of each activity within a process for a specified time period.

Note: Requirements for resource definitions are not considered in this analysis.

Note: If an activity's processing cost, startup cost, or processing time are specified as distributions, this analysis will not evaluate the values. Distribution is used by simulation.

Parent topic: Analyzing static process models

Related tasks

Analyzing process simulation results

Analyzing type instance matches
Perform a type instance matching analysis to see where all the instances of a specific non-activity element definition are used in the process. For example in the ABC sample, you can carry out an analysis to show where all instances of the Person resource definition are used.

You can use this analysis for validation and documentation of your project elements.

The following model element types are available for this analysis:
- Organization definition
- Location definition
- Individual resource definition
- Bulk resource definition
- Business item
Analyzing type instance matching matrices
You can perform a type instance matching matrix analysis that shows the attribute values for all the instances of a model element definition or business item that you select. For example, you can show the details of all instances of the Person resource definition.

You can use this analysis for validation and documentation of your project elements.

The model element type can be one of the following:
- Organization definition
- Location definition
- Individual resource definition
- Bulk resource definition
- Business item
For example, you can show all instances of the Person resource definition.

Type instance matching matrix analysis provides the same information as the type instance matching analysis but displays it in a different way. The type instance matching matrix analysis displays a row for each instance matching the selected type. The first column in the row indicates the instance name, and the remaining columns indicate the values of the instance attributes. Attribute names are displayed as column headers above the attribute values.
Analyzing associations of model elements (matrix analysis)
Perform a matrix analysis to show the associations between model elements of two different selected types. For example, you can display a matrix detailing which roles are associated with which resources. As another option, you can create a matrix showing which resources are required for which activities.

This analysis can be useful in validating a model. It can help give a feeling for how aspects of the model interact, and also provide a method of noticing inconsistencies in how similar model elements are treated in the process.

Parent topic: Analyzing static process models

Related tasks

Analyzing process simulation results (dynamic analysis)

Analyze the results of process simulation runs to extract specific information on the monetary results, time results, and statistics generated from the running of a process simulation.

You must create a simulation profile and run a simulation before you can do an analysis of the simulation results.

You can analyze the data from a simulation run at three levels of granularity:

Aggregated analysis
Aggregated analyses are the most broadly scoped of the dynamic analyses. They use all the data from the entire simulation run for their information. Use these analyses to gain an understanding of the behavior of the process as a whole.
Process cases analysis
Process cases analyses use the data from specific process cases to give information. Use these analyses to gain an understanding of a specific case (process flow) within the process.
Process instance analysis
Process instance analyses are the most granular of the dynamic analyses. They use data from a single instance of a process case for their information. Use these analyses to gain an understanding of the behavior of a specific token's run through the process.

Analyzing aggregated results
Perform aggregated analyses to gain an understanding of the behavior of the simulation run as a whole. Aggregated analyses are the most broadly scoped of the dynamic analyses. They use all the data from the entire simulation run for their information.

You need to run a simulation based on a process that you have modeled before you can do an aggregated analysis.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Related tasks

Analyzing process cases
You can perform several types of process case analysis to determine the performance of a simulated process across all of its process instances. Process case analysis provides statistical information that takes into account all process cases and their probabilities of occurrence.

You need to run a simulation based on a process that you have modeled before you can do a process case analysis.

A process case is a form that a process instance can take, in which units of work follow a particular pattern of connections and activities within a branching process flow. Process case analyses show weighted average values for the results of simulated processes, where the average value is weighted for each process case to account for the distribution of process instances to that case relative to other cases.

You can use process cases analysis when you want to examine process-level data that is gathered from all process instances in a simulation, in order to understand how a process performs when it is run a large number of times. Process cases analysis organizes and averages the simulation results generated for each process case, which enables you to investigate variations in performance between different patterns of process flow. As a result of these investigations, you may determine that you need to modify a process model to improve the overall results or the results for one or more cases. In addition to results for each case, process cases analysis also provides weighted average results that take all cases into account.

By comparison, aggregated analysis enables you to examine results for specific elements within a process (aggregated across all process instances in a simulation without consideration of case matching), and process instance analysis enables you to examine results within a specific process instance. Process comparison analysis is related to process cases analysis in that it compares the weighted average results for two distinct simulation runs.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Related tasks

Analyzing process instances

Perform process instance analysis to get a detailed understanding of each individual pass through a process during simulation.

Before you carry out a process instance analysis, you must have a set of simulation results that you want to analyze. The first process instance analysis you must carry out is a process instance summary analysis. You can then access the additional process instance analyses from the results page of the summary.

