Field Of Business Process Management Research Articles

Data-Driven Identification and Analysis of Waiting Times in Business Processes

AbstractReducing waiting times in end-to-end business processes is a recurrent concern in the field of business process management. The uptake of data-driven approaches in this field in the past two decades, most notably process mining, has created new opportunities for fine-grained analysis of waiting times based on execution data. As a result, a wide range of approaches for waiting time identification and analysis on the basis of business process execution data have been reported in the literature. In many instances, different approaches have considered different notions of waiting time and different causes for waiting time. At present, there is a lack of a consolidated overview of these manifold approaches, and how they relate to or complement each other. The article presents a literature review that starts with the question of what approaches for identification and analysis of waiting time are available in the literature, and then refines this question by adding questions which shed light onto different causes and notions of waiting time. The survey leads to a multidimensional taxonomy of data-driven waiting time analysis techniques, in terms of purpose, causes, and measures. The survey identifies gaps in the field, chiefly a scarcity of integrated multi-causal approaches to analyze waiting times in business processes, and a lack of empirically validated approaches in the field.

Бізнес-процеси як об’єкт управління діяльністю сучасних підприємницьких структур

Based on the systematization and generalization of scientific publications, the content characteristics of functional and process models of management are determined. It is established that the process model of management was formed in the conditions of the post-industrial period of economic relations development. The main factor in its formation was the introduction of automated and integrated management systems in the conditions of innovative development. A modern enterprise is considered as a set of business processes that consistently form a chain of added value creation. Management tasks in the field of business process management involve the formation of a system of main and auxiliary business processes, determination of their functions and relationships, standardization of the content and sequence of operations, ensuring interaction and control of efficiency.

Robotic process automation deployments: a step-by-step method to investment appraisal

PurposeRobotic process automation (RPA) has recently emerged as a technology focusing on the automation of repetitive, frequent, voluminous and rule-based tasks. Despite a few practical examples that document successful RPA deployments in organizations, evidence of its economic benefits has been mostly anecdotal. The purpose of this paper is to present a step-by-step method to RPA investment appraisal and a business case demonstrating how the steps can be applied to practice.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology relies on design science research (DSR). The step-by-step method is a design artefact that builds on the mapping of processes and modelling of the associated costs. Due to the longitudinal nature of capital investments, modelling uses discounted cashflow and present value methods. Empirical grounding characteristic to DSR is achieved by field testing the artefact.FindingsThe step-by-step method is comprised of a preparatory step, three modelling steps and a concluding step. The modelling consists of compounding the interest rate, discounting the investment costs and establishing measures for comparison. These steps were applied to seven business processes to be automated by the case company, Estate Blend. The decision to deploy RPA was found to be trivial, not only based on the initial case data, but also based on multiple sensitivity analyses that showed how resistant RPA investments are to changing circumstances.Practical implicationsBy following the provided step-by-step method, executives and managers can quantify the costs and benefits of RPA. The developed method enables any organization to directly compare investment alternatives against each other and against the probable status quo where many tasks in organizations are still carried out manually with little to no automation.Originality/valueThe paper addresses a growing new domain in the field of business process management by capitalizing on DSR and modelling-based approaches to RPA investment appraisal.

DAILY ProM SOFTWARE

The importance of project management in the modern world was analyzed. The problem of using softwaretools in project management was substantiated. A review of scientific works on the subject of the study was carried out.Four features that describe the need in project management tools were analyzed. A list of 10 alternative tools to MicrosoftProject was described. SWOT analysis of Microsoft Project was conducted too. Creation steps of the new softwareproduct “Daily ProM Software” were described. All buttons and their functions were justified. SWOT analysis of thedeveloped product was conducted too. The advantages of the program were described in the research.DAILY ProM is a process mining software tool that is used to analyze, visualize and improve business processes. It isan open-source software developed at Eindhoven University of Technology, and is available for free download from theProM website.With DAILY ProM, users can import event logs from various sources, such as ERP systems, workflow managementsystems, and databases. The software then uses process mining techniques to extract useful insights from the event logs,such as process flow, performance metrics, bottlenecks, and compliance issues.DAILY ProM supports a wide range of process mining techniques, including process discovery, conformancechecking, performance analysis, and social network analysis. It also provides a user-friendly interface that allows usersto easily visualize the extracted process models and analyze them using various interactive tools.Overall, DAILY ProM is a powerful tool for process mining, and is widely used by researchers, practitioners, andstudents in the field of business process management.

