Interpreting SAP Signavio Process Intelligence Diagrams

When you want to understand the actual processes within your enterprise, the first analysis you need to consider is Process Discovery Analysis. This analysis is an excellent starting point for familiarizing yourself with the different flows within a process.

The figure shows the Process Discovery Diagram.

The Process Discovery Analysis visualizes the different paths that a process can take, allowing you to choose the level of detail you require. You can examine the process from a high-level perspective, where you will only observe the typical steps a process would follow. This is referred to as the "happy path," which represents the ideal trajectory a process should take when everything proceeds as planned.

Alternatively, you can dig deeper using the slider bars—zooming in on specific paths or additional activities within the process. Depending on your needs, you can focus your analysis on events, cases, or cycle time.

As you explore further and visualize all the different flows in this way, the lines can start to resemble tangled noodles. That’s why this type of visualization is often called a "spaghetti diagram."

Now that you understand what the actual process looks like, you may want to examine the typical variants of that process—especially if your goal is to streamline operations. In this scenario, process variant analysis becomes your go-to analysis.

As the name suggests, Process Variant Diagrams capture the various variants of a process and illustrates them using Business Process Model Notation (BPMN). You can toggle between different variants to identify which one is the most common based on the cases that have been processed.

The BPMN chart offers you two viewing options. First, variants can be highlighted in blue (as shown in the figure). Alternatively, you can select the "hotspot diagram" view which each step is colored based on whether it’s considered favorable or unfavorable.

The figure shows process variant analysis diagram where variants are highlighted in blue.

When you scroll further down in this analysis, you’ll find an additional diagram. This diagram displays process variants either by their frequency of occurrence or by cycle time. Here, you can easily toggle between different variants, or even select multiple variants—such as the three most common ones—to better understand their differences.

The figure shows process variant analysis diagram where variants are highlighted based on their frequency of occurrence.

Once you’ve selected the variants you’re interested in, you can export them as a BPMN diagram and import them directly into SAP Signavio Process Manager.

Next, you will look at Transaction Code Usage Charts.

The third analysis you can use is the Transaction Code Analysis, which is especially relevant if you’re working with SAP S/4HANA.

As shown in the figure, this analysis tracks the transaction codes used for each process step, covering both standard SAP transactions and any custom transactions your organization may have.

The Transaction Code Analysis includes metrics such as average cycle times per process step, and distinguishes between standard and custom transactions. Interestingly, it’s not always the case that process steps involving only standard transactions are the fastest—sometimes, custom transactions can be more efficient.

As shown in the figure, the vertical bar chart illustrates transaction usage per company code. This chart allows for easy identification of widely used custom codes.

If you are interested in the exact number of users, you can refer to the table shown in the figure. This table provides a detailed overview, including the number of users for each transaction code.

Now, watch the video to explore process discovery analysis.

Now, watch the video to explore process variant analysis and transaction code analysis.