Modeling Business Objectives for Business Process Management

For application scenarios such as the management of business process variants or business process quality, business objective models assume the role of formal requirements definitions as in software engineering. However, effective concepts in this area still constitute a gap in the presently available array of business process management methods. To address this issue, this paper develops and shortly evaluates a refined business objective modeling approach. Our approach builds on use case-based effectiveness criteria, and on insights gained from assessing the state of the art. It derives required constructs and interrelations from application scenarios, and integrates these into a business objective meta-model. As an initial validation of our concept, we model a sample scenario and match the results against effectiveness criteria

Conceptual Modelling of Complex Network Management Systems

Society, as we know it today, is completely dependent on computer networks, Internet and distributed systems, which place at our disposal the necessary services to perform our daily tasks. Moreover, and unconsciously, all services and distributed systems require network management systems. These systems allow us to, in general, maintain, manage, configure, scale, adapt, modify, edit, protect or improve the main distributed systems. Their role is secondary and is unknown and transparent to the users. They provide the necessary support to maintain the distributed systems whose services we use every day. If we don’t consider network management systems during the development stage of main distributed systems, then there could be serious consequences or even total failures in the development of the distributed systems. It is necessary, therefore, to consider the management of the systems within the design of distributed systems and systematize their conception to minimize the impact of the management of networks within the project of distributed systems. In this paper, we present a formalization method of the conceptual modelling for design of a network management system through the use of formal modelling tools, thus allowing from the definition of processes to identify those responsible for these. Finally we will propose a use case to design a conceptual model intrusion detection system in network.This work was performed as part of the Smart University Project financed by the University of Alicante

Enriching Business Process Models with Decision Rules

Making the right decisions in time is one of the key tasks in every business. In this context, decision theory fosters decision-making based on well-defined decision rules. The latter evaluate a given set of input parameters and utilize evidenced data in order to determine an optimal alternative out of a given set of choices. In particular, decision rules are relevant in the context business processes as well. Contemporary process modeling languages, however, have not incorporated decision theory yet, but mainly consider rather simple, guard-based decisions that refer to process-relevant data. To remedy this drawback, this paper introduces an approach that allows embedding decision problems in business process models and applying decision rules to deal with them. As a major benefit, it becomes possible to automatically determine optimal execution paths during run time

Conceptual Modelling of Complex Network Management Systems

Society, as we know it today, is completely dependent on computer networks, Internet and distributed systems, which place at our disposal the necessary services to perform our daily tasks. Moreover, and unconsciously, all services and distributed systems require network management systems. These systems allow us to, in general, maintain, manage, configure, scale, adapt, modify, edit, protect or improve the main distributed systems. Their role is secondary and is unknown and transparent to the users. They provide the necessary support to maintain the distributed systems whose services we use every day. If we don’t consider network management systems during the development stage of main distributed systems, then there could be serious consequences or even total failures in the development of the distributed systems. It is necessary, therefore, to consider the management of the systems within the design of distributed systems and systematize their conception to minimize the impact of the management of networks within the project of distributed systems. In this paper, we present a formalization method of the conceptual modelling for design of a network management system through the use of formal modelling tools, thus allowing from the definition of processes to identify those responsible for these. Finally we will propose a use case to design a conceptual model intrusion detection system in network.This work was performed as part of the Smart University Project financed by the University of Alicante

Lifecycle Management for Business Process Variants

This chapter deals with advanced concepts for the configuration and management of business process variants. Typically, for a particular business process, different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a master process (e.g., a reference process) to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary Business Process Management tools do not adequately support the modeling and management of such process variants. Either the variants have to be specified in separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods can result in high model redundancies, which make model adaptations a time-consuming and error-prone task. In this chapter, we discuss advanced concepts of our Provop approach, which provides a flexible and powerful solution for managing business process variants along their lifecycle. Such variant support will foster more systematic process configuration as well as process maintenance

Analisis Variasi Proses Bisnis Manufaktur Dengan Menerapkan Proses Mining (Studi Kasus: PT Kimia Farma, Tbk)

