Business Process Management Research Research Articles

Exploring the intersection of business process improvement and BPM capability development

PurposeDespite an obvious connection, business process improvement and business process management (BPM) capability development have been studied intensely, but in isolation. The authors thus aim to make the case for the research located at the intersection of both streams. The authors thereby focus on the integrated planning of business process improvement and BPM capability development as this is where, in the authors’ opinion, both streams have the closest interaction. The authors refer to the research field located at the intersection of business process improvement and BPM capability development as process project portfolio management. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors structure the field of process project portfolio management drawing from extant knowledge related to BPM, project portfolio management, and performance management. The authors also propose a research agenda in terms of exemplary research questions and research methods.FindingsThe proposed structure shows which business objects and interactions should be considered when engaging in process project portfolio management. The research agenda contains exemplary questions structured along the intersections of BPM, project portfolio management, and performance management.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper’s main limitation is that it reflects the authors’ individual viewpoints based on experiences of several industry projects and prior research.Originality/valueThis paper addresses a neglected research field, opens up new avenues for interdisciplinary BPM research, and contributes a novel perspective to the ongoing discussion about the future of BPM.

Design it like Darwin - A value-based application of evolutionary algorithms for proper and unambiguous business process redesign

Business process management (BPM) is an acknowledged source of corporate performance. Despite the mature body of knowledge, computational support is considered as a highly relevant research gap for redesigning business processes. Therefore, this paper applies Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) that, on a conceptual level, mimic the BPM lifecycle – the most popular BPM approach – by incrementally improving the status quo and bridging the trade-off between maintaining well-performing design structures and continuously evolving new designs. Beginning with describing process elements and their characteristics in matrices to aggregate process information, the EA then processes this information and combines the elements to new designs. These designs are then assessed by a function from value-based management. This economic paradigm reduces designs to their value contributions and facilitates an objective prioritization. Altogether, our triad of management science, BPM and information systems research results in a promising tool for process redesign and avoids subjective vagueness inherent to current redesign projects.

On the gap between reality and registration: a business event analysis classification framework

This paper presents a business event analysis classification framework, based on five business criteria. As a result, we are able to distinguish thirteen event types distributed over four categories, i.e. truthful, invisible, false and unobserved events. Currently, several of these event types are not commonly dealt with in business process management (BPM) and analytics (BPA) research. Based on the proposed framework we situate the different BPM and BPA research areas and indicate the potential issues for each field. A business case is elaborated to demonstrate the relevance of the event classification framework.

The State of the Art of Business Process Management Research as Published in the BPM Conference

The research field of Business Process Management (BPM) has gradually developed as a discipline situated within the computer, management and information systems sciences. Its evolution has been shaped by its own conference series, the BPM conference. Still, as with any other academic discipline, debates accrue and persist, which target the identity as well as the quality and maturity of the BPM field. In this paper, we contribute to the debate on the identity and progress of the BPM conference research community through an analysis of the BPM conference proceedings. We develop an understanding of signs of progress of research presented at this conference, where, how, and why papers in this conference have had an impact, and the most appropriate formats for disseminating influential research in this conference. Based on our findings from this analysis, we provide conclusions about the state of the conference series and develop a set of recommendations to further develop the conference community in terms of research maturity, methodological advance, quality, impact, and progression.

Customer Process Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Customer Process Management (CPM) is not a new term. This phrase has been emerged in academic article since 1999. The CPM expression has received increasing attention from researcher, consultants, practitioner from technology and application firms. The consultants and practitioners introduced customer process management software during 2003-2008 since most Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives failed. The following years, CPM attracted less attention from academics as well as practitioners, until Prof. Michael Rosemann in 2014, a Business Process Management (BPM) leading expert, called for new BPM research directions. One of his suggestions was to conduct research in CPM, which will complement the dominating current view of BPM. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature review article to examine CPM. Therefore, the research question of this paper: What is the current state-of-the-art research on CPM in academic literature? This research questions will be breakdown into two research objectives. First, present an overview of existing academic literature on CPM. Second, develop potential topics for future research in this field. The results of this study show that there are many opportunities to conduct research in this area.

