Goal-oriented design of value and process models from patterns

This thesis defines a design framework and a method for modelling networked businesses. The intended application domain is electronic businesses that extensively use information and communication technology to coordinate work. The key property of the proposed approach is the reuse of design knowledge in the form of design patterns. Design patterns are extracted from models of existing electronic intermediaries considered successful. These businesses have been reverse-engineered to two types of models: economic value exchange models and business process models. The identified patterns comprise two libraries of value exchange and business process patterns, respectively. Patterns are catalogued with, among others, their context, solved problem, and proposed solution. Most importantly, they are annotated with a machine-readable\ud capability model used as a search key in the library. Capability models are part of the goal-modelling technique for business requirements proposed here. Our goal-modelling technique operationalizes each business goal with a variable and an evaluation function: the evaluation function determines when a measured variable value satisfies the goal. A goal model represents requirements if goals are assigned evaluation functions but the variable values are unknown. In such a case, the goal model specifies what is desired to happen. If, on the other hand, variable values are known, the goal model documents the capabilities of a pattern. The proposed design framework structures the development process into: (1) available design knowledge in libraries of value and process patterns, (2) business requirements captured in a goal model, and (3) economic value and business process perspectives to look at a business system. The design method prescribes steps to transform patterns and requirements into a system specification. These include: (i) identification of relevant pattern based on matching capability and requirements goal models; (ii) synthesis of value and process patterns into value and process models, respectively; and (iii) consistency check procedure for value and process model.\ud The usefulness of the approach is demonstrated in a real-life example, which shows that the framework and method exhibit a predefined set of desired properties

Auditing business process compliance

Compliance issues impose significant management and reporting requirements upon organizations.We present an approach to enhance business process modeling notations with the capability to detect and resolve many broad compliance related issues. We provide a semantic characterization of a minimal revision strategy that helps us obtain compliant process models from models that might be initially non-compliant, in a manner that accommodates the structural and semantic dimensions of parsimoniously annotated process models. We also provide a heuristic approach to compliance resolution using a notion of compliance patterns. This allows us to partially automate compliance resolution, leading to reduced levels of analyst involvement and improved decision support

Interaction-driven definition of e-business processes

Business-to-business interaction (B2Bi) is the next step for corporate IT [1]. Business relationships become increasingly dynamic, and new requirements emerge for data and process management. Standardisation initiatives are successfully targeting business ontology [4]. Still, business agility mainly depends on the flexibility of the business processes of a company. In the B2B space, traditional approaches to process modelling and management are inadequate. Today more than ever, traditional workflow management is crucial for the internal effectiveness of a company. Internal efficiency is a prerequisite for external agility. From both a technical and a business perspective, internal workflow management relies on specific assumptions in terms of resources involved in the process, as well as the process itself [2]. Level of control, availability, reliability, and cost stability are parameters that traditional process models and technology can almost take for granted. A single authority ruling on the process definition and the total control over process execution are also basic concepts for internal workflows. From a business perspective, a big upfront investment is put in the complete definition of process specifications. A different conceptual framework is required for the definition and management of e-business processes [3, 5]. The intrinsic capability to adapt to rapidly changing business requirements becomes crucial. The line of research explored in this paper derives from an approach to process modelling and management that explicitly targets the peculiarities and dynamics of B2Bi. In the model we propose, the upfront specification of the interaction logic of a company can be limited to partially specified processes and basic interaction rules. Specific information is then gathered from the observation of actual instances of business interaction, and used to refine and extend the initial model. In addition to the enforcement of explicit business requirement, the goal is to capture and leverage implicit operational knowledge. In the following sections, we present an overview of the methodology we are currently experimenting with for the inference of complex processes from business interaction flows. For our initial experiments, we focus on business messages compliant with the RosettaNet standard [4]

Critical success factors of business process management:investigating the coverage of business process (management) maturity models

Business Process Management (BPM) aims to improve the quality of business processes by consolidating the concepts of modelling, reengineering, automation, management, and innovation. Tailoring multi-faceted BPM to specific contexts of organizations on the ground of fast-growing information technology is the challenge of the current decade. A considerable number of critical success factors (CSFs) for BPM has been proposed by various studies in the scientific literature to provide insight into the process of achieving BPM. However, only few of these studies propose guidelines/practices for addressing the CSFs. This study is intended to provide a state-of-the-art of CSFs of BPM by a systematic review of scientific literature and to investigate content coverage of business process maturity models as a potential enabler of realization of these CSFs. We searched the studies between the years 2000 and 2015 in established digital libraries and identified 14 CSF categories from 18 studies out of 242 studies retrieved initially. Following that, we searched for evidence on the existence of each CSF category in five maturity models, namely Business Process Management Capability Framework (BPM-CF), Business Process Orientation Maturity Model (BPO-MM), Business Process Orientation Maturity Framework (BPO-MF), Business Process Maturity Model (OMG-BPMM), and Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM). The findings from our investigation show that, despite the variance in degree of coverage of CSF categories by selected BPMMs, maturity models stand as a promising reference for organizations to start their BPM efforts.\u3cbr/\u3

DEVELOPMENT OF BPM CAPABILITIES – IS MATURITY THE RIGHT PATH?

