A Performance Assessment System incorporating indirect indicators and semantics

Measuring performance is key to reengineering and optimization of business processes. Although many of them cannot easilybe measured due to their quantitative or non-deterministic nature, most performance measurement systems rely on the usageof numeric parameters (Key Performance Indicators, KPIs). So, performance problems stay invisible that could be assessedby other indirect indicators like goals, complexity, maturity, relations or dependencies. In this paper, a Four-Box-Model ispresented that also includes internal process views, descriptive approaches and semantics in addition to KPIs. It offers a broadrange of possibilities to better identify performance problems and hence, to increase process performance

Designing a Process Guidance System to Support User’s Business Process Compliance

Organizations define business processes specifying how employees should conduct their daily work. They require their employees to conform to defined process standards in order to avoid expensive mistakes and ensure the intended process outcomes. From a research perspective, process compliance has been primarily addressed by process-centric information systems supporting the execution of business processes. However, employees still have difficulties in being process compliant. What is missing is the direct support for users in the proper execution of business processes within the actual work environment. We follow a design science approach to address this gap and suggest a process guidance system supporting user’s business process compliance. Grounded by findings from existing guidance research, we derive meta-requirements and design principles of such systems and evaluate our artifact by two expert workshops discussing the proposed solution

Basic Considerations on Business Process Quality

Quality management practices in manufacturing and logistics have led to proven results for organisations with respect to competitiveness and protability. At the same time, business process management not only addresses a comprehensive functional scope including the ever more important administrative functions and business services, but also contributes to realising potentials (e.g. in the field of process automation) through extensive use of information technology. Integrating quality management with business process management concepts is thus very promising from a business perspective. The evolution of a clear understanding of business process quality constitutes a fundamental prerequisite for progress in this field as only a concise definition will point out the issues that need to be addressed in more detailed research. This report aims at discussing basic considerations in this respect. We look into requirements to be posed towards a definition of business process quality, discuss various basic quality views and their fit with business process management, provide a fundamental if not yet practically applicable business process quality definition, and examine related aspects of business processes as well as related work. While this approach will not lead to a finally applicable definition of business process quality, its contribution will lie in entering into a more systematic discussion to encompass the wide array of existing results that can be correlated with business process quality and giving directions for future research

Effective application of process improvement patterns to business processes

Improving the operational effectiveness and efficiency of processes is a fundamental task of business process management (BPM). There exist many proposals of process improvement patterns (PIPs) as practices that aim at supporting this goal. Selecting and implementing relevant PIPs are therefore an important prerequisite for establishing process-aware information systems in enterprises. Nevertheless, there is still a gap regarding the validation of PIPs with respect to their actual business value for a specific application scenario before implementation investments are incurred. Based on empirical research as well as experiences from BPM projects, this paper proposes a method to tackle this challenge. Our approach toward the assessment of process improvement patterns considers real-world constraints such as the role of senior stakeholders or the cost of adapting available IT systems. In addition, it outlines process improvement potentials that arise from the information technology infrastructure available to organizations, particularly regarding the combination of enterprise resource planning with business process intelligence. Our approach is illustrated along a real-world business process from human resource management. The latter covers a transactional volume of about 29,000 process instances over a period of 1 year. Overall, our approach enables both practitioners and researchers to reasonably assess PIPs before taking any process implementation decision

Designing Process Guidance Systems

Process knowledge is a vital prerequisite for employees to execute organizational processes successfully in the course of their daily work. However, the lack of process knowledge, especially concerning novice users, and the need for support pose a challenge to employers. Inspired by research on spatial knowledge and navigation, we conceptualize three process knowledge types addressing the needs of employees during their process execution. On the basis of these process knowledge types, we derive three theoretically grounded design principles for process guidance systems to support employees’ process execution. We instantiate the design principles and evaluate the resulting artifacts in a laboratory experiment and in a subsequent field study. The results demonstrate the positive effects of process guidance systems on users’ process knowledge and process execution performance. Our study contributes to research and practice by proposing a new conceptualization of process knowledge and a nascent design theory for process guidance systems that builds on theories of spatial knowledge and navigation, as well as decision support research

REVISIÓN BIBLIOGRÁFICA SOBRE LOS PRINCIPIOS DEL SISTEMA DE TRABAJO PARA EL ANÁLISIS Y DISEÑO DE PROCESOS ORGANIZACIONALES

Explaining the design of organizational processes is a paramount issue because the processes specify the knowledge of how the organization works. For this reason, the need to create capacities for the timely detection, planning and execution of analysis projects and design of processes oriented to innovation is imposed, which is complex to systematize, due to the dynamics of change to which organizations are subjected to. In the scientific literature, 10 principles have been synthesized that impact on the components of the work system for the innovation of organizational processes. The research aims to expose the results of a literature review conducted to assess the compliance with such principles in methodological and technological solutions that are oriented to process innovation. From the study of 3633 bibliographical references it has been verified that no solution is in conformity with the totality of the principles, evidencing deficiencies that impact on the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the design of the organizational processes.Explicitar el diseño de los procesos de la organización posee gran importancia debido a que los procesos especifican el conocimiento de cómo la organización funciona. Por tal motivo, se impone la necesidad de crear capacidades para la detección oportuna, planificación y ejecución de proyectos de análisis y diseño de procesos orientados a la innovación, lo que es complejo de sistematizar, a causa de la dinámica de cambio a la que se ven sometidas las organizaciones. En la literatura científica se han sintetizado 10 principios que impactan en los componentes del sistema de trabajo para la innovación de procesos organizacionales. La investigación tiene como objetivo exponer los resultados de la revisión bibliográfica realizada sobre el grado de cumplimiento de los principios en las soluciones metodológicas y tecnológicas que se orientan a la innovación de procesos. A partir del estudio de 3633 referencias bibliográficas se comprueba que ninguna solución está en conformidad con la totalidad de los principios, evidenciando carencias que impactan en la eficacia, eficiencia y sostenibilidad del diseño de los procesos organizacionales