During simulation, every pass through the process creates a process instance, and the data from that pass is recorded for analysis. Use process instance analysis when you want to study the results of a specific process instance. The value of doing this is that it enables you to examine how the process works on a process run level. For example, in simulation of the handling of calls at a call center, you can examine the call with the best or the worst results for elapsed duration or total cost to determine the factors that contributed to those results and to identify potential improvements.

Process instance analysis is the most granular of analysis types and can be used to gain an understanding of how each run through the process occurred during simulation.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Related tasks

Perform one of the several comparative analyses to find differences and similarities between the results of two different simulation runs.

Before performing this analysis you must have two simulation results that you want to compare. For the following comparisons, which are intended to highlight differences in how a process performs when simulation settings are changes, both results must come from the same simulation snapshot:

Processes Resources Time Comparison
Processes Resources Cost Comparison
Processes Classifier Duration Comparison
Processes Classifier Cost Comparison

The other comparisons can be carried out against any two results in the same project.

Use processes comparison analysis to highlight differences in simulation results between versions of a modeled process, simulations of different sizes, or among simulations with different decision probabilities. For example, you can use processes comparison analysis to compare the average length of time it takes to complete your as-isprocess versus your proposed to-be processes. When you make changes to a process to optimize cost or throughput performance, you may want to perform several types of comparison analysis to confirm that your intended optimizations are realized, and that there are no unwanted side effects.

The average values presented by the comparison analysis are identical to those presented by the process cases analyses.

Parent topic: Analyzing models and simulations

Related tasks

Analyzing process instances

Analyzing activity durations
The activity duration analysis shows the average time it takes for each activity in a simulation to complete. It also indicates how much of that time is taken waiting for resources to be available.

You can use this analysis to determine which activities in a process require the longest durations to complete. After identifying these activities, you may then decide to streamline these activities, or to add more resources to reduce delay durations and elapsed durations.

Analyzing activity costs
Perform this analysis to gain an understanding of the costs incurred by the activities during a simulation run.

This analysis enables you to determine where in a process the most money is spent or earned. You can also determine the relative importance of expenses that result from the inherent cost of completing each activity, from resource costs, or from delay time while waiting for resources to become available. By understanding where costs and revenues are generated throughout the process, you can identify potential areas for improving revenues or reducing costs.
Analyzing activity cost per time unit
Perform this analysis to compute the average rate of cost for each activity in a simulated process.

Use this analysis to answer questions such as "how much is this costing us per day?" for each activity in a process. Activities that have the highest costs per unit of time are often the best candidates for streamlining or even eliminating from a process. An example of one way you can use this analysis is to determine the cost per day of running a plant, to help decide whether to keep the plant open or to close it.
Analyzing activity statistics
Perform this analysis to obtain information on the successful completion of the process activities in the simulation run.

Use this analysis when you run high volume simulation runs to determine the overall success or failure of the process and its activities. If an activity instance fails to complete, it is a possible indication of a problem with the process model, or with the underlying process itself. By understanding which activities have the highest number of failures or the greatest rate of failure, you can decide where to focus your efforts to improve the process. You may determine, for example, that more resources need to be made available to enable more of a certain activity to succeed, or that the process flow should be changed so that activities are performed in sequence rather than in parallel paths.
Analyzing activity resource allocations
The activity resource allocation analysis shows a summary of the resources allocated to each activity during the process simulation run. For each activity, the analysis shows the resources allocated and the average allocation time, cost, and shortages for each resource.

Use this analysis as a tool in resource planning. It specifies what resources are allocated to what activities, at what cost, and for how long (including any shortage duration). Information provided by this analysis can help you to trace the costs reported by the contributions that each resource makes to each activity.
Analyzing resource allocation summaries
The resource allocation summary analysis provides summary information regarding the usage of resources in fulfilling the resource and roll requirements of the process during simulation. In contrast to other analyses, the information in this analysis does not focus on the activity or process case as the primary category of organization. Instead, it aggregates based on the role and resource requirements that exist in the process as a whole.

This analysis organizes its information based on the resource and role requirements of the process. As a result, if a resource is used both to fulfill an explicit resource requirement and to fulfil a role requirement, then those two uses will be recorded separately.

Use this analysis to understand how the resources in your model are being used to fulfil the role and resource requirements during simulation.
Analyzing resource usage summaries
The resource usage summary analysis provides aggregated summary information for each resource that came into use during a simulation run. In contrast to other analyses, the resource usage summary provides information about resource usage without associating the uses with the activities in the model.

