This guide will provide the user with the role process owner with the necessary information and tools implemented in the system to manage the respective processes.
General Overview
A process instance is enriched with various information during its processing time. Whenever a process instance is selected, the following tabs are provided:
Properties
Documents
Notes
Swimlanes
Process model
Efforts
Activities
Gantt
Smartform
Please find more information about each tab in the chapter Elementary features.
View all started process instances
This menu item is exclusively available for process owners. Here, a process owner can see all started processes instances of all process definitions for which the current user is responsible for.
To open the list of all process instances the current user is responsible for, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
Select the menu item 'All started process instances'. All started and not archived process instances of all process definitions the current user is responsible for are listed. The process instances appear in the list, descending on their start date. For more information about how to filter and sort process instance, please regard chapter Filter, sorting and column configuration.
View all archived process instances
This menu item is exclusively available for process owners. Here, a process owner can see all archived processes instances of all process definitions for which the current user is responsible for.
To open the list of a specific process instance, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
Select the menu item 'Archived process instances'. All archived process instances of all process definitions the current user is responsible for are listed. The process instances appear in the list, descending on their start date. For more information about how to filter and sort process instance, please regard chapter Filter, sorting and column configuration.
View all open process instances by process definition name
This menu item is exclusively available for process owners. Here, a process owner can see all started processes instances of a specific process definition for which the current user is responsible for.
To open the list of a specific process instance, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
All process definition names for which the current user is responsible for are listed as a separate menu item. Select one specific process definition for viewing all process instances which are not archived. The process instances appear in the list, descending on their start date. For more information about how to filter and sort process instance, please regard chapter Filter, sorting and column configuration.
Graphical view of all open instances by process definition name
The bar chart provides an overview of the sum of open instances in a process definition. It is exclusively available if a menu item of a specific process definition name is selected.
To open this graphical overview, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
All process definition names for which the current user is responsible for are listed as a separate menu item. Select one specific process definition for viewing all process instances which are not archived. For the graphical view, click on the icon 'Process instances per node' in the lower-left corner.
The bar chart displays the amount of currently open activities in the selected process. Close the graphic by clicking on the upper left button 'x'.
Archive process instances
Here, all instances are displayed, which have been archived. If an instance is archived, it is not active, and it is no longer shown in the list of instances. Terminated instances can be archived to keep an overview of running instances. The tasks of an archived instance are also cancelled and are no longer visible in the task lists. An archived instance is removed from active use. Users with the role process owner are allowed to archive processes.
A list with all archived instances can be found by process owners in the menu item 'Archived process instances'.
To archive a process instance, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
Select the menu item 'All started process instances' or 'Started process instances'. The process instances appear in the list, descending on their start date. For more information about how to filter and sort process instance, please regard chapter Filter, sorting and column configuration.
Select the process definition, which should be archived by activating the checkbox. Above the process instance list, the button for archiving process instances appears in a green line. On the right side, all process information is displayed. A short message confirms archiving. The archived process instance is now deleted from the list and can be found in the menu item 'Archived process instances'.
By activating more than one checkbox, multiple process instances could be archived.
Restore process instances
Archived process instances can be restored. After restoring, a process instance is deleted from the item menu 'Archived process instances', and it is listed in the menu item 'All started process instances'. If a cancelled process instance is restored, the process continues at the task where it was archived. Archived processes that are finished are still finished after restoring.
To restore an archived process instance, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select the option 'My process instances'.
Select the option 'Archived process instances'.
Select the process definition, which should be restored by activating the checkbox. Above the process instance list, the button for restoring process instances appears in a green line. On the right side, all process information is displayed. A short message confirms restoring. The restored process instance is now deleted from this list and can be found in the menu item 'All started process instances'. Furthermore, the process instance is also in the list 'Started process instances' of the user who originally started the process.
By activating more than one checkbox, multiple process instances could be restored.
Reporting
The system provides instance reports and efforts reports, which can be displayed and downloaded as PDF- or XLS-documents. These reports can only be created by process owners.
Process Instance report
A general overview of the instance is given in the process instance report. The report contains a description of the instance, the process model, and an overview of the activities and their respective tasks.
The following information about a process instance can be viewed in this report:
name of the process instance
completed activities
open activities
status
description of the process instance
smartform
Information about activities:
start date and start time
finish date and finish time
EST / LST / EFT / LFT
Information about tasks:
name of the task
person responsible
description of the task
start (date / time)
finish (date / time)
assignment history (date time, assigned by, assigned to)
To create a process instance report, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select a process instance view. Select a process instance and open the tab 'Properties. Click on the button 'Reports' and choose the option 'Process instance...'.
The instance report can be customized. Select the options needed and click on the button 'Create process instance report'.
Open the instance report and all described information above will be displayed in an Excel or PDF document.
Efforts report
The system offers the user reports of efforts to summarize the potential accumulation of monetary and temporal efforts within a process instance. The Efforts report will provide a summary of the hole instance. Efforts may be summarized for either individual tasks or an entire instance. Detailed information on efforts can be found under Elementary features.
The following information about a process instance can be viewed in this report:
name of the process instance
creation date of each effort
creator of the effort
Information cost center:
cost center
effort
the unit as currency or time in minutes
total cost
total time
total time cost
total sum
hourly wage of cost center
hourly wage time
description of the effort
Information about tasks:
task
group
To create an efforts report, do the following:
Click on the button 'Automate' in the Side-menu and select a process instance view. Select a process instance and open the tab 'Properties. Click on the button 'Reports' and select the option 'Efforts Report'. The download of the XLS file starts immediately.
Open the instance report and all described information above will be displayed in an Excel document.
