Filtering in QPR ProcessAnalyzer: Difference between revisions

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The filtered view that is created will be available in the Manage Filters dialog.
The filtered view that is created will be available in the Manage Filters dialog.
Note that if you use attribute values with exponents so that the value is bigger than 1E15 (that is, 1 times 10 to the power of 15) or smaller than 1E-15, the filtering does not work correctly. For example, if you have such cost as 2,31176835E+21 and 9,43E-15 and you select these attribute values for filtering, they will give incorrect results.

Revision as of 10:50, 2 December 2018

Filters define a subset of cases and events in the process analysis model. This subset of data is used for all analysis. Filters consist of a list filter rules, which are applied in the defined order. Cases/events are excluded if there is a single filter rule, that excludes the cases/events (AND type of logic, instead of OR logic).

There are two types of filtering available in QPR ProcessAnalyzer Excel Client: Runtime Selection and Include/Exclude Filters (more information below).

Manage Filters

The Manage Filters dialog is used for selecting and managing filters in the current model. The following information about the filters is provided:

  • Name: shows the name of the filter.
  • Publish Mode: shows whether the filter is published only to you (Private), everyone (Public), or if the filter is the default filter for the model (Model Default). If you have Administrator rights to the model, you can set any configured Public filter to be the Model Default. This change will then affect all users of the model and the filter previously set as Model Default will become Public.
  • Created On: the date and time on which the filter in question was applied.
  • Created By: the ID of the user who created the filter.
  • Bookmarks: the number of bookmarks that have been made from the filter.
  • Filter Rules: the number of filter rules the filter has.
  • Opens: the number of times the filter has been opened.
  • Last Modified On: the date and time on which the last modification to the filter was made.
  • Last Modified By: the user who made the last modification to the filter.

To open a filter, select it from the list and click OK.

Each time a filter is changed, for example when elements are filtered, the filter is saved to the Manage Filters list.

To change the Name, Description, Filter Rules, Sample Size or Publish Mode of a filter, select the filter from the list, click Properties, and modify the properties in the dialog that opens.

To delete a filter, select the filter from the list and click Delete. Note that you cannot delete the Model Default filter but you have to first set another filter as Model Default before you can delete the filter that used to be the Model Default. Also, you cannot delete a filter if there are bookmarks using that filter in benchmark settings.

To create a new filter from the one that is selected, click the Create Filter button, and select one of the options:

  • Copy: will create a copy of the selected filter.
  • Negation: will invert the Event Types Hidden and Cases Hidden selections in the filter.
  • Union: when multiple filters are selected, combines the cases from the filters.
  • Intersection: when multiple filters are selected, will create a new filter that contains only those events that exist in all of the selected filters.

Filter Properties

In the Filter Properties dialog, you can define the Name and Description for the filter, in addition to defining the filter rules, sample size and publish mode.

Filter Rules

In the Filter Rules group box, the following information about each filter rule is shown:

  • Order: the order in which the rules are applied to the filter.
  • Type: the filter rule type used.
  • Parameters: the selection that was used to select the filtered objects and the other relevant parameters for the analysis.

In addition, the following columns are hidden by default:

  • Analysis: the name of the analysis that was used to create the filter rule. For example Flowchart Analysis.
  • Created By: the user who created the filter rule.
  • Created On: the date and time the filter rule was added.
  • Depth: the position of the filter rule in the hierarchy if there is a tree structure in use for filter rules (e.g. when creating union or intersection of filters).
  • Original Filter: the name of the original filter, i.e. the filter in which the rule was originally created.
  • Original Filter Description: the description for the filter, i.e. the filter in which the rule was originally created.
  • Original Filter Id: the Id of the original filter, i.e. the filter in which the rule was originally created. Note that this value is empty for the filter itself on the Filter Rules list. For example, for a filter named "Filter.1.1", the filter rules are "Filter.1" and "Filter.1.1". The Filter Id is not shown on the Filter Rules list for "Filter.1.1" because it is the filter itself.
  • Id: the filter rule Id. Given to each filter rule inside a filter.

To unhide a column:

  1. Right click a column title and select Column Chooser from the popup.
  2. Drag the column to be shown to the desired position.

By clicking Create Rule, you can create new case attribute and event attribute filter rules to select only those attributes you want to use for the current filter in analyses. This is useful with, for example, a big model containing a large number of attributes. The visibility will then apply for all the analyses done with Excel Client and with the GetAnalysis command when using scripts. Selecting either Visible Case Attributes or Visible Event Attributes from the drop-down list will open a dialog in which you can define these new rules.

