Aligning Business Process Quality and Information System Quality

Business process modelling is an important part of system design. When designing or redesigning a business process, stakeholders specify, negotiate, and agree on business requirements to be satisfied, including non-functional requirements that concern the quality of the business process. This thesis addresses the question of how to specify and compute the quality of a business process, given the model that stakeholders use. The motivation for this thesis is the increasing importance of the quality of business processes. Knowing the quality of specific business processes enables stakeholders to judge if these processes need improvement. Knowing the quality of the constructs of those processes (viz., events, inputs, activities, and outputs) and the way they are structured enables a more detailed analysis of their shortcomings and provides a basis for the design of improvements. The research challenge of this thesis is grounded in the assumption that: “Organisations need an appropriate means to effectively compute achievement of their goals and objectives by their business processes.” Given this challenge, the main research question on which this thesis focuses is: “Can the quality of a business process be computed quantitatively at different levels of granularity?” The research objective is: “To develop frameworks, factors, and metrics for computing non-functional requirements (quality) of business processes quantitatively at different levels of granularity.” The outcomes of this thesis are: 1) BPIMM, a language-independent business process integrating meta-model, based on the concepts of seven mainstream business process modelling languages: BPMN, EPC, RAD, UML AD, SADT, IDEF0, and IDEF3. 2) BPC-QC (Business Process Concept - Quality Computation), an approach to quality computation at the lowest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BPC-QEF (Business Process Concept - Quality Evaluation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of the constructs of a business process: event, input, activity, and output. ii. A set of business process quality dimensions and factors. The following quality dimensions are distinguished: performance, efficiency, reliability, recoverability, permissibility, and availability. Each dimension categorises different quality aspects in terms of factors. A non-exhaustive set of sixteen quantitative factors is provided. iii. Quality metrics for each of the quality factors, to facilitate a quantitative computation of the quality of a specific construct of a business process. 3) BP-QC (Business Process - Quality Computation), an approach to compute the quality at the highest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BP-CQCF (Business Process - Compositional Quality Computation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of a business process as a whole, given the quality of its constructs. ii. A set of generic business process modelling patterns to decompose a business process into more succinct parts, namely: sequential, parallel with synchronisation, exclusive, inclusive, simple loop, and complex loop. iii. A set of over one hundred computational formulae. For each combination of modelling pattern and a quality factor, there is a formula to compute the quality. 4) AAV (Approach to Application and Validation), an evaluation plan to evaluate BPIMM, BPC-QC and BP-QC in practice, together with expert stakeholders. The plan consists of the units of measure, a measurement model, and a case study procedure. To evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis to real world business needs, four case studies have been conducted in different environments: a Dutch educational institution, a global financial institution, an international financial service provider, and a Dutch research project on crisis management. Each of these case studies concerns a different, single business process. This thesis shows that: 1) A quality computation approach can be adopted independent of a business process modelling language. 2) Quantitative quality factors can be introduced specifically for the constructs of a business process. 3) Quantitative metrics and computational formulae can be developed for specific quality factors, allowing the computation of different aspects of the quality of a business process quantitatively at different levels of granularity. 4) An evaluation plan can be developed to evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis (viz., BPIMM, BPC-QC, and BP-QC). The contributions of this thesis are designed to be beneficial to the areas of business and management, requirements engineering, software engineering, and business process modelling. In the areas of requirements engineering and software engineering, these contributions are intended to help practitioners to consider non-functional requirements at the earliest stage. In the area of business process modelling, information systems, service computing, and cloud computing, the contributions can be used for quality-driven modelling, design, and redesign. To conclude, knowing the quality value of a business process at different levels of granularity provides a basis for its improvement.

Business process (BP) designs and enterprise information system (IS) designs are often not well aligned. Missing alignment may result in performance problems at run-time, such as large process execution time or overloaded IS resources. The complex interrelations between BPs and ISs are not adequately understood and considered in development so far. Simulation is a promising approach to predict performance of both BP and IS designs. Based on prediction results, design alternatives can be compared and verified against requirements. Thus, BP and IS designs can be aligned to improve performance. In current simulation approaches, BP simulation and IS simulation are not adequately integrated. This results in limited prediction accuracy due to neglected interrelations between the BP and the IS in simulation. In this paper, we present the novel approach Integrated Business IT Impact Simulation (IntBIIS) to adequately reflect the mutual impact between BPs and ISs in simulation. Three types of mutual impact between BPs and ISs in terms of performance are specified. We discuss several solution alternatives to predict the impact of a BP on the performance of ISs and vice versa. It is argued that an integrated simulation of BPs and ISs is best suited to reflect their interrelations. We propose novel concepts for continuous modeling and integrated simulation. IntBIIS is implemented by extending the Palladio tool chain with BP simulation concepts. In a real-life case study with a BP and IS from practice, we validate the feasibility of IntBIIS and discuss the practicability of the corresponding tool support.