Surveys in business process management – a literature review

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to provide an overview of surveys focussing on business process management (BPM)/business process orientation (BPO) or on BPM-related topics in order to describe the status quo, uncover trends, classify survey contributions and assess the possible further development of survey research.Design/methodology/approach– In order to achieve the research goals, the authors conduct a literature review. The authors analyze the retrieved literature by means of a developed analysis framework which allows the authors to examine the surveys from the meta-perspective and content-based perspective.Findings– A lot of surveys focussing on BPM/BPO or on BPM-related topics have been published in German- and English-speaking literature over the last years. Nevertheless, the authors find out that while some topics, countries/regions and industries are well explored others were neglected in the past. Moreover, the authors provide first evidence that companies have a different BPM demand. Finally, the authors conclude that although the implications of the incorporated surveys provide a good starting point for practitioners they seem to be too abstract to be helpful for them. Thus, the authors recommend the conduction of qualitative research endeavors to develop adaptable theories for practitioners.Research limitations/implications– This literature review focusses on survey research in BPM. It could be repeated in order to verify the findings and moreover to track progress. However, although the authors followed the steps proposed for a literature review, the selection of relevant articles might be a limitation of this paper.Originality/value– The literature review provides an overview of surveys focussing on BPM/BPO or on BPM-related topics that have been published so far. The developed and strictly applied analysis framework supports a systematic analysis of survey research and could therefore provide a detailed picture of the current state of this research field. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comparable literature review has been undertaken until now.

From business process management to customer process management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that in order to achieve customer centricity through business process management (BPM), companies have to obtain the profound understanding of customers’ processes and when necessary change not only the interactions with but also the processes of their customers. A method is presented that allows doing this in a systematic manner. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a large multinational company was conducted. Several different sources and methods were used, including document analysis, interviews and a qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions. Data were gathered at three points in time: before, during and after the implementation of the presented approach. Findings – The method that was successfully employed by the case organisation consisted of combining BPM with service blueprinting, and of extending these efforts by integrating the customers’ internal processes into the scope of improvement. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not thoroughly evaluate the long-term effects of the proposed approach. Some results of the case study analysis had to be excluded from this paper due to reasons of confidentiality. Practical implications – The paper presents an approach for organisations to not only understand the needs of their customers but also the way in which their product is used in customers’ processes. In this way BPM can be implemented in a truly customer-oriented way. Originality/value – This paper extends previous work by presenting one way in which BPM can follow up on its promise of increasing an organisations customer orientation. While servitisation has received a lot of attention in various disciplines, its application within BPM research and practice has been scarce.

BPM for supporting customer relationship and profit decision

Purpose – As a response to increasing global market competition, companies in various industries tend to identify and manage customer relationship to increase profit performance. Companies commit more resources to identify their VIP customers and retain them by all means. The purpose of this paper is to develop a customer relationship management (CRM) business process management (BPM) model to identify airline customers with different degree of relationship and profit potential, and select the highly profitable customers for developing retention strategy and processes, and convert the less profitable into profitable corporate accounts. Design/methodology/approach – This study innovatively apply the well-known techniques including CRM and relationship marketing models, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) in the BPM research. This novel approach analyzes longer term customer profit and value potential, and prioritizes corporate accounts as the basis for setting appropriate customer service levels and improving the CRM process. This hybrid model is able to capitalize on the benefits of these methods and offset their deficiencies. Most importantly, it can be customized to various industries without complex modification. Findings – This study uses data of an airline company to validate feasibility of the proposed CRM BPM model. The results indicate that this model is able to classify the customers based on various criteria and sub-criteria, thus allowing companies to introduce appropriate service levels to deal with different categories of customers, and improve CRM process so as to maximize customer profit and value potential. Practical implications – This CRM BPM model and analysis provide managers extensive customer knowledge, more analytical and fact-based decision-making support, and a stronger focus on return on investment in sales and marketing. Knowing the profit and value potential generated by individual corporate customer makes it easier to establish the link between the CRM and the profit outcome. This model also benefits the organization and its stakeholders by allocating more resources to the targeted customer relationships that are profitable or valuable, and makes marketing more accountable in its marketing programs. Originality/value – This study makes the first move to innovatively apply the well-known techniques including CRM and relationship marketing models, FAHP, and TOPSIS in the BPM research.

