Trade-offs in the performance of workflows - quantifying the impact of best practices

Business process redesign is one of the most powerful ways to boost business performance and to improve customer satisfaction [14]. A possible approach to business process redesign is using redesign best practices. A previous study identified a set of 29 different redesign best practices [18]. However, little is known about the exact impact of these redesign best practices on workflow performance. This study proposes an approach that can be used to quantify the impact of a business process redesign project on all dimensions of workflow performance. The approach consists of a large set of performance measures and a simulation toolkit. It supports the quantification of the impact of the implementation of redesign best practices, in order to determine what best practice or combination of best practices leads to the most favorable effect in a specific business process. The approach is developed based on a quantification project for the parallel best practice [8] and is validated with two other quantification projects, namely for the knockout and triage best practices

Cognitive Aspects of Structured Process Modeling

After visualizing data of various observational experiments on the way in which modelers construct process models, a promising process modeling style (i.e., structured process modeling) was discovered that is expected to cause process model quality to increase. A modeler constructs process models in a structured way if she/he is working on few parts of the model simultaneously. This paper describes cognitive theories that can explain this causal relation. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that the amount of errors increases when the limited capacity of our working memory is overloaded. Cognitive Fit Theory (CFT) states that performance is improved when task material representation matches with the task to be executed. Three hypotheses are formulated and the experimental set-up to evaluate these hypotheses is described

A theoretical basis for using virtual worlds as a personalised process visualisation approach

Communication processes are vital in the lifecycle of BPM projects. With this in mind, much research has been performed into facilitating this key component between stakeholders. Amongst the methods used to support this process are personalized process visualisations. In this paper, we review the development of this visualization trend, then, we propose a theoretical analysis framework based upon communication theory. We use this framework to provide theoretical support to the conjecture that 3D virtual worlds are powerful tools for communicating personalised visualisations of processes within a workplace. Meta requirements are then derived and applied, via 3D virtual world functionalities, to generate example visualisations containing personalized aspects, which we believe enhance the process of communcation between analysts and stakeholders in BPM process (re)design activities

Mining Process Execution and Outcomes – Position Paper

Abstract. Organizational processes in general and patient-care processes in particular, change over time. This may be in response to situations unpredicted by a predefined business process model (or clinical guideline), or as a result of new knowledge which has not yet been incorporated into the model. Process mining techniques enable capturing process changes, evaluating the gaps between the predefined model and the practiced process, and modifying the model accordingly. This position paper motivates the extension of process mining in order to capture not only deviations from the process model, but also the outcomes associated with them (e.g., patient improving or deteriorating). These should be taken into account when modifications to the process are made

Tying Process Model Quality to the Modeling Process: The Impact of Structuring, Movement, and Speed

Abstract. In an investigation into the process of process modeling, we examined how modeling behavior relates to the quality of the process model that emerges from that. Specifically, we considered whether (i) a modeler’s structured modeling style, (ii) the frequency of moving existing objects over the modeling canvas, and (iii) the overall modeling speed is in any way connected to the ease with which the resulting process model can be understood. In this paper, we describe the exploratory study to build these three conjectures, clarify the experimental set-up and infrastructure that was used to collect data, and explain the used metrics for the various concepts to test the conjectures empirically. We discuss various implications for research and practice from the conjectures, all of which were confirmed by the experiment