ISYS628 Business Process Modelling

enerate performance regulations, job descriptions, and much more in a fully automatic mode based on the model. The business process model is traditionally the main component of business process management (Allweyer, 2016). Since the object of process management is a business process, to be able to recognize, compare, analyze and control, it is necessary to divide it into a number of attributes that characterize each property or ability of the process.

The purpose of business process modeling

Modeling allows you to exchange information about the object of modeling without the risk of losing or distorting information about its internal properties. The business process model allows you to focus on targeted and relevant information about the relationships of all process objects.

Regulation of activities

Management of risks

Since Operational risks arise within the organization during the execution of business processes; on the basis of business process models, you can map the risks of the entire organization to manage them.

Organizational changes

To calculate the required number of full-time staff, it is necessary to know precisely its need in all processes of the organization. Visual modeling of business processes allows you to accurately allocate the necessary human resources to perform the functions of the process to calculate the optimal number of established units in each unit.

Functional cost analysis

Modeling a business process allows you to specify all the necessary material and human resources spent for the execution of a single instance of a business process. Based on this information, it is possible to automatically distribute all costs and revenues to cost centers or to make a profit, depending on the division of the resource.

Automation

To draw up business requirements, the business process model allows us to unambiguously describe the sequence of work and the roles of the participants responsible for their execution. Automated information systems of the workflow-managemet class allow you to immediately implement changes in the work flow in the information system.

The same model can be used for different purposes. A refinement of this model allows its use at different stages of management, from the strategic level of targeting to the tactical execution of instructions (Jeston, 2014).

Business Process Modeling

Stages of business process modeling

As a rule, business process modeling is performed during the implementation of process management of business processes in an organization consisting of stages.

Identification

The stage of identifying business processes, describing their boundaries of interaction and modeling. Depending on the goals of the stage, the processes may be as already existing in the organization, and then described "as is" (As Is), or designed for the implementation of new or changing business processes in a state that should be (To Be).

Data collection

Based on the knowledge of the process, its control points are selected, key indicators are identified at these points and a process data collection plan is compiled, which is collected for further analysis.

Data analysis

The information collected at the Measurement stage is analyzed for discrepancies with the fact in order to create business requirements for the process and a simulation of the business process is carried out.

Introduction of improvements

New business requirements for a business process go through the implementation phase in the form of making changes to information systems, methodological documents, organizational changes are being carried out, a reporting system is being adjusted, and so on. At the end of the implementation phase, the business process becomes an active element of the business process management system (Pinggera, et al, 2015)..

Implementation control

An analysis of the effectiveness of the implementation of the business process is carried out at the time of the monitoring established at the implementation stage or on the basis of data collected during routine monitoring. Based on the analysis of the comparison of planned and actual indicators, it may be necessary to introduce new changes in the business process and start the cycle of continuous improvement of business processes from the beginning.

Business process models

The process model must meet the requirements of modeling, so that all users of the model (and this can be both employees of the organization and information systems) unambiguously interpret all information from the model. To meet these requirements, in addition to the observance of the modeling notation, it is necessary to comply with the following principles, which influence on the properties of the model: Level of decomposition Any activity can be represented both enlarged (at the level of the macro-processes of the enterprise) and very detailed (to the level of the operations of the function). Each model can be detailed at a more detailed level of process decomposition. For example, sales can be decomposed into the stages of customer acquisition, sales, shipment of goods and support. And the maintenance process can be decomposed into reclamation and warranty service procedures, which in turn is also decomposed into the level of procedure functions and function operations. The level of detail of a business process depends on the objectives of the modeling and is determined at the planning stage of modeling business processes. The modeling subject Depending on the modeling objectives, the model information may reflect the interrelationships of different information. Both the workflow and, for example, the employee authority model or the organization's risk map. Formalization. All model objects must be of the same type, must be documented and recorded in the business process model. Different types of model elements must have the same text or graphic designation. Requirements for the principles of grouping elements of the model are fixed in the modeling notation. Consistency The information contained in the model must unambiguously convey information about the object being modeled without the possibility of a different interpretation of one or another of its elements. For modeling purposes, it is not necessary to include information unnecessarily in the model. It is also necessary to monitor the sufficiency of information on the model for its analysis. Types of business process modeling Depending on the desired goal of business process modeling, the following types of modeling are used to unify the collected information about the process or to get new ones: Functional modeling Ship to describe the sequence of works or functions performing a business process. The main element of the model are the functions and their interrelations with other objects of the model. Simulation modeling Imitation of the internal interaction of business process functions depending on the external environment. It is used to assess the availability of available process resources, analysis of bottlenecks of business process performance depending on dynamic changes in the external environment (at least time). Object modeling As a modeling object, a material or non-material object is chosen, consumed, changed, used or generated during the execution of a business -process. For example, a model for converting a plan to manufacturing a part into a final part in a warehouse, or a model for allocating financing to an organization’s cost centers. The same informational characteristic of a business process can be reflected in different models. Business process objects of different origin can also be located on the same model. Business process modeling notations The unification of business process modeling rules leads to the use of existing rules and the creation of new modeling standards.

