Creating Self-managed Cross-Professional Teams with Metaphoric Business Process Support Systems

Abstract

The typical values that can be obtained by employing a business process support (BPS) system are optimization, compliance to rules and regulations, leanness, etc. These are obtained by introducing a kind of “conveyor belt” in business processes. While these values can be important for some processes at some phases of the enterprise development, they can be counter-productive for other processes and other phases. This idea paper investigates a possibility of obtaining completely different value from a BPS system, namely it serving as a means of creating self-managed/self-directed cross-professional teams of process participants. The paper suggests using visualized folk and fairy tales and interactive game technology as a basis for building BPS systems that can bring this value. The discussion is done based on the example of representing a consultative sales process using a treasure hunting plot.