---
title: "The Expected Order: Perspective Hypothesis, Shortcuts and Backjumps"
url: "https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/the-expected-order-perspective-hypothesis-shortcuts-and-backjumps"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-10-23T08:20:02.798Z"
---

# The Expected Order: Perspective Hypothesis, Shortcuts and Backjumps

How the expected order of a perspective works and how Noreja reads it, how to build it in the Builder, what shortcuts and backjumps allow, and why you should mark all of them.

Every perspective describes in which order its activities are expected to happen. Noreja compares each case with this expected order and shows where cases deviate. This page explains how the expected order works and how Noreja reads it, what shortcuts and backjumps are, and what to keep in mind when you model them. In the Builder, the expected order is the step **Perspective hypothesis**; the summary calls it **Causal hypothesis**. The resulting deviations are explained in [Process Patterns: Disarray, Negligence, Rework and Allowed Deviations](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/process-pattern-types).

### What the Expected Order Is

The expected order is a graph of activities and relationships: a relationship from "Bestellung erstellt" to "rechnung erfassung" says that an invoice is expected to be entered after the order was created. It describes cause and effect, not a strict timetable: Noreja checks whether activities that depend on each other happened in the right order.

![The step Perspective hypothesis in the Builder for Purchase-to-Pay: the list of available activities on the left and the expected order as a graph, with two relationships marked as shortcuts](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/8b0dcfad-4903-4006-9d70-5f791d2e0931)

### What a Relationship in the Expected Order Means

-   **Normal relationship**: a relationship from A to B says that B is expected after A and depends on A. A case where B happens before A breaks the order (Disarray); a case that skips an expected activity is incomplete (Negligence).
-   **Shortcut**: a relationship marked as **Shortcut** allows skipping the activities in between. Taking it counts as Simplification, not as Negligence.
-   **Backjump**: a relationship marked as **Backjump** allows going back to an earlier activity. Going back along it counts as Reorder, not as Disarray.

A shortcut or a backjump excuses exactly the pair of activities it connects, nothing else. A backjump doesn't excuse Rework.

### Branches Mean "All of Them"

An activity can have several outgoing relationships, such as "Bestellung erstellt" leading to hardware items, software items and invoice entry. Activities on different branches are not compared with each other in time.

When several relationships lead into an activity, all of them are expected before it. So when branches join again, a case that leaves out one of them before the joining activity is incomplete (Negligence). Noreja has no "either – or" between branches. To allow one activity instead of another, add a direct relationship around it and mark it as **Shortcut**.

### Start and End

Cases are expected to begin at the start activities and finish at the end activities: those you mark as **Start activity** or **End activity**, plus every activity without incoming relationships (start) or outgoing relationships (end). A case that begins or ends somewhere else counts as Negligence and is shown as an unexpected start or end.

### Build the Expected Order

You need the permission to edit the perspective (**Builder**: Edit). Every change is saved immediately; there is no save button. For the whole perspective setup, see [Create a Perspective](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/crafting-a-dimension-causal-hypothesis).

-   Open the perspective in the Builder. The first step is **Perspective hypothesis**.
-   Drag activities from **Available activities** onto the canvas, or click the arrow next to an activity (**Add activity**). An activity without any relationship shows a red exclamation mark.
-   Switch to **Add paths** and drag from one activity to the next to draw a relationship. Switch back to **Move activities** to arrange them.
-   Right-click an activity to mark it as **Start activity** or **End activity**, or to **Delete** it.
-   Right-click a relationship to mark it as **Shortcut** or **Backjump** (see below), or to **Delete** it.

**Suggest perspective (AI)** lets Minerva put all activities of the entity in a likely order; this takes 10 to 40 seconds. It replaces what is on the canvas without asking, and it doesn't set the case ID, start or end activities. Check the result before you import.

> **Important:** Changes to the expected order take effect with the next import. Start it with **Import** in the perspective list. Until then, the Analyzer and dashboards show the results of the last import. See [Import Entities and Perspectives: Status and Errors](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/import-entities-and-perspectives-status-and-errors).

### Shortcuts: Allowed Skips

A **Shortcut** (») marks a relationship that skips activities and is allowed to. Cases that take it don't count as having skipped the activities in between: the step is shown as a *Simplification*, not as a *Negligence*.

Purchase-to-Pay marks two shortcuts: from "Bestellung erstellt" directly to "rechnung erfassung", and from "rechnung erfassung" to "rechnung freigegeben\\\_am", bypassing "Manuelle Klärung".

### Backjumps: Allowed Jumps Back

A **Backjump** (circular arrow) marks a relationship that leads back to an earlier activity, for example from an invoice approval back to invoice entry when an invoice has to be corrected. Cases that go back along it don't count as having done things in the wrong order: the step is shown as a *Reorder*, not as a *Disarray*. A backjump does not excuse *Rework*.

A relationship can be a shortcut or a backjump, not both.

### Mark All Shortcuts and Backjumps

Mark every relationship that is meant as a shortcut or a backjump. Then the expected order says exactly what is allowed, and the results don't depend on guesses.

The reason is how Noreja treats unmarked relationships:

-   **At least one relationship marked**: only the marked relationships count as shortcuts and backjumps, for the whole perspective. An unmarked relationship that skips activities is treated as a normal expected relationship: taking it isn't a violation, but isn't counted as Simplification either.
-   **No relationship marked**: Noreja guesses during the import. A relationship that closes a loop counts as a backjump; a relationship that bypasses another path between the same activities counts as a shortcut. The guess can differ from what you mean.

So when you add a shortcut or a backjump to an existing perspective, check whether other relationships need marking too.

> **Important:** When relationships are marked, every loop in the expected order must contain a relationship marked as **Backjump**. Otherwise the import stops with an error that asks you to mark one.

### Check the Expected Order against the Data

After an import, **Show violations** displays the violations found in the data (Disarray, Negligence and Rework) between activities on the canvas that have no relationship in the expected order, as red dashed lines with how often they occurred. Rework lines run from the later activity back to the changed one; they aren't steps that cases took. Right-click such a line to add it to the expected order as a normal relationship (**Causal**), as a **Reorder** (backjump) or as a **Shortcut**. Adding a Rework line as a backjump doesn't excuse the Rework. Use the slider next to it to hide rare deviations.

Take frequent deviations seriously: they can mean that the process really runs differently than planned, or that the expected order is incomplete.

### How the Expected Order Shows in the Process Graph

| In the legend | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Conformance path** | A relationship the cases took. Every relationship that isn't a violation or hypothetical path is drawn this way, so a grey arrow alone doesn't prove that the step was as expected. |
| **Violation path** | A relationship that belongs to a violation (Disarray, Negligence, Rework), drawn red and curved when **Violation patterns** are switched on. |
| **Hypothetical path**, **Omitted path** | Expected relationships that the cases didn't take, shown with **Hypothetical behavior**. |

Simplifications look like normal relationships; a reorder is drawn as a detour around the other activities. Show both with **Path highlighting** → **Simplifications** or **Reorder**. See [Elements in Noreja Process Graphs](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/elements-in-noreja-process-graphs) and [Work with the Process View](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/process-view).

### Related

-   [Process Patterns: Disarray, Negligence, Rework and Allowed Deviations](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/process-pattern-types)
-   [Create a Perspective](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/crafting-a-dimension-causal-hypothesis)
-   [Perspective Modelling Best Practices](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/perspective-modelling-best-practices)
-   [Elements in Noreja Process Graphs](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/elements-in-noreja-process-graphs)
-   [Process Models and Levels: Case, Variant, Process Model](https://docs.noreja.com/en/article/process-models-and-levels-case-variant-process-model)