Business Processes and Flexibility: A Theoretical Perspective

We address the intractable problem of flexibility in business process management: how to deal with variations, unique cases and exceptions? We identify and characterise five conceptualisations of business process. We discuss the main elements and relationships, contracts, and existential and representational properties established by each conceptualisation. For each conceptualisation, we analyse how it impacts flexibility and discuss different strategies for increasing flexibility. Finally, we synthesise our findings in an integrated framework, which helps by relating different conceptualisations of business process with strategies to increase flexibility. This paper makes several conceptual and practical contributions. Considering the former, we disentangle various notions of business process, considering in particular differences between ex ante and ex post, and class and instance. We also highlight that flexibility requires integrating variety and a multi-view over the events defined by a process. Regarding contributions to practice, we propose a framework for organisations to analyse how business processes can be related to flexibility

Modélisation de la variabilité des indicateurs dans le cadre des administrations de services publics

National audienceAdministrations of public services such as water distributors call upon software publishers to implement their business processes and key performance indicators (KPI) required by decision makers and regulation entities. However, in the same business, a process can have several variants and, in this context, the KPI definition and calculation are complexified, having to recalculate an existing KPI, creating a new one or even the impossibility of providing it. This paper proposes elements allowing to define and calculate KPI by considering different reference process' variants.Les administrations de services publics comme les distributeurs d'eau font appel à des éditeurs logiciels pour implémenter leurs processus métier et calculer des indicateurs exigés par décideurs et les autorités de régulation. Cependant, dans un même métier, un processus peut avoir plusieurs variantes et dans ce cadre, le calcul et la définition des indicateurs de performance deviennent complexes pouvant prendre la forme du recalcul d'un indicateur existant, de la création d'un nouvel indicateur, voire même de l'impossibilité de le calculer. Cet article propose des éléments permettant de faciliter la définition et le calcul d'indicateurs clés de performance, prenant en compte différentes variantes d'un processus

A Feature-Based Tool-Selection Classification for Agile Software Development

Abstract-With the advancement in technology, software development complexities are rising across the globe. This trend is forcing companies and organizations to adopt management methods and tools to accelerate time to market, more easily manage changing priorities, increase the customer satisfaction and reduce product expenses. Agile software development methods offer a solution to these issues, but problems remain over evaluation along with the offering of the correct agile software as well as a collection of agile tools. The purpose of this paper is to introduce best tools and features, criteria used for evaluating currently existing tools and propose a classification model to right agile tool selection. To prepare a list of the best tools and their features in the market, a practical research on existing tools and their features were performed. Finally, a classification model was prepared and the results show which tools best fit into different level of maturity in projects and companies

Flexible Support of Healthcare Processes

Traditionally, healthcare information systems have focused on the support of predictable and repetitive clinical processes. Even though the latter can be often prespecified in formal process models, process flexibility in terms of dynamic adaptability is indispensable to cope with exceptions and unforeseen situations. Flexibility is further required to accommodate the need for evolving healthcare processes and to properly support healthcare process variability. In addition, process-aware information systems are increasingly used to support less structured healthcare processes (i.e., patient treatment processes), which can be characterized as knowledge-intensive. Healthcare processes of this category are neither fully predictable nor repetitive and, therefore, they cannot be fully prespecified at design time. The partial unpredictability of these processes, in turn, demands a certain amount of looseness. This chapter deals with the characteristic flexibility needs of both prespecified and loosely specified healthcare processes. In addition, it presents fundamental flexibility features required to address these flexibility needs as well as to accommodate them in healthcare practice

Influential Article Review- Plan for the Economic Assessment on the Acceptable Degree of Standardization of the Business Process