Use this analysis to understand which bulk and individual resources are being used or are sitting idle during a process' run and to get a high-level picture of the costs associated with their use.
Analyzing resource usage
Perform a resource usage analysis to see the activities that each resource was allocated to during the simulation run. For each resource, the analysis shows summary information about its time, cost, and shortage durations. The analysis also provides detailed information about every allocation of the resource during the run of the simulation.

Use this analysis to help in resource planning, as it enables you to see how each resource is allocated to different activities across the process. In addition to showing how a resource uses its time to accomplish one or more activities, this analysis shows which resources are prone to shortages and which activities they delay as a result. You can use this information to determine where additional resources are required.
Analyzing classifier cost and duration
Perform this analysis to display information regarding the average cost and duration of an entire classification of activities within the process.
Analyzing net present value and internal rate of return
Perform the net present value and internal rate of return analysis to calculate the current net present value of a process. When running the analysis you are asked to specify an initial cost, a discount rate, and a payback period. These values are used together with the average profit for the process as a whole, calculated from the simulation results. This analysis also calculates the internal rate of return necessary to produce a net present value of zero by the end of the payback period.
Analyzing the break even point
Perform a process break even analysis to calculate the number of times a process must run to generate enough profit to recover a fixed cost that you specify. The returned value is based on the average costs and revenue for the process as a whole.
Analyzing process resource allocations
Perform a process resource allocation analysis to examine how each activity in the process makes use of its resources during the simulation, to help identify resource shortages, and understand how the resources required by an activity contribute to the cost of performing the activity itself.

Use this analysis to help understand how the resources required for each activity contribute to the performance of the process as a whole. The information in this analysis provides additional detail to the information available in the Process Cases Summary analysis, and lets you identify which resources are delaying a particular task or are contributing to its cost. After reviewing the information that this analysis presents, you might decide that you need to make additional resources available. You might also decide to gain a more granular understanding of a particular process case and carry out a process instance resource allocation analysis to see how the resource information breaks down for each individual pass through the process.
Analyzing process resources
Perform a process resource analysis to see a list of the resources used by the process and information about the average allocations of the resources during a process run.

Use this analysis to obtain summary information about the average use of the process resources by the process a whole. The information in this analysis can be used to supplement the information in the Process Cases Summary analysis, and lets you identify if there are resources that appear to be overused, or unavailable for the process. For a more granular understanding of how specific activities make use of resources during the running of a process, perform a Process Resource Allocation analysis.

Parent topic: Analyzing process simulation results

Related tasks

Analyzing process cases

Analyzing aggregated results

Analyzing process cases summaries
Perform this analysis to display summary information for each of the process cases produced during a simulation.

Use this analysis when you want an overview of the process cases generated in a simulation. This analysis provides high level summary information for each process case, including duration and cost information and indicates whether the process case reached a successful completion or not. It lists the activities that make up each case and, when possible, quantifies their average cost and average elapsed duration. By selecting a process case in the analysis view, you can highlight the paths of that process cases in the Simulation view.

This analysis, like other process case analyses, may reveal unexpected results within specific process cases. For example, you may determine that the average duration in a particular process case is unacceptably high. As a result of reviewing the information that this analysis presents, you may decide that you need to modify a process model or reset resource levels, or you may determine that you want to investigate further with another type of process case analysis or process instance analysis. Alternatively, you may investigate the reasons that cause a particular process case to fail.
Customizing the columns displayed in summary analysis
Customize the summary analysis display to show only the columns with information that you are interested in.
Analyzing process durations
Perform a process duration analysis to examine the average durations of all process cases in a simulation.

Use this analysis when you want to examine process level processing durations and throughputs for each of the process cases that the simulation generates. This analysis, like other process case analyses, may reveal unexpected results within specific process cases. For example, you may determine that the average throughput in a particular process case is unacceptably low. As a result of reviewing the information that this analysis presents, you may decide that you need to modify a process model or reset resource levels, or you may determine that you want to investigate further with another type of process case analysis such as process resource analysis. Alternatively, you can examine the duration results for specific process instances within a process case by running the process instance summary analysis and then the process instance time analysis.
Analyzing process activities total times
Perform a process activities total time analysis to determine the average total time values for all process instances in a simulation.

Total time refers to the amount of time spent on each process case during the run of the simulation. It is the total duration of all activities that make up the process case. Process activities total time includes the durations of all the activities in the process excluding subprocesses and loops.

