Problems and Comments

Problems

Problems is a type of text property that can be associated with a Process, Milestone, Activity, Gateway or other type of Item. As with other text properties multiple values can be entered and preferred values defined. Problems are recorded in the second tab of the Details dialog box. A Problem can have a Severity level and Frequency of occurrence; both have values or High (red), Medium (yellow) or Low (green).


Problems are used for highlighting process areas that probably require discussion. If the process is active in your business then these problems may have been recorded as a result of one or more incidents and may require an investigation to understand the root cause. In both cases it is expected that the number of problems or their severity or frequency of occurrence will diminish over time. In some cases when process modeling for a new client project the aim will be to eliminate all problems in all processes. A problem might represent a part of the process which is not clearly understood. On a client project it may also represent a candidate for a Change Request.

Problems are output in the Export to Word function and due to the colored nature of the severity and frequency fields they stand out in the documentation. At the back of the Microsoft Word document is a glossary section where all Problems are pulled together, unfortunately the Glossary does not show the severity and frequency values. 

Comments

A comment is a short piece of text (200 characters maximum) that might be written as a question for another user to answer. A Comment can be associated with a Process, Milestone, Activity, Gateway of other type of Item but it is not a property, it will not be found in the Library of properties and there are no preferred values. Comments appear in the last tab of the Details dialog box.

Multiple comments can be entered for an activity. Each comment is recorded with the authors name and date/time of creation and is presented in light blue background. A comment can be replied to and this is enclosed within the original comment and presented with a white background.
 

In the Export to Word function the comments are output much as you would expect them in the right margin of the document and attached to the activity header; this includes both comments and replies.
 
Deleting the comment deletes any associated replies. The symbol in the top right hand corner of the comment/reply is used to delete the record.
 
A comment might start with a three letter code to indicate the severity of the comment:

• SEV - Severe
• CRI  - Critical
• DIS  -  Discussion
• MIN -  Minor

Note. Comments will not work very well if only some of your reviewers are using Blueworks Live !

Glossary and Preferred Values

Glossary

The Glossary exists in the Library menu. It allows you to see the values entered against a property (or a set of properties) and on the right hand side gives you a count of the number of distinct values.

The following sets of properties share their values:

• Participants, Business Owners and Experts
• Inputs and Outputs
• Customers and Suppliers

For each value a description can be provided; more than likely this will not be used as there is no need to restrict the length of the value, it could be > 500 characters. There is a checkbox to indicate whether the value is a preferred value for the property or set of properties.

For each value there is a green arrow button "Where Used" which when clicked opens a dialog box showing the Spaces, Processes and Activities where the value has been used. The Activities tab is useful when there are some obvious rogue values to be corrected as there is a hyperlink which will take you right to the process and activity where the value should be corrected.

It is not possible to restrict the values displayed in a property, a user can enter whatever they like, however, it is possible to provide a set of values that the user may select from - the preferred values.

Preferred Values

The Preferred check box can be used on those property values which you wish to appear when the user goes to enter a value in the property on a process, activity, gateway or other type of item. Preferred values are set at the Account level.

The set of preferred values for the property are displayed as soon as the cursor enters the field, and one of these can be selected. If there is a long list then as soon as the first character is entered the preferred values are restricted to those values that start with that character.

Preferred values also have a place to play when merging values in the Glossary. When you hover over a property value in the Glossary there is a Merge checkbox which you can select. Multiple values can be selected and a dialog box displays "Merge n Values" as a green button; when selected:

• if none of the values are a preferred value then a radio button requires you to select one as the value against which the other values are merged,
• if one of the values is a preferred value then it assumes that the other values will be replaced by the preferred value,
• if multiple preferred values were selected to be merged - then take care the chances are that you hovered over the wrong record !

A value in the glossary, whether preferred (or not), can also be renamed by clicking on the value and typing a new value; you will get a Rename Value confirmation box.

Setting up a standard set of Preferred Values for each Account

Preferred Values are used by processes and decisions. If you have several Blueworks Live Accounts, perhaps one for each client project then a Process can be created solely for the purpose of defining the set of preferred values for the account. The values can be entered against the Process, Milestone or Activity in the Discovery Map. You can enter at least 50 values for each property, perhaps more.

If you have a lot of preferred values you might consider breaking these up into multiple activities. For example, if there is a large suite of software products where each product has modules and applications, consider one Milestone for each Product, one Activity for each Module and on each activity enter multiple values one for each Application.

The process can be exported and imported into a new account and if a client is only using a subset of the products available then the Milestone and Activities for the products which are not used can simply be deleted. 

Activity Numbering and Item Names

Activity Numbering  A process has automatic numbering which can be toggled on/off by using right-click in the background of the Process Diagram or Discovery Map. The numbering will be the same numbering used as headings when the Export to Word function is used.

The Show Activity Numbering option will show Activity Numbers as blue boxes in the upper left hand corner of the activity. The Hide Activity Numbering option will remove them.
 
The problem with using the standard Activity Numbering option is that it is dynamic based on how the process is configured, hence it cannot be relied upon as a reference that may be used in other project documentation. A tip is to provide your own reference at the start of the item name. For example, CL-16 Execute Work and Report Actuals. The Activity Numbering option is useful for finding an activity in the Microsoft Word document produced by the function Export to Word, especially when there is a complex process with many sub-processes.
 
