Context Of Process Management Research Articles

Business process outsourcing to cloud containers: How to find the optimal deployment?

Containers are a new service model that empowers cloud computing by offering horizontally scalable systems while bypassing high-performance challenges of traditional hypervisors. In the business process management context, Containers-as-a-Service can be used to outsource business processes to the cloud and allow an enterprise to bundle its processes and data in a simpler and more performance-oriented manner. To profit from containers, an enterprise must however have a means to identify the optimal resource allocation. Towards this end, we propose a system architecture for optimal containers-based deployment of business processes. The proposed system architecture relies on our extension of ContainerCloudSim simulator to estimate the execution time of business processes deployed according to the CaaS model. In addition, it encloses a business process deployment optimizer. To develop this latter, we examine a linear program and a genetic algorithm to find out the optimal deployment of a business process on cloud containers. We show experimentally the effective performance of containers-based versus VM-based deployment, and linear program versus the First-Fit container strategy and the genetic algorithm.

Business process outsourcing enhanced by fuzzy linguistic consensus model

Business process outsourcing represents a strategic option to obtain the overall improvement of performance in business process management context. It consists in externalizing whole sub-processes (e.g., production, logistics, human resources) of a value chain. Last decade, the concept of value chain moved toward the more flexible concept of value net that implies the assembly of several value chains tailored to specifics, objectives, markets, etc. Thus, the composition of a value chain within a value net environments can be understood as the modeling of a macro business process in which sub-processes can be outsourced. Such composition activity foresees crucial decision-making moments that need to be sustained by a group of decision-makers owning several and heterogeneous competences in order to select the most suitable external providers to which delegate specific sub-processes. This work proposes a framework to enhance business process outsourcing by introducing group decision-making support that relies on a fuzzy linguistic consensus model. In addition, the framework implements algorithms to learn and assign different weights to decision-makers considering the context and time at which they participate in the group decision making. The framework is applied to an Italian footwear company by describing a numerical example.

Facilitating Enhanced Decision Support Using a Social Norms Approach

Social norms constrain behavior of individuals either through obligating or prohibiting certain types of behavior. Norm-based mechanisms have only recently found applications in enhancing decisions of knowledge workers in an automated business process management context. The norms inferred in the context of business process executions are then recommended to users so as to enable them to make informed decisions. The previous work on prohibition norm inference focused on identifying failure cases, which is now complemented by first inferring norms from the successful process execution cases and then inferring prohibition norms. This approach based on considering social feedback (i.e. inferring what is obliged and prohibited from history logs of process execution) shows encouraging results under uncertain business environments. Using simulation results the paper demonstrates that using the norm based mechanism results in reduced failure rates in the decision making of a knowledge worker while still providing maximum flexibility for the user to choose from a range of actions to execute.

How to Learn Process-Oriented Thinking: An Experimental Investigation of the Effectiveness of Different Learning Modes

We examine the effectiveness of different learning modes in a process management context. We argue that many organizations will undergo a transformation from a function to a process orientation and that learning matters in this context, as a fundamental change in thinking is required. Using a questionnaire experiment with a sample of 147 participants, we found a significant influence of learning modes on the general success of learning process-oriented thinking. We observe that learning-by-doing is more effective than using documented knowledge. We raise awareness of the less studied underlying variables influencing the success of learning process-oriented thinking.

Critical success factors: mapping and examining in process management context

This study establishes and examines critical success factors (CSFs) that affect the readiness and successful implementation of process management (PM). This research uses an empirical study and review methodology to extract CSFs of PM implementation. Preliminary CSFs were established from reviewing the literature and studying various reports about implementation of PM in organisations. The 13 preliminary CSFs and their sub-factors were refined and validated through interviews with PM executives and experts. In this way, this study presented 13 CSFs and 64 sub-factors with their influence (importance) on the success of PM initiatives and implementation. Additionally, these CSFs and their sub-factors are ranked according to the importance of them on PM implementation and also to the value of creating each before, during and after PM efforts. Finally, the refined CSFs and subfactors formed the basis of self-assessment framework that can be used by firms to analyse their readiness to implement PM in their organisations.

Modelling business processes with workflow systems: an evaluation of alternative approaches

Effective business process management necessitates a consistent information flow between the participants in the process, the smooth integration of the flow of work, the timely sharing of data and information during the planning and implementation phases and harmonious support for the collaborative aspects of work. The recent trends in the development of advanced workflow management systems and technologies seem to be of crucial importance for facilitating these tasks within the process management context. However, workflow management systems (WfMS) follow various approaches in modelling the flow of work and hence present varying functionalities when supporting enterprise processes. The present paper examines the ways in which workflow technology may facilitate the implementation of process management, reviews the pros and cons of adopting alternative workflow representation techniques in modelling business processes and provides guidance to managers as to the characteristics, the similarities and differences of the various workflow modelling schemes.