Business Process Management (BPM) aims to improve the quality of business processes by consolidating the concepts of modelling, reengineering, automation, management, and innovation. Tailoring multi-faceted BPM to specific contexts of organizations on the ground of fast-growing information technology is the challenge of the current decade. A considerable number of critical success factors (CSFs) for BPM has been proposed by various studies in the scientific literature to provide insight into the process of achieving BPM. However, only few of these studies propose guidelines/practices for addressing the CSFs. This study is intended to provide a state-of-the-art of CSFs of BPM by a systematic review of scientific literature and to investigate content coverage of business process maturity models as a potential enabler of realization of these CSFs. We searched the studies between the years 2000 and 2015 in established digital libraries and identified 14 CSF categories from 18 studies out of 242 studies retrieved initially. Following that, we searched for evidence on the existence of each CSF category in five maturity models, namely Business Process Management Capability Framework (BPM-CF), Business Process Orientation Maturity Model (BPO-MM), Business Process Orientation Maturity Framework (BPO-MF), Business Process Maturity Model (OMG-BPMM), and Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM). The findings from our investigation show that, despite the variance in degree of coverage of CSF categories by selected BPMMs, maturity models stand as a promising reference for organizations to start their BPM efforts.

This paper proposes a unified concept of the functional approach in the management of business processes and information technology. The main feature of the development of the concept of BPM is that processes were simultaneously in two directions: in business and innovative information technologies. The article is an analysis of the development of the concept of Business Process Management within the process approach to management, as well as actual problems increase management efficiency. The first stage of the development of BPM is TQM (total quality management), the second stage is the BPR (business process reengineering), and the third stage is directly BPM business process management. Method of operation is to compare the management concepts TQM, BPR, BPM and BPMS. The main component of the development of the concept of BPM is a business process reengineering (BPR), which is characterized as a rethinking and redesign of business processes to achieve maximum efficiency after the introduction of information technologies in the production and financial activities of the corporation. The paper identified key factors and prospects of development of the concept of business process management; investigated the problems of business process management in the SMS at the present stage; management methodologies are analyzed in the framework of the process approach. As a result, we note that the development of information technology in business process management has increased significantly during the evolution of the concept of BPM.

Enterprise TOGAF architecture development methodology. TOGAF is a detailed method in its stages to build a new business process architecture and information system. The results in welcoming the era of industrial revolution, education in Indonesia especially higher education, one of which is obtained at STIKES strives to follow the development of information technology. One of the existing STIKES in East Java is a college that has a vision and mission according to the development of information technology. but in the implementation has not followed the rules of an enterprise, STIKES XYZ not have information systems, especially in the management of employees and Process/flow that occurs is still a manual process. Business process flow that exists requires improvement of business processes in order to improve quality and optimize the human resources information system with the support of a good and efficient. This study refers to the of this research are the blueprint new business processes in the form of a recommendation, which consists of documents that would explain what kind of information systems required by STIKES. The expected results of this research can be used as a guide in the procurement and development of information systems at STIKES XYZ.

PT. X is a company that is engaged in testing telecommunications equipment. In its business activities there are some special problems in the current business processes and information systems that are not optimal. This research was conducted to examine the quality of services produced by business processes and information systems used today. The method used is to integrate Business Process Improvement with information systems to improve service quality. The results obtained from this study consist of a conceptual model for getting business processes and designing information systems that have accommodated business process and service improvements.

Business process change and information systems development are usually associated
\nin best business practices. However, it is not ever clear if the quality of
\nbusiness process change really impact on quality and value of information systems.
\nTo realize value from business process change through information systems
\nquality, it is necessary to clearly define an improvement strategy regarding both
\nbusiness activities and operations and the IT applications embedding them.
\nDavenport [2] identified three most important key factors driving IS value, deriving
\nfrom business process change: integrate, optimize and informate. Integrate
\nmeans to keep together large companies, with several different business units, operating
\nall over the world. Optimize means to use business process change and IT
\napplications development and implementation to perform more efficient and effective
\nbusiness activities and operations. Informate means to collect process and distribute
\ninformation where, when and how users need it, supplying information services
\nat managed cost and better quality.
\nWe suggest to add a key factor driving IS value deriving from business process
\nchange : Identify Knowledge. Identify Knowledge, means to identify knowledge,
\nwhen and how users need it, improving services and process decision.
\nInformation Technologies bear the potential of new uses. These uses provoke a
\nnew organisation which induces a new vision of IS strategy. Under the influence
\nof globalization, and the impact of Information and Communication Technologies
\n(ICT) that radically modify our relationship with space and time, the hierarchical
\ncompany locked up on its local borders becomes an Extended Company, without
\nborders, opened and adaptable. In this context, this paper proposes a shift in the
\nway the design of Information Systems is viewed based on business process. The
\napproach adopted is a global philosophy based on business process management
\nwithin the framework of all the methodological principles.
\nEmpirical evidences are available, by an Italian large company, using business
\nprocess management and knowledge capturing as an improvement strategy for IS
\nvalue. This company defined a well conceived framework to realize the better
\nquality of both business processes and IT applications, aiming to implement ongoing
\nIS management activities, to continuously produce value from IS. This frame2
\nwork is based both on BPM and on knowledge identification like instruments to
\nimprove the value of information systems and the quality of business processes.