This paper examines business. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Business process management (BPM) is an acknowledged source of corporate performance. A well-established element of the BPM toolbox by which organizations intend to tune the performance of their processes is business process standardization (BPS). So far, research on BPS has predominantly taken a descriptive perspective, analyzing how BPS affects different dimensions of process performance (e.g., cost, quality, time, flexibility). Only very few studies capitalize on the mature body of descriptive BPS knowledge to assist in determining an appropriate BPS level for an organization’s processes. Moreover, these studies do not resolve the BPS trade-off, i.e., the partly conflicting effects of BPS on process performance. To address this research problem, we propose a decision model that provides guidance on how to determine an economically appropriate BPS level for a business process. We thereby adopt the design science research (DSR) paradigm and draw from the body of knowledge on BPS as well as value-based management. We evaluated the decision model by discussing its design specification against theory-backed design objectives. We also validated the model’s applicability and usefulness in a real-world case where we applied the decision model and a prototypical implementation to the coverage switching processes of an insurance broker pool company. Finally, we challenged the decision model against the accepted evaluation criteria from the DSR literature. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German

Modelo Kuumba : integração de Design Thinking ao ciclo de vida de BPM

A utilização de técnicas para fomentar a criatividade dentro das empresas vem ganhando espaço, tendo em vista destacar-se no mercado. Organizações que relacionam a criatividade a processos tendem a realizar produtos ou serviços mais atrativos. Deste modo, esta pesquisa visa realizar um modelo de ciclo de vida de Gestão por Processos de Negócios, inserindo práticas, métodos e ferramentas utilizadas na abordagem Design Thinking para desenvolver soluções criativas para melhorias de processos. Com abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, realizou-se levantamento bibliográfico e construiu-se o modelo inicial chamado Modelo Kuumba – Integração de Design Thinking ao Ciclo de Vida de BPM, o qual foi apresentado a práticos e teóricos de BPM e Design Thinking, com o objetivo de aperfeiçoá-lo. Como resultado, obteve-se um modelo revisado com a inserção de etapas, métodos e ferramentas sugeridas pelos especialistas

SDSN@RT: a middleware environment for single-instance multi-tenant cloud applications

With the Single-Instance Multi-Tenancy (SIMT) model for composite Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, a single composite application instance can host multiple tenants, yielding the benefits of better service and resource utilization, and reduced operational cost for the SaaS provider. An SIMT application needs to share services and their aggregation (the application) among its tenants while supporting variations in the functional and performance requirements of the tenants. The SaaS provider requires a middleware environment that can deploy, enact and manage a designed SIMT application, to achieve the varied requirements of the different tenants in a controlled manner. This paper presents the SDSN@RT (Software-Defined Service Networks @ RunTime) middleware environment that can meet the aforementioned requirements. SDSN@RT represents an SIMT composite cloud application as a multi-tenant service network, where the same service network simultaneously hosts a set of virtual service networks (VSNs), one for each tenant. A service network connects a set of services, and coordinates the interactions between them. A VSN realizes the requirements for a specific tenant and can be deployed, configured, and logically isolated in the service network at runtime. SDSN@RT also supports the monitoring and runtime changes of the deployed multi-tenant service networks. We show the feasibility of SDSN@RT with a prototype implementation, and demonstrate its capabilities to host SIMT applications and support their changes with a case study. The performance study of the prototype implementation shows that the runtime capabilities of our middleware incur little overhead

