• XPDL 2.1 Proposals

Activity Cost Structure

Adding detailed cost structure to simulation allows for greater comparison with real time results gathered from business activity monitoring tools as well as capturing greater detail typically housed in process engineering tools.

Note the new element below housed inside the SimulationInformation element, namely CostStructure.

<xsd:element name="SimulationInformation">
    <xsd:complexType>
	<xsd:sequence>
	    <xsd:element ref="xpdl:Cost"/>
	    <xsd:element ref="xpdl:TimeEstimation"/>
	    <xsd:element ref="CostStructure" />
	    <xsd:any namespace="##other" processContents="lax"
                  minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	</xsd:sequence>
	<xsd:attribute name="Instantiation">
	    <xsd:simpleType>
		<xsd:restriction base="xsd:NMTOKEN">
		    <xsd:enumeration value="ONCE"/>
		    <xsd:enumeration value="MULTIPLE"/>
		</xsd:restriction>
	    </xsd:simpleType>
	</xsd:attribute>
	<xsd:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax"/>
    </xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>

The definition of CostStructure is below

<xsd:element name="CostStructure">
    <xsd:annotation>
	<xsd:documentation>
        Activities incur costs in a number of way, the use up 
        resources which may be people, machines, services, computers,
        office space, etc.  Activities also use up fixed costs which
        may be assigned on an activity by activity basis, thus allowing
        for the assignment of overhead.  Fixed costs are assigned in bulk,
        that is to say there is one fixed cost per activity.  However
        resource costs are assigned on a resource by resource basis,
        each one having a cost and an associated time unit.
        </xsd:documentation>
    </xsd:annotation>
    <xsd:complexType>
        <xsd:choice>
	    <xsd:element ref="xpdl:ResourceCosts" minOccurs="0" 
                 maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	    <xsd:element name="FixedCost" type="xsd:integer"/>
	</xsd:choice>
    </xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>

<xsd:element name="ResourceCosts">
    <xsd:complexType>
	<xsd:sequence>
	    <xsd:element name="ResourceCostName">
		<xsd:simpleType>
		    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
   		        <xsd:maxLength value="100"/>
		        <xsd:minLength value="0"/>
		        <xsd:whiteSpace value="preserve"/>
		    </xsd:restriction>
		</xsd:simpleType>
	    </xsd:element>
	    <xsd:element name="ResourceCost">
		<xsd:simpleType>
		    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:decimal">
		        <xsd:fractionDigits value="2"/>
		    </xsd:restriction>
		</xsd:simpleType>
	    </xsd:element>
	    <xsd:element name="CostUnitOfTime">
		<xsd:simpleType>
		    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:NMTOKEN">
			<xsd:enumeration value="second"/>
			<xsd:enumeration value="minute"/>
			<xsd:enumeration value="hour"/>
		    </xsd:restriction>
		</xsd:simpleType>
	    </xsd:element>
	</xsd:sequence>
    </xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>

Discussion at Oct 11 Meeting

This simply extends the way that one can define the cost of an activity. Decided to include this in the 2.1 release of the XPDL spec.