Monitoring Workflows

The following sections discuss workflow monitoring:

Overview of Workflow Monitoring Tasks

The Studio workflow monitoring features allow workflow designers to perform run-time monitoring to help debug and troubleshoot workflow designs in a design environment, and system administrators to monitor and intervene in the real-time execution of workflows in a production environment.

Additionally, in a production environment, administrators can monitor user and role workloads for manually-assigned tasks.

Finally, business analysts can perform post-run-time data collection on manually assigned tasks to gather and compile historical raw and statistical workload and performance data to determine bottlenecks and inefficiencies in business processes. This section describes the following tasks you can perform:

Working with Workflow Instances

A workflow instance is a session of a workflow template definition that has been placed into run time. You can view the status of workflow instances and the current value of variables. In a design environment, you can view instances to help you debug and troubleshoot problems with a workflow design. In a production environment, you can view the status of a running workflow and intervene to update variables or modify tasks.

To view a list of workflow instances:

For each workflow instance, the following information is displayed:

For performance reasons, the process engine only returns 100 items at a time. If there are additional items, a button (+) appears which, when clicked, will retrieve the next 100 items. When no additional items remain, the button is no longer shown.

To update the instances list, click Refresh.

From the Workflow Instances dialog box, you can do the following:

Viewing Workflow Instance Status

To view the status of a particular workflow instance, double-click the instance in the list in the Workflow Instances dialog box, or right-click the instance and select Workflow Status from the pop-up menu.

A window is displayed showing either a flowchart or task list representation of the current state of the running workflow. You can use the buttons at the top of the window to do the following:.

To display a flowchart view of the workflow instance, click the button.

Figure 10-2 Workflow Status Window: Flowchart View

For debugging purposes, you can use this information to identify where a stoppage has occurred in the workflow. If a task that should have completed is still showing as green, that is, as activated but not executed, this is usually an indication that there is an error in the definition of that node.

To display a list of all tasks in the workflow and their status, click the button.

Figure 10-3 Workflow Status Window: List View

In addition, the following indications appear:

From the Workflow Instances dialog box, you can also do the following:

Viewing and Updating Workflow Instance Variables

You can view and update the current value of all variables defined for the workflow at any point during its execution.

When debugging workflows at design time, it is a good idea to view variable values to help troubleshoot possible design errors. Even if a workflow appears to have executed correctly, you may find incorrect settings of variable values, which may indicate a design bug.

To view workflow instance variables:

To update a variable's value:

Note: Because workflow logic often depends on the value of variables, use caution when manually changing the value of a variable. Also be sure that the value you enter is valid for the date type of the variable.

Deleting Workflow Instances

You can delete a single workflow instance or multiple workflow instances according to date.

To delete a single workflow instance:

To delete multiple workflow instances for a template:

Viewing User and Role Worklists

To view a user worklist, in the folder tree for the desired organization, right-click a user from the list and select Open User Worklist from the pop-up menu. A list of tasks assigned to the user is displayed in the User Worklist dialog box.

Figure 10-8 User Worklist Dialog Box

Figure 10-9 Role Worklist Dialog Box

In addition, the following indications appear:

To refresh the task list for a user or role, click the button.

From the Role Worklist and User Worklist dialog boxes, you can also do the following:

Changing Task Permissions and Priority

To change task permissions and priority:

Changing Task Status and Assignment

If a task's permissions allow it, you can intervene in a currently running workflow to reassign tasks to different users or roles, and mark and unmark them done.

Reassigning a Task

To reassign a task:

Marking a Task Done

If the task has been defined with Mark Done Without Executing permission, you can mark a task done before it is actually executed by a user.

To mark a task done, from the Workflow Status, User Worklist or Role Worklist dialog boxes, right-click the task you wish to mark done, and from the pop-up menu, select Mark Task as Done. The task's completed date is set to the current date, and the workflow proceeds.

Unmarking a Task Done

If the task has been defined with Unmark If Marked Done permission, you can unmark a task done that has already been completed.

To unmark a task done, from the Workflow Status, User Worklist or Role Worklist dialog boxes, right-click the task you wish to unmark done, and from the pop-up menu, select Unmark Task as Done. The task's status is reset to pending and the completed date is cleared.

Using Workload Reports

The Studio allows you to view workload reports, showing the number of tasks, by workflow, task, user or role, and task status. In the Studio folder tree, right-click Workload Report, and choose Open from the pop-up menu to display the Workload Report Properties dialog box.

Figure 10-12 Workload Report Properties Dialog Box

The workload report will display information according to the selections you make in the Workload Report Properties dialog box:

Viewing Workload Reports

After you make your workload report selections, click OK to display a graphical representation of the current workload.

Figure 10-13 Workload Report Dialog Box

Using Statistics Reports

You can view statistics reports that are based on tasks, users, roles, and so on. A statistics report provides statistical information based on historical data kept for completed workflows. It shows number of tasks completed, total time, average time, and minimum and maximum times spent for each task. Standard deviation from the average time is also shown.

Compiling Statistics Report Information

In the Studio folder tree, right-click Statistics Reports and choose Open from the pop-up menu to display the Statistics Report Properties dialog box. The report includes information according to the selections you make in the Statistics Report Properties dialog box.

Figure 10-14 Statistics Report Properties Dialog Box

Viewing Statistics Reports

When you make your statistics report selections, click OK to display the statistics report.

Figure 10-15 Statistics Report

Several columns are displayed in the report, depending on the options selected at report design time:

Because the report definition is stored separately from the results, the statistics report can be run at any time.