Business Process Management (BPM) is an influential concept in information systems (IS) research and management practice. While a great number of studies dealt with developing methods, procedures, or tools for BPM, especially process modeling, today the question of how to assess and – from that point on – to develop BPM capabilities in a real-life organization has become key to BPM practice and is becoming a central element in BPM research as well. A plethora of BPM maturity models have been designed for the purpose of guiding the development of BPM capabilities in organizations. In this study, we take a critical perspective on maturity models for BPM capability development and present a case study example where maturity model-based guidance is rendered to be inadequate if not further considering organizational position and environment. Our theory discussion introduces alternative takes on BPM capability development, lays out implications for BPM practice, and presents potentially fruitful paths for future research and theory in the area of BPM capability development

China’s Institutional Architecture: A New Institutional Economics and Organization Theory Perspective on the Links between Local Governance and Local Enterprises

We start our exploration of China’s institutional change by asking what the China experience can tell us about institutional economics and organization theory. We point to under-researched areas such as the formation of firms and the interplay between firms and local politics. Our findings support the dynamic capability approach which concentrates on activities rather than on pre-defined groups and models institution building as a co-operative game between the local business community and local government agencies. We find that the analysis of firms has to set in before they are formed by entrepreneurs and networks and we identify political management as a core competence of these two groups. While this contradicts the conventional view of clientelism or principle agent relations as institutional building blocks, we don’t propose competing models. Instead, we suggest focusing on a dynamic process in which the role of players can change. Faced with the spontaneous emergence of institutions, our concept of institutional architecture captures the fact that the two models can co-exist side by side and that, once the dichotomy between formal and informal institutions is given up, there can be a transition from local patron-client relations to local business-state coordination.entrepreneurship;dynamic capabilities;networks;institutional change;diversity and convergence of institutions

Identification of key process areas in the production on an e-capability maturity model for UK construction organisations

Uptake of e-procurement by construction organisations has been slow (Martin, 2008). Positive e-business achievements in other industries, point towards the potential for the construction industry to accomplish similar results. Since the Modernising Government White paper set targets through best value indicator BV157 for implementation in the public sector, Government has supported many initiatives encouraging e-procurement. These are based on documented efficiency and cost savings (Knudsen, 2003; Minahan and Degan, 2001; McIntosh and Sloan, 2001; Martin, 2008). However, Martin (2003, 2008) demonstrates only a modest increase in the uptake of e-procurement in the UK construction industry. Alshawi et al (2004) identified the significance of possessing a model to sustain the embedment of any business process within an organisation. Saleh and Alshawi (2005) describe a number of model types used to gauge maturity in an organisation. One of these models is the capability maturity model. Paulk et al (1993) released the Software Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in 1991. Since then many CMM’s have evolved. This paper reports on how a CMM based on Drivers and Barriers to e-procurement identified in Eadie et al (2009) can be developed to gauge the maturity of an organisation in relation to e-procurement. This paper presents details of a research project which used factor analysis to produce a set of Key Process Areas (KPA) from the drivers and barriers identified in Eadie et al (2009). These KPAs were then subjected to a mapping process linking them to maturity levels to develop a CMM to analyse the e-procurement capability of construction organisations. The mapping will be reported in a later paper. This termed as e-readiness of organisations will indicate the current state of a construction organisation in terms of its readiness to carry out e-procurement. The paper describes in detail the identification of the KPA’s

BPM Organization and Personnel. Part 3: Governing BPM for Maturity and Value

Building mature Business Process Management (BPM) capability in an organization typically requires many years of commitment. For most organizations, it is advisable to establish a governance body to oversee the development of capabilities and to ensure value is being created. Ideally, the governance body should include representatives from business units and departments that use BPM foundational elements—for example: standards, methods, and models; technologies; training; and consulting—that are provided by the BPM Support Group. The characteristics, perspective, and responsibilities of a BPM Governance Body are discussed in this paper. This white paper series uses the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) BPM Capability Framework, shown in Table 1, as its organizing structure. Examples from various industries will be cited, but throughout this BPM white paper series, the development of BPM capability at Chevron will be featured. A maturity model, with five descriptive levels of maturity covering each of the nine Capability Building Blocks shown in Table 1, can be accessed through IVI