Process analysis glossary

This glossary explains the terms used in the lessons and in the app, in alphabetical order and in plain language. Where a lesson covers a term in depth, the entry links to it.

A–B

• Artifact: a form, document, list, decision template, email or record that a step needs or creates. Shown as a BPMN data object next to the task, with kind and medium (paper, digital, system); in the app listed under “Forms and documents”. See media breaks and forms.
• Availability: the share of their working time that the people in a lane can spend on this process, in percent. Two people at 10% provide as much capacity as one person at 20%. Deduct meetings, other tasks, sickness and other absence, but not annual leave and public holidays; those are already taken out of the working days per year.
• Backlog: cases per period that pile up when a lane is loaded above 100%. Calculated as (demand − capacity) ÷ demand × the cases per period that pass through this lane; if only some cases pass through it, only those count. For the whole process what counts is how many fewer cases per period reach an end than arrive, calculated with the assumption “work in progress first”: every lane finishes cases it has already worked on before it starts new ones. Backlogs in cases are not added up across lanes, the missing working hours are. See staffing calculation.
• Bottleneck: the role or department with the highest utilization, provided it reaches at least 85%. Below that the app only names the highest utilization. External partners, customers and IT systems are never the bottleneck. See bottleneck analysis.
• BPMN: Business Process Model and Notation, the common standard for process diagrams. The app uses a small subset in BPMN notation. See BPMN basics.

C–D

• Capacity: the working hours a lane has available per period: people × availability × hours per day × working days in the period.
• Case type: a variant of the process with its share of all cases, its own path at decisions and, if needed, its own times. The first case type is the standard case. See case types and exceptions.
• Cases per period: the number of cases per day, week, month or year. Basis for annual cost, staffing and utilization.
• Completion rate: the share of cases that reach a regular end, as opposed to an end marked as canceled.
• Cost rate: cost per working hour of a lane, used to calculate personnel cost per case.
• Data object: the BPMN symbol for a form or document.
• Decision (exclusive gateway): a diamond with an X; each case takes exactly one exit, with the share entered on the flow.

F–L

• Flowchart: a general diagram of steps and decisions, without the fixed symbols and lanes of BPMN.
• Future process: the process after the decided measures, also called to-be or target process. Its counterpart is the current process (as-is).
• FTE (full-time equivalent): demand in hours divided by the hours one full-time person works in the period. See staffing calculation.
• Handoff: a flow between two different lanes, including flows from the start or to the end when these lie in another lane. The metric handoffs per case counts the passes along such flows, with or without a media break. Each handoff is a point where work can wait or information can get lost. See swimlane diagram.
• Highest utilization: the role or department lane with the largest utilization. From 85% it is the bottleneck; below that the app shows it only as the highest utilization.
• Lane: a horizontal band for a role, department, external partner, customer or IT system. A lane is also the resource pool with its people, availability and cost rate.
• Lead time: time from trigger to result for one case: processing time plus waiting time along the path; in parallel sections only the longest branch counts, so the lead time is then shorter than processing time per case plus waiting time. If a lane is above 100%, it is a minimum (“only without backlog”). See lead time calculation.

M–P

• Material cost: a fixed cost per pass of a task, added to personnel cost.
• Measure: a decided change with owner, due date, investment and effect on the model. See future process and measures.
• Media break: a change of medium between two consecutive tasks: a different IT system, from a system to manual work without a system or the other way round, or a handoff on paper, verbally, by phone or in a meeting when one of the two tasks uses a system. A media break can also occur within one lane. The app counts media breaks per case in total and how many of them occur at handoffs, so there can be more media breaks than handoffs. See media breaks and forms.
• Parallel gateway: a diamond with a plus; all exits run at the same time and are joined again later. For the lead time the longest branch counts, for processing time per case and cost all branches.
• Pool: the frame around all lanes of a process, labeled with the process title.
• Process landscape: the overview of all processes of an organization, usually grouped into management, core and support processes. In the app the process landscape view shows your own processes with their figures. See process landscape.
• Process mining: reconstructing a process from event logs of IT systems. See simulation and process mining.
• Processing share: processing time on the time-determining path divided by lead time; without parallel branches simply processing time ÷ lead time. A low value means the case mostly waits.
• Processing time: the time someone actually works on a case, including query effort. With parallel branches the app distinguishes the processing time per case (all branches) and the processing time on the time-determining path (longest branch).
• Processing time on the time-determining path: processing along the longest parallel branch; it goes into the lead time and the processing share. Without parallel branches it equals the processing time per case.
• Processing time per case: processing time over all steps and all parallel branches, weighted by visits and including query effort; with parallel branches the app labels it “Processing time per case (all branches)”. It is the basis for cost and staffing. It uses the typical times; what the mean of the range changes is shown in simulation and process mining.

Q–R

• Queries and loops per case: visits × query rate summed over all steps, plus the passes of the rework loops.
• Query rate: the share of passes at a task in which someone has to ask back, in percent. The step is not repeated; each query adds query effort and query delay.
• Query effort: the extra working time per query.
• Query delay: the extra waiting time per query, for example until the answer arrives.
• Range: an estimate as best, typical and worst case. The app calculates lead time for all three. The instant calculation uses the typical value; the mean of the range, (shortest + typical + longest time) ÷ 3, appears as a second figure when it shifts utilization, staffing or cost noticeably.
• Requirements specification: the document that describes what a new system has to do, often with a chapter of volume figures. See mapping before an ERP implementation.
• Rework loop: a flow back to an earlier step; the steps in the loop are repeated. With a share p of cases going back, a step is passed 1 ÷ (1 − p) times on average. The app recognizes every flow that closes a loop as a rework loop and draws it dashed, with or without the “Loop back” flag. See branches and loops.

S

• Share without queries or rework: the share of cases that pass without any query and without going through a rework loop.
• Simulation: sending individual cases through the process with limited staff to see how queues build up.
• SIPOC: suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers; a frame for scoping a process before mapping it. See process scoping with SIPOC.
• Staff demand: full-time equivalents needed for the case volume, from the processing time per case. Total staff demand counts only your own staff, that is role and department lanes, not external partners, customers or IT systems. See staffing calculation.
• Standard case: the first and usually largest case type, the regular process.
• Swimlane diagram: a process diagram with one lane per role or system, so handoffs show as changes of lane.

T–W

• Trigger and result: what starts the process and what is there at the end. Together they define its scope.
• Utilization: demand divided by capacity of a lane. Marked amber from 85% and red above 100% or at the bottleneck.
• Visits: how often a step is passed per case on average. Above 1 through rework loops, below 1 on paths that only some cases take.
• Volume figures: the numbers of cases, items and transactions per period that a requirements document needs. See volumes and case counts.
• Wait (timer event): a step where the case only waits, for example for a deadline or the post; drawn as a double circle with a clock.
• Waiting time: the time a case lies before a step is started, for example in an inbox or waiting for an approval.
• Working days per year: the days left after weekends, public holidays and annual leave, 220 by default in the app (365 − 104 − 11 − 30). That gives 18.33 working days per month and 4.23 per week. Leave and public holidays belong here, not in the availability. See staffing calculation.

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