PROCESS MEETS PROJECT PRIORITIZATION – A DECISION MODEL FOR DEVELOPING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT ROADMAPS

Improving business processes is a key success factor for organizations and, at the same time, a major challenge for decision makers. For process improvement to be successful, effective prioritization is essential. Despite the existence of approaches for the prioritization of process improvement projects or business processes, prescriptive research at the intersection of both research streams is missing. Existing approaches do not simultaneously prioritize business processes and improvement projects. Hence, scarce corporate funds may be misallocated. To address this research gap, we propose the PMP2, an economic decision model that assists organizations in the identification of business process improvement (BPI) roadmaps. Based on stochastic processes and simulation, the decision model maps different improvement projects to individual business processes within a process network. Thereby, it caters for process dependencies and basic interactions among projects. Drawing from the principles of value-based management, the decision model determines the process improvement roadmap with the highest contribution to the long-term firm value. To evaluate the PMP2, we instantiated it as a software prototype and performed different scenario analyses based on synthetic data. The results highlight the importance of prioritizing business processes and improvement projects in an integrated manner

The experience factory: Can it make you a 5? or what is its relationship to other quality and improvement concepts?

The concepts of quality improvements have permeated many businesses. It is clear that the nineties will be the quality era for software and there is a growing need to develop or adapt quality improvement approaches to the software business. Thus we must understand software as an artifact and software as a business. Since the business we are dealing with is software, we must understand the nature of software and software development. The software discipline is evolutionary and experimental; it is a laboratory science. Software is development not production. The technologies of the discipline are human based. There is a lack of models that allow us to reason about the process and the product. All software is not the same; process is a variable, goals are variable, etc. Packaged, reusable, experiences require additional resources in the form of organization, processes, people, etc. There have been a variety of organizational frameworks proposed to improve quality for various businesses. The ones discussed in this presentation include: Plan-Do-Check-Act, a quality improvement process based upon a feedback cycle for optimizing a single process model/production line; the Experience Factory/Quality Improvement Paradigm, continuous improvements through the experimentation, packaging, and reuse of experiences based upon a business's needs; Total Quality Management, a management approach to long term success through customer satisfaction based on the participation of all members of an organization; the SEI capability maturity model, a staged process improvement based upon assessment with regard to a set of key process areas until you reach a level 5 which represents a continuous process improvement; and Lean (software) Development, a principle supporting the concentration of the production on 'value added' activities and the elimination of reduction of 'not value added' activities

The proposal of adding a society value to the software process improvement manifesto

The use of computers has become ubiquitous and spread out to every part of our personal lives and businesses. Computer Ethics focuses on the questions of right and wrong that arise from the development and deployment of computers. Thus, it urges that the social impact of computers must be analysed. In software engineering, the Software Process Improvement (SPI) Manifesto was developed by groups of experts in the field and aimed to improve the software produced, by improving the process, the attitudes of software engineers, and the organisational culture and practices. The manifesto is centred on three basic values: people, business focus and organisational change, underpinning the philosophy of software process improvement; and ten corresponding principles, which serve as foundations for action. In this paper, we argue that SPI professionals, need to, in addition to fulfilling duties to the Organisation, the Business, the Employees who participate in SPI, and the People who will be most affected, broaden their obligations to include wider society. The impact of developed and deployed software systems is often beyond the organisation and affects the daily lives and activities of citizens in society. This paper argues for the inclusion, in the SPI Manifesto, of a fourth value titled Society, along with six corresponding principles. These half-dozen principles are based on traditional moral and ethical concepts, sourced from the field of Computer Ethics. This proposed revision to the SPI manifesto would explicitly espouse the notion of serving the public interest. It will likely help SPI professionals to remember that working in the public interest is also important in Software Process Improvement, thus, making the duty to society clear and obvious or evident

PENINGKATAN PROSES BINIS MENGGUNAKAN METODE BUSINESS PROCESS MODELLING AND NOTATION (STUDI KASUS: UD. SRIGUT BAKERY DI KOTA BANDA ACEH)

