Interpreting Process Monitor data

There are common assumptions people make when they look at Process Monitor data that might lead them to interpret their process performance incorrectly. Learn about the areas of Process Monitor where users are most likely to misinterpret what the data represents.

Completed Steps column

The completed steps column represents the current execution state of the process or service step that is received from the process engine. It means only that the process or service engine has completed execution of the step, but it does not mean the step itself is actually completed, as the step might be waiting for a response from a user or the system.

Process App column

The Process App column in the Active services table lists the process app or toolkit that contains the service at design time (in the Process Center); it is not the runtime process application. For example, in the following image, although the service Default Human Service is a task of the BPD instance at run time, it is shown as part of Coaches(8.5.5.0) because it is in the Coaches(8.5.5.0) toolkit.

Total Steps count

The total steps that are shown in the Process Monitor do not correspond to the total number of steps as defined in the business process definition. The total steps count includes the number of times the service is generated, even when the user does not actually run the service. For example, if a Process Portal user starts a task that is a human service, the corresponding coach page appears. If the user closes the coach page immediately without clicking anything else, the step total increases by one. Total completed steps in Process Monitor.

Total completed steps in Process Monitor.

Halt process and halt service buttons

It is typically difficult to see the halt process and halt service buttons, as they appear only when the service is actually being executed by the engine. When you see these buttons, the process or service is typically running in a loop, or the service is taking a long time to run.

Inconsistent monitoring data

In certain situations, you might see data that seems contradictory. For example, the total number of currently executing processes or services might be zero, but there are running processes or services.

Figure 1. Processes page

Processes page that shows no active processes currently executing

Figure 2. Services page

Services page that shows active process apps

Figure 3. Summary page

Summary page that shows zero processes currently executing but also showing active process apps

For example, the Processes page shows no active processes (Figure 1), but there are active processes in Process Portal, and the Services and Summary pages (Figures 2 and 3) show active process apps in the table.

These results might occur in the following scenario:

The system is not monitoring when the process instance is created.
The system starts monitoring.
The task in the process instance starts running.

A Process Monitor record is created when the event occurs. The process instance record is created when the instance is created. In the preceding scenario, when the process gets created, the corresponding record is not created, since the system is not monitoring. But the service event occurred after the system started monitoring. So there are service records but no process record. This situation might also occur when the server restarts.

Exit time calculation

If a process or service is still executing when it is exported, there is no exit time, and the system uses the current time as the exit time to calculate the duration. As you refresh the information on screen or through the JMX api, the duration time is updated. This explains why when a process or service that is executing is exported more than once, the duration time that shown in the exported file can vary.