Process hierarchies

Similar to the assignments in ARIS Toolset, subordinate process instances can be assigned to functions in PPM. In the EPC view, these functions are given the assignment symbol familiar from ARIS Toolset. The assigned process instance can be displayed using the Open assignment option in the pop-up menu for the function.

The chart below illustrates the hierarchical refinement of a process instance:

ppm_customizing_7

Each assigned process instance is a separate process instance. The process hierarchy only represents an assignment between process instances. It can have any level of detail. All process instances within a refinement make up a hierarchy structure. Each process instance involved in this hierarchy structure is on a different hierarchy level.

A process instance may not be assigned to multiple functions within a hierarchy structure, as the multiple consideration of attribute values can lead to incorrect results in the measure calculation.

Warning

When setting up a hierarchy structure for your processes, ensure that each process instance within the hierarchy structure is assigned to a different process type group.

Each function to which a process instance is assigned represents the subordinate process instance. The AT_INTERNAL_HIER_REF function attribute is a unique reference to the subordinate process instance. The value of the hierarchy key for the subordinate process instance corresponds to the value of the AT_INTERNAL_HIER_REF function attribute. The value of the function attribute is extracted from the source system adapter.

Warning

The AT_INTERNAL_HIER_REF function attribute cannot be changed later. When setting up process hierarchies, the attribute value at the time of importing is decisive.

The process attributes of the assigned process instance are copied to the function of the higher-level process instance as part of measure calculation in addition to the existing function attributes. Existing attributes of the function are overwritten by attributes of the assigned process instance with the same name. If different measures are calculated for the assigned process instance due to assignment to a different process type when processing the imported process instance fragments (runppmimport), the attributes already copied to the function of the higher level process instance are not deleted and continue to be included in analyses. The function also retains the copied attributes if the assigned process instance is deleted.

To delete the copied attributes for functions with an assigned process instance, you need to re-import the process instance fragments for the higher-level process instance. Appropriate object key rules ensure that the functions are overwritten when the import is repeated.