The affordances of digital technologies for business processes integration

PurposeIndustry 4.0 brings new opportunities and challenges. This paper aims to focus on understanding how the affordances of digital technologies contribute to the integration of business processes in the context of Industry 4.0.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case analysis is used to reveal the affordances of digital technologies for the integration of business processes. A manufacturing company, the producer of professional stainless-steel kitchens, which is known for the adoption of digital technologies, was selected for the research. Interviews, archival data and nonparticipant observation are the main data collection methods.FindingsThis study contributes to the general business process management field. Case analysis shows that digital technologies facilitate the integration of business processes, specifically certain affordances, such as accessing and updating, sharing and initiating.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is of a single case and therefore has some limitations. Future research should focus on the analysis of more cases for a better understanding of business process integration in the context of Industry 4.0.Practical implicationsThe results of this research will help business managers better understand the importance of the development and proper adaptation of digital technologies in an organization.Originality/valueThis research has a twofold contribution to the fields of business process management and business process integration. First, the authors reveal how digital technologies facilitate business processes management in the context of Industry 4.0; and second, the authors identify the main mechanisms through which digital technologies contribute to business process integration.

A cognitive BPM theory for knowledge-intensive processes

PurposeA literature review was conducted in order to establish a detailed definition of a knowledge-intensive process (KiP). Moreover, relevant theories from humanities – especially the fields of linguistics and philosophy – were thoroughly researched and adapted for establishing descriptive and analytical foundations for the phenomena involved. Finally, a cognitive business process management (BPM) theory was proposed in order to assess how sufficient are its respective explanatory and predictive powers. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposes a novel theory for KiPs that describe the process flow based on the participants' interactions and their beliefs, desires and intentions as the main drivers of the process enactment and execution.FindingsThe proposal puts forth a comprehensive definition of a KiP, depicting knowledge intensity, participant interaction and decision-making. The inner dynamics of each of these two elements (as well as other associated elements) are described as an information systems (IS) theory that enables the study of KiPs in detail, going beyond the typical techniques of the BPM field and common obstacles.Originality/valueA theory proposal for KiP that applies concepts from speech act theory and intentional states as the main drivers for understanding the process dynamics are, to the best of the authors' knowledge, not present at the literature. Being an original proposal, the real-world scenario discussed brings up the explanatory and predictive powers of the theory as well as its innovative value for research in the field.

Application of business modeling tools in the context of the innovation development of the digital economy in China

With the development of China’s digital economy, a large number of high-tech enterprises have emerged, and the application of business model tools for enterprises has also been innovatively developed. Big data technology has been widely used in business process management. This article analyzed from the perspective of big data to discuss the inovative application of business modeling tools. The article first analyzed the current status of data-driven research in the field of business process management, and expounds the use of big data analysis methods to establish a BPM knowledge base to guide, optimize, and predict the flow of business processes. From the perspective of big data, use the results of data analysis to drive the flow of business processes. The article analyzes and summarizes the core links of building a data-driven BPM. On this basis, the establishment of a data-driven BPM implementation process is described in detail. Finally, the development trend and research challenges of data-driven BPM are given. It has great reference significance for the business process management of Chinese high-tech enterprises in the development environment of the digital economy. At the same time, it also has a certain reference significance for the innovation of business model tools in Russia, helping enterprises to better manage. This article analyzes the application and development of business modeling tools from the perspective of big data, which is in line with the current development direction of the times. At present, most of the literature is studying the construction of BPM process. This article mainly studies the optimization of the process after construction and the processing of data in the process, and gives the development trend and research challenges of data-driven BPM.

Exploring critical success factors for business re-engineering processes implementation: A review of literature

The paper is a review of critical success factors for Business Re-Engineering Processes Implementation. Business process re-engineering (BPR) has emerged as a crucial strategy for organizations seeking to adapt to rapidly changing business environments and improve operational efficiency. Successful implementation of BPR projects is contingent upon a comprehensive understanding of the critical success factors (CSFs) that drive their effectiveness. This literature review aims to explore and synthesize the key CSFs for business re-engineering processes implementation by analyzing a broad range of academic and industry sources. The review begins by providing an overview of the evolution of BPR, its rationale, and its significance in contemporary business contexts. Subsequently, it delves into an extensive examination of the literature to identify and categorize the CSFs that have been consistently highlighted in research and practical applications. These CSFs encompass various dimensions, including organizational culture, leadership commitment, stakeholder involvement, change management, information technology adoption, and performance measurement. Furthermore, the review explores the interrelationships and dependencies among these CSFs, highlighting the need for a holistic and integrated approach to BPR implementation. It also discusses the evolving role of technology, especially emerging trends such as artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, in influencing the success of BPR initiatives. By synthesizing and synthesizing the existing literature, this review aims to provide valuable insights for practitioners and researchers involved in BPR projects. It underscores the importance of considering multiple CSFs and their interactions when planning and executing BPR initiatives, offering a foundation for developing effective strategies and frameworks to maximize the likelihood of successful outcomes. Additionally, it identifies gaps in the literature and suggests directions for future research, encouraging further exploration of this critical area in the field of business process management.

