6. Specifying diagram simulation properties and simulate
Select Edit > Diagram Properties (or right mouse-click an empty spot of the diagram workspace and choose Diagram Properties) and in the Sim Diagram tab of the Diagram Properties dialog, add a new Simulation Parameters definition called CreditCheckSimulation.
1 Click Define for the CreditCheckSimulation definition, and specify the simulation run-time parameters specified in the picture below.
2 Select Tools > SA Simulator > Run Simulation.
3 In SA Viewer, observe the buildup that occurs at the Credit Check Approved event – credit checks for reservations are not being handled as quickly as we need them to be by the third-party Credit Check company. We also see that there is a build up of a queue for even asking the Credit Check company to process credit checks (at the Check Customer Credit process). We would want to double-check our model to make sure we have captured the current real-world business scenario correctly, and if so, we would need to make provisions with the Credit Check company to handle the number of credit checks we will be processing.
That is the end of this tutorial on simulating BPMN Business Process diagrams. There is a lot we have not covered with simulation – applying resources, for example, and costs.
Resources are covered in a tutorial on simulating IDEF3 Process Flow diagrams (see Simulation of IDEF3 Process Flows), another business modeling notation.
