Time and cost

Priority

The level of importance for the activity with 1 being the highest priority and 10 being the lowest. Setting the priority ensures the highest priority activities are picked up first. Activities are processed sorted by the due date and then by priority.

Target duration

The expected duration required to complete the activity. The target duration helps to gauge productivity.

For example, if the expected duration of an activity is 5 minutes, the user must spend no more than 5 minutes on the activity. A user who spends 10 minutes instead of 5 has a 50% productivity rating. Use one of the following options:

• Time: Specify fixed target duration in days, hours, minutes, and/or seconds.
• Variable: Specify dynamic duration using a Short or Long variable. If the required variable is not available, you can create a new variable directly from the activity properties panel. See Create a process variable while configuring activity properties.

Target due date

The due date when the activity is expected to complete. The target due date can be calculated based on the target duration, variable, or milestone.

• Target duration: The due date is calculated as the target duration from the time the activity becomes available. If a lead time is used, then activity due date = target duration + lead time. For example, if the target duration of an activity is 4 hours, its lead time is set to 2 hours and the activity becomes available at 12:00, the due date of the activity is 18:00 (depending on the business calendar). If the user takes an activity at 13:30 and completes it by 17:30, the activity is not overdue. However, if the user takes the activity at 16:00 and completes it at 20:00, the activity is overdue by 2 hours.
• Variable: The activity due date is calculated as the value given for the due date. If you specify the lead time, the activity due date is calculated as variable +/- lead time. If the business calendar is enabled, due dates are calculated based on working days and hours. For example, one working day is equal to 8 hours rather than 24 hours.

  If the required variable is not available, you can create a new variable directly from the activity properties panel.

• Milestone: The due date is calculated based on the selected milestone. If you specify the lead time, the activity due date is calculated as milestone +/- lead time.

Lead time

The period when the user may take the activity. For example, if set to 2 days, the user can take the activity any time during the 2 days.

The lead time can be negative (Before) or positive (After).

For example, if the value of Goods Delivered milestone = 17-02-2012 17:00, the target duration of Final Check activity = x variable, and Lead Time = -1 hour. This means that the Final Check activity must be completed 1 hour before the Goods Delivered milestone is reached.

OR

If the value of Goods Delivered milestone = 17-02-2012 17:00, the target duration of Goods Received activity = x variable, and Lead Time = 1 day. This means that the Goods Received activity must be completed 1 day after the Goods Delivered milestone is reached.

The negative lead time cannot be set if the target duration is used to calculate the activity due date.

Pending delay duration

The period for which the activity is delayed from becoming pending. For example, the activity is delayed by 2 hours if set to 2 hours.

At runtime, when you create a job and evaluate the activity:

• The activity status remains "On Hold" during the pending delay duration. The status is updated back to its previous state such as "Pending", or "Awaiting events" once the pending delay duration is over.

• If the job and the activity are on hold, and when the job is reactivated and the pending delay duration of the activity is passed, then the activity status is updated to its previous state.

The Pending delay duration setting is not available for "Synchronous" maps and process debugging.

Service level agreement

See Service level agreement.

See Activity triggers.

Expected cost

The overall expected cost of the activity upon completion.

Fixed cost

The cost of the activity irrespective of the length (duration).