Reactive synthesis of software robots in RPA from user interface logs

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging technology in the field of Business Process Management (BPM) that enables the automation of intensive repetitive tasks (or simply routines). RPA solutions access the user interface (UI) layer of software (SW) applications and provide a virtual workforce of SW robots that are able to mimic human keyboard and mouse interactions with a UI as if a real person was doing them. To take full advantage of this technology, organizations leverage the support of skilled human experts that preliminarily observe how routines are executed on the UI of the involved SW applications, and then implement the executable RPA scripts required to automate the routines enactment by SW robots on a target computer system. However, the current practice is time-consuming and error-prone, as it strongly relies on the ability of the human experts to correctly interpret the routines (and their variants) to automate. In this paper, to tackle this issue, we use a design science research method to develop an approach, called SmartRPA, which is able to interpret the UI logs keeping track of many routine executions, and to automatically synthesize SW robots that emulate the most suitable routine variant for any specific intermediate user input that is required during the routine execution. The approach is implemented as an open-source tool and evaluated with four non-functional requirements employing both syntectic and real-world data.

Organization-driven business process configurable modeling for spatial variability

Nowadays, enterprises need to continually adjust their business processes to adapt to the changes of business environments, especially when one business needs to be deployed in different application scenarios, which is called spatial variability in this paper. In the field of BPM (Business Process Management), configurable business process models have demonstrated their effectiveness in aspects of process modeling and model reuse. Yet, we found that the existing techniques lead to complex configurable models, and are inadequate for model reuse especially for the spatial variability issue because they neglect the root impact of organizations on control flow. S-BPM (Subject-oriented Business Process Management) models provide a solid foundation for dealing with complex applications and help to bridge the gap between business and IT for process execution. In this paper, we propose an organization-driven business process configurable modeling approach for spatial variability by integrating both restriction and extension operations based on the S-BPM paradigm, in which business objects are also included. Our approach is validated with a general business process developed for the Real Estate Administration (REA) in a certain province of China. The resulting configurable modeling framework can express the heterogeneous activity sequences for one business and has the potential to generate process models for uncertain environments in a new organization structure.

Solving reachability problems on data-aware workflows

Recent advances in the field of Business Process Management (BPM) have brought about several suites able to model data objects along with the traditional control flow perspective. Nonetheless, when it comes to formal verification there is still a lack of effective verification tools on imperative data-aware process models and executions: the data perspective is often abstracted away and verification tools are often missing.Automated Planning is one of the core areas of Artificial Intelligence where theoretical investigations and concrete and robust tools have made possible the reasoning about dynamic systems and domains. Moreover planning techniques are gaining popularity in the context of BPM. Starting from these observations, we provide here a concrete framework for formal verification of reachability properties on an expressive, yet empirically tractable class of data-aware process models, an extension of Workflow Nets. Then we provide a rigorous mapping between the semantics of such models and that of three important Automated Planning paradigms: Action Languages, Classical Planning, and Model-Checking. Finally, we perform a comprehensive assessment of the performance of three popular tools supporting the above paradigms in solving reachability problems for imperative data-aware business processes, which paves the way for a theoretically well founded and practically viable exploitation of planning-based techniques on data-aware business processes.

Вдосконалення бізнес-процесів сучасних судноплавних компаній в сфері міжнародних морських вантажних перевезень

