Skip to main content
Question

Start and End eventtimes for activities to display activity duration and connection duration properly in the process explorer

  • October 31, 2022
  • 8 replies
  • 90 views
M
Level 6
Forum|alt.badge.img+11

Hi all,

 

Is there any standard way to use start and end eventtimes for activities in an activity table so that the duration of activities and connections are displayed properly in the process explorer?

 

The activities table we have has (a.o.) the following columns:

Case Key - Activity - Start Eventtime - End Eventtime

 

We could define a custom process explorer KPI that calculates the (avg) duration of the activity, bit this has no impact on the displayed connections and the calculated duration of the connections in the process explorer. E.g. when the number of days between the end eventtimes of two activities is 10 days, this is what is displayed for the connection in the process explorer. But when the second activity has a duration of 2 days, the connection should display 8 days. And the 2 days should display as duration of the activity it self.

 

Is there any standard functionality that can handle this?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

8 replies

abhishek.chatu14
Level 11
Forum|alt.badge.img+4

I think what you are looking for is the WITH START/END option.

 

Kindly refer to the following link and scroll to the WITH START/END

https://docs.celonis.com/en/source---target.html#idm46399255383408

M
Level 6
Forum|alt.badge.img+11

I think what you are looking for is the WITH START/END option.

 

Kindly refer to the following link and scroll to the WITH START/END

https://docs.celonis.com/en/source---target.html#idm46399255383408

Hi Abhishek, thank you for your comment.

Calculating the duration between activities with PQL is not the issue however. We can do that. The issue is that the Process Explorer is not displaying the duration of the connections correctly, because it does not take the start eventtime of an activity into consideration.

 

For example the activities table has the following data:

imageThe column End Eventtime is selected as the Eventtime colum in the datamodel.

The process explorer shows that the connection between Task A and Task B takes 10 days, but that is not correct because Task B started 3 days earlier, so the duration of the connection between Task A and Task B should only be 7 days. And the duration of Task B should be 3 days.

 

Any suggestions how to achieve this?

 

janpeter.van.d
Level 12
Forum|alt.badge.img+26

Hi Marcel,

 

Previously it was possible to define a end-timestamp column when defining an activity table, but that option seems to be removed. I'm not aware of any other out of the box solution.

 

A work around to establish this (in an analysis) is to create also a custom connection KPI (see screenshot). Your Activity KPI would be an averaged datediff of the end and begin date of that activity, whereas your Connection KPI would be an averaged datediff of the begin date of the current activity and the end date of the previous activity. The Source/Target operator can help you out with this one.

 

Kind regards,

Jan-peter

 

activity and connection KPIs

M
Level 6
Forum|alt.badge.img+11

Hi Marcel,

 

Previously it was possible to define a end-timestamp column when defining an activity table, but that option seems to be removed. I'm not aware of any other out of the box solution.

 

A work around to establish this (in an analysis) is to create also a custom connection KPI (see screenshot). Your Activity KPI would be an averaged datediff of the end and begin date of that activity, whereas your Connection KPI would be an averaged datediff of the begin date of the current activity and the end date of the previous activity. The Source/Target operator can help you out with this one.

 

Kind regards,

Jan-peter

 

activity and connection KPIs

Hi Jan-Peter,

Thank you for clarifying, I was aware of the custom KPI possibilities but was looking for a standard option in the activity table definition itself. The custom KPI's are solving part of the issue in the Process Explorer but not all. The related issue is that parallel activities are now not correctly displayed in the Process Explorer.

For example the following data in the activities table:

imageTask A is the first activity

Task C is started before Task B

Task B is completed before Task C

 

In the process explorer the order of the activities is A - B - C, but that is not correct because C started earlier than B.

B en C should be displayed as parallel activities, both started after A.

Any suggestions how this can be achieved?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

janpeter.van.d
Level 12
Forum|alt.badge.img+26

Hi Jan-Peter,

Thank you for clarifying, I was aware of the custom KPI possibilities but was looking for a standard option in the activity table definition itself. The custom KPI's are solving part of the issue in the Process Explorer but not all. The related issue is that parallel activities are now not correctly displayed in the Process Explorer.

For example the following data in the activities table:

imageTask A is the first activity

Task C is started before Task B

Task B is completed before Task C

 

In the process explorer the order of the activities is A - B - C, but that is not correct because C started earlier than B.

B en C should be displayed as parallel activities, both started after A.

Any suggestions how this can be achieved?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I see, interesting use case!

 

Like it was possible to state end-timestamp, it was also possible to state grouping/parent-child relationships in Celonis once. The latter was replaced by the Multi-evenlog, but that's definately not a solution for this.

 

The only solution I can imagine is very ugly, and is to split every activity in a start and end sub-activity (e.g. Task A Start & Task A End). This would show you that some activities are occuring simultaneously, but also makes your process model harder to interpret I would say.

M
Level 6
Forum|alt.badge.img+11

Hi Jan-Peter,

Thank you for clarifying, I was aware of the custom KPI possibilities but was looking for a standard option in the activity table definition itself. The custom KPI's are solving part of the issue in the Process Explorer but not all. The related issue is that parallel activities are now not correctly displayed in the Process Explorer.

For example the following data in the activities table:

imageTask A is the first activity

Task C is started before Task B

Task B is completed before Task C

 

In the process explorer the order of the activities is A - B - C, but that is not correct because C started earlier than B.

B en C should be displayed as parallel activities, both started after A.

Any suggestions how this can be achieved?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to check to use multi eventlog for this, although it really feels like an overkill.

 

We tried the splitting of the activities in START and COMPLETE activities but that indeed is rather ugly, and hard to interpret. You want to group these START and COMPLETE activities for the same activities as 1. But the grouping can only be done manually in the process explorer. I also checked how Celonis is dealing with lifecycle:transition in a XES eventlog and there I also found a similar approach.

 

But there has to be a better solution for this, it's such a generic requirement.

janpeter.van.d
Level 12
Forum|alt.badge.img+26

Hi Jan-Peter,

Thank you for clarifying, I was aware of the custom KPI possibilities but was looking for a standard option in the activity table definition itself. The custom KPI's are solving part of the issue in the Process Explorer but not all. The related issue is that parallel activities are now not correctly displayed in the Process Explorer.

For example the following data in the activities table:

imageTask A is the first activity

Task C is started before Task B

Task B is completed before Task C

 

In the process explorer the order of the activities is A - B - C, but that is not correct because C started earlier than B.

B en C should be displayed as parallel activities, both started after A.

Any suggestions how this can be achieved?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're absolutelty right! The strange thing is that this was better supported in the past. You could opt it as a feature request, but that's more for the long term I would say. Good luck with the use case!

M
Level 6
Forum|alt.badge.img+11

Hi Jan-Peter,

Thank you for clarifying, I was aware of the custom KPI possibilities but was looking for a standard option in the activity table definition itself. The custom KPI's are solving part of the issue in the Process Explorer but not all. The related issue is that parallel activities are now not correctly displayed in the Process Explorer.

For example the following data in the activities table:

imageTask A is the first activity

Task C is started before Task B

Task B is completed before Task C

 

In the process explorer the order of the activities is A - B - C, but that is not correct because C started earlier than B.

B en C should be displayed as parallel activities, both started after A.

Any suggestions how this can be achieved?

 

Best,

Marcel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have logged a feature request for it. Hopefully the fact that it was better supported in the past helps to get it implemented in a future version.

Community Code of ConductAccessibility statement