Dynamic Business Process Research Articles

Electronic new product development –‐ a conceptual framework

Today’s knowledge economy era is characterized by short product life‐cycles, dynamic customer requirements and complex business processes, knowledge management (KM) is becoming the pivot of new product development. In this article, the interactions between five activities of KM and new product development process are discussed in detail. Then, a novel concept – electronic new product development (E‐NPD) is put forward. E‐NPD is defined as the convergence of customer relationship, business processes, enterprise IT applications, and knowledge management system necessary to perform continuous innovation through new business model in the new knowledge‐based economy. Based on a case study in the high‐tech industry, we demonstrate that the convergence of KM and new product development have greatly enhanced the efficiency of new product development, accordingly led to the success of new product. In the end, it is concluded that competence of NPD is from KM by describing the E‐NPD structure as an organism.

Web services and business process management

Web services based on the service-oriented architecture framework provide a suitable technical foundation for making business processes accessible within enterprises and across enterprises. But to appropriately support dynamic business processes and their management, more is needed, namely, the ability to prescribe how Web services are used to implement activities within a business process, how business processes are represented as Web services, and also which business partners perform what parts of the actual business process. In this paper, the relationship between Web services and the management of business processes is worked out and presented in a tutorial-like manner.

MANAGING CHANGE AND TIME IN DYNAMIC WORKFLOW PROCESSES

Business environments have become exceedingly dynamic and competitive in recent times. This dynamism is manifested in the form of changing process requirements and time constraints. Workflow technology is currently one of the most promising fields of research in business process automation. However, workflow systems to date do not provide the flexibility necessary to support the dynamic nature of business processes. In this paper we primarily discuss the issues and challenges related to managing change and time in workflows representing dynamic business processes. We also present an analysis of workflow modifications and provide feasibility considerations for the automation of this process.

IT-enabled redesign of complex and dynamic business processes: the case of bank credit evaluation

This paper argues that business process redesign and decision support can be useful complementary approaches to the redesign of business processes handling complex tasks in an ever-changing environment. The paper focuses on the possibilities of Information Technology to enhance consistency between strategy and operation, improve the quality of empowered employees' decisions, and facilitate organizational learning. The integration of the two approaches is illustrated through the design of a prototype system to support the redesigned credit evaluation process in a Norwegian bank. Implications are highlighted.