Business process monitoring provides the means to monitor the executing activities of process instance and it allows checking the resulting state of each activity. This information provides users knowledge about which activities have successfully been performed and which ones need to be fixed by an administrator or technical operator. However, modeling and executing of business processes are carried out on different levels of abstraction, i.e., the process model that is designed on high-level by the business users might not be directly executed, but it needs to be either decomposed into several small additional steps or translated into low-level executable codes for example Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) by the technical users, so that the process engine can understand how to execute the business processes. In the end the business users who are interested in viewing the resulting business process instance can only have a low-level view, i.e., the status of the high-level view is unknown. In this student thesis business processes based on the language BPEL will be used in the low-level view, while the high-level process model is proposed and realized as Chevron-like processes (used in Microsoft PowerPoint). The Chevron process model might be defined by tagging some useful information such as name and picture to each activity to reflect the business purposes, and also small indicator for the activity status. The problem described above can be dealt with the assistance of process views [Schumm2] and state propagation patterns [Schumm3]. Process views allow given process model to be customized, e.g., by removing a particular activity or by augmenting additional information to activities which can be used during visualization. In business process monitoring, process views enable the mapping between activities on different levels of abstraction and they also visualize the current state of running activity instances. State propagation patterns [Schumm3] define how states of low-level view can be projected into the high-level view. The resulting states of activities from the BPEL business process should be propagated back into the activities of Chevron process. Some basic patterns will be presented and each of them contributes a solution to a particular case. At the end an example scenario is introduced and a test of the projection from low-level model into high-level model will be conducted.

Changes in the business process usually require changes in the computer supported information system and, vice versa, changes in the information system almost always cause at least some changes in the business process. In many situations it is not even possible to detect which of those changes are causes and which of them are effects. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify a set of changes that usually happen when one of the elements of the set changes its state. These sets of changes may be used as patterns for situation analysis to anticipate full range of activities to be performed to get the business process and/or information system back to the stable state after it is lost because of the changes in one of the elements. Knowledge about the change pattern gives an opportunity to manage changes of information systems even if business process models and information systems architecture are not neatly documented as is the case in many SMEs. Using change patterns it is possible to know whether changes in information systems are to be expected and how changes in information systems activities, data and users will impact different aspects of the business process supported by the information system.Keywordsbusiness processinformation systemchange management

Today's competitive markets require organisations to react proactively to changes in their environment if financial and legal consequences are to be avoided. Since business processes are elementary parts of modern organisations they are also required to efficiently adapt to these changes in quick and flexible ways. This requirement demands a more dynamic handling of business processes, i.e. treating business processes as run-time artefacts rather than design-time artefacts. One general approach to address this problem is provided by the community of models@run.time, which promotes methodologies concerned with self-adaptive systems where models reflect the system's current state at any point in time and allow immediate reasoning and adaptation mechanisms. However, in contrast to common self-adaptive systems the domain of business processes features two additional challenges: (i) a bigger than usual abstraction gap between the business process models and the actual run-time information of the enterprise system and (ii) the possibility of run-time deviations from the planned models. Developing an understanding of such processes is a crucial necessity in order to optimise business processes and dynamically adapt to changing demands. This thesis explores the potential of adopting and enhancing principles and mechanisms from the models@run.time domain to the business process domain for the purpose of run-time reasoning, i.e. investigating the potential role of Descriptive Business Process Models at Run-time (DBPMRTs) in the business process management domain. The DBPMRT is a model describing the enterprise system at run-time and thus enabling higher-level reasoning on the as-is state. Along with the specification of the DBPMRT, algorithms and an overall framework are proposed to establish and maintain a causal link from the enterprise system to the DBPMRT at run-time. Furthermore, it is shown that proactive higher-level reasoning on a DBPMRT in the form of performance prediction allows for more accurate results. By taking these steps the thesis addresses general challenges of business process management, e.g. dealing with frequently changing processes and shortening the business process life cycle. At the same time this thesis contributes to research in models@run.time by providing a complex real-world use case as well as a reference approach for dealing with volatile models@run.time of a higher abstraction level.