The Export to Word function performed on a single process will have headings as follows:

• Heading 1  Process
• Heading 2  Milestone
• Heading 3  Activity or Sub Process
• Heading 4  Boundary Event or Sub Process Activity
• Heading 5  Sub Process Activity Boundary Event 

The Item Name appears inside the activity box and can be modified from the Details dialog box; initially the item name looks as if it is read-only but when you move the cursor over the text it will appear in a text box and can be modified. You will soon find out that the text you enter in the item name will start to scroll to the left as you type (around 50 characters) and then the full text will be truncated in the activity box when displayed in the Process Diagram or Discovery Map.
 
Another option available using right-click in the background of the Process Diagram or Discovery Map will toggle the resizing of the item name. The Resize All Item Names to Fit option may make the text of some item names smaller, the Reset Size of Item Names option will restore the original setting.

Export to Word - Process Properties

The same set of Process Properties exist at the Process level and also on a node of the process, e.g. an Activity, Gateway, etc. Right-click in the background of the Discovery Map or Process Diagram and select Details option to enter details at the Process level. The properties entered at the Process level might be considered the default for all nodes of the process and the properties entered at the Activity level are the exceptions.

The action for a process "Export to Word" will output the properties where a value has been entered. When using this action a dialogue box opens with a check box "Include the property details for each activity". When checked the property values will be added to an area in a grey box with two columns.

In the example shown above Product or Module, Regulatory Code and FS Reference are all Custom Process Properties. Product or Module is showing three values, a capability of text properties. Below the properties additional activity details (Decisions, Policies, Attachments, Problems) are displayed. The text in the Documentation tab is shown below the activity title and above the process properties. Comments are displayed in the standard way for Microsoft Word in the right hand margin.

If a text property contains long text then it will word wrap and the vertical height of the box will increase in order to accommodate the extra text.

There is no control over the order in which the properties are displayed. With a bit of experimentation the fields seem to be displayed in the following order - Participants, Business Owners, Experts, Systems, Cycle Time, Cost, Custom Text 1, Custom Text 4, Custom Text 3, Number 2, Number 4, Suppliers, Inputs, Outputs, Customers, Risk, Value Add, Custom Text 2, Custom Text 5, Number 1, Number 3, Number 5.

If all properties have a value then the Suppliers property appears at the top of the right hand column. If you remove a value from one of the fields in the left hand column then Suppliers will appear at the bottom of the left hand column and Inputs will now be at the top of the right hand column. Blueworks Live is appearing to avoid creating a lot of blank space by having the left hand column with no more than one property greater than the right hand column. The example above shows blank space below FS Reference but that is believed to be because Product or Mobile has three values.

As we only have control over how we use the Custom Process Properties then if:

• One custom text property is likely to contain multiple values choose Custom Text 5, it will always appear in the right hand column and after all other properties.
• Two custom text properties are likely to contain multiple values then choose one from the left hand column (Custom Text 1, Custom Text 4, or Custom Text 3) and one from the right hand column (Custom Text 2 or Custom Text 5). If you don't do this then you are likely to end up with a lot of blank space when used with other properties.

Note, if an activity only has the Custom Text 5 property then it will appear in the left hand column.

Defining Process Properties

Every node in the Process Diagram has the same set of properties. The exception is the start and end nodes which have no properties. There are standard process properties and a set of custom process properties. Properties are either text or number. Properties live at the Account level.

Standard Process Properties cannot be changed but each account can choose which ones to use by going to Admin - Properties tab and checking the property in the "visible" column.

Property	Tooltip	Type	Notes
Participants	A role or system responsible for completing this activity. Only one participant can be assigned to an activity to Blueworks Live.	Text	The Swimlane in Process Diagram. Preferred Values are shared with Business Owners and Experts.
Business Owners	The roles or people accountable for this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Participants and Experts.
Experts	The roles or people consulted about this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Participants and Business Owners.
Systems	Technologies or devices that are utilized by or required to complete this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values.
Cycle Time	The total time spent on this activity, the sum of work and wait time.	Number	Work Time + Wait Time. Work and Wait Time can have units of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks or Months. Mixed units are accepted, e.g. work time of 5 minutes and a wait time of 3 days would show a cycle time of 3 days 5 minutes.
Cost	The price or value attributed to performing this activity.	Number	A 10 digit number or decimal. If a decimal with two 2DP then maximum would be 9,999,999.99 – the comma cannot be used.
Suppliers	An individual, group or company that supplies inputs to this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Customers.
Customers	An individual, group or company that uses the outputs produced by this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Suppliers.
Inputs	Business forms or data required to begin this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Outputs.
Outputs	Business forms or data generated by this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Preferred Values are shared with Inputs.
Risk	Commonly used to identify areas of concern or issues that may occur within an activity.	Text	Accepts one of the following values and displays coloured icon: ·         Controlled (grey) ·         Low (green) ·         Medium (yellow) ·         High (red)
Value Add	Used to indicate activities a customer would pay for, would not pay for, or are unavoidable for regulatory or other reasons.	Text	Accepts one of the following values and displays coloured icon: ·         Yes (green) ·         No (red) ·         Required (blue)
Problems	The common problems or issues that affect or occur in this activity.	Text	May contain multiple values. Entered on Problems tab with a value for: ·         Severity ·         Frequency Severity and Frequency each have values for Low (green), Medium (yellow) or High (red).

Custom Process Properties. There are 5 text and 5 number custom properties. The property label and tooltip can be modified in Admin - Properties tab. These labels will be the same labels for all spaces and processes in the account. A text property can contain multiple values. A number property can only store one 10 digit number.