BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING

Transcription

1 BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING IE 880I Enterprise Engineering- Fall 2000 IMfgE at Wichita State University Paper #1 Business Process Modeling Glenn G. Whiteside ABSTRACT: The first article (Yu, Mylopoulos & Lesperance, 1996), reviews three process modeling methods, Strategic Dependency, Strategic Rationale, and Business Process and their associated tools. The second article (Kueng & Kawalek, 1997) makes several key points that process models are only a burden if they are misunderstood, implemented poorly, and contribute little to the overall improvement process. The third article (Ramanathan, 1996) reviews the main components of business processes, the objectives of a workflow project, the critical time aspects of project planning and completion, strategic core process improvements, development, integration, and productionizing of the process model, and continuous improvement as the process model matures. This paper provides an overview of these articles and then discusses how specific key concepts from these articles could be incorporated into the student s current job. INTRODUCTION: What I expected to learn from the first article, Modelling the Organization: New Concepts and Tools for Re-Engineering (Yu, Mylopoulos & Lesperance, 1996), was more detail about different types of business process models, concepts and tools. The models described in this article attempt to go beyond just describing what a business process is like (for example IDEF0, Integration Definition, activity models) and try to describe why a process is the way it is through the use of Strategic Dependency models, Strategic Rationale models, Business Process models and various support tools that help analyze and redesign strategic relationships, improve qualitative reasoning, validate process models, verify processes, and integrate the various toolsets. What I expected to learn from the second article, Process Models: a help or a burden? (Kueng & Kawalek, 1997), was whether process modeling was actually useful or just a burden. This article gives an overview of the role of process modeling in the analysis, design, and implementation phases of business process redesign. Information for the article comes from the authors work in industry and a questionnaire submitted to three on-site investigators. What I expected to learn from the third article, Make business process modeling projects work (Ramanathan, 1996), was some useful tips and techniques on how to successfully implement business process modeling projects in the real world. This article gives an overview of the planning, implementation, and post-project completion activities necessary for successful business process modeling projects.

2 Article 1: Modelling the Organization: New Concepts and Tools for Re-Engineering The first article is entitled, Modelling the Organization: New Concepts and Tools for Reengineering (Yu, Mylopoulos & Lesperance, 1996). This article describes three business process-modeling methods; Strategic Dependency, Strategic Rationale, and Business Process, and various support tools. The Strategic Dependency model involves the use of a graph and nodes where the nodes represent strategic actors and the link between actors defines their relations. This model has four types of dependencies between the actors; goal, task, resource, and softgoal dependency (a softgoal has no well-defined criteria for satisfaction) which are controlled by the type of freedom allowed between the actors. The Strategic Rationale model involves the use of a graph with four main types of nodes; goal, task, resource, and softgoal and two main types of links; means-ends links and task decomposition links. The Strategic Rationale graph attempts to explain the reasoning behind the actor s relationships with other actors. The Business Process model allows for an open-ended or partially specified model to be analyzed. In the real world many business processes deal with many variables and there is no way to completely and accurately specify all inputs. The authors describe a logical framework for dealing with partial models of business processes. The authors also describe several different tools for analyzing organizational models. A Strategic Relationships Analysis Tool, which is based on the Strategic Dependency model, analyzes patterns of dependencies based on the concepts of enforcement, assurance, and insurance. A Strategic Relationships Redesign Tool, which is based on the Strategic Rationale model, supports means-ends reasoning for business process redesign so one can understand the why behind process steps by relating these to process design goals and conversely given some design goals alternative steps for achieving them can be explored. A Qualitative Reasoning Support Tool is used for the analysis of a collection of interdependent softgoals. A Process Model Validation Tool allows the user to simulate a process to confirm that the system works as planned. A Process Verification Tool is used to test a given set of process specifications and constraints to be maintained by the process and then suggest improved specifications to obtain process optimality. The authors note that although these tools have been designed independently, they expect them to work together as an integrated toolset through an open architecture employing a message bus that functions as an information interchange among the various tools. The authors of this article have described one approach to help identify and analyze strategic relationships, internal and external, among the various business processes. The Strategic Dependency model illustrates strategic participant relationships, the Strategic Rationale model describes the means-end reasoning used by strategic participants, and the Business Process model defines a logical framework for modeling partially specified business processes. The article authors are also working towards the integration of these methods into a single methodology or framework called Tropos. Various related support tools are utilized to help further refine analysis and facilitate better decision-making. I found this article to be very informative and educational about new concepts and tools for business process modeling and analysis and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in process modeling and optimization. 2 11/7/00

