About Model Components

Milestones

Milestones are key components in an Insight model. They define points in a business process that represent progress and can be mapped to an action in the business process implementation.

Characteristics of a milestone include:

Atomicity: A milestone has no entry or exit point. A milestone is considered to be passed or not passed, but you are never in a milestone. A milestone has no duration and is passed atomically. However, it is important to consider the duration from one milestone to another.
No enforced ordering: Milestones can be passed in any order and repeatedly. However, Insight does maintain the natural ordering in which the milestones are defined in the model.

For example, an Order Received milestone generally happens before an Order Complete milestone. Insight lists milestones in this natural order in the context of selection and reporting.
Semantic types: A milestone may have one or more semantic classifications that describe the milestone’s role in the execution of a business process. See the list of milestone types below.
Mapping: Milestones are mapped to points in a business process implementation that indicate that the milestone has been passed.
Indicators: Milestones can have indicators associated with them whose values are extracted when the milestone is passed. These indicators represent the state of the instance when the milestone is passed, and have a variety of different semantic options.

Milestones are of the following types:

Initial: This milestone is preseeded in a newly created model. It is mandatory and cannot be removed from the model. A model instance is assumed to be valid when a milestone of type Initial is passed. This concept is key to filtering out instances that may already be in flight when Insight starts monitoring a runtime engine. An instance that has most recently passed an Initial milestone is in an Active state.
Standard: Represents a milestone that is neither Terminal nor Error. An instance that has most recently passed a Standard milestone is in an Active state.
Error: Represents a milestone that reflects some business error condition encountered in the execution of the business process. The business process implementation may account for and recover from errors, and thus Error milestones are not necessarily also Terminal. An instance that has most recently passed an Error milestone is in an Error state.
Terminal: This milestone is preseeded in a newly created model. It is mandatory and cannot be removed from the model. A terminal milestone represents an expected end to the model instance. For example, a milestone "Order Complete" that represents the completion of an order might be modeled as a Terminal milestone. Insight does not enforce the end of an instance after a Terminal milestone, and further milestones may be passed. An instance is in a Completed state when the last milestone passed was a Terminal milestone.
Terminal/Error: Represents an Error milestone, which also represents the expected end of the business process processing. An instance that reaches a Terminal/Error milestone is in a Failed state.

Every instance (unique business transaction) of the model must pass through at least an Initial and a Terminal milestone.

See Define Milestones and Map Milestones to Integration Actions.

Unique Instance Identifier

Every Insight model must have a unique instance identifier defined. This identifier describes a value that is extracted at runtime for every instance (business transaction) of the business process defined by the model.

Model Editor showing Identifier page with a milestone mapped to an integration

Insight uses the unique instance identifier to grant you visibility into your entire business process, even if it is implemented in more than one integration or process.

A Business User/Analyst defines the unique instance identifier, in collaboration with an Integration Architect who maps the milestones to actions in the business process implementation (which can span one or more integrations or processes) and defines identifier extraction criteria.

The unique instance identifier extraction criteria is defined in the context of a business process action that is mapped to a milestone associated with the identifier. The extraction criteria is an XPath expression that defines how values are extracted from message payloads at the point that the milestone is passed.

The unique instance identifier value is extracted at runtime every time a milestone is passed and correlates the actions and data that belong to the same instance (business transaction) of the business process. Actions with the same unique instance identifier value are considered part of the same instance (for example, the same order). For example, a unique instance identifier of orderID specifies that each unique orderID value is considered to be a separate instance of your business process. Actions with the same orderID value are considered part of the same order, or instance.

When a business process implementation spans more than one integration or process, or both, you must assign the model's unique instance identifier to mapped milestones to establish the correlation between the actions in the same instance of the business process and extract the unique instance identifier value when the specified milestone is passed. For example, if your business process is implemented across two integrations, and the order number is extracted from the first integration, when the second integration is invoked you can extract the order number a second time to correlate its actions as part of the same order.

See Define a Unique Instance Identifier and Define Identifier Extraction Criteria.

Indicators

Indicators represent metrics that are unique to a business process, and are extracted when milestones are passed in a business process implementation.

A Business User/Analyst defines indicators, in collaboration with an Integration Architect who maps the milestones to actions in the business process implementation (integration or process) and defines indicator extraction criteria.

Indicators allow business users to gain insight into how a business process is functioning, and also allow comparisons between business transactions (instances), such as each order or service request. They help to quantify the performance of the business, and are used to create dashboards and reports for tracking business metrics.

The indicator extraction criteria is defined in the context of a business process action that is mapped to a milestone associated with the indicator. The extraction criteria is an XPath expression that defines how values are extracted from message payloads at the point that the milestone is passed.

An indicator can be mapped to one or more milestones. Mapping an indicator to multiple milestones allows the value of the indicator to change during the execution of a business process if necessary. For example, in a business process that tracks an order, the value of an indicator may change as discounts are applied. When the "Order Received" milestone is passed, the value extracted for an associated "Price" indicator may be $100. As the order progresses, a discount may be applied. When the "Discount Applied" milestone is passed, the value extracted for the "Price" indicator may be reduced to $80. In dashboards and alerts that include the indicator, the value shown is the final value of the indicator in the business process.

There are two types of indicators:

Measures are numerical values that can be used by mathematical functions. They identify values that allow the state of a business process to be quantified. For example, a business process might define measures for Total Order Value or Item Count. A single measure can change over the lifecycle of a model. For example, the Discount amount may change during a business process because the Quote Modified milestone can be passed more than once.
Dimensions provide a type of grouping and categorization of business transactions (instances), allowing for slicing and dicing of aggregate integration measures. For example, a typical order in a business process might define dimensions for Geographic Region, Sales Channel, or Product Category.

Important:

Insight does not support duplicate indicators.

See Define Indicators and Define Indicator Extraction Criteria.

Alerts

Alerts define conditions for milestones or indicators to notify users when those conditions are met.

Alerts page when alerts are defined in the Model Editor

Limitations:

When you export or import a model, any alerts defined for the model are not included in the archive. You must redefine alerts when you import the model into another Insight instance.

You can optionally define alerts in your model to notify users by email when:

A milestone is passed or not passed.
An indicator (dimension or measure) is equal to, greater than, or less than a specified value.

You can configure the alert notification email to include the unique instance identifier, indicator values, and a link to the associated Business Transactions dashboard in the body of the email.

See Define Alerts.