We’ve just finished migrating the Bonita Open Solution Simulation Guide from its ancient PDF format into the new online documentation system.
This should make it a bit easier to find the bit of information you need as you configure simulation.
You can use simulation in Bonita Open Solution to evaluate the way a process runs in multiple iterations, under different resource availabilities and different load profiles.
A simulation runs a specified number of iterations over a specified period of time, using either simulated data or assigned probabilities, and the cumulated result of all iterations is shown in a report.
At the process level, you’ll need to define resources needed needed at various steps in the process.
You can choose to define simulation parameters on individual tasks (e.g., data to fill variables, resources needed to complete a task, and more) and transitions (e.g., conditions using simulation variables, or probabilities that the process will take one path or another.)
And again at the process level, define a load profile which will be used to characterize the iterations of the process to be run in the simulation.
Running a simulation produces and exports a report which details what happened at the process and task level in the simulation.
Inside the documentation, there is a how-to tutorial for each of the simulation parameters that you might want to define (see below). There is also a new video available, Overview of Simulation Feature (thanks to Frederic Bouquet), that shows where to find the various places to configure simulation parameters and characteristics.
Overview of Simulation Feature is also available from the video library:
BOS 5.6 includes an example process called Delivery-Simulation, which illustrates how to configure a very simple simulation, using two processes with the same steps but slightly different flows. Try running both to see and compare the simulation reports. You can find this example from the Welcome page of Bonita Studio:
More improvements are on the way. Stay tuned!