Concept: BP Optimize Process Improvement Skill

The Process Improvement skill of the BP Optimize Agent enables you to:

Analyze business process data.
Visualize metrics data.
Compare with benchmark data.
Review Benchmarking Insights.
Observe anomalous trends.
Identify anomalies and root causes.
Generate optimization recommendations.
Implement optimization recommendations.
Ask questions about business process optimization.

You can access the Process Improvement skill on the

BP Optimize Agent

report to:

Analyze the performance of a specific business process, select it on the chart and click
Inspect
.
Adjust benchmark data by clicking the filter icon and scrolling down to the
Industry Benchmarking
section of the filter panel.
Ask questions using natural language by clicking the Workday agent chat bubble icon and selecting the
BP Optimize Agent
.

The Process Improvement skill uses the execution details of configured business processes and their corresponding steps. By default, the dashboard displays business processes by:

Functional Group: The
BP Optimize Agent
dashboard displays a tab for each of your company’s licensed product areas (example: Extend, Spend, Talent, Workforce). The default tab is
Workforce
.
Time Period: The default time period is the last completed quarter of the standard calendar year. Example: In April 2026, the last completed quarter is Q1 2026, which is January to March of 2026.
You can modify the
Time Period
filter, either by month or by quarter.
The agent uses calendar months to determine quarters, not the fiscal year.
Business Process and Business Process Definition: The
Business Process
filter preselects the business process types associated with the top 5 business process definitions that took the longest to complete in the specified time period.
The
Business Process Definition
filter lists the active business process definitions for the selected business process types.
Adjust the filter to focus on the business processes you want to analyze.
Metrics: By default, the graph displays the Time to Completion (Hours), which is the average number of hours it took the business processes to complete. You can select
Send Back
, which shows the percentage of events that are sent back.

The Process Improvement skill enables you to view business process performance data for successfully completed, rescinded, cancelled, and terminated events in these formats:

Bar Chart: This default view displays the average completion time of business process definitions that meet the filter criteria. Click a bar to inspect the business process execution details.
If benchmark data is available, a line across the bar chart represents the benchmark data. See Compare with Benchmark Data.
Table: The table displays execution metrics, including average completion time and send backs. The metrics include baseline (tenant values) and benchmark values, if any. You can sort the columns by clicking the funnel to display these types of metrics:
Average
: The average value of a metric.
Maximum
: The maximum value of a metric.
Minimum
: The minimum value of a metric.
p50
: The p50, or median, is the value below which 50 percent of the observed metric values lie for the tenant or the benchmark in the selected time period. Example: 50 percent of events are completed in 20 hours, while the other 50 percent take longer.
p95
: The p95 is the value below which 95 percent of the observed metric values lie for the tenant or the benchmark in the selected time period. Example: 95 percent of events are completed in 37 hours, while the remaining 5 percent take longer.
Line Chart: This view displays the trend of business process performance over a specified period. You can click each point to see more business process execution details.

To export bar charts and line charts as PDF or image files:

On a bar chart or line chart, click
Related Actions
.
Select
Download as PDF
or
Download as PNG
.

For easy reference and data analysis, you can also export tables to CSV and Excel formats. The exports include all the available values. (Example: Average, Maximum, p95.)

If benchmark data is available, the bar chart displays a benchmark line across the business process bars. When there is only 1 business process definition, the benchmark data is displayed as a black dot, instead of a horizontal line. The benchmark lines enable you to compare your company’s business process performance with other companies in the same industry, region, and company size. The

Table

view also includes benchmark metrics.

The BP Optimize Agent generates benchmark data by:

Averaging execution data across customers that share these criteria: industry, region, and enterprise size.
Determining a tenant’s benchmark group by referencing the tenant’s details within Workday records.

The BP Optimize Agent doesn’t display benchmark data when there aren't enough customers in the tenant’s benchmarking peer cohort to meet the minimum configured threshold.

When you inspect a business process, you can view deeper comparative insights that identify exactly how your business processes perform compared to your peer cohort.