In practice, the choice of a particular modeling rule depends on the goals of modeling, information systems support and the presence of sufficient qualifications among the modeling participants and consumers of the simulation results. There are a lot of types of notations, as well as software that supports visual modeling of business processes. Below is a description of some of them. Unified Modeling Language An object-oriented modeling method that allows you to simulate various static or dynamic properties of model objects. It is used for low-level description of the state of information environment objects. Integrated Definition for Function Modeling A set of various methods for describing target aspects of a business process. Widely used business process modeling notation in the 20th century does not find practical application due to the presence of more flexible methods. Event-driven Modeling One of the universal modeling notation that allows you to present work flow or data as a consequence of exciting events. Business Process Model and Notation Unified notation business process modeling. Most suitable for automating workflows. Task-driven Modeling Expansion of event notation to enable analysis of the business process by the tasks submitted to its input. Designed specifically for use in the simulation service bpsimulator.com. All business process modeling notation is usually not compatible with each other from the word at all. But for some pairs of notations there are special converters. As for example, the Aris platform has the ability to convert from EPC to BPMN, and the BP platform The simulator allows you to import and convert a pair of BPMN to EPC. Even in the absence of special software, it is possible to carry out simulations in any aids and editors. On the sample business process page, you can see the difference in the description of the same business process using different business process modeling notations. BP Simulator in social networks.

Business process modeling

The most important tool for performing BPO is modeling. To analyze the state of the enterprise it is necessary to have a model of two types: The model “as it should be (tobe)” integrates the proposals of the management, employees of the enterprise, experts and system analysts and allows to formulate the vision of new business processes, evaluate their effectiveness and feasibility of implementation.

For modeling business processes, several different methods are used, which are based on both structural and object-oriented approaches to modeling. However, the division of the methods themselves into structural and object is rather arbitrary, since the most developed methods use elements of both approaches (Rosa, Van Der Aalst, Dumas, & Milani, 2017)..

The arrows on the left. Input — The material or information that is used or converted by work to produce a result (output). It is assumed that the work may not have a single arrow entry. It is often difficult to determine if the data is input or control

Arrows on the right Output (Output) - material or information that is produced by the work. Work without result does not make sense and should not be modeled. The diagram shows the process in dynamics. Therefore, IDF3 is a diagram, besides the “Work” element, contains the following elements: Connection of precedence, (indicates that the work of the source must be completed before receiving the work. It is indicated by a solid line.) The relationship of the relationship shows the connection between two jobs or between work and object of reference. It is indicated by a dashed line. Object flow - shows the participation of a certain object in two or more jobs, such as if an object is produced during the execution of one work and consumed by another work. It is indicated by an arrow with two tips. Intersections - are used to show the branches of the logical scheme of the modeled process and alternative ways of development of the process that may occur during its execution. Crossroads, in turn, are divided into: Crossroads of a merger - a node that collects a set of arrows into one, indicating the necessity of completing the work-sources of arrows to continue the process. Crossing a branch is a node in which the only arrow in it branches, indicating that the works are following behind an intersection, are performed in parallel or alternatively. IDEF3 describes well enough systems where time shifts are an essential point (for example, in decision-making), or the logs are well formalized The flow of processes. Designation In case of merging arrows In case of branching arrows All previous processes must be completed simultaneously. All following processes must be started simultaneously. All previous processes are completed simultaneously. All following processes are started simultaneously. One or several previous processes must be completed. Those, in turn, transform information and generate new flows that transfer information to other processes or subsystems, data accumulators or external entities - information consumers (Rosemann, & vom Brocke, 2015). The main components of data flow diagrams are: external entities; systems and subsystems; processes; data accumulators; Data streams DFD work are system functions that convert inputs to outputs. Although the works are depicted as rectangles with rounded corners, their meaning coincides with the meaning of IDEF0 works. External entities represent the inputs to the system and / or the outputs from it. External entities are depicted as a rectangle with a shadow and are usually located at the edges of the diagram. One external entity can be used multiple times in one or several diagrams

References

Allweyer, T. (2016). BPMN 2.0: introduction to the standard for business process modeling. BoD–Books on Demand.

Jeston, J. (2014). Business process management. Routledge.

Pinggera, J., Soffer, P., Fahland, D., Weidlich, M., Zugal, S., Weber, B., ... & Mendling, J. (2015). Styles in business process modeling: an exploration and a model. Software & Systems Modeling, 14(3), 1055-1080.

Rosa, M. L., Van Der Aalst, W. M., Dumas, M., & Milani, F. P. (2017). Business process variability modeling: A survey. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 50(1), 2.

Rosemann, M., & vom Brocke, J. (2015). The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.