A Scenario contains a complete set of data used to simulate a business process. It includes resources used by activities of the process flow, time used by each activity, randomness, and the number of times the process flow will execute to get the simulation result. A scenario can be used for only one process flow but multiple scenarios can be used for a single process flow.
Creating a scenario involves the following steps:

Defining the Scenario
Assigning Resource
Defining Execution Time
Defining Queue Processing Method
Assigning Probability

Defining Scenario

Steps to define a scenario

In the Process Simulator applet, click Create New Scenario ( ) icon. The Define Scenario dialog box appears (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: Create New Scenario
Enter the name and description of the scenario in the Name and Description fields respectively.
Select the resource set, you want to use in this scenario, from the Resources drop-down list.
Select the number of runs you want to execute the process flow while running simulation, from the Number of Runs drop-down list.
The Interval between runs field shows the time interval between subsequent runs of the process flow. By default it is set to 2 minute constant. You can define different distribution function to generate the random values for time interval.
To change the time interval, click Change. The Specify Timing Information dialog box appears (see Figure 8).
Figure 8: Define Time
Select the distribution function from Distribution drop-down list.
Select the unit of time specified in the value field from the Time Unit drop-down list.
Enter the time interval for subsequent runs, in the Value field. Field to enter time interval may change depending upon the type of distribution selected in the Distribution drop down list. For example, if you select constant in Distribution drop-down list, you will get Value field to enter the time interval. And if you select Normal distribution, you will get Standard Deviation and Mean field.
A brief description along with the graphical representation of the selected distribution is shown in the Selected Distribution Definition field.
Click Done to close the Define Time dialog box and to return to Define Scenario dialog box. Selected time interval along with the distribution type is shown in the Interval between runs field.
Define Calendar specifies the working calendar for which the process flow will be executed. The calendar contains 12 months in a year, 4 weeks in a month, 5 days in week and 8 hours in a day. You can customize this calendar as per you requirement.

To understand the significance of calendar, suppose the Claim Management process flow takes 6 hours for one execution. Now, if you want to know that when the work will be finished, if you have 12 claims to process, starting from 14 May 2007, 9 AM. If you select 5 days in a week and 8 hours in a day, your work will be finished by the end of 24 May 2007. Now, if you select 9 hours in a day, you work will be finished by the end of 23 May 2007.
You can include or exclude an activity in the simulation scenario to get different statistics. Participating Activities section shows the list of activities which are included in the scenario and which are not included in the scenario. You can exclude and include an activity using and button respectively. Figure 9 shows the scenario used in Claims Management process flow.
Figure 9: Claim Management Scenario
Click Done to close the Define Scenario dialog box. The created scenario is shown in the Simulation Entities Panel under Scenarios tree.

To understand the significance of calendar, suppose the Claim Management process flow This should be noted that the new scenario created is not yet saved. If you close the application, the scenario will be lost. You can save the scenario now or after assigning resource and time etc. to all activities of the process flow.
To save the scenario, click on the Save ( ) icon in the tool bar. A dialog box appears to confirm that the scenario is saved.

Assigning Resource

Once you have created a scenario, you need to assign resources to activities of the process flow and in turn evaluate its costs.

Steps to assign a resource

Select the scenario from the Scenario tree. The selected scenario tree is highlighted in blue.
To assign a resource to an activity, double-click the activity in the graph canvas. Properties of the activity are shown in the Scenario Properties panel in the bottom pane (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Scenario Properties

You can assign any resource type to an activity.

Assigning Direct Resource

To assign the direct resource used by the activity, click Assign in Value column of the Assign Direct Items property. The Assign Direct Items dialog box appears (see Figure 11).
Figure 11: Assign Direct Resource
Select the direct resource to be added, from Select Direct Items drop-down list. All direct resources that are added in the Resource Set are listed in Select Direct Items drop-down list.
Select the number of direct resources selected from the Select Units Used drop-down list, which will be consumed by the activity and click Direct Item ( ) icon. The selected direct resource is added as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Direct Resource Added
- When you add a direct resource, the cost of the item is selected from the resource set.
- There is no limit to the number of direct resources that can be added.
After adding required resource, click Done to close the Assign Direct Items dialog box.

Assigning Indirect Resource

To assign the indirect resource to be used by the activity, click Assign in the value column of the Assign Indirect Items property. The Assign Indirect Items dialog box appears (see Figure 13).
Figure 13: Assign Indirect Resource
Select the required indirect resource from Select Indirect Items drop-down list. All indirect resources that are added in the Resource Set are listed in Select Indirect Items drop-down list.
Enter the cost in the Cost field.
Select the unit of time for the rate is applicable from Time Unit drop-down list. For example, rent may be US$ 1000 per month.
Click Add Indirect Item ( ) to add the selected indirect item. The selected item is added as shown in the Figure 14.
Figure 14: Indirect Resource Added
After adding the required indirect resource, click Done to close the Assign Indirect Item dialog box.

Assigning People Resource

Select the people resource, if any required by the activity from the People drop-down list. All people resources that are added in the Resource Set are listed in this drop-down list.