The

Benchmarking

section:

Highlights areas where your business process performance falls behind or exceeds your industry, region, and company size benchmarks.
Analyzes step-level executions to identify up to 5 specific steps with the highest duration for your tenant.
Compares configuration differences between your tenant and your best-performing peers at both at the definition level and across those 5 steps to generate actionable optimization recommendations. The agent doesn’t display comparison data when your benchmarking peer cohort lacks sufficient customers.
Evaluates only the quarter that you selected.
Includes events with a status of
Successfully Completed
,
Rescinded
,
Canceled
, or
Process Terminated
.
Excludes any step configured after the
Completion
step. The agent considers a business process complete even if the workflow progresses beyond this step.

When you select a business process on a chart or table and click

Inspect

, the inspect page opens in a separate tab where you can view deeper trend insights that help you identify anomalies, patterns, or changes in business process performance over time.

The

Trends

section:

Displays how a specific business process performed in the selected time period compared to the preceding time period. Example: When Q1 2025 is the selected time period, the agent compares the business process performance in the tenant between Q1 2026 and Q4 2025.
Includes only events that are initiated and complete within the selected time period. The agent excludes events that start in one period but complete in a subsequent period. Example: When Q1 2026 is the selected time period, the agent compares only events initiated and completed in Q1 2026 with events initiated and completed in Q4 2025. It excludes events started in Q1 2026 but completed in Q2 2026.
Includes events with a status of
Successfully Completed
,
Rescinded
,
Canceled
, or
Process Terminated
.
Excludes any step configured after the
Completion
step. The agent considers a business process complete even when the workflow progresses beyond this step.
Displays optimization recommendations when business process performance trends slower. It does not display recommendations when a business process trends faster than in the previous time period.
Identifies root causes for the trend.
The agent identifies significant changes in step-level executions between the two time periods and determines which steps had the greatest impact on the business process performance change. It also calculates the percentage contribution of each identified step to indicate its relative impact.

When you inspect a business process, you can view anomalous execution patterns, which identify problematic business processes that need to be resolved or optimized.

The

Anomalies

section:

Highlights any unusual business process executions, and describes how a specific business process performed within the specified time period.
Includes events with a status of
Successfully Completed
,
Rescinded
,
Canceled
, or
Process Terminated
.
Includes events that complete within the selected time period, even when the events started prior to the selected time period. Example: When Q1 2026 is the selected time period, the agent identifies anomalies on business processes completed in Q1 2026, including completed events that started before Q1 2026.
Excludes any step configured after the
Completion
step. The agent considers a business process complete even when the workflow progresses beyond this step.
Lists the top root causes and key contributing steps for the anomalous transactions.
The agent analyzes events identified as anomalous in the selected time period and identifies the steps that had the greatest negative impact on the business process performance.
The agent displays:
The metric measured for the root cause, such as duration, send backs, or reassignment.
Specific steps that contribute to the anomaly, including the count of events in which that step is detected as anomalous, the average time taken by that step in those events, and the total occurrences of that anomaly (such as sent backs or reassignment).

The BP Optimize Agent provides optimization recommendations for trend insights and anomalous execution patterns. Note that the agent displays the

Trends

section only when a business process trends slower than in the previous time period.

When you review the insights in the

Trends and Anomalies

sections, the agent:

Dynamically generates tailored recommendations in real time instead of relying on pre-computed data. This generation process can take up to 1 minute.
Formulates actionable advice to assist you in resolving and optimizing problematic business process steps. The BP Optimize Agent language model uses the Workday Administrator Guide, Workday Community, and other expert Workday knowledge sources.
Provides reference links under
Learn More
, when available.

If recommendations fail to generate and you get an error message, try to generate the recommendations again.

Although the BP Optimize Agent tailors the recommendations according to the reported anomalies, always carefully review the generated optimization recommendations and determine how they fit your organization and specific business processes. There might be optimization opportunities beyond the provided recommendations.

After you implement a recommendation or make a configuration change to a business process, you can:

View the line chart on the
BP Optimize Agent
dashboard. The line chart enables you to analyze the business process performance and identify any performance changes.
Use the BP Optimize Agent to review the latest trends, anomaly insights and benchmarks. By iteratively using the agent, you can identify further optimization opportunities and recommendations.