Add a Process

This page applies to data stewards. It describes how to add, configure, secure, and manage a process.

What is a process?

In Process HQ, you create processes using data from case record types and event history record types that represent a particular business process in your organization. Process HQ can then analyze that data to uncover actionable insights.

Data stewards add processes so business users can safely explore your data, drill down to insights, and create reports from processes to uncover new ways to optimize how your business operates.

Prerequisites for adding a process

Before you begin adding processes, make sure that:

• You have access to all record types needed for your process.
• Your record data is prepped for process insights.

Add a process

To add a process:

1. Go to the Process Insights page in your production environment.
   
   

2. In the header pane, click ADD PROCESS. The Add Process dialog displays.

   The first step, Select a Case Record Type, is active by default. The list displayed in this step includes all synced record types to which you have permissions in process insights.
   

   

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3. Select the record type that represents the core aspect of the business process you want to analyze.

   For example, in a Financial Customer Onboarding app, you might want to track the process of evaluating an application for a customer account. To represent this process, you'd select the Accounts record type that stores information about the application.

   Record types with record events configured are shown by default, but you can deselect the Configured filter, search for, and choose any record type you have permission to.
   

   

4. Click NEXT. The Select an Event History Record Type step displays.

   The list displayed in this step includes all record types to which the case record type has a one-to-many relationship.
   

   

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5. Select the record type that stores the event history for the case record type you selected.
   
   

   • If record events are configured for your case record type, the event history record type related to your case record type will be suggested here for you to select.
   • If record events are not configured for your case record type, select a record type to associate with your case record type.
     
     
6. Click NEXT. The Configure Case Data step displays.
   
   
7. Configure your process data.
   
   

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8. Click NEXT. The Configure Process Properties step displays.
   
   

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9. Configure process properties.
   
   
10. Schedule process updates.
    
    
11. Configure process security.
    
    
12. Click ADD PROCESS.

You're all done! It may take a few minutes to complete the initial analysis of your process.

Configure process data

Configuring your process data consists of selecting record fields to use as attributes and mapping those fields to the appropriate attribute names and types.

You can configure process data while both adding and editing a process. Initially, you'll configure process data when you add a process. You can later edit a process as needed to reconfigure process data and improve the clarity of the analytical results based on business user feedback.

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To configure process data:

1. Start adding or editing a process. The Configure Case Data step displays.

   This step lists fields from the case record type you selected and its related record types, and provides a sample of the data contained in those fields.
   
   

2. Select the fields to analyze as case attributes.

   Note:  The Case ID field is required and cannot be deselected.

3. (Optional) Apply filters to refine the data in your process. For example, you might want to hide unneeded or sensitive data.
   1. Click FILTER DATA. The Filter Data dialog displays.
   2. Click Add Filter.
   3. Use the Field, Operator, and Value fields to specify your filter criteria.
   4. Click ADD to save and apply all filters to your case data.
      
      
4. (Optional) Add custom attributes to enhance or secure data for use in analysis. For example, you can add custom attributes to:
   • Hide sensitive data.
   • Group the difference between two dates.
   • Use data from a one-to-many relationship.
   • Standardize field values.
     
     

5. Click MAP ATTRIBUTES to edit field names, edit field descriptions, and review or change what each field is mapped to.

   Tip:  You can edit fields individually using the menu beside each field or in bulk using MAP ATTRIBUTES.

6. Click NEXT. The Configure Event Data step displays.

   This step lists fields from the event history record type you selected and its related record types, and provides a sample of the data contained in those fields.
   

   

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7. Select the fields to analyze as event attributes.
   
   

8. (Optional) Apply filters to refine the data in your process. For example, you might want to remove ad hoc events or hide sensitive data.
   1. Click FILTER DATA. The Filter Data dialog displays.
   2. Click Add Filter.
   3. Use the Field, Operator, and Value fields to specify your filter criteria.
   4. Click ADD to save and apply all filters to your event data.
      
      
9. (Optional) Add custom attributes to enhance or secure data for use in analysis. For example, you can add custom attributes to:
   • Hide sensitive data.
   • Group the difference between two dates.
   • Use data from a one-to-many relationship.
   • Standardize activities or event types.
     
     

10. Click MAP ATTRIBUTES to edit field names, edit field descriptions, and review or change what each field is mapped to.

11. Finish adding or editing the process.

Map attributes

To help Process HQ better categorize data, analyze the process, and provide insights, you will need to map record fields to the attribute names and attribute types in the process.

We automatically map fields for you based on the type for each field used in the record type, but you should always review the default mappings to make sure that each field is associated with the correct attribute type.

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Fields can be mapped to and described as the following:

Mapping	Location	Required	Description
Required fields to map to attribute names
Case ID	Event history data	Required	The identifier for the specific occurrence of the business process. This attribute corresponds to the recordId field and is automatically mapped for you.
Activity	Event history data	Required	The real-world action or task that occurs during the event, known as the activity. If you're mapping fields from a generated Event History record type, select the name field from the related Event Type Lookup record type. If you added a custom attribute to standardize activity names, select the new custom attribute.
Start Timestamp	Event history data	Optional	The timestamp when the event started. Process HQ uses this timestamp to determine the order in which activities appear in your process. Certain data sources might provide a timestamp with date information but no time information; for example, "2022-05-25 00:00:00". If events from such sources occur on the same date, Process HQ identifies another field to sort those events; for example, the primary key for the event in the event history record type.
End Timestamp	Event history data	Required	The timestamp when the event ended.
Optional fields to map to attribute names
Event User	Event history data	Optional	Provides additional context about the users relevant to the event. You can map only one field to this attribute name per process.
Automation Type	Event history data	Optional	Provides additional context about the type of automation that executed the event. You can map only one field to this attribute name per process.
Optional fields to map to attribute types
Categorical attribute	Both case and event history data	Optional	Attributes that can be used as categories for analyzing process data, such as "responsible department" or "office location". Categorical attributes can be used as characteristics when drilling down to insights.
Descriptive attribute	Both case and event history data	Optional	Attributes that represent qualitative rather than quantitative data, such as fields for "description" or "notes". These attributes aren't analyzed.
Numeric attribute	Both case and event history data	Optional	Attributes that represent quantitative numeric data, like "total payment amount" or "total order items".