3 Article 2: Process Models: a help or a burden? The second article is entitled, Process Models: a help or a burden? (Kueng & Kawalek, 1997). The article authors make a good analogy by comparing an architect s model to that of a process model in that it can be used to determine different viewpoints, to communicate new ideas, and to develop a common understanding among the various stakeholders. The authors believe that process modeling is central to an organization s lifecycle and that it should be applied in the analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance/evolution phases of business process redesigning. Examples in the article come from the authors experiences in different industries and from a questionnaire submitted to three on-site investigators working at two UK based companies, one involved in petroleum and the other engineering. Process models are used in the analysis phase as a searchlight in order to shed more light on the process, uncover the root causes of problems in the process, and discover potential problem solutions. The questionnaire results indicated that two of the investigators rated the usefulness of process modeling in the analysis phase as essential and one rated it as very useful. According to the investigators, the process models were not very helpful in ensuring problems in existing process were repeated in new processes but they were very useful for communicating a common understanding of the process between users and IT experts. The process models served to facilitate discussion and help in the development of a common vocabulary. Process models are used in the design phase to help define the core processes of a business such as activities and their dependencies, data flow, roles and participating actors, and established goals. The authors make the point that process models were of little use when trying to determine the soft aspects of an organization such as power and control resources, hierarchical relationships, management practices, and business norms and symbols. A judgement also needs to be made about whether the designed business process is feasible and if it is value-added to the organization. When asked to grade the usefulness of process models in the design phase, one of the investigators rated it essential and the other two rated it very useful. Process models are used in the implementation phase which involves placing new business processes into actual use. The authors mention the use of IT systems such as workflow management systems (WFMSs) to help coordinate, control, and communicate workflow execution. Ideally it would be more efficient to use WFMSs in the design phase and then transform them into executable models for the implementation phase but many barriers exist such as a lack of compatibility between WFMS products, code generators need more implementation domain information, and compatibility problems with legacy systems. The implementation phase is clearly where modeling activity should occur according to the article authors. This article reviews the use of process modeling in the analysis, design, and implementation phases of business process redesign and concludes that process models are helpful methods when used by experienced individuals in an appropriate manner. I would recommend this article to anyone interested in process modeling and optimization. 3 11/7/00

4 Article 3: Make business process modeling projects work The third article is entitled, Make business process modeling projects work (Ramanathan, 1996). This article reviews the necessary planning and implementation steps to take in order to achieve a successful business process-modeling project. The author first defines what a business process is, basically a series of steps beginning with a market requirement and ending with a filled customer order with departments or organizations to execute these steps. In order to successfully change the existing system several key players must be involved. The engagement manager is defined as the expert empowered to cut across organizational boundaries and define corporate strategy relating to workflow deployment. The objectives of a workflow project must be clearly defined by the engagement manager prior to starting the project. Important questions to ask might involve whether this is to be a core process improvement effort, a demonstration project, or an effort to improve an existing application. The author chooses to discuss the strategy used for core process improvement. The author stresses the critical nature of the first few months of the project. All of the members of the project team, from users to executives, must fully comprehend the significance of the effort involved. The author recommends using three-month project planning phases for a number of reasons. One reason is that people may start to lose their focus on the project and its potential benefits after three months. Another reason is that expert involvement is very high in the critical first few months of a project and it may be hard to gain their commitment for longer time periods. Core processes need to be identified that will benefit from improved workflow and are able to have an easily implemented deliverable. The author stresses the point that the project scope needs to be narrow enough so that it can be completed in three months and yet also be able to solve a few tough problems. The author advocates a user-driven process model that focuses on improving interactions between organizations that need to work together well. It is best not to waste time trying to achieve the perfect model since it is much easier to manage change requests on a three-month cycle and the use of experts should help team members to focus on the most important problems. The author recommends spending time on application integration by using an incremental strategy to support the beginning of new applications and data reference handling first and then adding business need support later. As the project changes from pilot to production status, a maintenance team needs to be established to ensure the evolution of the process-driven information infrastructure. The appointment of key players, the identification of likely core process improvement candidates, the use of three-month project phases including deliverables, the use of process models to improve interactions between organizations, the use of an incremental integration strategy, and the creation of a continuous improvement maintenance team are all part of a successful process-modeling project. Although not very technically rigorous on process modeling, I would still recommend this article to anyone interested in process modeling and optimization. 4 11/7/00