Understanding Business Process Quality

Abstract Organizations have taken benefit from quality management prac-tices in manufacturing and logistics with respect to competitiveness as well as profitability. At the same time, an ever-growing share of the organizational value chain centers around transactional administrative processes addressed by business process management concepts, e.g. in finance and accounting. Integrating these fields is thus very promising from a management perspec-tive. Obtaining a clear understanding of business process quality constitutes the most important prerequisite in this respect. However, related approaches have not yet provided an effective solution to this issue. In this chapter, we consider effectiveness requirements towards business process quality concepts from a management perspective, compare existing approaches from various fields, deduct a definition framework from organizational targets, and take initial steps towards practical adoption. These steps provide fundamental in-sights into business process quality, and contribute to obtain a clear grasp of what constitutes a good business process.

Business Process Quality Management

During the past 25 years, research in the field of business process management as well as the practical adoption of corresponding methods and tools have made substantial progress. In particular, this development was driven by the insight that well-managed business processes enable organizations to better serve their stakeholders, save costs and, ultimately, realize competitive advantage. It is therefore not surprising that improving business processes ranks high on the list of priorities of organizations. In practice, this challenge is currently being addressed through approaches such as benchmarking, industry-specific best practice reference models or process reengineering heuristics. However, no systematic and generic proposition towards managing business process quality has achieved broad acceptance yet. To address this gap, this thesis contributes to the field of business process quality management with the results lined out in the following. First, it defines a concise notion of business process quality based on organizational targets, and applies it to a sample real-world case. This definition is not specific to any particular application field, and thus constitutes a vital first step towards systematic and generic business process quality management. On that basis, an approach is developed to model business objectives in the sense of the requirements that shall be fulfilled by the results of a business process. In turn, this approach enables appraising if a business process achieves its business objective as one of the core criteria relevant to business process quality. Further, this thesis proposes extensions to common business process meta-models which enable quality-aware business process modeling, and demonstrates how fundamental quality characteristics can be derived from corresponding models. At this stage, the results achieved have enabled an advanced understanding of business process quality. By means of these insights, a model of business process quality attributes with corresponding quality criteria is developed. This model complements and exceeds preceding approaches since, for the first time, it systematically derives relevant quality attributes from a business process management perspective instead of adopting these from related fields. It enables appraising business process quality independently of a particular field of application, and deriving recommendations to improve the processes assessed. To enable practical adoption of the concepts developed, the integration of procedures and functionality relevant to quality in business process management lifecycles and system landscapes is discussed next. To establish the contribution of this thesis beyond the previous state of the art, the proposed quality model is then compared to existing business process reengineering practices as well as propositions in the area of business process quality. Further, quality attributes are employed to improve a substantial real-world business process. This experience report demonstrates how quality management practices can be applied even if quality-aware system landscapes are not in place yet. It thus contributes to bridging the gap between the research results proposed in this thesis and the conditions present in practice today. Finally, remaining limitations with regard to the research objectives pursued are discussed, and challenges for future research are lined out. Addressing the latter will enable further leveraging the potentials of business process quality management

Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Konzepts zur Modellierung von Qualitätsinformationen in einem Geschäftsprozessmodell

Die Modellierung von Geschäftsprozessen ist mittlerweile häufig einer der ersten Schritte bei der Entwicklung eines Softwaresystems und umfasst in erster Linie die Modellierung einer Reihe von fachlichen Aufgaben, welche das funktionale Verhalten des Systems beschreiben. Während eine umfassende Abdeckung bzgl. dieser funktionalen Anforderungen des Geschäfts besteht, werden nicht-funktionale, qualitätsbezogene Charakteristika des Prozesses in der Regel nicht identifiziert und systematisch erfasst. Jedoch handelt es sich bei der Erfassung dieser Qualitätsinformationen (QI) um einen wichtigen Aspekt bzgl. der dauerhaft optimalen Durchführung der Prozesse. Solche QI resultieren später in den nicht-funktionalen Anforderungen des geplanten Systems und werden oft erst zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt, nach der eigentlichen Geschäftsprozessmodellierung identifiziert und formuliert. Das kann jedoch dazu führen, dass Qualitätsanforderungen übersehen werden, eine inkonsistente Systemspezifikation entsteht und folglich die Entwicklung verzögert und kostspieliger wird. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde nun ein Konzept zur Modellierung von QI in Geschäftsprozessmodellen entwickelt, dessen Anwendung hilft diese Probleme zu vermeiden. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Ansätzen liegt dabei ein umfassendes Modell zur Definition der Qualität von Geschäftsprozessen zugrunde, welches neben groben Qualitätscharakteristiken auch detaillierte Qualitätsattribute und entsprechende Maßzahlen berücksichtigt. Weiterhin wird das entwickelte Konzept, als Erweiterung der Prozessmodellierungskomponente eines open-source CASE-Tools, prototypisch implementiert und im Rahmen einer Praxis-Studie evaluiert