To define the visibility of case and event attributes of a filter:

  1. Define whether you want to include or exclude the case or event attributes by selecting the corresponding radio button (Include Only or Exclude). That is, whether the selected attributes are the only attributes visible in the new view, or will they be hidden from the view.
  2. Select from the list which case attributes and event attributes you want to include/exclude. By default, all the attributes available in the model are selected.
  3. When done, click OK.

To edit the visibility of case and event attributes of a filter, or to view the filter definitions of other types of filters, select the filter rule and then click the Filter Rule Properties... button.

It is possible to create visible attributes filter rules for union and intersection filters but note that negation of a filter does not affect the visible attributes filter rules of that filter.

Note also that if a filter has multiple visible attributes filter rules of the same type, then all of them are evaluated according to the order defined in the Order property of the filter rule.

Case Sample Size

Sampling is used limit the number of cases in a filtered dataset. Sample Size is defined for a filter. If there are more cases in the filtered dataset than the defined sample size, part of the cases are randomly dropped out so that there are exactly the sample size number of cases in the filtered data. To disable sampling, select the All radio button. To change the sample size, enter a number into the Limit To box or use the arrows to decrease or increase the number of cases. Note that the sample is selected randomly every time the filter is calculated, and thus it may contain different cases.

When creating new filters based on drilldown operations, case sample size is inherited from the original filter to the new one.

When creating new filters by applying Copy, Negation, Union, and Intersection selections to the current filter(s), the case sample size is as follows:

  • Copy: sample size is the same as in the original.
  • Negation: sample size value will be the default size.
  • Union: sample size value will be the default size.
  • Intersection: sample size value will be the default size.

Publish Mode

You can also define whether to set the filter to be published only to you (Private), everybody (Public), or if the filter is the default filter for the model (Model Default).

Other Operations in Filter Properties

If new events have been imported into a model, you can do recalculation of the filters by clicking the Recalculate button. Note that this button is enabled only when new events have been added to the model since the filter was last recalculated.

Clicking the Export... button gives you the option of exporting the filter to a .pacm file or the events to an Excel sheet. Note that when exporting a filter, only visible cases, events and attributes are included in the destination. That is, if the filter has any filter rules, then only cases, events and attributes visible for that filter will be exported.

Clicking the Save As New Model button will save the filtered data as a new model. Only the filtered cases, events and attributes are included to the new model.

Filter History

A filter can be accessed also by selecting it from the Change drop-down menu:

  • Restore Default: restores the filter to the model default state. Note that there can still be filter rules applied to the filter if the filter set as the model default contains those.
  • Each filter for the current model, sorted by time.
  • Clear All Filters: creates a new filter by removing all filters applied by the Include Only and Exclude buttons and runtime selection.
  • Clear Event Type Filters: removes all event type filters added by the Include Only and Exclude buttons and creates a new filter.
  • Clear Case Filters: removes all case filters added by the Include Only and Exclude buttons and creates a new filter.
  • Clear Variation Filters: removes all variation filters and creates a new filter.
  • Clear Runtime Selection: removes the runtime selection and reopens the current analysis.

Runtime Selection

A runtime selection is applied when event types, transitions, cases, or attributes are selected and you click on any other analysis button on the ribbon except the Flowchart button. The data on the view that is opened will then be filtered based on what was selected. The runtime selection is not a persistent filter, so it is not added to the Filter History.

To remove the runtime selection and reopen the current analysis, click Change > Clear Runtime Selection. The runtime selection is removed also when Clear All Filters is clicked. Opening the Flowchart analysis will also clear the runtime selection.

The runtime selection that is in use can be seen next to the analysis name in the currently open analysis. For example, the Variation Analysis shown in the picture below contains cases that have events in the "Sales Order Changed (VA02)", "Outbound Delivery", and "Handling Unit" event types:

File:RuntimeSelection.png


Filter Rule Types

Following filter rule types are available:

