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WebSphere Business Modeler certification exam992 prep, Part 4: Validate and analyze businessprocessesSkill Level: IntermediateLori Small (lsmall@nc.rr.com)Senior Business AnalystKforce Technology, Inc.10 Dec 2008Prepare for the IBM Certification Test 992, IBM WebSphere Business ModelerAdvanced V6.1, Business Analysis and Design. This tutorial describes how to use theadvanced analysis features of WebSphere Business Modeler to validate processmodels and perform comparative analysis to identify process improvementopportunities.Section 1. Before you startAbout this seriesIBM WebSphere Business Modeler (hereafter called Modeler) is the IBM businessprocess development platform that enables you to quickly perform organization andresource modeling, analyze and simulate processes, create reports, and buildbusiness measures to address productivity and performance management. Thisseries of six tutorials helps you prepare to take the IBM certification Test 992, IBMWebSphere Business Modeler Advanced V6.1, Business Analysis and Design tobecome an IBM Certified Business Process Analyst.This certification targets intermediate-level business analysts who have developedskills in Business Process Management (BPM), including process design,organization and resource modeling, process analysis and simulation, identificationValidate and analyze business processes Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.Page 1 of 27

developerWorks ibm.com/developerWorksof business measures to address productivity and performance management andgenerate reports. It is expected that they will be able to perform the tasks involved inthe role independently, with limited assistance from peers, product documentationand vendor support services.About this tutorialThis tutorial is the fourth in the series designed to help you prepare for the IBMCertification Test 992: IBM WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced V6.1, BusinessAnalysis and Design. This tutorial explains how to use the simulation results fromPart 3 to validate process flow within the model, and how to apply comparisonfeatures to evaluate the impact of change to the model. You'll learn about evaluatingprocess time and identifying potential process bottlenecks. You'll also learn how toidentify process improvement opportunities, analyze associated costs and resourceallocation, and validate that a model meets requirements. After you complete thistutorial, continue with the fifth tutorial, which covers the query and reporting featuresthat are included with the tool.PrerequisitesThis tutorial is written for analysts whose skills and experience are at anintermediate to advanced level. You should have a general familiarity with using anintegrated development environment.System requirementsTo run the examples in this tutorial, you need to install WebSphere BusinessModeler Software V6.1. Download a free trial version of WebSphere BusinessModeler if you don't already have a copy of it. You can find the hardware andsoftware requirements for Modeler at WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced:System Requirements.Section 2. Validating the process modelIsolating business issuesWhy model? We know that business processes can break down for various reasonsValidate and analyze business processesPage 2 of 27 Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.

ibm.com/developerWorksdeveloperWorks that can be difficult to isolate and identify. Modeling and simulating the processescan reduce complexity by highlighting areas with known problems, including: Multiple iterations High costs Long process delays Limited or surplus resources BottlenecksIn Part 2 of this series, we discussed business process reengineering, and its focuson streamlining and automating processes to achieve business goals moreefficiently. You saw how a business analyst can use Modeler to capture the existingbusiness environment and model the proposed process changes. Overall, thesemodeling efforts help you understand the big picture, and more easily communicatewhat needs to be accomplished to the relevant stakeholders.The most difficult aspect of process modeling involves understanding the businesscontext -- the business objectives and how to define metrics to ensure the goals arebeing realized. Even the most seasoned business analyst will need to visualizemultiple scenarios to better understand how a process can be optimized.In Part 3, you learned about Modeler's simulation environment and how to enhancethe high-level process model with underlying business data. We also discussed thesimulation features, and how to control the runtime attributes so you can simulateand analyze your processes under various conditions. This lets you essentiallypreview how a process will perform in a real-life work environment.In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use Modeler to: Validate and debug the process flow Evaluate change to the model Identify process improvement opportunitiesProcess simulation recapAs discussed in Part 3, simulations provide two types of information aboutprocesses: Simulation statistics, which are generated while the simulation isrunning.Validate and analyze business processes Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.Page 3 of 27

developerWorks ibm.com/developerWorks Simulation results, which are compiled when the simulation hascompleted.Physically watching the animated process helps you visualize task bottleneckswhere tokens accumulate in the queue. Once a simulation is complete, the resultscan be evaluated and the process can be revised accordingly to achieve the mosteffective execution. The simulation results represent details about the process as awhole, as well as the individual tasks and connections in the process. Analyzing theresults can help identify resource usage issues, including process revenues, costs,and profits.The Processes view contains data relating to the simulated process, including starttimes, revenues, costs, and profits. The Tasks view has statistics relating to tasksperformed within the process, including the current number of active instances ofeach task, and cumulative cost, revenue, and profit for each task. The Connectionsview shows the quantity of tokens transferred between each activity in the process.The Connections view can provide information regarding path traversal, such asidentifying which paths are under-utilized.We'll demonstrate by using the imported Quickstart Finance sample that is shippedwith Modeler. This sample includes simulation snapshots for the To Be LoanApplication process.Quickstart Finance case study: Simulation reviewAfter you have imported the Quickstart Finance sample project, open the firstsimulation profile in the first simulation snapshot, as shown in Figure 1.Figure 1. Quickstart Finance simulation profileValidate and analyze business processesPage 4 of 27 Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.

ibm.com/developerWorksdeveloperWorks Set the token creation attribute to 100 tokens, as shown in Figure 2.Figure 2. Set token creation attributeRun the simulation without animation and view the results. We chose to view theresults across all process instances. In Figure 3, note that the Tasks results showthat all tasks were activated at least once. This means the token setting wasadequate to activate all the process cases.Validate and analyze business processes Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.Page 5 of 27

developerWorks ibm.com/developerWorksFigure 3. Quickstart Finance Tasks resultsWe can also confirm that all the connections were activated, as shown in Figure 4,which further validates the token creation setting.Figure 4. Quickstart Finance Connections resultsVisual analysis of the simulation results can be helpful in identifying process issues,but Modeler also includes advanced analysis and validation features. Next, we'lldiscuss these features and how they can be used to provide targeted and moredetailed model analysis.Analyzing the process modelModeler supports multiple ways to investigate different aspects of your business andits processes, to gather information on current state, and to evaluate proposedchanges. After initial validation resulting in an error-free process, you can performseveral types of additional analysis on the model elements that you have created ina project, on simulation profiles, and on simulation results as follows: Static analysis is used to examine specific details of the contents of yourValidate and analyze business processesPage 6 of 27 Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.

ibm.com/developerWorksdeveloperWorks modeling projects. Profile analysis is used to review the details of a simulation profile. Dynamic analysis is used to evaluate the simulation results generatedafter you run a simulation.Each of these analysis categories is explained in more detail in the rest of thistutorial.Section 3. Static analysisModeler provides a variety of static analysis functions that let you extract specifictypes of important business information from your models. Static analysis canprovide relative costs for multiple scenarios, but, most importantly, it provides ameans of validating your model prior to simulation.The static analysis functions are: Process model analysis functions, which includes functions relating toprocess models in their static state. Organization model analysis, which includes two analysis functions fororganization models that allow you to identify the usage and position oforganization model elements within structures and structure definitions. Resource model analysis, which includes functions that extractinformation on resources, roles, and timetables that you have defined inyour project. Element Type analysis , which includes three types of general analysisfunctions used to determine the relationships between model elements.Process model analysisProcess model analysis provides information on the contents of a specific processmodel, and includes the functions in the following table.Table 1. Process model analysis functionsFunctionDescriptionActivities by classifier analysisReturns the activities of the process that areassociated with each classifier value of selectedclassifiers.Validate and analyze business processes Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.Page 7 of 27