This analysis, like other process case analyses, may reveal unexpected results within specific process cases. For example, you may determine that the amount of time spent following a specific path of the process model is unacceptably high. As a result of reviewing the information that this analysis presents, you may decide that you need to modify a process model or reset resource levels, or you may determine that you want to investigate further with another type of process case analysis such as process resource analysis. Alternatively, you can examine the duration results for specific process instances within a process case by running the process instance summary analysis and then the process instance time analysis.
Analyzing process costs
Performing a process cost analysis to examine the average costs, revenues and profits for all process instances in a simulation.

Use this analysis when you want to examine process level costs and revenues for each generated process case. This analysis, like other process case analyses, may reveal unexpected results within specific process cases. For example, you may determine that the average profit in a particular process case is unacceptably low. As a result of reviewing the information that this analysis presents, you may decide that you need to modify a process model. You can also examine the cost results for specific process instances within a process case by running the process instance summary analysis and then the process instance cost analysis.
Analyzing classifier costs and durations
You can complete this analysis to show the costs and durations of activities associated with each classifier value used in a process.

Parent topic: Analyzing process simulation results

Related tasks

Analyzing process instances

Process cases summary analysis

Related reference

Creating a process instance summary analysis
You must carry out a process instance summary analysis before you can carry out any analyses on specific process instances.

By displaying summary information for each process instance, this analysis enables you to quickly determine which process instances have results that you might want to investigate further using the other available process instance analyses. For example, you might want a deeper understanding of the most process instances making up the most frequently followed process case. Alternatively, you might decide to investigate one of the process instances that has the longest elapsed duration, to determine the reason why the process instance took so long to complete. Or you might decide to investigate the process instances that have the highest total cost. You could also examine process instances that have start times within different periods, if you want to examine how the process performs at different times of the day, the week, or the year.
Customizing the columns displayed in summary analysis
Customize the summary analysis display to show only the columns with information that you are interested in.
Analyzing process instance times
Perform a process instance time analysis to display the durations of each of the activities involved in a process instance.

This analysis enables you to pinpoint the activities in a process instance that fail or that contribute the most to the total elapsed duration of the process instance. One reason for identifying these activities is to focus your efforts on reducing their durations in order to improve the overall performance of the process.

In addition to performing this analysis, you could also perform a process resource allocation analysis if you want to investigate waiting times associated with allocating resources.
Analyzing process instance costs
Perform this analysis to display detailed information about the cost and revenue for each activity within a process instance in a simulation.

This analysis enables you to pinpoint the activities in a process instance that fail or that have the highest costs or the lowest revenues. By identifying these activities, you can focus your efforts on improving the revenue or reducing cost to improve the overall cost performance of the process.

In addition to performing this analysis, you could also perform a process resource allocation analysis if you want to investigate why waiting costs are incurred.
Analyzing process instance resource allocation
Perform a process instance resource allocation analysis to obtain detailed information about the resources allocated to activities in a process instance.

This analysis enables you to examine costs and durations associated with the allocation of resources within a process instance. Based on this information, you may choose to adjust the overall quantity of resources available, or adjust the scheduling of resources. For example, if an activity has a shortage duration of eight hours while waiting for a technician to start the morning shift, or if an activity fails because a resource was not available within an acceptable period of time, you could add an additional shift to the existing schedule, and move existing or new resources to that shift.
Analyzing process instance activities free float
Perform this analysis to display information about the available free float (slack time) periods associated with activities in a process instance.
Analyzing process instance critical paths
Perform a process instance critical path analysis to display the path of longest duration within the process instance.

The critical path includes the activities in a process instance that contribute to the total elapsed duration of the process instance. Other parallel paths require less time to complete. By identifying the activities on the critical path, you can focus your efforts on reducing their durations in order to improve the overall performance of the process. These efforts could include examining the process model itself, or performing process instance resource allocation analysis to investigate whether costs and durations can be reduced by adjusting resource levels.
Analyzing process instance shortest paths
Perform a process instance shortest path analysis to display the path in a process instance that has the shortest duration of all parallel paths.

Identifying the shortest path can be useful in setting a target for improving overall process performance. If you can implement improvements that reduce the duration of other parallel paths to match the duration of the shortest path, overall process performance will be at an optimum. Alternatively, you may determine that you can add an additional activity on the shortest path or adjust resource levels without affecting the overall performance of the process.

Parent topic: Analyzing process simulation results

Related tasks

Analyzing aggregated results

Analyzing process cases