Business Process Improvement Using MethodsBusiness Process Modeling and Notation(Case Study: UD. Sarigut Bakery in Banda Aceh City)ABSTRACTUD. Sarigut Bakery is an industry engaged in bread making. In this industry, it is very important to improve the business processes productivity that have been running. Burger bread company has a lot of demand and good innovation, for it must have a good business process to run efficiently. Improvement of this business process in this research is done by using BPMN method that can improve the effectiveness and efficiency. Identify burger bread business process in UD. Sarigut Bakery and produce architecture process that guide the design of current business process model (as-is model), using Bizagi Modeler software. Furthermore, the modeling is done in the stages of the verification, validation and certification process until modeling in accordance with the phases. After modeling as-is model is appropriate, an analysis is performed to minimize 9 waste types in business processes and classify Value-added (VA), Business Value-added (BVA), and Non Value-added (NVA). Next, process of redesign has done by using the task elimination stage, task case type, task composition, then designing the modeling of the redesign is to-be model. Next, analyze as-is model and to-be model. Total business process time of burger bread in UD. Sarigut Bakery from the simulation as-is model is 1811,18 minutes. After redesign and become to-be model, it produces the total time of the simulation to-be model about 528,28 minutes or it can increase productivity by as much as 70% in business process to-be model.Keywords: Business Process, Bread production, BPMN, Waste, Productivity, Bizagi Modeler.Peningkatan Proses Bisnis Menggunakan Metode Business Process Modelling and Notation(Studi Kasus: UD. Sarigut Bakery di Kota Banda Aceh)ABSTRAKUD. Sarigut Bakery merupakan industri yang bergerak dalam bidang pembuatan roti. Pada industri ini sangat penting untuk meningkatkan produktivitas proses bisnis yang telah berjalan. Roti burger pada perusahaan ini memiliki tingkat permintaan yang banyak dan inovasi yang bagus, untuk itu harus memiliki proses bisnis yang baik pula agar berjalan dengan efesien. Peningkatan proses bisnis ini di lakukan dengan menggunakan metode BPMN yang dapat meningkatkan efektivitas dan efesiensi proses bisnis. Mengidentifikasi proses bisnis roti burger UD. Sarigut Bakery dan menghasilkan process architecture yang menjadi panduan perancangan model proses bisnis yang telah berjalan saat ini (as-is model), dengan menggunakan software Bizagi Modeler. Selanjutnya pemodelan dilakukan tahapan proses verifikasi, validasi dan sertifikasi sampai pemodelan sesuai dengan tahapan tersebut. Setelah pemodelan as-is model sudah sesuai dilakukan analisis untuk meminimalisir 9 waste type pada proses bisnis dan mengklasifikasikan Value-added (VA), Business Value-added (BVA), dan Non Value-added (NVA). Selanjutnya dilakukan proses redesign dengan menggunakan tahap task elimination, task case type, dan task composition kemudian merancang pemodelan redesign yaitu to-be model. Selanjutnya melakukan analisis pada as-is model dan to-be model. Total waktu proses bisnis roti burger UD. Sarigut Bakery dari simulasi as-is model sebesar 1811,18 menit, setelah dilakukan redesign menjadi to-be model menghasilkan waktu total dari simulasi to-be model sebesar 528,28 menit atau dapat meningkatkan produktivitas sebanyak 70% pada proses bisnis to-be model.Kata Kunci: Proses Bisnis, Produksi roti, BPMN, Waste, Produktivitas, Bizagi Modeler

Assessing the business value of software process improvement using CMMI® in South Africa

The focus of software process improvement is on enhancing product quality and productivity to increase business competitiveness and profitability. The Capability Maturity Model Integration or CMMI® remains the dominant standard for software process improvement globally. The lack of software quality standards such as CMMI® is seen as one of the causes of the current uncompetitive state of the South African software industry and so in 2007, a pilot programme called “Bringing CMMI® to South Africa” was launched. This research focused on the experiences of the South African organisations participating in the South African CMMI® pilot study through a combination of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The aim was to assist future managerial decision making to assess the business value CMMI® can bring to South African software organisations. The research found that the adoption of CMMI® improved both the internal quality and efficiencies as well as opportunities for growth. The research also established that CMMI® cannot be regarded as a silver bullet solution and that while process improvements can cause short-term upheaval, there are longer-term tangible and intangible benefits. It is, however, key that the organisational aspects of the change be properly managed. A lack of awareness of quality standards or actual demand for CMMI® along with the relatively high implementation and support costs are further preventing its adoption in South Africa. The recommendations resulting from the research, including a model, are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. CopyrightDissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Formation of an integrated accounting and analytical management system for value analysis purposes

