Workflow to create and run simulations

The Business console takes you through the process for assembling and running a simulation.

To run a simulation, you must assemble elements that include metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and a scenario file. The simulation interface is organized to take you through a workflow:

Diagram shows the workflow for making a simulation.

Metrics

Metrics define the values that are used in the KPIs. You must create metrics before you can make KPIs.

You define a metric by using a business model language. For example, you might define a metric that is named Loan amount by making the metric expression the amount of 'the loan'.

The simulator provides the following types of metrics:

  • Numeric: Uses number values, for example, the age of 'the borrower' or the amount of 'the loan'.
  • DateTime: Uses date and time values, for example, the birth date of 'the borrower' or the start date of 'the loan'.
  • Boolean: Checks whether a value is true or false, or matches a specific group, for example, the corporate score of 'the loan' is at least 10.
  • String: Checks for text values, for example, the zip code of the address of 'the borrower'.
  • Domain: Uses predefined values in metric expressions, for example, for the expression the category of the customer, a domain metric might limit the category values to Platinum, Gold, and Silver. In this case, a simulation uses only the input data that matches the predefined values.

You must define conditions in metric expressions. You cannot create conditional KPIs. To add a condition, use when in your metric expression, for example, the amount of 'the loan' when 'the loan' is approved.

You can provide a default value for when a condition is not met. For example, you can set the default value of the metric Age of Borrower to 0. If a set of data does not meet the condition statement of the metric, a KPI that uses the metric can display 0 as its result in a simulation report.

If you do not specify a default value or select Undefined for Boolean types, the metric condition is not defined. Do not specify a default value when you want the KPI to determine the value. However, leaving the default value undefined is not equivalent to 0.

When you create an element for a simulation, you must select a decision operation. The Select an operation window displays a list of the available operations in the decision service. Each entry includes a description of the operation. The operations contain the rules that you can use in the simulation. You can select only one operation for a simulation.

Important: When you create a metric or a KPI, you cannot use a one-word verbalization such as age. You must use a phrase such as age of the borrower. A short, implicit verbalization generates an error.

KPIs

KPIs show the results from running a simulation. To define a KPI, you pair a metric with a KPI value. For example, to create a KPI that shows the total amount of the loans that are handled by a loan application, you might use the KPI expression sum of 'Loan amount'. When the simulation runs, it adds up the amounts of the loans and displays the total in the simulation report.

You can create two types of KPIs:
  • Scalar: Shows a single value that was taken from a group of values. For example, in a loan validation application, you might have a KPI value for the sum of all the loan amounts.
  • Grouped: Shows a set of values. For example, a simulation might group the average loan amounts for a set of customer categories. In this case, the report can display the set of values in a graph such as a pie chart.
A KPI can use either one or two metrics. When you use two metrics, the second metric defines a distribution of values.

The provided KPIs cover common values. Contact your system administrator to add more KPI values.

Data

Simulations use business information that is provided as input data. To run a simulation, you must use an Excel scenario file.

You can use either real or fictitious data. The Excel format displays data clearly, and can be changed easily.

You can generate and download an Excel data file from the Business console, add data to it locally, and then upload it back to the console.

Scenarios

Scenarios represent business use cases. They can contain real or fictitious data. You use scenarios to validate the behavior of your rules. When you use a group of scenarios in a simulation, each scenario must contain all the data that is needed to run the rules.

In an Excel file, you import the scenarios in a table:

Image shows scenarios in an Excel file.

Each row in the table represents a complete scenario. Typically, the more scenarios, the more accurate your results.

To use the scenario data file, you must import it into the Business console.

Important:

You can use scenario data files that are made to test applications (see Testing sets of rules in the Business console). However, you cannot test business applications with data files that are made specifically for simulations. The data files for testing contain expected results. Simulations do not use expected results and ignore them in data files for testing.

Report formats

When you run a simulation, it displays its results in a report. You can define various reports for a simulation to generate different reports.

You lay out a report in a template by adding sections and KPIs. You can add as many elements as necessary.

A report can format KPIs as follows:
  • Text: When a KPI produces a single value from a set of data, you display the value as text. You can configure the appearance of the text in the simulation report. The formatting options include fonts, font sizes, and colors.
  • Graph: When a KPI produces a set of comparable values, you can display the values in a graph to highlight their differences. The simulation feature includes four types of graphs: bar, line, area, and pie chart. You can format a graph, including the title, colors, and axis labels.

When you format a report, you can select descriptors that match the values of the KPIs, for example:

Image shows menus for formatting a pie chart.

Simulations

You configure a simulation to bring together input data, an application server, and a report format. When you run the simulation, it uses rules from the associated decision service and places the results in a report.

You can interrupt the generation of a report during a simulation. If you do, the report is still created, but it contains only partial results.

Reports

When you run a simulation, it generates a report that you use to evaluate the results.

You can compare two reports side by side in the Business console. You can also access different parts of a simulation from a report. For example, you can go directly to the rules, change data sources, and modify the report format. When you change aspects of a simulation from a report and run the simulation again from the Simulations tab, a new report is generated.

Note: In validation activities, the simulation reports are listed in the Simulations tab.