Demonstrating the Effectiveness of Process Improvement Patterns

Improving the operational efficiency of processes is an important goal of business process management (BPM). There exist many proposals with regard to process improvement patterns (PIPs) as practices that aim at supporting this task. Nevertheless, there is still a gap with respect to validating PIPs in terms of their actual business value for a specific organization. Based on empirical research and experience from consulting projects, this paper proposes a method to tackle this challenge. Our approach towards a-priori validation of process improvement patterns considers real-world constraints such as the role of senior stakeholders and opportunities such as process mining techniques. In the sense of an experience report, our approach as well as results are illustrated on the basis of a real-world business process from human resources management, covering a transactional volume of about 29,000 process instances over the period of one year. Overall, our proposal enables practitioners and researchers to subject PIPs to a sound validation procedure before taking any process implementation decision

Engineering an Advanced Location-Based Augmented Reality Engine for Smart Mobile Devices

Daily business routines more and more require to access information systems in a mobile manner, while preserving a desktop-like feeling at the same time. The goal of this work is to outline the engineering process of a sophisticated mobile service running on a smartphone. More precisely, we show how to develop the core of a location-based augmented reality engine for the iPhone 4S based on the operating system iOS 5.1 (or higher). We denote this engine as AREA. In particular, we develop concepts for coping with limited resources on a mobile device, while providing a smooth user augmented reality experience at the same time. We further present and develop a suitable application architecture in this context, which easily allows integrating augmented reality with a wide range of applications

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

Tendências do BPM

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoAtualmente, as organizações encontram-se inseridas em ambientes de mercado cada vez mais competitivos, deparando-se com várias dificuldades, em que face a estas, necessitam de encontrar soluções. Por essa razão, viram o BPM como uma solução para melhorar o seu negócio. Um dos objetivos do BPM é ter a capacidade de identificar, monitorar e otimizar processos de negócio cujo resultado final é um conjunto de atividades realizadas. Com base nesta monitorização e otimização, as organizações tornam-se capazes de identificar possíveis lacunas nos seus processos e com isto melhorá-los. Com isto, verificou-se a falta de informação existente cientificamente em relação à identificação de novas tendências para o BPM. Neste sentido, com este trabalho propomos realizar uma investigação seguindo a metodologia de pesquisa em Design Science Research, em que iniciamos uma pesquisa de levantamento de tendência seguindo a abordagem proposta por Webster e Watson (2002), com base em duas conferências internacionais em BPM de ranking elevado, em que se identificou os tópicos mais abordados como também problemas e soluções desde 2013 até 2015. Posteriormente, com informação recolhida ao longo de três anos, através da criação de um framework identificamos algumas tendências para o BPM, de forma a melhorá-lo. Para garantir a credibilidade dos resultados, através da criação de um inquérito por questionário realizou-se a avaliação dos resultados obtidos.Nowadays, the market gets more and more competitive, thus companies need to learn how to manage and find the right solutions for their business when facing challenges. For that reason, they saw BPM as a great tool to expand their business. One of the features of BPM is the capacity to identify, monetize and optimize processes within the business which ultimately allow for an aggregation of performed activities. Thanks to these features, the business have been capable of identifying possible gaps in their processes and how to improve them. With this, it was verified the lack of scientific information regarding the identification of new trends for BPM. Therefore, with this work we propose to conduct an investigation that follows the searching methodology in Design Science Research, where we initiate a search of lifting trends as proposed by Webster and Watson (2002). This is based on two international conferences on BPM, in which it identified the most discussed topics and also the problems and solutions since 2013 until 2015. After this investigation, with collected information over 3 years, through the creation of framework we identify some BPM trends. To approve this results, we created a survey that was held an evaluation of the final results

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

Robuste und kontextbezogene Ausführung mobiler Aktivitäten in Prozessumgebungen

IT-Trendanalysten sehen das Thema "Mobilität" als eine wichtige Säule nachhaltiger IT-Lösungen. Der Trend in Richtung mobiler IT-Anwendungen wird maßgeblich durch Millenials getrieben, d.h. Menschen die mit dem digitalen Zeitalter aufgewachsen sind. Diese erwarten insbesondere auch eine Integration von Smart-Mobilgeräten in bestehende IT-Lösungen. In Bezug auf Prozess-Management-Technologie bedeutet dieser Trend, dass Smart-Mobilgeräte in IT-gestützte Arbeits- bzw. Prozessabläufe nahtlos integriert werden können müssen. Insbesondere sollten sowohl einzelne Aktivitäten (d.h. Prozessschritte) als auch ganze Prozessfragmente (d.h. Ausschnitte eines Prozesses) auf Smart-Mobilgeräten ausführbar sein. Die vorliegende Arbeit adressiert eine solche Integration von Prozess-Management-Technologie und Smart-Mobilgeräten. Konkret wird untersucht, wie ausgewählte Aktivitäten eines Prozesses robust und kontextbezogen auf Smart-Mobilgeräten ausgeführt werden können und welche weitergehenden Anforderungen sich für mobil ausgeführte Aktivitäten im Vergleich zur Ausführung von Aktivitäten auf stationären Systemen ergeben. Da Smart-Mobilgeräte beschränkte Ressourcen besitzen und das Risiko eines Ausfalls höher als bei stationären Systemen ist, erfordern diese Aspekte tiefergehende Untersuchungen. Darüber hinaus erfordert die Unterstützung mobiler Aktivitäten eine technische Umgebung, in der Prozesse ausgeführt werden (sog. Prozessumgebung). Die Arbeit zeigt, dass die nahtlose Integration von Smart-Mobilgeräten in eine Prozessumgebung einen mobilen Kontext (d.h. Attribute wie z.B. Ausführungsort, Geräteeigenschaften und Netzverbindung) erfordert. Auf dessen Basis wird ein umfassendes Rahmenwerk eingeführt, mit dem sich mobile Aktivitäten robust und kontextbezogen in einer Prozessumgebung ausführen lassen. Das Rahmenwerk fußt auf fünf technischen Säulen, deren Konzepte die robuste und kontextbezogene Ausführung bewerkstelligen. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt, wie sich die vorgestellte Lösung in existierende Prozess-Management-Technologie integrieren lässt. Insgesamt eröffnet eine robuste und kontextbezogene Ausführung mobiler Aktivitäten in einer Prozessumgebung neue Perspektiven für die Einbindung von Endanwendern in ihre Prozesse

Demonstrating the effectiveness of process improvement patterns with mining results

Improving the operational efficiency of processes is an important goal of business process management (BPM). There exist many proposals with regard to process improvement patterns (PIPs) as practices that aim at supporting this task. Nevertheless, there is still a gap with respect to validating PIPs in terms of their actual business value for a specific organization. Based on empirical research and experience from consulting projects, this paper proposes a method to tackle this challenge. Our approach towards a-priori validation of process improvement patterns considers real-world constraints such as the role of senior stakeholders and opportunities such as process mining techniques. In the sense of an experience report, our approach as well as results are illustrated on the basis of a real-world business process from human resources management, covering a transactional volume of about 29,000 process instances over the period of one year. Overall, our proposal enables practitioners and researchers to subject PIPs to a sound validation procedure before taking any process implementation decision