5 Incorporation: I believe that process modeling represents a very powerful method for companies to use in all phases of business process redesign, especially in the earliest design phases where mistakes can be made less expensively in a virtual simulation environment. I would initiate the use of process modeling at my current job using a mixture of best-in-class modeling methods such as IDEF0, Strategic Dependency, Strategic Rationale, and Business Process models. The modeling effort will look not only at processes, but will also consider people and technology as well. Specifically I would use these modeling methods and their support tools to model our design/drawing release process in order to discover areas for continuous improvement, process redesign, or for value stream reinvention. The design/drawing release process currently represents one of my company s largest process bottlenecks in our overall design process. In order for my company to successfully attain their goal of a 50 percent time reduction from start of design to aircraft certification we must learn to utilize process modeling methods for better understanding, communicating, and improving all of our processes including up and down the extended supply chain. Summary: The three articles reviewed in this paper were very informative and educational on the subject of process modeling. This reviewer also read five additional articles that were not as good as the articles reviewed but are listed here for reference (Snowdon), (Fox & Gruninger, 1998), (Davenport, 1995), (Wreden, 1998), and (Ram & Ramesh, 1998). The first article reviewed (Yu, Mylopoulos & Lesperance, 1996) explained that motivations, intents, and rationales are not considered in traditional modeling methods but these factors are very important when seeking to fully understand a process, its participants, the complex strategic relationships between participants, and the reasoning behind participant actions and reactions to process activities. The second article reviewed (Kueng & Kawalek, 1997) seeks to answer the question whether process models are helpful or a burden. Process modeling utilized in the analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance/evolution phases of a business process redesign is described as essential to very useful according to a questionnaire utilized by the article authors. Process models only become burdens if they are misunderstood, misused, or if they contribute little to business process redesign efforts. The third article reviewed (Ramanathan, 1996) describes key components of a successful business process-modeling project. These include an engagement manager, core process identification, three-month project cycles, process models that improve organizational interactions, providing deliverables and setting expectations every three months, employing an incremental strategy for application integration, use of a good production plan to help evolve the process-driven information infrastructure, and supporting the process evolution through continuous improvement efforts. 5 11/7/00

6 References: Davenport, T. H. (1995). Will participative makeovers of business process succeed where reengineering failed? Planning Review, 23, Fox, M. S. & Gruninger, M. (1998). Enterprise modeling. AI Magazine v19 n3, Ram, S. & Ramesh, V. (1998) Collaborative Conceptual Schema Design: A Process Model and Prototype System. ACM Transactions on Informations Systems, v16 i Ramanathan, J. (1996). Make business process modeling projects work. Data Based Advisor, 14, Snowdon, R.A. Overview of Process Modelling. Manchester University. Wreden, N. (1998) Model Business Processes -- Companies Turn To Modeling Tools And Reengineering Techniques To Analyze Business Goals And Improve The Efficiency Of Business Processes. InformationWeek, n702, A1. Yu, E. S. K., Mylopoulos, J. & Lesperance, Y. (1996) Modelling the Organization: New Concepts and Tools for Re-Engineering. IEEE Expert, /7/00