Configure process properties

When adding or editing a process, you can configure the following process properties:

Property	Action
Name	Enter a name for the process. This name must be unique in the environment.
Description	Enter a brief description of the process.
Update Options	Schedule process updates.

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Schedule process updates

To automatically keep your process data up-to-date, schedule updates from the case and event history record types for a time that best fits your organization's needs. You can also turn off the process update if you want to preserve a historical snapshot of data for a specific analysis of the process.

Scheduling process updates also allows you to enable alerts for duration KPIs and count KPIs, so users can subscribe to email alerts for those KPIs.

Data stewards can schedule process updates when adding or editing a process.

To schedule process updates:

1. Ensure the Schedule process data updates toggle is toggled on.
2. In the Every field, select a frequency for the updates.

3. In the At fields, select a time and timezone for the updates. By default, process data updates on the first day of the month at 3 AM GMT.

   Note:  Process updates may take some time, depending on the amount of process data involved. While the process is updating, you will not be able to edit the process, and your business users may not be able to access process views. To ensure that business users can access a process when they need it, we recommend scheduling updates during non-peak working hours.

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Configure process security

When adding or editing a process, data stewards can give users permission to access the following:

• The process configuration in Process HQ and the business process object in Appian Designer.
• The views, KPIs, and insights related to the process.

To modify permissions for an existing user or group, select a new permission level from the dropdown list next to the user or group.

To remove permissions from an existing user or group, click the next to the row.

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Configure business process security

The process configuration includes the process's case data, event data, custom attributes, filters, attribute mapping, process properties, and security. You can grant various levels of permission to view and edit these settings, as well as the business process object in Appian Designer.

To grant users access to the process configuration in Process HQ and the business process object in Appian Designer:

1. In the Business Process Security section, click Add User or Group.
2. For User or Group, enter the name of a user or group you want to add.
3. For Permission Level, select a permission level from the dropdown list next to the user or group.

Configure process artifact security

You can grant various levels of permission to view and edit the views, KPIs, and insights related to the process.

At least one user or group must be assigned Analyst permissions for each process. By default, Analyst permissions are assigned to the data steward who added the process.

To grant users access to process artifacts:

1. In the Process Artifacts Security section, click Add User or Group.
2. For User or Group, enter the name of a user or group you want to add.
3. For Permission Level, select a permission level from the dropdown list next to the user or group.

Process analysis and cleanup

Once you add a new process (and any time the process updates), Process HQ analyzes your data, excludes records that contain null values in required fields, and identifies unique field values that may impact performance. It may take a few minutes to complete the initial analysis of your process.

If a field has too many unique values, Process HQ automatically re-maps it to a descriptive attribute, which will not be analyzed. Process HQ automatically re-maps the following:

• Event user attributes with more than 10,000 unique values.
• Event attributes with more than 5,000 unique values.
• Any categorical attributes with more than 5,000 unique values.

If the Activity field has more than 100 unique values, process creation fails. You will need to reduce the number of unique values in this field and try again.

Edit a process

Once you've added and configured your process, you can edit the attributes included in the process, process properties, process update schedule, and process security. You cannot edit which record types are included in the process.

To edit a process:

1. Open the edit menu in either of the following ways:
   • In the PROCESSES list, click the more menu for the process.
   • In a process, click PROCESS in the header pane.
     

2. Edit the case or event data:

   1. In the menu, click Edit Process.
   2. Configure your process data.
   3. Click SAVE.
      
      
3. Edit process properties:
   1. In the menu, click Edit Properties.
   2. Configure process properties.
   3. Schedule process updates.
   4. Click SAVE.
      
      
4. Edit the process security:
   1. In the menu, click Configure Security.
   2. Configure process security.
   3. Click SAVE.

Rename attributes

Users with Analyst permissions can rename attributes to ensure the names are clear and meaningful for business users.

To rename an attribute:

1. In a process view, click PROCESS in the header pane.
2. Click Rename Attributes. The Rename Attributes dialog displays.
3. In the Attribute Names column, enter a new attribute name.
4. Click SAVE.

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Manually update a process

In addition to scheduled process updates, you can also manually trigger process data updates from the PROCESSES list or in a process.

To update process data from the PROCESSES list:

1. In the row for your process, click the more menu.
2. Click Update Process Data.

To update process data in a process view:

1. Click the PROCESS menu in the header pane.
2. Click Update Process Data.

Delete a process

Deleting a process deletes the data used for analysis, as well as any custom attributes, views, KPIs, and insights associated with the process. It does not delete data in the source record types.

To delete a process:

1. Open the edit menu in either of the following ways:
   • In the PROCESSES list, click the menu for the process.
   • In a process, click PROCESS in the header pane.
2. Click Delete Process.
3. Click DELETE to confirm.

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