Defining Execution Time

Once you have assigned the resources to activities, you need to assign the execution time for the scenario.
Steps to assign execution time

To assign the execution time, click Assign in Value column of the Execution Time property. The Specify Timing Information dialog box is displayed (see Figure 15).
Figure 15: Define Execution Time
Select the distribution function from the Distribution drop-down list.
Select the unit of time specified in the value field, from the Time Unit drop-down list.
Enter the time required for execution of the activity in the Value field. Field to enter time interval may change depending upon the type of distribution selected in the Distribution drop down list. For example, if you select constant in Distribution drop-down list, you will get Value field to enter the time interval. And if you select Normal distribution, you will get Standard Deviation and Mean field. A brief description along with graphical representation of the selected distribution is shown in the Selected Distribution Definition field.
Click Done to close the Define Time dialog box.

Defining Queue Processing Method

Once you have defined the time for the scenario, you need to define the queue processing method for the scenario.

Steps to define Queue Processing method

Select the method in which the activity will process the queue from the Queue Type property drop-down list.
Each activity of the process flow, maintains a queue in which the input data gets accumulated. You can specify Queue Type in which the activity processes the input data. The types of queues are described in the Table 2.
Table 2: Queue Type
Queue Type
Description
FIFO
First in first out. Data which comes first is processed first.
LIFO
Last in first out. Data which comes last is processed first.
Specify whether the queue capacity will be unlimited or not by selecting true or false from Queue Unlimited capacity property drop-down list. By default true is selected. It implies that unlimited data can be queued for the activity to be processed. If you want to limit the queue capacity, select false from the Queue Unlimited Capacity drop-down list.
When you select the Queue Unlimited Capacity as false, a new property Queue Capacity is added. Specify the maximum number of entities that can be kept waiting for processing, in the value column of the Queue Capacity property.

If the queue exceeds from Queue Capacity value, a bottleneck is identified and surplus data is lost.

Assigning Probability
Once you have defined the queue processing method, you need to assign the probability for each possibility of the decision node.
Steps to assign probability

If any decision node is used in the process flow, you can assign the probability for each possibility of the decision node. To assign the probability, double-click the sequence coming out of the decision node. Properties of the sequence flow are shown in Scenario Properties panel (see Figure 16).
Figure 16: Assign Probability
Enter the probability in percentage, in the Value column of the Probability property.
Similarly, assign the probability on sequence flows coming out of the decision node.

Once you have assigned and defined all the simulation parameters for all activities to be used in the process flow, you need to save the scenario. To save the scenario, click Save ( ) icon form the simulation tool bar. A dialog box is displayed to confirm that the selected simulation is saved successfully.

Executing Simulation Scenario

The Simulation Control Panel is used to execute a simulation scenario. In this Control Panel, you can specify the actual Start Time of the process flow and you can adjust the speed of the simulation.

Steps to execute a simulation scenario

In the Process Simulator window, double-click the required scenario from the scenarios tree in the simulation entities panel. The selected scenario is shown in the Selected Scenario field in the Simulation Control panel (see Figure 17).
Figure 17: Simulation Control Panel
Enter the comment in the Comments field. This comment is displayed in the simulation report.
Select the unit of the time in which time related statistics will be shown in the simulation report.
Select the start date and time in mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm format from the Start Time drop-down list. You can change the date and time using up and down arrow or you can enter them manually. This is the actual time when your process flow execution will start.
During the execution of Simulation scenario, current time is shown in the Current Time field. This time is based on the time specified in the Start Time field.
When execution of simulation scenario is completed, End Time field shows the actual time when process flow execution will be finished. This time is based on the start time specified in the Start Time field, number of count and the Calendar specified in the simulation scenario.
Adjust the speed of simulation using Speed sliding bar.
To start the simulation, click the Start button. The simulation scenario execution starts. A graphical representation is shown in the graph canvas and the result of the simulation is shown in Simulation Result panel (see Figure 18).
Figure 18: Simulation Progress
As shown in the figure above, three progress bars is shown for each activity of the process flow. The first progress bar is the Counts Observed Bar, which shows the number of cases or counts observed till now. The second progress bar is the Current Queue Size Bar, which shows the number of entities that are currently queued and are to be processed by the activity. The third progress bar is the Resource Utilization Bar, which shows the percentage of resources that are currently being utilized.
In the Scenario Results Panel, the consolidated result is shown. The result is divided into two parts. First part shows the cost, time and resource utilization by the process flow. The second part shows the cost and time utilization for each activity.
To view the details of any resource used, double-click it. The detailed information of the selected resource is shown. For detailed information about parameters shown in the result, refer to Appendix A: Scenario Result Properties.

Generating Simulation Report

Once the simulation is finished, you can generate the detailed report of the simulation result. The report is generated in the HTML form and by default is saved in the location:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp\PD\SimulationReports\
Simulation Summary_report.html.
The simulation report contains the following information:

Simulation summary report
Graphical analysis of cost, time, maximum queue size and resource utilization
Resource utilization for each activity
Cost analysis for each activity
Time analysis for each activity

Steps to generate a simulation report

To generate the simulation report, click Generate Simulation Summary Report ( ) button from the tool bar. The report is generated in the HTML form and shown in your browser. Figure 19 shows the Simulation Summary and Graphical Analysis report.
Figure 19: Simulation Summary Report (Graphical Analysis)
Figure 20 shows the Resource Utilization, Cost Analysis, and Time Analysis for each activity.

Figure 20: Simulation Summary Report (Analysis)
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