Chapter 8

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Business Process MethodologyChapter 8- Business Process Methodology

Prepared by:Rao Majid Shamshad

University of Education, Lahoreemail: [email protected]://www.bpm-ue.blogspot.com

8.1 METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW

• In this chapter, the development of businessprocess management solutions is investigated.

• A coarse-grained methodology is introducedthat organizes the phases that occur duringbusiness process management projects.

2Prepared By: Rao Majid Shamshad, UE, Lahore

• Rather than presenting a formal method fordescribing development process models, we usean informal notation, in which phases arerepresented by boxes, and informationdependencies or causal constraints betweenphases are described by directed arcs betweenthese boxes. Phases can be nested, i.e., eachphase can consist of a number of subphases.Subphases are also called development activities,or simply, activities. Despite being ratherinformal, the methodology guides processdesigners to plan and conduct business processmanagement projects.


• The business process lifecycle takes a rathertechnical view, because it addressestechnologies used in business processmanagement and relates them to each other.The methodology introduced in this section, incontrast, takes a broader, project-orientedview by investigating the phases that arerequired to develop business processapplications.


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8.2 STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATION

• The Strategy and Organization phase is thefirst phase of the methodology. It isindependent of particular operationalbusiness processes, because it deals with theidentification of the overall business strategyand the associated goals. In this phase, thestrategic goals as well as the operational goalsare determined. The organization is structuredin such a way that business processes cansuccessfully be implemented in the company.


8.3 SURVEY

• The Survey phase is the first phase relevant toindividual business processes and the projectsto realize these processes. In this phase, theproject goals are defined, the project team isestablished, and information on the businessprocess environment is gathered. Empiricalstudies based on interview techniques, and ananalysis of available documentation, areconducted.


• The development of a domain ontology thatprovides a common understanding of theterms and concepts in the application domainis essential in this phase. While the activitiesin this phase are centered on the businessdomain, the technical execution environmentof the business process is also surveyed,because it might have implications on therealization of business processes. With respectto the business process lifecycle, the surveyphase can be regarded as a preparation phasefor the lifecycle phase design and analysis,


8.4 DESIGN PHASE• In the Design phase, the information gathered is

analyzed, consolidated, and represented asbusiness process models. These business processmodels serve as a communication basis fordifferent stakeholders to improve the processesso that the operational goals as laid out in thestrategy phase can be realized.

• Business process improvement not onlyaddresses the actual process, but also thetechnical and organizational environment inwhich business processes are enacted.


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• The technical environment can be improvedso that service oriented approaches to theintegration of external information systemsare used that provide more flexibility thantraditional enterprise application integrationapproaches. At the organizational level, newroles that require new skills and competenciesmight emerge to realize business processesmore efficiently and to provide better serviceto customers.


• With respect to the business process lifecycle,this phase is closely associated with the designand analysis phase. It takes advantage of theprocess modelling techniques, and ofvalidation, simulation, and verificationtechniques.


8.5 PLATFORM SELECTION PHASE

• The Platform Selection phase of themethodology uses the business processmodels as well as information on the technicaland organizational environments of thebusiness process to select a technologicalplatform on which the business process will beenacted.

• A wide variety of platforms might be suitablefor implementing business processes,including automated platforms such as:


enterprise application integration middleware,service-oriented architectures realizing systemworkflows, or workflow management systemsto support human interaction workflows.

• Finally, nontechnical implementationplatforms are also feasible, where writtenbusiness policies and defined businessprocedures realize the business processes.Platform selection is a part of theconfiguration phase of the business processmanagement lifecycle.


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8.6 IMPLEMENTATION AND TEST PHASE

• Implementation and Test phase is required toenhance the business process models withinformation to make them executable.

• Implementation should involve thedevelopment of prototypes, and invitefeedback by the knowledge workers on thedesign of these applications. These aspectsare also covered in the configuration phase ofthe business process lifecycle.


• Depending on the particular technology used,concrete data type definitions are set up, asare control flows between activities and thetechnical realization of the activities, by theintegration of existing application systems.Extensive testing is required to make sure thatthe technical solution effectively realizes thebusiness process. It is important to also studynon-functional aspects, such as performanceand robustness, so that problems related tothem do not emerge only after the system hasbeen deployed.


8.7 DEPLOYMENT PHASE• During the Deployment phase, the

implementation of the business process isdeployed in the target environment. Technicalaspects need to be taken into account to makesure that the operations will not suffer duringdeployment.

• Organizational aspects also need to be takeninto account, for instance, training of theknowledge workers.


• Depending on the particular enactmentenvironment of the process and the skills andexpertise of the knowledge workers, theseactivities should start at an earlier stage intime, potentially after the first stableprototype implementation is available.


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8.8 OPERATION AND CONTROLLING PHASE

• In the Operation and Controlling phase of themethodology, the business process applicationruns in the target environment. Valuableexecution information is gathered, which isuseful in improving the process in anevolutionary way. This phase is associatedwith the enactment phase of the businessprocess lifecycle.


• Phases and subphases are related by directedarcs These directed arcs do not specify a strictsequential ordering—rather, they characterizeloose dependencies between phases andtypical information transfer between them.

• The methodology is iterative and incremental.By gathering knowledge about the businessprocesses and their environment, newquestions and issues emerge that need to betaken care of in the next iteration.

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Lahore

• it can also be supported by the followingactivities, performed in a recurring manner ineach phase.

– Collect: Collect observations about businessprocesses and their execution environment.

– Classify: Classify information in classes that havecommon characteristics.

– Validate: Validate findings with processstakeholders.

– Refine: Refine artifacts using discoveredinformation.

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Chapter 8

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