A process runtime dashboard for tracking efficiency

A process runtime dashboard for tracking efficiency

Have you ever wanted to know if your process instances are running inefficiently? Ever wanted to know which blocks, actions are the ones that are causing all those problems? Or maybe which user is always the slowest to perform a certain action? These questions can all be answered through the use of process metrics. Much of this information was available but only for those individuals who had the GP Administrator. Not anymore …

Dashboard

This blog describes a Visual Composer-based dashboard that uses custom-developed Web services to see into the heart of the GP Runtime environment, so that individuals who are process oversees can discover 1) that if their process instances are too slow and 2) drill down to discover the root causes for these problems.

The dashboard contains information on the following areas:

Instance Information: Details on all process instances (running, completed, etc.)


Block Information: Details on all blocks for the selected process instance


Action Chart: Details on all actions for the selected block


Action Detail: Details on the relationship between user and action

The workflow is such that the user must first enter the path of the process in the design-time from which the process instances are of interest. The Web services return all the information desired after clicking on the

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specific item in question.

The dashboard displayed is of course a first version and could be improved in a variety of ways. The process displayed is very trivial and doesn't reflect the real corporate environemnt. This goal of this blog was to display the potential of the two tools (GP and VC) to meet quality standards in a corporate setting. Although this blog can show which GP element is the cause of slow processes, the dashboard described unfortunately can't look deeper to discover if the problems lies in Java Code or other reasons. This is the stuff of other blogs and other tools.

The Code

Currently, the Web services return numerical status code for the returned elements. The final plan is to use icons for a better UI. Here is a list of the Web services and their status codes:

Process info by designtime path: (GPRuntimeProcessTimes)

ACTIVE      0

RUNNING     1

CANCELLED   2

COMPLETED   3

ERROR       4

FUTURE      6

SKIPPED     7

INVALID    -1

 

Block info by process:  (GPBlockInstancesPerProcessInstance)

 

ACTIVE    0

RUNNING   1

CANCELLED 2

COMPLETED 3

ERROR     4

FUTURE    6

SKIPPED   7

INVALID   -1

 

Action info by block:  (GPActionInstancesPerBlockInstance)

ACTIVE    0

RUNNING   1

CANCELLED 2

COMPLETED 3

ERROR     4

IN_PROCESS 5

FUTURE    6

SKIPPED   7

INVALID   -1 

Thanks again to Claudiu Tatulea in Rumania for his coding.  The code can be found below


Richard Hirsch has 20 years experience in computing. Currently, he is a senior Portal/NetWeaver consultant for Siemens with experience in a variety of related areas (including KM, Portal Integration, Enterprise SOA, etc.)

This content is reposted from the SAP Developer Network.
Copyright 2007, SAP Developer Network

SAP Developer Network (SDN) is an active online community where ABAP, Java, .NET, and other cutting-edge technologies converge to form a resource and collaboration channel for SAP developers, consultants, integrators, and business analysts. SDN hosts a technical library, expert blogs, exclusive downloads and code samples, an extensive eLearning catalog, and active, moderated discussion forums. SDN membership is free.

Want to read more from this author? Click here to read Richard Hirsch's Weblog. Click here to read more about Business Process on the SDN.



This was first published in April 2007

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