Filters

Case attributes

Use the following steps to create a case attribute filter:

1. Include or exclude the cases that match the specified attributes by selecting include matched cases or exclude matched cases, and then select one of the following options:

   • match anywhere
     Match the filter for all activities anywhere within a case.
   • match at start case
     Match the filter anywhere within a case at the start of the case (only the first activity of each case is considered).
   • match at end case
     Match the filter anywhere within a case at the end of the case (only the last activity of each case is considered).

2. In the including events with attribute field, select the custom case attribute or the primary case attribute to specify the attribute value.

3. If you select a custom case attribute, choose the required condition from the Select condition dropdown per the data type of the custom case attribute.

4. Enter or select the value for the selected condition in the Enter condition value field.

   • You can select multiple values from the dropdown for the custom case attribute if the condition is is equal to.
   • For the primary case attribute, you can select a case or multiple cases without any conditions for the data type.

The visible statistics are for attributes with a cardinality smaller than the threshold. You can set this threshold in Attributes management page in the Manage tab.

To see other values of the attribute, select the attribute to filter on and use search tab to look for the values you are interested in.

5. Optional: Select the Consider only cases in specific timespan checkbox and then set the values in the Timestamp start date and the End date fields to filter the results to a specific time frame.

6. Click Add filter to add and activate the filter.

Activity

Use the following steps to create an activity filter:

1. Include or exclude the cases that match the specified attributes by selecting include matched cases or exclude matched cases, and then select one of the following options:

   • match anywhere
     Match the filter for all activities anywhere within a case.
   • match at start case
     Match the filter anywhere within a case at the start of the case (only the first activity of each case is considered).
   • match at end case
     Match the filter anywhere within a case at the end of the case (only the last activity of each case is considered).

2. In the containing activity field, select the activity for which you must create the filter. You can select multiple activities.

3. Optional: Select the Consider only cases in a specific timespan checkbox and then set the values in the Timestamp start date and the End date fields to filter the results to a specific time frame.

4. Optional: Select the Consider only cases with activity duration checkbox and then set the values in the Duration fields to filter the results based on duration.

5. Click Add filter to add and activate the filter.

Process flow

Use the following steps to create a process flow filter:

1. Include or exclude the cases that match the specified attributes by selecting include matched cases or exclude matched cases.

2. Select Activity, Customer, Role, or Resource attribute.

3. In the Process flow section:

   a. Select the attribute.

   b. Select the flow precedence condition and the rework boundaries based on a selected attribute.

Depending on the selected event attribute, different flow precedence conditions are displayed.

Example: If the event attribute is set to Activity, you can select the activity from the Select Activity list, select the condition from the Select an option list such as is followed by, and then select another activity.

If the attribute that is selected in the window is Activity, you can also use the Select activities from model link to select the required process flow, the flow precedence condition, and the rework boundaries for the selected activity. Use the following steps to select the process flow filter by using the model view:

1. In the Process flow page, click the Select activities from model link.
2. In the Selected activities page, select the activities based on the required process flow.
3. In the right pane, select the flow precedence condition and the rework boundaries, and then click Add selected activities.

The view in the Selected activities page depends on the View options that is selected in the Model page. Hence, you must make sure that the correct view options are selected before you create a process flow filter.

The following picture shows an example of a process flow and its steps.

Case

You can select one or multiple options in the Filter options section:

• Running or completed cases
  Create a filter to exclude running cases or completed cases. Running cases are automatically identified by IBM Process Mining. You can fine-tune the algorithm by using the End activities in the Settings.

• Conformant cases
  Create a filter exclude conformant and nonconformant cases to the reference model. This option is available only if a reference model is imported for this process.

• Select cases with a specific duration
  Create a filter for a defined time duration (Days/Hours/Minutes/Seconds). You can choose either of the following formats:

  • Over
    Filters cases that have a duration longer than X Days/Hours/Minutes/Seconds.
  • Under
    Filters cases that have a duration shorter than or the same as X Days/Hours/Minutes/Seconds. You can select the granularity of the time filter (Days/Hours/Minutes/Seconds).

• Consider only cases in a specific timespan
  Use this case filter to create a filter for a specific timespan. You must select the start date and the end date. Additionally, you can choose whether to you want all the case events or at least one case event in the mentioned time boundary.

Outlier

Outliers are cases and activities whose performance is different from the average.

By using outlier filtering, you can remove the outliers from the process to have more uniform performances, or you can focus only on the outliers to analyze them.

Outlier filtering is applied at case level (like every filter). Therefore, if a certain case contains only an outlier activity, the whole case is included or excluded by applying the filter.