The article is devoted to the problems associated with the formation and the improvement of accounting and analytical support framework when establishing the business entities’ integrated accounting and analytical managerial system for the value analysis purposes. According to the authors’ opinion, introducing the integrated accounting and analytical system is not only a certain way to improve the efficiency in the managerial decision-making sphere, but also an essential tool throughout the whole value analysis process as well as a tool to improve the qualitative measures of accounting and analytical data required for value analysis. Establishing the integrated accounting and analytical managerial system is an intensive factor to improve the whole analysis process and is intended to optimize the data flows in business entities. It also increases the analyticity of non-engineering and engineering data, that are used in value analysis group’ documents set. Tools that optimizing and structuring the data flows in business entities are analyzed in this article. They are as follows: applying the managerial accounting based on financial responsibility centers and the ad hoc software – i.e., modular database that collects and processes all data from business entity’s subdivisions and helps to create all types of value analysis’ working papers. The pattern of managing value analysis’ in- and out data flows within the integrated system is also revealed by the authors.peer-reviewe

Software Development with Scrum: A Bibliometric Analysis and Profile

Introduction of the Scrum approach into software engineering has changed the way software is being developed. The Scrum approach emphasizes the active end-user involvement, embracing of change, and /iterative delivery of products. Our study showed that Scrum has different variants or is used in combination with different methods. Some tools not normally used in the conventional software approaches, like gamification, content analysis and grounded theory are also employed. However, Scrum like other software development approach focuses on improvement of software process, software quality, business value, performance, usability and efficiency and at the same time to reduce cost, risk and uncertainty. Contrary to some conventional approaches it also strives to boost soft factors like agility, trust, motivation, responsibility and transparency. The bibliometric synthetic scoping study revealed seven main research themes concerned with the Scrum research

A Survey of Software Metric Use in Research Software Development

Background: Breakthroughs in research increasingly depend on complex software libraries, tools, and applications aimed at supporting specific science, engineering, business, or humanities disciplines. The complexity and criticality of this software motivate the need for ensuring quality and reliability. Software metrics are a key tool for assessing, measuring, and understanding software quality and reliability. Aims: The goal of this work is to better understand how research software developers use traditional software engineering concepts, like metrics, to support and evaluate both the software and the software development process. One key aspect of this goal is to identify how the set of metrics relevant to research software corresponds to the metrics commonly used in traditional software engineering. Method: We surveyed research software developers to gather information about their knowledge and use of code metrics and software process metrics. We also analyzed the influence of demographics (project size, development role, and development stage) on these metrics. Results: The survey results, from 129 respondents, indicate that respondents have a general knowledge of metrics. However, their knowledge of specific SE metrics is lacking, their use even more limited. The most used metrics relate to performance and testing. Even though code complexity often poses a significant challenge to research software development, respondents did not indicate much use of code metrics. Conclusions: Research software developers appear to be interested and see some value in software metrics but may be encountering roadblocks when trying to use them. Further study is needed to determine the extent to which these metrics could provide value in continuous process improvement

The Adoption of Software Process Improvement Programs in the English-Speaking Caribbean

Managing and improving the processes used to develop software products is widely accepted as one of the remedies to overcome the problem of poor quality systems being delivered. As a result, the IS community has adopted several software process improvement (SPI) programs. The tenets of these programs are grounded in the belief that a mature development process can increase the likelihood of producing high quality software products with the requisite requirements which should add business value. However, small firms in developing countries like the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC) are not aware nor adopting these SPI programs because they are seen as costly, time consuming and disruptive; hence, not realizing the potential benefits. This study examined the awareness, adoption and benefits of SPI programs in ESC software development firms. The result found that a slight majority (54.5%) of firms in the region are aware of SPI programs, with only 20% of those who are aware using any form of SPI programs in the development of software. These findings reinforces the need for SPI training in the ESC to articulate the compelling need for a change towards the adoption and use of SPI programs in software development