Context-aware Process Management for the Software Engineering Domain

Historically, software development projects are challenged with problems concerning budgets, deadlines and the quality of the produced software. Such problems have various causes like the high number of unplanned activities and the operational dynamics present in this domain. Most activities are knowledge-intensive and require collaboration of various actors. Additionally, the produced software is intangible and therefore difficult to measure. Thus, software producers are often insufficiently aware of the state of their source code, while suitable software quality measures are often applied too late in the project lifecycle, if at all. Software development processes are used by the majority of software companies to ensure the quality and reproducibility of their development endeavors. Typically, these processes are abstractly defined utilizing process models. However, they still need to be interpreted by individuals and be manually executed, resulting in governance and compliance issues. The environment is sufficiently dynamic that unforeseen situations can occur due to various events, leading to potential aberrations and process governance issues. Furthermore, as process models are implemented manually without automation support, they impose additional work for the executing humans. Their advantages often remain hidden as aligning the planned process with reality is cumbersome. In response to these problems, this thesis contributes the Context-aware Process Management (CPM) framework. The latter enables holistic and automated support for software engineering projects and their processes. In particular, it provides concepts for extending process management technology to support software engineering process models in their entirety. Furthermore, CPM contributes an approach to integrate the enactment of the process models better with the real-world process by introducing a set of contextual extensions. Various events occurring in the course of the projects can be utilized to improve process support and activities outside the realm of the process models can be covered. That way, the continuously growing divide between the plan and reality that often occurs in software engineering projects can be avoided. Finally, the CPM framework comprises facilities to better connect the software engineering process with other important aspects and areas of software engineering projects. This includes automated process-oriented support for software quality management or software engineering knowledge management. The CPM framework has been validated by a prototypical implementation, various sophisticated scenarios, and its practical application at two software companies

Diseño, modelado y simulación usando BPM para la mejora del proceso de ingreso de fichas registrales en una entidad del Estado Peruano

Busca contribuir en la mejora del proceso de ingreso de fichas registrales manuales para la generación del DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) en el área de Operaciones del RENIEC (Registro Nacional de Identificación y Estado Civil). Para lo cual, se realizó las fases de diseño y modelado del ciclo de vida del BPM (Business Process Management). Específicamente, se utilizó la metodología BPMC (Continuous Business Process Management) considerando las fases siguientes: a) Establecer metodología de modelado de procesos; b) Crear el proceso de negocio As-Is; c) Crear el proceso de negocio To-Be; y d) Construir medidas de negocio. Para el desarrollo de la investigación se consideró el diseñó y modelado del estado actual (AS-IS) de los 15 subprocesos y 119 actividades que conforman el Proceso de Ingreso de fichas registrales manuales para la generación del DNI, identificándose los aspectos que causan su ineficiencia (actividades repetitivas y cuellos de botella). Luego se diseñó y modelo el estado futuro o esperado (TO-BE) del 100% de los subprocesos y actividades del proceso mencionado, eliminando los aspectos de ineficiencia y recomendando la automatización de tareas manuales. La validación de la propuesta se realizó mediante la simulación de los procesos AS-IS y TO-BE, usando la herramienta BIZAGI. Se consideró la producción promedio por día de 453 sobres, cada sobre contiene 30 fichas registrales. En estas condiciones, los resultados indican una reducción de tiempo de procesamiento de 1302.92 minutos (AS-IS) a 650.84 minutos (TO-BE) y por lo tanto, con la mejora se puede procesar 1106 sobres en la producción de un día, y en consecuencia, en un mes se reduce 326 horas

BPMN4V pour la modélisation de versions de processus intra- et inter-organisationnels

