Object tables

Learn how to create and manage object tables to add contextual data to your process analysis in IBM Process Mining.

Object tables are a way for you to add contextual data to the project. By creating object tables, you can upload master data that is related to the context of your process (for example, data about vendors, materials, countries) that is separate from the event log.

You can also upload object tables as your master data without uploading an event log to use IBM Process Mining as a business intelligence tool. This approach does not enable process analysis features but allows you to build dashboards and visualizations.

Object tables used with an event log can be used in the following scenarios:

  • Enriching process analysis with master data.
  • Adding customer, product, or location information.
  • Enabling advanced filtering and segmentation.

Object tables used without an event log can be used in the following scenarios (dashboards only):

  • Analyzing master data without process context.
  • Creating business intelligence dashboards.
  • Visualizing data from multiple sources.

Object tables used without an event log have the following limitations:

  • No process discovery or process flow visualization.
  • No conformance checking or variant analysis.
  • No process-specific metrics or KPIs.

Difference between object tables data and event log data

To create a project, you must upload an event log. The event log is supposed to focus on events, on the information related to the activities. Typical event log information should answer the following questions:

"What?"
Process ID, order number, ticket number, activity name
"When?"
Start time and end time
"Who?"
Resource that worked on the activity

Any other information is called master data. Master data is data that is not related to the process execution, but to stakeholders and objects that are part of the organization. Master data can describe people (for example, customers, employees, vendors), places (offices, locations), and things (products, materials). All this data is typically stored separately from the event log.

Managing object tables

You can create, append, or retrieve object tables with the following steps.

Create a new object with the following steps:

  1. Open the Object tables tab in Data & Settings > Data source.
  2. Click Create new object.
  3. Insert the name of the object table and click Create.
  4. Select a data source and wait for it to upload.
    Note: You can select multiple data sources at the same time. They will be uploaded one after the other. If any of the chosen files is invalid, you will see an error message. All the valid files will be uploaded despite the error.
  5. Click Edit data mapping and map your data by selecting the field type.
  6. Optional: Enable primary key mapping and choose the primary keys.
    Note: A primary key is a column that uniquely identifies a record in a relational database. You can select more than one primary key. The fields that you map as primary keys must be selected when you join the table with other data sources.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Click the name of the object table and set the Include toggle to on.

Append an object table to an existing object by uploading a data source from local device or network with the following steps:

  1. Enter the Object tables tab in Data & Settings > Data source.
  2. Click Append to existing object.
  3. Select an existing table.
  4. Select a data source and wait for it to upload.
  5. Click Edit data mapping and map your data.
  6. Optional: Enable primary key mapping and choose the primary keys.
    Note: A primary key is a column that uniquely identifies a record in a relational database. You can select more than one primary key. The fields that you map as primary keys must be selected when you join the table with other data sources.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Click the name of the object table and set the Include toggle to on.

Retrieve an object table that was created in another project in the same organization with the following steps:

  1. Enter the Object tables tab in Data & Settings > Data source.
  2. Click Retrieve existing object.
  3. Select one or more tables.
  4. Click Retrieve.
  5. Click the name of the object table and set the Include toggle to on.
Note: You do not have to re-create joins in every project. If you established a relationship between two object tables in one project, the relationship remains, even if they are retrieved into another project.

Data mapping fields in object tables

Object tables do not have required fields; you can create an object table with any mappings you prefer.

The custom mapping is unavailable for the following reserved column names (keywords): source_id, user, leadtime_worked, leadtime, casecost, eventcost, servicetime_worked, servicetime, waittime_worked, waittime.

If an object table is directly joined to the event log, all text-custom fields of an object table can be selected either as ROLE or as an Automation attribute in Data > Attributes.

Note: The ROLE field can be mapped only once. You can map it either in the event log (in the mapping wizard) or in the object table (in the project settings section).

Using object tables

When your object table is created, you can perform the following actions:

  • Use the Table joins tab to define the relationships between different tables. For more information, see Table joins.

  • Include the object table in the BPMN configuration and decision rules.

  • In the attribute statistics section of your process model, you can access the statistics of your object tables.

  • You can use object tables in filters. For more information, see Filters.

  • Build dashboards and visualizations in Analytics. For more information on creating dashboards, see Using the Analytics page.

    Note: The Analytics page button appears on the menu bar after you create or append an object table. For more information, see Using the Analytics page.

Removing object tables

You can create and edit an object table from within the organization and the project side. From a data perspective, object tables are stored at an organization level and removing them from a project does not delete them completely.

To remove an object table from a project, do the following steps:

  1. Open a project from which you want to remove the object table.
  2. Go to Data & Settings > Data source > Object tables.
  3. Tick the name of the object table that you want to delete.
  4. Click the delete button and confirm that you want to delete the object table from a project.
Important: Removing an object table affects the object table filters.

To completely delete an object table, do the following steps:

  1. Open the All projects section from the IBM Process Mining home page.
  2. Open the drop-down menu on the header of a chosen organization.
  3. Click Manage object tables.
  4. Tick and delete a chosen object table.