Viewing the Status of Activities in a Process as Traffic Lights

Note
Two variants of Traffic Light view are available in the Control Center perspective. You can access the old Traffic Light view from the All Management Views panel. The new Traffic Light view is available from the Monitoring panel.

Note
The Traffic Light view does not consider Quality Assurance activity instances.

Traditional Traffic Light View

Open the Traffic Light View from the All Management Views panel of the Control Center Perspective to view the status of all instances of activities in a process definition cumulated as traffic lights/process definition.

Configuration

To start the configuration of the Traffic Light View, select the Configuration option in the Stardust Portal. The Configuration View opens. For details on this view, refer to chapter Configuring Portal Settings.

Configuration Switch
Figure: Open Configuration Section

Select Traffic Light to open the Traffic Light specific configuration section.

Configuration Rear Panel
Figure: The Traffic Light Configuration Section.

In the Select Process Definitions for configuration pane select one or more processes for configuration. All processes are available for selection, which the logged-in user has the declarative security permission Read Process Instance Data for. This permission is defined for the process definition in the modeler. Refer to section Authorization of chapter Working with Process Definitions in the Business Process Modeling Handbook for detailed information on the Read Process Instance Data permission.

Select Processes.
Figure: Select Processes.

The selected processes appear in the Process selection box.

Select Process.
Figure: Select the Process to configure.

Once a process is selected, values for the Traffic Light View properties can be entered or modified.

Editing Properties.
Figure: Editing Properties.

The State Calculator and Descriptor Filter fields are optional: if no values are entered, the default values are used for the Traffic Light View.

The table with Row Data Id and Row Data Values, Row Data Id contain the descriptors valid for the selected process. In the Row Data Values entry fields you can enter the descriptor values for which activities should be displayed in the Traffic Light View.

All activities receiving a value in this table are displayed as a column in the Traffic Light View.

Select Save to apply the configuration settings. To discard your settings, choose Cancel.

The View

The Traffic Light view supports a top-level value chain, where the activities represent complex subprocesses.

The Traffic Light View
Figure: The Traffic Light View

Traffic Lights

A Java service provider interface is provided to implement specific business logic to decide which color the traffic light should display. The implementing classes need to implement the following interface:

public interface ActivityTrafficLightCalculator 
{
    public int getColorStateForActivity(String processDefintionId, String activityId,  
       int numberOfNotCompletedActivities, 
       int numberOfCompletedActivities);
}

Please add your implementing classes to the classpath of your Web application.

The traffic light icons indicate:

Hereby, the traffic lights are displayed in a tabular view with one column per activity, e.g.:

Traffic Light
Figure: Traffic Lights

Traffic Light History

The state of the instances of an activity is kept at the time the activity reaches its configured escalation time. If the situation is resolved at a later time, this is indicated by a checkmark symbol next to the traffic light:

Traffic Light History
Figure: Traffic Light History

For example if it is expected that all processes of the day finish an activity Cash by 10:00 a.m., but two process instances out of 3 are late and the traffic light changes to red at 10:00 a.m. Some time later the two missing process instances pass through the activity. The traffic light does not change to green then, but the checkmark next to the traffic light shows that it was resolved later.

Rows

A number of rows where data filter are applied against the process instances on the values is displayed. You can determine which categories are displayed in the rows in the category filter.

Process Filter

To choose the process to be displayed, select it in the Process drop-down list.

Select Choose Process
Figure: Select Choose Process

Category Filter

To filter the displayed rows by categories, choose one of the provided categories in the Choose Category drop-down list.

Category Filter
Figure: Category Filter

For example the rows grouped by a category called "Product" will be displayed as follows:

Dynamic Row Grouping
Figure: Dynamic Row Grouping Example

The number of completed activity instances and the total number of activity instances in the corresponding category is displayed beside the traffic light. For example 1/2 is displayed for 1 completed activity instance of 2 in total.

Display Activity Instances List

To display all activity instances possibly filtered by the corresponding data filter, click the corresponding traffic light.


Figure: Select to display the Activity Instances

Two tables will open displaying all descriptor values of the underlying instance and the appropriate start time:

Activity Completed

This table includes all activity instances which have passed the selected activity. For a detailed description on the columns and functionality of the activity table, refer to chapter Working with Activity Tables.

Please note that for passed activity instances only the actions for notes and invoking process details are enabled.

Activity instances passed activity
Figure: Activity instances that have passed the activity.

To see details about the activity instance, click on the Activity Name entry to open the Viewing Process Details view.

Activity Completion Pending

This table includes all activity instances which have not passed the selected activity. For a detailed description on the columns and functionality of the activity table, refer to the chapter Activity Tables.

Activity instances not passed activity
Figure: Activity instances that have not passed the activity.

To see details about the activity instance, click on the Activity Name entry to open the Process Details view.

Traffic Light View

Displays graphical traffic of Processes and Activities based on a benchmark, if specified. It also displays traffic of completed and aborted processes and activities.

Open the Traffic Light View from the Monitoring panel of the Control Center Perspective to view the status of all instances of activities in a process definition cumulated as a traffic light and process definition.