Nos travaux de recherche abordent la problématique de la modélisation des processus intra- et inter-organisationnels flexibles à l’aide des versions. En effet, le concept de version est un concept approprié pour prendre en compte les changements que peuvent subir les schémas de processus. On peut ainsi définir une nouvelle version de processus lorsque des modifications significatives doivent être apportées à son schéma. Différentes contributions de l’état de l’art ont abordé le versionnement des processus. Chacune de ces contributions a constitué une avancée pour le versionnement des processus. Mais elles ont en commun de principalement considérer le versionnement de la perspective comportementale des processus, sans étudier les impacts du versionnement sur les perspectives organisationnelles et informationnelles, qui sont pourtant fondamentales dans la définition des processus. De plus, il est également nécessaire lorsqu’on aborde la problématique du versionnement des processus de considérer une autre perspective, la perspective contextuelle, qui permet de modéliser les situations d’utilisation des versions. En outre, ces contributions ne s’appuient pas sur les standards existants et notamment sur BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) qui est reconnu comme le standard pour la modélisation de schémas de processus. Enfin, ces contributions abordent uniquement la flexibilité des processus intra-organisationnels. Cette thèse a pour objectif de pallier ces deux faiblesses. Plus précisément, elle propose BPMN4V une extension du standard BPMN pour la modélisation de versions de processus tout en considérant les perspectives de modélisation des processus. Ainsi les contributions proposées sont les suivantes. En ce qui concerne la modélisation des versions des processus intra-organisationnels, nous avons introduit BPMN4V-PP (BPMN for Versions of Private Processes), qui est une extension de BPMN pour la modélisation de versions de processus intra-organisationnels, représentées en BPMN par des processus privés. Les aspects statiques et dynamiques du versionnement sont abordés. Puis nous avons étendu BPMN4V-PP pour modéliser le contexte d’utilisation des processus. Cette notion de contexte est importante pour aider le concepteur (i) à définir pourquoi une version de processus a été modélisée et (ii) à sélectionner la version qui convient à une situation particulière. En ce qui concerne la modélisation des versions de processus inter-organisationnels, modélisées comme des collaborations ou des chorégraphies en BPMN, nous avons défini BPMN4V-CC (BPMN for Versions of Collaborations and Choreographies) qui étend BPMN pour la modélisation et la manipulation des versions de collaborations et de chorégraphies. Nous avons aussi défini six patrons d’adaptation qui sont des opérations de haut niveau facilitant la modification des schémas des versions de collaborations. Nous avons également proposé une démarche pour la génération automatique d’une version de chorégraphie à partir d’une version de collaboration. Nous avons finalement implanté ces propositions dans un plug-in Eclipse, appelé BPMN4V-Modeler, permettant d’assister les concepteurs lors de la modélisation des versions de processus selon les méta-modèles BPMN4V-PP et BPMN4VCC. Nous avons évalué nos contributions en mesurant notamment les performances de l’outil BPMN4V-Modeler.Our research deals with modeling flexible intra and inter-organizational processes using versions. Indeed, the notion of version has been recognized as a key notion to keep track of changes on process schemas. Thus it is possible to define a new process version for each significant modification of its schema. Several contributions addressing process flexibility using versions have been proposed in the literature. Each of these contributions provides solutions for process versioning. However, they mainly focus on the behavioral perspective of processes neglecting the informational and organizational perspectives, which are nevertheless important to have a comprehensive view of processes. Furthermore, the contextual perspective of processes must also be considered to characterize the situations in which versions of processes have to be used. Moreover, the proposed solutions are specific and have no chance to be used by process designers since they do not support standards for process modeling such as BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation). Finally, these contributions focus only on intra- organizational processes. This thesis aims at overcoming these two weaknesses, introducing BPMN4V, an extension of BPMN with versions to address intra and inter-organizational process flexibility. More precisely, the contributions of this thesis are the following. Regarding flexibility of intra-organizational processes, we have introduced BPMN4V-PP (BPMN for Versions of Private Processes) which is an extension of BPMN for modeling versions of intra-organizational processes, modeled in BPMN as private processes, considering both static and dynamic aspects of process versions. BPMN4V takes into account the three main perspectives of business processes, i.e., the behavioral perspective, the informational perspective and the organizational perspective. In order to consider the contextual perspective, we have also proposed another extension to BPMN allowing the definition of versions context. This perspective is fundamental to help process designers in featuring why a process version is defined and in selecting a particular process version according to a concrete situation. Regarding flexibility of inter-organizational processes, modeled as collaborations and choreographies in BPMN, this thesis has recommended BPMN4V-CC (BPMN for Versions of Collaborations and Choreographies) for modeling and handling versions of collaboration. Secondly, it has introduced six new adaptation patterns, which are high-level operations for collaborative process schema update. Then, it has defined a mapping approach for deducing version of choreography from version of collaboration. Finally, we have implemented our contributions in the BPMN4V-Modeler plug-in, which assists process designer in modeling versions of processes according to BPMN4V-PP and BPMN4V-CC. We have evaluated our contributions mainly measuring BPMN4V-Modeler performances