In a market economy, there are a significant number of shipping companies that compete with each other and fight for maximum profits in a highly competitive environment. Competitive advantages lie in the plane of organization of the fleet, which relate mainly to the management of shipping companies. Operators of shipping companies establish tactical and strategic cooperation with freight forwarders and other participants in the logistics chain for the successful implementation of business processes and subprocesses. The study of the water transport of Ukraine from 2002 to 2020 revealed that in this period there were significant structural changes in freight turnover and traffic, which indicates the presence of serious systemic problems in management. If current trends continue, the national economy may lose such a strategically important sector. The shortcomings in the field of international maritime transport are caused, among other things, by inefficient management of business processes of Ukrainian shipping companies. The business process of a shipping company is a set of interdependent tasks and works aimed at creating a product or service to meet the needs of their customers. The business processes of shipping companies are due to the characteristics of staff and the processes of international trade. Thus, the personnel of shipping companies, concentrated in the operational units, provide a range of services that ensure the movement of goods and passengers with the required level of quality. The complex of such services is described by many business processes and represents the main processes of the shipping company. Improving the business processes of these companies must be viewed through the prism of the field of logistics, the main factors in the development of which are staff and international trade trends. Research and study of international experience in the field of business process management and its implementation in the activities of shipping companies of Ukraine to some extent will improve the declining trends in freight traffic and water transport, which have been observed in recent years.

Seamless conceptual modeling of processes with transactional and analytical data

In the field of Business Process Management (BPM), modeling business processes and related data is a critical issue since process activities need to manage data stored in databases. The connection between processes and data is usually handled at the implementation level, even if modeling both processes and data at the conceptual level should help designers in improving business process models and identifying requirements for implementation. Especially in data- and decision-intensive contexts, business process activities need to access data stored both in databases and data warehouses. In this paper, we complete our approach for defining a novel conceptual view that bridges process activities and data. The proposed approach allows the designer to model the connection between business processes and database models and define the operations to perform, providing interesting insights on the overall connected perspective and hints for identifying activities that are crucial for decision support.

Process Model Metrics for Quality Assessment of Computer-Interpretable Guidelines in PROforma

Background: Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) include recommendations to optimize patient care and thus have the potential to improve the quality and outcomes of healthcare. To achieve this, CPG recommendations are usually formalized in terms of Computer-Interpretable Guideline (CIG) languages. However, a clear understanding of CIG models may prove complicated, due to the inherent complexity of CPGs and the specificities of CIG languages. Drawing a parallel with the Business Process Management (BPM) and the Software Engineering fields, understandability and modifiability of CIG models can be regarded as primary quality attributes, in order to facilitate their validation, as well as their adaptation to accommodate evolving clinical evidence, by modelers (typically teams made up of clinical and IT experts). This constitutes a novel approach in this area of CIG development, where understandability and modifiability aspects have not been considered to date. Objective: In this paper, we define a comprehensive set of process model metrics for CIGs described in the PROforma CIG language, with the main objective of providing tools for quality assessment of CIG models in this language. Methods: To this end, we first reinterpret a set of metrics from the BPM field in terms of PROforma and then we define new metrics to capture the singularities of PROforma models. Additionally, we report on a set of experiments to assess the relationship between the structural and logical properties of CIG models, as measured by the proposed metrics, and their understandability and modifiability from the point of view of modelers, both clinicians and IT staff. For the analysis of the experiment results, we perform statistical analysis based on a generalized linear mixed model with binary logistic regression. Results: Our contribution includes the definition of a comprehensive set of metrics that allow measuring model quality aspects of PROforma CIG models, the implementation of tools and algorithms to assess the metrics for PROforma models, and the empirical validation of the proposed metrics as quality indicators. Conclusions: In light of the results, we conclude that the proposed metrics can be of great value, as they capture the PROforma-specific features in addition to those inspired by the general-purpose BPM metrics in the literature. In particular, the newly defined metrics for PROforma prevail as statistically significant when the whole CIG model is considered, which means that they better characterize its complexity. Consequently, the proposed metrics can be used as quality indicators of the understandability, and thereby maintainability, of PROforma CIGs.

Beyond arrows in process models: A user study on activity dependences and their rationales

Despite the number and variety of business process modelling languages and notations available in the Business Process Management field, all of them mainly focus on a single type of relationship holding between business process activities, namely the activity execution order within the control flow. However, other types of relationships may hold between activities (e.g., co-occurrence or causal constraints) and the motivation behind these relationships can also be different (e.g., a norm or an ontological law-of-nature). In this paper, we focus on one type of these activity relationships whose semantics goes beyond the semantics of arrows in traditional business process modelling languages, i.e., on the so called occurrence dependences. In particular, we aim at evaluating whether making these occurrence dependences explicit in business process models could support business process modellers and analysts in their tasks. To this aim, we propose a notation for representing the occurrence dependences and their rationale, and carry out an empirical study with human subjects for evaluating their support in comprehension and redesign tasks; in addition, we qualitatively investigate the effort required for enriching business process models with these dependences.