Ten principles of good business process management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to foster a common understanding of business process management (BPM) by proposing a set of ten principles that characterize BPM as a research domain and guide its successful use in organizational practice. Design/methodology/approach – The identification and discussion of the principles reflects the viewpoint, which was informed by extant literature and focus groups, including 20 BPM experts from academia and practice. Findings – The authors identify ten principles which represent a set of capabilities essential for mastering contemporary and future challenges in BPM. Their antonyms signify potential roadblocks and bad practices in BPM. The authors also identify a set of open research questions that can guide future BPM research. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest several areas of research regarding each of the identified principles of good BPM. Also, the principles themselves should be systematically and empirically examined in future studies....

BPM capability development – a matter of contingencies

Purpose – Business process management (BPM) is a key concept in information systems (IS) research that helps to connect business strategy with the use of technology in an organization. Contemporary BPM research is no longer only about methods, procedures, or tools for managing or modeling processes but about assessing and developing BPM capability in organizations. For this purpose, a vast collection of maturity models has been designed by practitioners and scholars alike. Such models are used to assess the status quo and benchmark it against other organizations, and, most important, to guide the development of BPM capability. With this study, the paper challenges the maturity model perspective of such development models. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, methods of qualitative IS research are employed to address the research objectives. Findings – The paper shows that maturity model-based guidance would be inadequate. Instead, other concept-external factors resulting from organizational and environmental characteristics appear to be important indicators. The theory discussion introduces alternative takes on BPM capability development, lays out implications for BPM practice, and presents potentially fruitful paths for future research in the area of BPM capability development. Originality/value – This paper challenges the current perspectives and contributes a new direction for conceptualizing BPM capability development.

Disaster Recovery-New Challenges and Opportunities for Business Process Management Research and Practice

Managing processes across community/NGOs, government and business agencies brings upon brand new challenges, yet to be explored by the Business Process Management (BPM) community. This research focuses on disaster recovery, as a prime example of such a complex cross-organisational environment. Even though every disaster is unique, when considered from the process perspective, disaster recovery could be seen as a set of operational processes – some of which are highly structured and predefined, while the others are knowledge-intensive i.e. highly emergent, ad-hoc processes that need to be designed in-situ and managed as they evolve. Through an in-depth review of the relevant literature published by the Business Process Management (BPM) and disaster recovery (DR) research communities this paper reports on the existing research on the management of DR processes. The literature was analysed through a theoretical lens combining two existing frameworks previously developed and used by the BPM community. Our research provides insights into the main characteristics of DR processes and the existing research gaps found across BPM and DR. These insights were used to identify relevant theories that could be used by information systems researchers to study different aspects of DR processes, in particular: (i) sharing and co-creation of process-related knowledge among very diverse process participants; (ii) management of data and information flows across different types of organizations (business, governmental and community/NGOs); (iii) flexible coordination mechanisms, and (iv) provision of more flexible IS support for these emerging knowledge-intensive processes.

On the importance of agile communication skills in BPM education: Design principles for international seminars

Business Process Management (BPM) has evolved as an integrated management discipline that aims to enable organizations to continuously innovate and improve their operations. BPM experts are exposed to communication processes involving people from various backgrounds (e.g., various business areas, fields of expertise, and cultures). Research in applied linguistics has shown that it is difficult to plan for constellations of such communication processes; thus, agile communication skills are vital for successful business communication. Teaching programs for BPM, however, do not account for these skills. Rather, they mainly address methods for the analysis, implementation, and management of business processes. As a result, graduates—though they may be technically and methodologically apt—face unexpected challenges due to communication deficiencies in BPM projects. BPM research has shown that deficiencies in communication are in fact among the most frequent reasons for project failure. In this paper, we present a course setting to teach agile communication skills in BPM education. The approach is informed by literature on BPM education as well as theories from virtual collaboration education. We have evaluated it in an international virtual seminar involving seven European universities. We argue for the importance of agile communication skills in BPM education. In addition, we present design principles for courses to teach agile communication skills that can be applied by fellow academics.

Exploring the State of Business Processes Management in the Bulgarian Enterprises

Business Process Management is a management approach that describes how companies can achieve efficiencies by integrating and improving their business processes and by aligning those business processes with corporate strategies and goals. Companies that routinely practice Business Process Management (BPM) are able to consistently improve on the results obtained from existing processes. This BPM research report summarized information provided by 350 respondents who participated in the survey within the period of three years (2009-2011). The respondents represent a broad cross section of Bulgarian industries. The main goal of this survey is to draw picture of the latest concepts in BPM and the results reflect the perspectives of a broad base of Bulgarian managers interested in BPM. The results show that the initiatives regarding business processes are in a good shape. It is confirmed that BPM is resistant to the slowdown of economic growth. In good years, the Bulgarian enterprises undertake BPM in order to grow, to enter new markets, in order to win a competitive advantage by means of innovations. In bad years, companies undertake BPM, in order to save expenses and to make more precise those processes which have been developed during favorable periods.

