View Fast Metrics to gain initial impressions about a process and begin Process Discovery.

In the right pane of a View, under the Interval slider, the Fast Metrics section displays metrics for data currently loaded for the View:

Fast Metrics provides metrics for Cases, Events, Average Duration, and Total Duration.

Fast Metrics

The numbers listed for each Fast Metric are dynamic and change if you modify the Interval (date range of data loaded) or apply filters in the Process Map.

Definitions of Fast Metrics

Cases
The Cases fast metric is the number of Cases represented in the Process Map. In Pega Process Mining, a Case is a single process instance from assignment to resolution. An example of a Case is the sequence of steps performed by a field technician to resolve a particular client issue. Cases might take multiple days or longer to complete, and might also cross multiple applications before final resolution.
Events
The Event fast metric shows the number of activities represented in the source data. If you change the date interval for the Process Map or apply filters to the Process Map, then this metric changes based on those updates. In Pega Process Mining, an Event is an activity within a process, such as dispatching a case.
Avg Duration
The Avg Duration fast metric is the average duration for case occurrences from start to end, during the date interval that you are analyzing.
Total Duration
The Total Duration fast metric is the total aggregated effort from transitions and activities, during the date interval that you are analyzing.

Use Case: Using Fast Metrics to begin Process Discovery

As standalone numbers, the Fast Metrics give you a general idea of goals for improvement. For example, for a one-month date interval, an aggregated effort of over 24 years to complete around 20,000 Cases might be on the high side. When you compare the Fast Metrics to the Process Map, the analysis is often more interesting.

The following figure shows the Fast Metrics and Process Map for a large insurance firm. This firm wants to analyze its Workforce Management process, which provides service to the home, with the goal of reducing time to serve.

In this example, the Fast Metrics section indicates that the Process Map includes 20.3k Cases. However, the Process Map also shows that Cases were assigned 26.4k times.

Fast Metrics area shows 20.3k for Cases while the Process Map shows 26.4k for the Assigned activity.

Difference between Fast Metrics and the Process Map

If you are asking, "Why are the numbers different?" or "How can 20,000 Cases be assigned 26,000 times?" then you are already engaged in Process Discovery. The difference in the metrics is a clue that some of the paths loop back to the Assignment activity. To investigate further, you need to view more alternate paths in the Process Map that fall outside of the "happy path" shown in the figure above.

Pega Process Mining refers to paths as traces. To view more paths, on the left side of the page, in the Traces metric, click the plus sign. Typically, clicking the plus sign for the Traces slider only once or twice provides the answer to this particular question.

For example:

In the following figure, the Process Map includes the following settings:
  • In the lower-left corner of the page, the Zoom slider is set to make the Process Map slightly larger, which makes reading the numbers easier.
  • On the left side of the page, in the Traces metric, the plus sign is clicked once to show more traces in the Process Map.
Showing more traces helps you discover several things about this process. Some Cases transition from Assigned directly to Open, while others are rejected after they are received, but then opened again. The result is that over 6,000 Cases go from an Open activity back to Assigned. This loop explains why the Cases Fast Metric is lower than the Assigned metric, by around 6,000 cases.

Process Map is slightly zoomed in with the Traces slider clicked once. The resulting Process Map shows an arrow from an Open activity back to the Assigned activity with a metric of 6.72k on the arrow line.

Discovering a loop in a process