The Internet of Things Meets Business Process Management: A Manifesto

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of connected devices collecting and exchanging data over the Internet. These things can be artificial or natural, and interact as autonomous agents forming a complex system. In turn, Business Process Management (BPM) was established to analyze, discover, design, implement, execute, monitor and evolve collaborative business processes within and across organizations. While the IoT and BPM have been regarded as separate topics in research and practice, we strongly believe that the management of IoT applications will strongly benefit from BPM concepts, methods and technologies on the one hand; on the other one, the IoT poses challenges that will require enhancements and extensions of the current state-of-the-art in the BPM field. In this paper, we question to what extent these two paradigms can be combined and we discuss the emerging challenges.

Business Process Management and Digital Innovations: A Systematic Literature Review

Emerging technologies have capabilities to reshape business process management (BPM) from its traditional version to a more explorative variant. However, to exploit the full benefits of new IT, it is essential to reveal BPM’s research potential and to detect recent trends in practice. Therefore, this work presents a systematic literature review (SLR) with 231 recent academic articles (from 2014 until May 2019) that integrate BPM with digital innovations (DI). We position those articles against seven future BPM-DI trends that were inductively derived from an expert panel. By complementing the expected trends in practice with a state-of-the-art literature review, we are able to derive covered and uncovered themes in order to help bridge a rigor-relevance gap. The major technological impacts within the BPM field seem to focus on value creation, customer engagement and managing human-centric and knowledge-intensive business processes. Finally, our findings are categorized into specific calls for research and for action to let scholars and organizations better prepare for future digital needs.

Methods for managing the construction organization’s competitiveness, the stability of their functioning and development in the conditions of Russian regions

The article considers the issues of managing the competitiveness of Russian enterprises in the globalization process context and the current information environment. The Russian developments in the field of business process management (BPM) are analyzed. It has been established that the activity and development of regional construction organizations is described by a five-stage development cycle model (explerent - patient - violent – kommutant – letalent (cessation, destructuring)).The main problems in this area are: the lack of clear concepts for the competitiveness management regional features’ diagnosis; lack of a methodology for assessing the resources’ state of crisis regional construction organizations (RCOs) and their management strategies; insufficient issues elaboration of designing the organizational structure and organizational culture of the RCO; lack of methods for substantiating the priorities in ensuring the RCO competitiveness.Thus, the system of information support of industrial and economic activity in construction commonly used in the territory of the Russian Federation is not effective, since it does not meet the requirements of a managerial nature and strategic understanding of the state and prospects of the RCO development, reflects only certain aspects of the organization’s development.The way out is the information and analytical base creation based on the monitoring the development resources of the construction complex. The development of such a product is impossible without substantiating the methodological aspects of information support and assessing the state of construction resources in the regions.

ЭКЗЕМПЛЯР АНАЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ МОДЕЛИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ПОТОКОВ ПРОЕКТНЫХ РАБОТ В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВОГО ПРОИЗВОДСТВА

This paper describes an instance of the analytical model of project workflows on the example of the project approval procedure in the design and technological preparation of production, developed on the basis of data from a large radio engineering industrial organization. This instance helps a system analyst, including a design engineer, process engineer, and designer, in the field of business process management to identify system errors (for example, the location of deadlocks, bottlenecks, etc.) when analyzing the existing (synthesizing new) project work flows in the basis of graphic languages, for example, UMLlanguage, BPML-language, IDEF0-language, etc. This article is one of the follow-ups works on the methodology for processing design workflows in the basis of graphic languages.

Big data and risk management in business processes: implications for corporate real estate

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the integration between big data (BD) and risk management (RM) in business processes (BPs), with special reference to corporate real estate (CRE).Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual study follows, methodologically, the structuring inter-textual coherence process – specifically, the synthesised coherence tactical approach. It draws heavily on theoretical evidence published, mainly, in the corporate finance and the business management literature.FindingsA new conceptual framework is presented for CRE to proactively develop insights into the potential benefits of using BD as a business strategy/instrument. The approach was found to strengthen decision-making processes and encourage better RM – with significant consequences, in particular, for business process management (BPM). Specifically, by recognising the potential uses of BD, it is also possible to redefine the processes with advantages in terms of RM.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature in the fields of real estate, RM, BPM and digital transformation. To the best knowledge of authors, although the literature has examined the concepts of BD, RM and BP, no prior studies have comprehensively examined these three elements and their conjoint contribution to CRE. In particular, the study highlights how the automation of data-intensive activities and the analysis of such data (in both structured and unstructured forms), as a means of supporting decision making, can lead to better efficiency in RM and optimisation of processes.