Use the following steps to create an outlier filter:

1. Include matched cases or exclude matched cases that match the specified attributes.

2. Select Case lead time in the Outlier focus section to include or exclude cases whose lead time is detected as an outlier. Outlier threshold is identified by using statistical quantiles and user-defined Outlier filtering level.

3. In the Outlier filtering level scroll-bar, change the strength of the filter 1-5.

Figure 1. Statistic quartile graph

The outliers are calculated by using a statistic quartile (Q1, Q2, Q3). The alpha parameter corresponds directly to the Outlier filtering level slider. The filter includes all cases that are true to the following formula:

Case lead time > Q3 + (alpha × (Q3-Q1))

Custom metrics

Custom metrics are customized business metrics that you use to analyze a process. To learn more about Custom metrics, see Custom metrics overview.

To create a filter by using a custom metric, do the following steps:

1. Go to Processes > Add filter > Custom metrics.

2. In the Define filter details page, choose a custom metric from the Select custom metric dropdown.

3. In the Select conditions dropdown, choose from the list of conditions per the data type of the custom metric.

4. Enter the value for the selected condition in the Enter condition value field.

5. Click the Add Filter to complete the creation of the Custom metrics filter.

If you do not see any custom metric listed in the Define filter details page, you can now directly go to the Create custom metric dialog by clicking the Create custom metric in the Define filter details page.

KPI

You can filter and visualize cases that violate with one or multiple KPI rules.

Use the following steps to create a filter based on KPI:

1. Include or exclude the cases that match the specified attributes by selecting one of the following options:

   • include KPI critical cases
   • include cases within KPI boundaries

2. In the KPI focus section, include or exclude one or multiple KPI rules:

   • Case lead time
     Cases whose lead time exceeds the case duration threshold (previously defined in the KPI settings).

   • Activity wait time
     Cases that contain at least one activity whose wait time exceeds the activity wait queue threshold (previously defined in the KPI settings).

   • Activity throughput time
     Cases that contain at least one activity whose throughput time (service + wait) exceeds the activity throughput threshold (previously defined in the KPI settings).

   • Activity service time
     Cases that contain at least one activity whose service time exceeds the activity duration threshold (previously defined in the KPI settings).

Simulated data

Use the following steps to create a simulation data filter:

1. Select the Simulation data checkbox to exclude cases that originate from simulation data or exclude cases that originate from real data (uploaded from data source).

2. Select one of the following options:

   • Exclude cases originating from simulation data
   • Exclude cases originating from real data

IBM Process Mining can automatically identify the simulated scenarios from the real data that is imported from data sources. For more information, see Simulation.

Advanced filters

In IBM Process Mining, a Create advanced filter wizard is provided to developers who intend on building code-based filters.

Use the following steps to create an advanced filter:

1. Choose Create advanced filter in the Add Filter wizard.

2. Choose include matched cases or exclude matched cases option.

3. Enter the name of the filte in the Filter name field.

4. Select an advanced filter template from the Pre-defined advanced filters list.

You can select any script from the available list of scripts and customize the scripts as required.
To reset the script in the pre-defined filter, click Reset filter.
For more information, see Advanced filter.

Editing existing filters

To edit a filter, click the Edit Filter icon corresponding to the filter name in the Manage filters wizard.

When you edit a process flow activity filter, you can select only from the attributes that satisfy this filter and not from the complete process model.

For example, the process flow activity filter can be selected as indicated in the following figure:

When you edit this filter, you can select only the activities from the list as illustrated in the following figure and not the complete process model:

Deleting filters

Use any of the following steps to delete a filter:

• To delete a filter, click the Delete filter icon () corresponding to the filter.

• To delete all the filters, click the Remove all current filters.

Deleted filters are not displayed in the Active filters list in the View options section of the Model page.

Saving filters as templates

You can save a set of filters as a filter template to reuse it in the future by creating a filter template.

Use the following steps to save filters as a template:

1. In the Manage filters wizard, click Save as template.

2. In the Create filter template wizard, do the following steps:
   a. Enter the filter template name in the Filter template name box.
   b. Set Share with other in organization to Enabled or Disabled to share the filter template within the users of the same organization.
   c. Choose Create filter template.
   

3. Click the icon next to the filter template name, and select the following options as necessary:

   • Load template
     The selected filter template overrides the current filters.

   • Share template
     Share a filter template with other users to enable them to see and use the filters. This option is visible only if the template sharing is disabled.

   • Disable sharing
     Disable the sharing of the filter template with other users. This option is visible only if the template sharing is enabled.

   • Delete template
     Delete the selected filter template. This option is enabled only if you are the owner of the filter template. To delete template, select delete icon () corresponding to the filter.

   

Applying filters

You can select, edit, and apply multiple filters to process models at once. To apply filters, select the filters and click the Apply.

Ensure that you click Apply to save the required changes.