Business process modeling

Draft

Introduction

Business process modeling (BPM) refers to the modeling of activities performed within an organization. Typically, an activity is viewed as a workflow or process composed of events, activities, gateways and (sometimes) other elements. More precisely a “business process [can be defined] as a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers” (Wikipedia, retrieved June 23 2010). However, business process modeling is also used in other areas, e.g. in government organization such as the US department of defense or in e-science.

BPM also may refer to business process management' for which business process modeling can be a tool.

“Business process modeling (BPM) in systems engineering and software engineering is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed and improved” (Wikipedia, retrieved June 23 2010). In other words, BPM is often related to (business) reengineering and even more substantial change management.

We can distinguish between three main types of processes:

1. Management processes, e.g. organizational governance
2. Operational processes, e.g. plan and conduct a research project, define and enact a pedagogical scenario.
3. Supporting processes, e.g. technical support (network, file servers, e-mail, etc.) or human resource management.

See also: enterprise architecture framework, workflow, BPMN (a typical notation language for process modeling) and BPEL

Tools and standards

Standards

(to do)

Process management systems

There exist a variety of tools that can be subsumed under the label of Business process management systems (BPMS)

According to Shapiro and Genrich, an improvement (re-engineering) process can be characterized as the following set of steps:

1. Analyze the historical (or simulation) data to determine where improvements are needed. If the evaluation is satisfactory, stop.
2. From the data, come up with an idea for improvement.
3. Create a simulation scenario incorporating that idea and run a simulation.
4. Evaluate the results to determine whether it has resulted in improvement and repeat the cycle.

“Business Process Management Systems are a rich source of events that document the execution of processes and activities within these systems. Business Process Analytics is the family of methods and tools that can be applied to these event streams in order to support decision-making in organizations. The analysis of process events can focus on the behavior of completed processes, evaluate currently running process instances, or focus on predicting the behavior of process instances in the future.” (Shapiro and Muehlen, 2008:Abstract, retrieved 10:33, 25 June 2010 (UTC)).

Shapiro and Muehlen (2009) identify two strategic perspectives for business analytics: (1) Performance: improve reaction time and evaluation of decisions and (2) Compliance: adherence of process execution with rules and insurance of contractual obligations. In an temporal perspective: “To evaluate what has happened in the past, to understand what is happening at the moment, or to develop an understanding of what might happen in the future.” (p.2). Various related analytical perspectives are known as Process Controlling, Process Mining, Business Activity Monitoring, Process Intelligence, etc.

Taylor (2010) identifies four different kinds of analytical insight: business intelligence (what is happening, who are my customers), descriptive analysis (what is the profile of my best customers), predictive analysis (how will X behave in the future) and optimization simulation (how can I extract maximum value from an investment).

Shapiro and Genrich identify the following elements that may be part of a complete BPMS solution:

Analytics

Storage and processing of operations data to provide useful business information.

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)

Real time depiction of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and generation of alerts etc.

Data Miner

Statistical processing of business information to extract patterns, detect trends and make predictions.

Event Stream

Flow of information packets about meaningful state changes. The log events generated by currently running processes are an example.

Execution Engine

Any business process enactment service, including workflow engines, BPEL executor, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system etc.

Optimizer

A software tool that utilizes the Data Miner and/or Simulator to make recommendations for changes to business operations.

Rules Engine

A software system that helps manage and automate business rules. Used to detect interesting business situations automatically.

Simulator

Supports what-if analysis of current or planned operations.

Use in education

As far as educational technology is concerned, we could identify two main sources of inspiration and technologies that could be repurposed:

• All sorts of techniques to monitor learning activities and student progress
• Techniques for modelling educational scenarios, i.e. the equivalent of educational modeling languages and educational design languages as developed for instance in the domain of learning design.

Links

Overviews

• Enterprise modeling, the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization.
• Business process modeling, the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed and improved.
• BPMN Industry update, by Rober Shapiro, 2010.

Players that define standards

• WFMC (the Workflow Management Coalition), Founded in 1993, the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is a global organization of adopters, developers, consultants, analysts, as well as university and research groups engaged in workflow and BPM. The WfMC creates and contributes to process related standards, educates the market on related issues, and is the only standards organization that concentrates purely on process.
• OMG (the Object Management Group), an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium since 1989. OMG’s modeling standards, including the Unified Modeling Language (UML), Model Driven Architecture (MDA). OMG works in liaison with other organizations such as WFMC and also is an ISO submitter.

Other

• 2010 BPM & Workflow Handbook (4 free chapters for download).

References

• zur Muehlen, M.; Shapiro, R.: Business Process Analytics. In: Rosemann, M.; vom Brocke, J.: Handbook on Business Process Management, Vol. 2, Springer Verlag, Berlin et al. 2009. PDF preprint

• zur Muehlen, M. (2004) Workflow-based Process Controlling. Foundation, Design, and Implementation of Workflow-driven Process Information Systems. Berlin: Logos.

• Shapiro, Robert (2008). Integration of Workforce Management with a Business Process Management Suit in BPM and Workflow Handbook, Future Strategies Inc.

• Shapiro, Robert M. and Hartmann Genrich, The Auto Optimizer, Global 360, United States, PDF

• Taylor (2010), Intelligent, Automated Processes: Embedding Analytics in Decisions, in Fischer, Layna (ed.) BPM and Workflow Handbook, Spotlight on Business Intelligence, FutStrat.