Process Animation

Process Animation

Process animation brings your data to life by showing how cases move through your process over time. By watching the flow, you can immediately identify where processes slow down, accumulate, or deviate.

What Is Process Animation?

Animation visualizes each case as a dot traveling through your process diagram. The dots move according to real timestamps in your data, showing you:

• How cases flow through different activities
• Where cases accumulate (bottlenecks)
• Timing patterns across the process
• Path variations different cases take

It’s like watching a time-lapse of your entire process.

Starting the Animation

Play Controls

The animation controls are in the bottom bar of the dashboard:

Control	Action	Button
Play	Start the animation	Play button
Pause	Pause at current point	Pause button
Timeline	Drag to jump to specific time

Timeline

The timeline shows the date range of your data. As the animation plays, a marker moves along the timeline showing the current point in time.

• Click anywhere on the timeline to jump to that point
• Drag the marker to scrub through time manually

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Speed

Adjust how fast the animation runs by selecting a speed multiplier:

Speed	Use Case
0.1x	Very slow - examine individual case movements in detail
0.2x	Slow - detailed analysis of flow patterns
0.5x	Moderate - balance between detail and overview
1x	Normal speed - default playback
2x	Fast - quick overview of patterns
5x	Very fast - rapid scanning of long time periods
10x	Maximum speed - fastest overview

Use faster speeds for initial exploration, then slow down when you spot something interesting.

Show Tails

When enabled, each dot leaves a trail showing its recent path. This makes it easier to:

• Follow individual cases through the process
• See which paths cases are taking
• Spot loops and rework patterns

Start All at Once

When enabled, all cases begin animating from the start simultaneously rather than appearing at their actual timestamps. This is useful for comparing case paths without time-based distribution. This mode emphasizes path variations and bottlenecks without the influence of timing. If you want to identify the fastest or slowest cases, they will be visually apparent as they move through the process at the same time but with different speeds.

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Export Video Options

Option	Description
Duration (seconds)	Set how long the video recording should be (for example, 10 seconds)
Show process name	Toggle to display the process name in the video
Show time tracker	Toggle to display the current timestamp during playback

Recording the Animation

1. Open the Speed menu and select Export Video
2. Set the Duration for your recording
3. Enable or disable Show process name and Show time tracker as needed
4. Click Record to start capturing
5. The recording starts from the current position and takes approximately the duration you specified

Screenshot Approach

For static presentations:

1. Pause the animation at an interesting moment
2. Take a screenshot using your system tools
3. Annotate the screenshot to highlight key observations

Interacting with Cases

The animated dots representing cases are interactive. You can click or hover on any dot to view details about that specific case.

Viewing Case Details

When you click or hover on a dot, a tooltip appears showing the Case ID of that case.

This is extremely useful when you notice:

• A case moving unusually slow through the process
• A case moving faster than others
• A case looping back to a previous activity
• A case taking an unexpected path

Investigating Anomalies

1. Watch the animation and spot an interesting case
2. Pause the animation (click Pause)
3. Click on the dot to see case details in the Case Explorer

What to Look For

Bottlenecks

When dots pile up at a specific activity, that’s a bottleneck. Cases are arriving faster than they can be processed.

What it looks like: A growing cluster of dots at one activity while other parts of the process are empty.

Rework Loops

When dots travel backwards through the process, that indicates rework: cases returning to earlier steps.

What it looks like: Dots moving against the main flow direction, especially with Show tails enabled.

Timing Patterns

Notice when cases move quickly versus slowly:

• Fast movement: Activities with short processing times
• Slow movement or pauses: Long wait times or processing times
• Bursts: Periodic batch processing

Path Variations

Different cases may take different routes through your process. Animation makes this visible:

• Main highway: Where most cases flow
• Side roads: Less common paths
• Unexpected detours: Deviations worth investigating

Tips for Effective Animation Analysis

1. Start fast, then slow down: Use high speed to get an overview, then slow down when you spot patterns

2. Use with filters: Filter to specific case types or time periods before animating to focus your analysis

3. Pause and investigate: When you see something interesting, pause and click on the accumulated cases to investigate further

4. Compare time periods: Animate each period in turn to see how the flow changed between them

5. Show stakeholders: Animation is effective for communicating findings to non-technical audiences

Related topics

• Using Filters - Filter data before animating
• Case Explorer - Investigate specific cases you spot in animation
• Process Simulation - Test changes before you make them