PT Kimia Farma Tbk, atau Kimia Farma adalah perusahaan yang bergerak pada bidang industri farmasi pertama di Indonesia yang didirikan pertama kali pada tahun 1817. Sebagai perusahaan yang sudah lama berkiprah, Kimia Farma memiliki Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) yang ketat untuk proses manufaktur yang ada di dalamnya. Analisis pada proses manufaktur, khususnya terkait ragam variasi yang berpotensi terjadi dalam sebuah proses, diperlukan untuk mendapatkan kualitas produksi serta kinerja yang senantiasa optimal. Proses manufaktur yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah produksi kapsul, krim, sirup, dan tablet. Tahapan dimulai dengan menyimulasikan proses SOP menggunakan piranti bantu YAWL dan mentransformasi event log dari ERP menggunakan piranti bantu Disco. Analisis diterapkan menggunakan metode process mining dengan piranti bantu ProM untuk menganalisis letak terjadinya variasi pada proses, serta mengolongkan variasi tersebut kedalam restriction atau extension. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa proses manufaktur kapsul dan sirup tidak memiliki variasi dalam alur prosesnya, hal ini ditunjukkan oleh nilai fitness yang masing-masing bernilai 1. Sementara, proses manufaktur krim menunjukkan adanya variasi disebabkan oleh aktifitas tube blowing yang berada pada posisi yang tidak tentu, hal ini ditunjukkan oleh nilai fitness yang bernilai 0.93, serta diketahui bahwa temuan ini merupakan jenis variabilitas by restriction. Hasil analisis manufaktur tablet juga menunjukkan adanya variasi yang disebabkan oleh aktifitas In Process Control (IPC) berulang pada event log, hal ini didukung oleh nilai fitness yang bernilai 0.99, serta diketahui bahwa temuan ini merupakan jenis variabilitas by extension

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

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

Prozessarchitekturen: Anforderungen, Konzepte, Fallbeispiele

In der globalisierten und sich ständig verändernden Geschäftswelt von heute müssen sich Unternehmen kontinuierlich verbessern, um am Markt wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben. In diesem Kontext ist die Überwachung bzw. Auswertung verschiedenster Kennzahlen von großer Bedeutung, um die Unternehmensleistung bewerten zu können. Jedoch zeigen solche Zahlen nicht, welche Gründe die aktuelle Geschäftsperformance hat, wo nachgebessert werden muss oder welche Personen die Verantwortung tragen. Nicht zuletzt durch die Einführung innovativer Technologien stellt das Geschäftsprozessma-nagement ein unverzichtbares Instrument zu einer Optimierung und Steuerung der Unternehmensabläufe dar. Für eine aussagekräftige Analyse seiner Geschäftsprozesse sollte ein Unternehmen seine Prozesslandschaft strukturieren und modellieren. Eine solche Prozessstruktur wird Prozessarchitektur genannt. Da es aufgrund der hohen Komplexität nicht angemessen ist, immer alle Prozesse in allen Details darzustellen, gibt es innerhalb einer Prozessarchitektur verschiedene Detailebenen, etwa auf obers-ter Ebene die Prozesslandkarte, welche nur die wichtigsten Geschäftsprozesse einer Organisation visualisiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über Anforderungen an Prozessarchitekturen sowie den aktuellen Stand der entsprechenden Literatur. Zudem wird durch die Analyse von Fallbeispielen und die Erstellung einer Architektur für eine Frauenklinik ein Praxisbe-zug hergestellt. Dazu wird zunächst eine Literaturrecherche zur Ermittlung des aktuellen Stands der Forschung durchgeführt. Hierbei wird eine Einordnung von Prozessarchitek-turen in die Thematik des Geschäftsprozessmanagements vorgenommen. Es folgt die Vorstellung der wichtigsten Notationen und deren Besonderheiten. Kern der Literaturre-cherche stellen die Anforderungen an eine ordnungsgemäße Prozessarchitektur sowie die Ermittlung der Konzepte zur Erstellung von Prozessarchitekturen dar. Auf Basis der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden drei Beispielarchitekturen analysiert. Abschließend werden die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit durch die Erstellung einer Prozessarchitektur für eine Frauenklinik veranschaulicht