In this issue

The decision making process in organizations has been subject to constant improvements, either through new management methods, production of new knowledge, training of managers, introducing computerized systems or all of these simultaneously. It is possible to realize a dissonance between the process of organizational management (strategies planning) and the processes for implementing these guidelines. In addition, several deployed management information systems fail to meet the information needs of organizations, falling into disuse shortly after implantation. The aim of this paper is to propose an interdisciplinary look into the matter, incorporating elements of information science, aspects traditionally addressed in research on the subject area of Business Administration and more specifically in the context of developing management information systems. The process of information management must exist to support business goals. That means the drivers of business are used to compose the information management strategy, which should be closely linked to business objectives (revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, etc.). This involves the management of information assets throughout the organization by creating and maintaining the business practices which optimize the use of information regardless of location and functional areas that need them. Only through an enterprise management of information organizations can achieve economies of scale and leverage the potential of skills, resources, systems and information assets in the various business processes. The proposed model retains the traditional approach of deriving the information needs from an alignment with the strategy and business issues the organization, but adds a new dimension: the adoption of techniques and tools for information management allowing maintenance cycle informational and adaptation based on usage. One of the difficulties encountered after the implementation of such systems is the lack of management of information requirements that go beyond the initial project. Due the dynamic of organization, information requirements change over time, as well as the interpretation, meaning and perception of usefulness of information for people placed in the context of the organization

Process (re)design or process evolution is a key step in Business Process Management (BPM). Almost all management information systems today provide some kind of support for execution event logging within the business processes. These event logs form the basis for process mining. Process mining is the analysis of the execution logs to obtain knowledge about the real world business processes and enhancing them. Hence, process mining plays an important role in process (re)design. However, common business processes are not linked to domain entities which limit the discovered results that can be obtained by the business analysts. To overcome this flaw, the logs need to be enriched semantically. By semantically enriched log, we mean that each data entity in the log, which represents a real world counterpart, is linked to a domain ontology. In this paper, we propose to enrich workflow logs semantically, and show how the enriched logs can be used for semantic organizational mining and protocol compatibility checking. ProM plug-ins were implemented to validate our approach.

The objective of this study was to integrate the information, business, and production process of a powder coating manufacturing via computer simulation. Previous studies considered only conventional customer lead‐time, which is defined as customer lead‐times to receive goods or services. The integrated approach of this study is capable of evaluating customer lead‐times in six different dimensions. Furthermore, the integrated simulation approach considers conventional customer lead‐time (from when the customer places an order) in addition to five other customer indices. This is the first study to consider the integrated modeling of the information, business, and production process. Previous studies mostly considered individual simulation modeling of production system, information system, or business system in various settings. It is claimed that by integrating information and business systems and production systems through simulation, major and minor organization and production issues become visible. This study also shows perceived improvements through integration of the information system and production process modeling. In summary, the unique features of this study are 3‐fold. First, the integrated approach of this study identifies major bottlenecks of the production process and information system and business process concurrently. Second, the integrated approach models and produces several dimensions of customer satisfaction. Finally, the integrated approach allows the effects of business process reengineering and information technology to be evaluated before actual implementation. In addition, by integrated modeling of this study the hidden and concurrent effect of the business and production processes are identified and improved.

The increasing adoption of Process-aware Information Systems (PAISs), together with the variability of Business Processes (BPs) across different application contexts, has resulted in large process model repositories with collections of related process model variants. To reduce both costs and occurrence of errors, the explicit management of variability throughout the BP lifecycle becomes crucial. In literature, several proposals dealing with BP variability have been proposed. However, the lack of a method for their systematic comparison makes it difficult to select the most appropriate one meeting current needs best. To close this gap, this work presents an evaluation framework that allows analyzing and comparing the variability support provided by existing proposals developed in the context of BP variability. The framework encompasses a set of language requirements as well as a set of variability support features. While language requirements allow assessing the expressiveness required to explicitly represent variability of different process perspectives, variability support features reflect the tool support required to properly cover such expressiveness. Our evaluation framework has been derived based on an in-depth analysis of several large real-world process scenarios, an extensive literature review, and an analysis of existing PAISs. In this vein, the framework helps to understand BP variability along the BP lifecycle. In addition, it supports PAISs engineers in deciding, which of the existing BP variability proposals meets best their needs.