As soon as you enter the Metrics screen (Control Panel → Workflow → Metrics) you see metrics on each workflow installed in the system.
Figure 1: In this view, the only process with pending items is the Single Approver.
A table view of all installed workflow processes shows you how many items are Overdue, how many are On Time, and how many are Pending in the workflow process.
There’s more to Metrics than the overview report though. Get more detailed reports by clicking on one of the workflow processes.
Understanding Reports
The Reports UI has two main views, represented as tabs: Pending (changed to Dashboard as of Liferay DXP 7.2 Service Pack 1—SP1) and Completed (changed to Performance in SP1).
Pending/Dashboard items are those currently in the workflow process, and include items untracked by the SLA. This might include items in the paused step of the workflow, or items that are outside the scope of the SLA duration.
Completed/Performance items show any item that has completed processing in the workflow. SP1 includes a new chart on this screen: Completion Velocity.
When you first click into the metrics for a specific process, you’re presented with two valuable reports on pending items: the Pending Items overview and Workload by Step.
Figure 2: See data on the Pending Items and the Workload by Step for a process.
Pending Items
Pending Items shows you the overview of items by their SLA status. Drill down by clicking on any of the statuses to see the specific items that are enumerated in Pending Items.
Workload by Step
Workload by Step shows a breakdown of the items that are in each step of the workflow process, by their SLA status (Overdue or On Time).
Completed Items
Click the Completed tab (Performance on SP1) to see the items that have completed the workflow process. Workload by Step data doesn’t make sense in this case, because by definition, these items are no longer in any workflow process step. Instead, there’s a Completion Velocity chart that shows the performance over time.
Completion Velocity
A line chart shows you the completion rate for the workflow process. The default display shows the number of completed workflow instances per day, for the last 30 days.
Figure 3: View the completion rate of items in a workflow process over time.
The overall completion rate for the time period is displayed in the top right corner of the chart (as Inst/timeUnit), while the trend-line is presented in the chart body. The overall performance metric and the chart body are updated when you select a new time period; the time unit changes depending on the total time period you’re measuring. For some of the longer durations, the time unit is configurable:
- Today
- Calculate Inst/Hour from 00:00, or 12:00 AM, of the current day until the current time (rounded to the nearest whole hour).
- Yesterday
- Calculate Inst/Hour From 00:00-23:59, or 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM, of the previous day.
- Last 7 Days
- Calculate Inst/Day. The current day counts as 1 day, so this is from 6 days ago to the current day.
- Last 30 Days
- Calculate the Inst/Week or the Inst/Day. The current day counts as 1 day, so this is from 29 days ago to the current day.
- Last 90 Days
- Calculate the Inst/Month, Inst/Week, or Inst/Day. The current day counts as 1 day, so this is from 89 days ago to the current day.
- Last 180 Days
- Calculate the Inst/Month or Inst/Week. The current day counts as 1 day, so this is from 179 days ago to the current day.
- Last Year
- Calculate the Inst/Month or Inst/Week. The current day counts as 1 day, so this is from 364 days (365 for a leap year) ago to the current day.
Items View
Hover over the status you’re interested in, from either the Pending or the Completed tabs (on SP1, these tabs were renamed to Dashboard and Completion). Click into the All Items screen from the overview report and a more detailed table appears, including the following columns:
- ID
- This is the workflow item’s numeric identifier to the system. Importantly, you can click this to enter the Item Detail view.
- Item Subject
- This shows a human readable summary of the item, to help administrators identify the item.
- Process Step
- This identifies where the item is in the workflow.
- Created By
- This shows the user name of the submitting User.
- Creation Date
- This shows the date and time the item was submitted to the workflow.
The All Items view can be filtered so you can find the subset of items you want to analyze.
Filtering by SLA Status
Filter items based on whether they’re Overdue, On Time, or Untracked.
Figure 4: Filter by SLA status: Overdue, On Time, or Untracked.
- Overdue
- Overdue items have breached at least one SLAs defined deadline.
- On Time
- On Time items have not breached any SLA deadline.
- Untracked
- Untracked items are items in the workflow process that aren’t currently under the purview of an SLA. The can be in a task identified as a Pause in the SLA, or perhaps outside the scope of the SLA entirely, if the SLA isn’t defined for the entire process (Process Begins to Process Ends in the SLA Definition screen).
Filtering by Process Status and Completion Period
Filter items based on whether they’re Pending or Completed in the workflow process.
If you filter by the Completed status, you’ll get an additional filtering option: filter items by the Completion Period. Select from these time periods:
- Today
- Yesterday
- Last 7 Days
- Last 30 Days (default)
- Last 90 Days
- Last 180 Days
- Last Year
- All Time
Figure 5: Filter by Process Status and Completion Period.
Filtering by Process Step
Filter items based on where they are in the workflow definition. For example, in the Single Approver workflow process, you can choose to see a report including all items in the Review task. This is different for each workflow definition.
Combining Filters
Use a combination of filters to find just the items you need to see. For example, below are all items in the Single Approver process’s Review task that have the status Completed or Pending, whether On time or Overdue. Untracked items aren’t shown.
Figure 6: Combine filters to see just the items you want.
Item Details
To see the metrics for a single workflow process item, click the ID field while in the All Items view. A pop-up shows you more detailed information on the item.
Figure 7: Item Details include SLA status information and whether the item is Resolved or Open.
From here you can view detailed information about the asset and even click Go to Submission Page, which redirects you to the item’s view in the Submissions section of the Control Panel.
The top of the Item Detail view is important. It shows you the information about the due date for the item in the SLA, and its SLA completion status: Open or Resolved.
- Open
- The defined SLA goals are not yet met. Open items can be of status Overdue or On Time.
- Resolved
- The defined SLA goals are completed. Resolved items can be of status Overdue or On Time.
From the overall metrics of a workflow process down to the details on a single item in the workflow, the new Workflow Metrics functionality gives you insights into the time it takes to get things done in Liferay DXP.