Current and Future Issues in BPM Research: A European Perspective from the ERCIS Meeting 2010

Business process management (BPM) is a still-emerging field in the academic discipline of Information Systems (IS). This article reflects on a workshop on current and future issues in BPM research that was conducted by seventeen IS researchers from eight European countries as part of the 2010 annual meeting of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS). The results of this workshop suggest that BPM research can meaningfully contribute to investigating a broad variety of phenomena that are of interest to IS scholars, ranging from rather technical (e.g., the implementation of software architectures) to managerial (e.g., the impact of organizational culture on process performance). It further becomes noticeable that BPM researchers can make use of several research strategies, including qualitative, quantitative, and design-oriented approaches. The article offers the participants’ outlook on the future of BPM research and combines their opinions with research results from the academic literature on BPM, with the goal of contributing to establishing BPM as a distinct field of research in the IS discipline.

Process Fragment Libraries for Easier and Faster Development of Process-based Applications

The term is recently gaining momentum in business process management research. We understand a process fragment as a connected and reusable process structure, which has relaxed completeness and consistency criteria compared to executable processes. We claim that process fragments allow for an easier and faster development of process- based applications. As evidence to this claim we present a process fragment concept and show a sample collection of concrete, real-world process fragments. We present advanced application scenarios for using such fragments in development of process-based applications. Process fragments are typically managed in a repository, forming a process fragment library. On top of a process fragment library from previous work, we discuss the potential impact of using process fragment libraries in cross-enterprise collaboration and application integration.

The Importance of Process Thinking in Business Intelligence

The growing field of Operational Business Intelligence (BI) has resulted in increasing interest in BI-supported Business Processes (BPs), including their management and ongoing improvement. This has led BI practitioners to consider another field–Business Process Management (BPM)–that is closely related to business performance management. However, current approaches to the BPM and operational BI integration have been limited and reduced to the problem of technical integration of BPM and BI systems. This paper argues that by adopting process- thinking in BI, further opportunities for business value creation could be discovered through systematic analysis of the non-technical aspects of BI and BPM integration, including strategy alignment, human-centered knowledge management, and ongoing improvement of BI supported processes. The authors propose a theoretical framework founded in the related research in BPM, BI, and Knowledge Management (KM) fields, describing the ways it has been used to guide ongoing empirical research in diverse case organizations across different industry sectors.

Empirical research in business process management: introduction to the special issue

In this editorial letter, we provide the readers of Information Systems and e-Business Management with an introduction to Business Process Management and the challenges of empirical research in this field. We then briefly describe selected examples of current research efforts in this fields and how the papers accepted for this special issue contribute to extending our body of knowledge.

Empirical research in business process management – analysis of an emerging field of research

PurposeThe paper aims at providing a survey of the development of empirical research in business process management (BPM). It seeks to study trends in empirical BPM research and applied methodologies by means of a developed framework in order to identify the status quo and to assess the probable future development of the research field.Design/methodology/approachIn order to analyse the development of the research field a systematic literature review of empirical journal articles in the BPM context is conducted. The retrieved literature is analyzed by means of scientometric methods and a developed reference framework.FindingsThe steadily growing number of published articles in empirical BPM research shows an increase in interest in the research field. Research interests, applied methodologies, the underlying research paradigm and the level of maturity of empirical BPM research differ depending on regional aspects. BPM gains importance in the industry as well as in the public administration context.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on a sample of 355 articles and not on an exhaustive amount of available empirical research contributions. Nevertheless, significant analyses can be conducted. Future research could apply the developed reference framework for further literature reviews in order to be able to compare the findings and to measure progress.Originality/valueThe presented literature review gives an overview of trends in empirical BPM research. The developed and strictly applied reference framework supports a systematic analysis of contributions and can thus draw a significant picture of the state‐of‐the‐art of the research field. To the best knowledge of the authors no such survey has currently been undertaken.