WebSphere Lombardi Edition 7.2 > Create reports
Track Lombardi performance data
Overview
To create customized and third-party reports in Lombardi, you need to identify the data to track and push that data to the Performance Data Warehouse. The following sections describe the data tracking options in Lombardi.
Tracking options
To track data, you must use autotracking or create tracking groups. You can also take advantage of both tracking methods in a single BPD. The following table describes the two tracking methods:
Tracking Method Description Autotracking Use if you want to capture data to quickly configure and publish reports using the ad-hoc wizard. You can also use autotracking if you want to capture data that automatically includes tracking points at the entry and exit of each item in a BPD (such as activities, services, and gateways). For example, if you know that you want to compare the duration for each activity in a BPD, autotracking enables you to do so. When you enable autotracking for a BPD, you also track the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) associated with your BPD. And, when you track KPIs, you can use that data as a condition to trigger Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The About autotracking section that follows provides more information. Tracking groups Use if you want to explicitly control your tracked data and tracking points for more advanced custom reports. For example, you can group the variables that you want to track by type, strategically place tracking points in your BPD, and track variables across multiple BPDs. With tracking groups, your tracking points can also span multiple BPDs. The About tracking groups section that follows provides more information. The About timing intervals section that follows describes tracking points and using a timing interval to measure the duration between the points.
About autotracking
When you use autotracking, the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are tracked:
- Custom KPIs associated with your BPD
- Custom KPIs associated with the activities in your BPD
- The Total Time KPI associated with each BPD by default
KPIs act as conditions for Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which you can use to trigger a particular consequence such as an email notification.
You can analyze the performance of your SLAs using the SLA Overview out of the box scoreboard or by creating custom reports. To create custom SLA reports, use the SLASTATUS view and the SLATHRESHOLDTRAVERSALS view in the Performance Data Warehouse database.
About tracking groups
When you want to create more advanced custom reports, you can track process data in Lombardi Authoring Environment by creating tracking groups. Tracking groups provide the following advantages:
- You can group similar data together for analysis via reports. For example, you can track employee data, account data, or shipment status information in independent tracking groups.
- You can track process variables across multiple BPDs and process applications. For example, if your organization includes several locations and each location has a similar, but unique, onboarding process for new employees, you can create a tracking group to capture the business data for all of these processes.
- Tracking points for a timing interval can span multiple BPDs. For example, if you want to measure the duration between steps that start in one process and end in a nested process, you can include the start tracking point in the main process and the end tracking point in the nested process.
About timing intervals
To create reports to analyze the amount of time that elapses between certain steps in your process, you can add tracking points to your BPD and then create a timing interval to capture the duration between a starting point and an ending point. When using timing intervals, you should autotrack the process variables that you want to capture and then create a tracking group to hold the timing interval data as explained in Create a basic custom report.
Sending tracking definitions
You must send tracking definitions to the Performance Data Warehouse. If you fail to send tracking definitions, the Performance Data Warehouse does not track performance data as expected.
Server Description How to send tracking definitions Process Center Server When you use autotracking, manually create or edit tracking groups, or perform any other task in the Designer in Lombardi Authoring Environment to capture performance data, you must send these tracking requirements to the Performance Data Warehouse if you plan to run your processes on the Process Center Server to test data tracking and reports. Choose File > Send Definitions to Performance Data Warehouse from the Authoring Environment main menu. Process Servers in runtime environments When you install snapshots of process applications on Process Servers in runtime environments, all tracking definitions are automatically sent to the Performance Data Warehouse in the selected runtime environment. This ensures that your data is tracked as expected when instances of your processes are executed in the runtime environment. No need to send tracking definitions unless a problem occurs during snapshot installation. If a problem does occur, you can select the Send Tracking Definitions option for the snapshot Definitions must be sent to the Performance Data Warehouse when you make any changes to your tracking requirements in the Designer in Lombardi Authoring Environment. So, when developing on the Process Center Server, be sure to send definitions when you makes changes. For process applications installed in runtime environments, snapshot any changes and install the new snapshot to ensure that the data you want to collect is available in the runtime environment.
When you send tracking definitions, either directly or as part of a snapshot installation, the Performance Data Warehouse establishes the structure in its database to hold the data that is generated by the Process Server when you run instances of your processes. In Lombardi, these tracking requirements are called definitions because they establish the database schema in the Performance Data Warehouse to accommodate the tracked data generated by the Process Server. Create a basic custom report describes how to verify that the required database structure has been established in the Performance Data Warehouse.
Supported data types
Data types that Lombardi tracks include the following:
Type of tracking Supported data types Autotracking String, Integer, Decimal, Boolean, and Date Tracking groups String, Number, and Date When tracking data, be aware of the following:
- Variables for which the Is List option is enabled cannot be tracked.
- Complex types cannot be mapped directly; their fields must be mapped individually.
- Variables of type ANY, Map, Record, XMLDocument, XMLElement, and XMLNodeList cannot be tracked.
Naming tracking groups
When naming tracking groups and tracked fields, be aware of the following restrictions:
- Do not use SQL-92 reserved words. Several sources available on the internet provide a complete list of SQL-92 reserved words.
- Do not use any of the names used for the views and fields in the Performance Data Warehouse database schema. (Performance Data Warehouse database architecture provides details about the schema.)
Tracking data across processes and process applications
To track data from multiple processes (BPDs) that reside in the same process application, create a tracking group and implement it for as many BPDs as you like, mapping the tracked fields to the appropriate variables for each BPD. To learn how to create and implement tracking groups,
To capture data from multiple processes (BPDs) that reside in different process applications, you can do so by using the same tracking group in each process application. For example, you can create a tracking group in a toolkit, and then create a dependency on that toolkit in each process application where you want to use the tracking group. From each process application, you can implement the tracking group one or more times, mapping the tracked fields to variables within each application. When you send tracking definitions and then run instances of the BPDs, the data is captured in a single tracking group view. The data that Lombardi captures enables you to analyze the tracked data in any way you choose. For example, you can analyze the tracked fields as a whole or you can compare the data from each process application or from each process.
Work with versioned data
All data tracked by Lombardi includes snapshot (version) information that enables you to create reports to compare versions of your processes if you have that requirement.
When tracking data, keep the following in mind:
- Timing intervals work across snapshots (versions). For example, a process that starts in one version (1.0) might be migrated to a new version (2.0) before reaching the end of a timing interval. In such a case, the data for the timing interval is captured in the Performance Data Warehouse as expected with the version change noted.
- Data types of variables that are being stored (autotracked or part of a tracking group) can change between versions. If data types do change, a new column is created in the corresponding view
Parent topic: Create reports