Horus Tool Report

Presented By,

Nishanth T S

Eashwar V

Venkatesan M

International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore

Introduction

• Horus Business Modeler is the pro-tool for modeling andsimulating business processes.

• Combines simple usability and great capability to a real highend product. The formal elements can be related to all kindsof multi-media documents.

• The functional range includes reports that map the modelcontents in a clear overview.

• With Horus Business Modeler business processes are modeledfrom different point of views. This simplifies the models andincreases the flexibility of model design.

Modeling Languages of Horus

• Petri-Nets (XML-Nets).

• Organization charts.

• Semantic-hierarchical structures.

• An object/relationship model.

Installation and setup• Easy installation. Just unzip the setup file and you are ready

with the horus tool.

• Java memory set up down by default, still if the user prefersmodified memory allocation , the same can be done usingHorus -vmargs -Xmx<memory size>

with the <memory size> value set to greater than “256M”

Capabilities and Features

• Process Architecture Model• Procedure Model• Object Model• Business Rules• Organization Models• Resources• Key Figures• Risks• Context Models• Supply & Services• Objectives• SWOT Models• Business Strategies• Business Units• System Architectures• Roles• Simulations

SWOT Model

• SWOT analysis will investigate the strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, and threats for the enterprise.

• The results are relevant for the focal areas of subsequentanalytical activities.

• It helps to avoid unnecessarily detailed analysis and, on theother hand, ensures that important analysis fields with highoptimization potential are not neglected.

• A model that helps to do risk analysis and plan risk mitigation.

Example of SWOT Model

Process Model

• What is a Process Model?

• Petri Nets v/s XML Nets

• Important terminologies:

• Business Processes

• Objects

• Organization Structure

• Roles and Resources

Example of Process Model

Procedure Model

• What is a Procedure Model?

• Elements of Procedure Modeling

• Activities

• Object Stores

• Connections

• Procedure Models can be ‘Refined’

A ‘Refined’ Procedure Model

Object Model

• What is an Object Model?

• Basic Elements for modeling of Business Object Structures:

• Elementary object with attributes (simple business object)

• Aggregation of (elementary) objects (complex business object)

• Relationship and inheritance edges between simple business objects

• Collective constraints for relationship edges

Example of Object Model

Context Model

• Gives a framework which serves as a fixed and usually unchangeable reference point within the modelling project

• It acts as a single high-level process and then shows the relationship that the system has with other external entities (systems, organizational groups, external data stores, etc.)

• Main advantage of this modeling method is it shows the scope and boundaries of the system at glance and no technical knowledge required to understand the system.

Example of a Context Model

Objectives Model

• Objectives models deliver important references for estimating the required depth of detail necessary in specific analysis areas.

• They are derived from the enterprise mission, and then broken down through specialization until they span a complete objective area for the system to be examined.

• Objective Models serves the propose of the two major stake holders Decision makers and business users.

Example of Objectives Model

Evaluation of the Tool

• Performance

• Usability Analysis

• Benefits

• Drawbacks

Performance

• The Performance was tested with a system having 3 Gb RAM, Windows 7 Operating System. Whenever a Repository is saved, all models get saved in a separate folder, with an XML File stating the relationship between various components and an image of the respective model.

• The .hwa file loads fast

• Horus tool itself takes lesser time for startup

Usability Analysis: Positive Aspects

• Feature of Smart Mode.

• The tool leverages on what the user has already learnt in other tools.

• Visibility of all the operators is good.

Usability Analysis: Negative Aspects

• No proper documentation. Basically in German language.

• ‘Smart Mode’ not enabled for all.

• There is no consistency in the tool. We cannot save all models as pictures.

Benefits

• The functional range includes reports that map the model contents in a clear overview. For further going analyses and individual reports, the tool Horus Model Intelligence is used

• Supports variety of essential models

• A single tool for all people in the project phase, viz Manager, Developer, End user

• Features such as ’Drag drop’, ’Smart mode’ makes easy usage

• Freeware

Drawbacks

• The output format is a proprietary format called .hwa, which cannot be used

• User cannot export an individual model outside

• There is no predefined template that a naive user can use to learn the tool

• No compatibility with any other tool

Comparative Study

Conclusion

• We found the tool to be an efficient and easy to use modelingtool for various Business process models.

• It covers a gamut of models.

• It is beneficial to the first time users and expert users workingwith Business Processing Tools, especially the usage of ‘smartmode’ feature.

Conclusion

• Beginners may choose to work with the Drag and Drop feature. Thus, users can explore the wide range of options provided by Horus.

• However, based on the Comparative Study, certain additional features, when added to Horus Tool, could make the tool even more User friendly to work with. These features include user management, cloud support, monitoring, etc.

Thank You