  • Include/exclude cases based on case attribute values: For example, include only those cases where case attribute "Account Manager" is "Patricia White" or "Mary Wilson".
  • Include/exclude cases having certain event type(s): For example, include cases that have event types "Invoice Created" or "Invoice Paid" (either or both).
  • Include/exclude cases having certain flow(s): For example, include cases that have a flow from "Outbound Delivery" to "Handling unit". To match, there must not be other events between those two events.
  • Include/exclude cases based on case duration: For example, include cases the case duration is over 50 days. Case duration is the last event timestamp minus the first event timestamp.
  • Include/exclude cases based on flow duration: For example, include cases the flow from "Sales Order" to "Outbound Delivery" is over 5 weeks.
  • Include/exclude cases belonging to certain variation(s) (sequence of events): For example, include cases belonging to variation "Sales Order sent" -> "Invoice Created" -> "Invoice Paid".
  • Include/exclude cases based on case attribute values and time: For example, include cases where case attribute "Account Manager" is "Patricia White" where case start time is in year 2017.
  • Include/exclude cases having certain event attribute value(s): For example, include cases having event(s) with event attribute "Organization" is "Finance".
  • Include/exclude cases having certain event attribute value(s) and time: For example, include cases having event(s) with event attribute "Organization" is "Finance" and case start time is in Q1/2018.
  • Include/exclude cases having certain part of variation: For example, include cases where variation starts with "Sales Order sent" -> "Invoice Created" -> "Invoice Paid".
  • Include/exclude event types: For example, include event types "Sales Order sent", "Invoice Created" and "Invoice Paid".

It depends on the analysis which filter rule types can be added. For example, in Profiling Analysis including/excluding can be made based on case attributes, and in Duration Analysis based on case duration. When a new filter rule type is added, a new filter is created where the new filter rule is added to the filter rules of the previous filter.

There are two kinds of filter rules: case filter rules and event type filter rule. Case filter rules filter out cases, so the amount of cases may decrease. There is one event type filter rule which filters out events in cases, so the number of cases doesn't decrease but the process flow in individual cases may change as event types are left out. Note that event type filter rules may filter out all events of a case, which results in cases that don't have events at all. It's not possible to show those cases in flowcharts or calculated durations for them.

A case has a Flow between events A and B means that the case has both events A and B and there are no events between them. A case may have the same flow multiple times. Flow duration is the event B timestamp minus A timestamp. Note also that flows always has a direction: flow from A to B is different than flow from B to A.

Variation means a sequence of events that a case goes through. A case always belongs to a single variation. If another case has different events or they are in different order, the case belongs to a different variation. Duration between events doesn't matter in terms of which variation a case belongs.

Include and Exclude Filters

Using the Include Only and Exclude buttons, it is possible to filter the data. Depending on the active view, the buttons do the following:

Flowchart Analysis with Event Types or Transitions selected

  • Include Only
Cases: Creates a new view containing only the cases that go through all the selected event types and transitions.
Event Types: Creates a new view containing only the event types of the selected event types.
  • Exclude
Cases: Creates a new view excluding the cases that go through the selected event types and transitions.
Event Types: Creates a new view excluding the event types of the selected event types.

Flowchart Animation View with Cases Selected

  • Include Only
Cases: Creates a new view containing only the selected cases.
  • Exclude
Cases: Creates a new view excluding the selected cases.

Duration Analysis with Rows Selected

  • Include Only
Creates a new view containing only the cases with the selected duration(s).
  • Exclude
Creates a new view excluding the cases with the selected duration(s).

Profiling Analysis with Rows Selected

  • Include Only
Creates a new view containing only the cases with the selected attribute value(s).
  • Exclude
Creates a new view excluding the cases with the selected attribute value(s).

Path Analysis with Event Types or Transitions selected

  • Include Only
Cases: Creates a new view containing only the cases that go through all the selected event types and transitions.
Event Types: Creates a new view containing only the event types of the selected event types.
  • Exclude
Cases: Creates a new view excluding the cases that go through the selected event types and transitions.
Event Types: Creates a new view excluding the event types of the selected event types.

Case Attribute Influence Analysis with Row(s) or Parts of Row(s) Selected

  • Include Only
Cases: Creates a new view containing only the cases that have the particular value for the particular case attribute in the selected row(s) or parts of row(s).
  • If the selected case attribute(s) are the same that were used to open the Influence Analysis, the new filter will contain only the new selected value(s) for the case attribute(s).
  • If the selected case attribute(s) are not the same that were used to open the Influence Analysis, the original case selection that was used when opening the Influence Analysis isn't used.
  • Exclude
Cases: Creates a new view excluding the cases that have the particular value for the particular case attribute in the selected row(s) or parts of row(s).

Note: Only one case attribute can be selected for the Include/Exclude filters in the Influence Analysis.

List of Cases with Rows Selected

  • Include Only
Creates a new view containing only the selected case(s).
  • Exclude
Creates a new view excluding the selected case(s).

List of Variations with Rows Selected

  • Include Only
Creates a new view containing only the cases that belong to selected variation(s).
  • Exclude
Creates a new view excluding the cases that belong to selected variation(s).

List of Event Types with Rows Selected

  • Include Only
Creates a new view containing only the event types that are selected.
  • Exclude
Creates a new view excluding the event types that are selected.

The filtered view that is created will be available in the Manage Filters dialog.