Traffic Light View - Monitoring
Figure: Traffic Light View - Monitoring

The following parameters are common for Business Object instances or specific processes / activities selections:

  1. Processes - By default, option All Processes is selected. You can select multiple processes using Ctrl+Click.
  2. Benchmarks - By default, option All Benchmarks is selected. You can select multiple benchmarks using Ctrl+Click. Note that if multiple benchmarks are selected, they must have the same categories defined. That is, they must have the identical number of categories and these must have the same labels and colors. An error message is displayed if the selected benchmark definitions do not have identical categories.


    Figure: Error Message - No Identical Categories

  3. Date - You can select Business Date or Process Start Time Date from the drop-down list. For details on the Business Date data type, please refer to section Predefined Data of chapter Specifying Data in the Business Process Modeling Handbook.
  4. Offset - By default, 0 value is displayed. You can specify only negative integer value. 0 indicates Today, -1 indicates data from yesterday till now, -2 indicates data from last two days and so on.

The Date filter provides a date range starting from the current date +/- the offset. For example, if Date = Business Date and offset = -1 the filter would include PIs/AIs where Business Date = today and yesterday.

The other parameters are specific.

Configuring Traffic Lights for Business Object Instances

To view a dashboard for specific Business Object instances, select Business Object in the Drill Down selection list.


Figure: Business Object - Drill Down

The following parameters can be set for a Business Object related dashboard:

The following screenshot displays a traffic light configuration based on Business Object instances.


Figure: Traffic Light View - Business Object Instance Process

Click on the count displayed for the process or activity to view the details.


Figure: Business Object - Drill Down

Note that the search result is filtered to show only processes or activities with accessible Business Object instances. Accessibility for Business Object instances is based on the user's permissions including department grants. Please refer to section Visibility Restrictions of Business Object Instances depending on Department Grants of chapter Managing Business Objects and section Read and Write Access of Business Object Instances of chapter Business Objects in the Concepts handbook Read and Write Access of Business Object Instances of chapter Business Objects in the Concepts Handbook of the Stardust Documentation for details.

Configuring Traffic Lights for Specific Processes or Activities

The Traffic Light view supports the inclusion of process instances. To view a dashboard for process instances or work items, select Process/Work Item in the Drill Down selection list.


Figure: Process/Work Item - Drill Down

The following screenshot displays a traffic light dashboard based on processes and work item.


Figure: Traffic Light View - Process

Click on the count displayed for the process or activity to view the details.


Figure: Process / Activity Details

Saving a Favorite Dashboard Configuration

You can select configuration parameters for a traffic light and save it to your favorite dashboards. This allows to run the same dashboard configuration in later sessions.

The traffic light instances can be created either from the main traffic light view or from the saved traffic light instances. The traffic light instances can be modified and saved as new traffic light instances, as well.

To save the favorite traffic light instance configuration as a dashboard, perform the following:

  1. Specify the filter for the traffic light view
  2. Click the Add Favorite Save Favorite icon in the upper left corner of the Traffic light view


    Figure: Save Favorite Configuration Dashboard

  3. The Add Favorite dialog opens with a Name field pre-filled with the favorite name. If the name already exists a -New term is appended. Optionally you can change the predefined name for the favorite traffic light configuration.


    Figure: Save Traffic Light as Favorite

  4. In case a favorite traffic light dashboard with the proposed or entered name already exists, a message is displayed accordingly. If you do not change the name the existing favorite dashboard with the same name will be overwritten.

    Message for already existing name
    Figure: Message for already existing name

Once you have added your traffic light configuration as favorite, the icon changes to a filled star Added Favorite.

The favorite traffic light dashboard configurations are displayed in the My Favorites section of the Workflow Execution and the Business Control Center perspective launch panels accordingly.


Figure: Favorite Traffic Light

Click the saved favorite traffic light to view the traffic light configuration. You can modify and delete the saved traffic light. If the traffic light instance is saved with the same name but the search filter is changed, then it is updated in the existing traffic light instance.

Modifying a saved Traffic Light Configuration

To modify the saved traffic light configuration:

  1. Open the saved traffic light from the My Favorites panel
  2. Modify the traffic light instance
  3. Click the Add Favorite Added Favorite icon


    Figure: Save icon in saved Favorite Traffic Light

  4. Specify the new name for the instance and click OK


    Figure: Save modified Instance

A new instance of the traffic light configuration gets created.

Deleting a favorite Traffic Light dashboard

To delete the saved traffic light instance:

  1. Expand the menu of the saved traffic light dashboard configuration in the My Favorites section by clicking the down arrow icon on the right side of the entry
  2. Select the Delete option


    Figure: Deleting a favorite traffic light dashboard configuration

  3. A dialog opens to confirm the deletion


    Figure: Confirm deletion

  4. Select Yes

Renaming a favorite Traffic Light dashboard

To rename the saved traffic light dashboard:

  1. Expand the menu of the saved traffic light dashboard configuration in the My Favorites section by clicking the down arrow icon on the right side of the entry
  2. Select the Rename option


    Figure: Renaming a favorite traffic light dashboard

  3. The name of the traffic light dashboard configuration gets editable. Change the name and click outside the entry field to apply it.


    Figure: Enter a new name