A Framework for the use of Business Activity Monitoring in Process Improvement

Abstract

Process performance improvement initiatives can be significantly enhanced in terms of performance measurement and diagnosis by real-time performance, quality and traceability information. Currently available Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Process Management (BPM) systems struggle to provide sufficiently lightweight or flexible solutions for the needs of process improvement projects. In addition, current process modelling languages such as XPDL and BPEL provide little or no support for the inclusion of detailed process performance metrics. This paper describes a generic framework using event-based process modelling to support the definition and inclusion of performance metrics and targets within process models, and the calculation of process performance metrics at user-defined intervals. The iWise implementation of this framework is an XML and Web services-based infrastructure that uses this event-based model for enhancing process visibility using real-time process metrics. Users can adjust alert thresholds on key process metrics in real-time. iWise also evaluates events for outlier or out-of-bounds events as they are processed. It uses an integrated rules engine, leveraging semantic technologies to write rules which are tested as process-related events occur in real-time.