FEATURES OF BUSINESS PROCESS TOOLS: AN OVERVIEW

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FEATURES OF BUSINESS PROCESS TOOLS AN OVERVIEW

• Vesna Bosilj-Vuksic

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and
Business
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Contents

• Introduction
• Business process orientation
• Features of BP tools
• Research about BP tools
• How to select a BP tool?
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• The first rule of any technology is that
  automation applied to an efficient operation will
  magnify the efficiency
• The second is that automation applied to an
  inefficient operation will magnify the
  inefficiency.
• Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation

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Business process orientation (1)

• Brief history of business process orientation
• Six Sigma 1986
• Hammer and Champy, July 1990 Dont automate,
  obliterate, in Harvard Business Review BPR
• Smith and Fingar, 2002 Business Process
  Management The Third Wave

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Business process orientation (2)

• Business process modelling vs. Business process
  management
• Enterprise architecture, process modelling and
  simulation tools vs. Business process management
  tools
• Many companies use different business process
  (BP) methods and tools

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Business process orientation (3)

• BPTrends Report, June 2006. The State of
  Business Process Management
• 345 respondents
• 28 of respondents indicated to regard BPM as a
  major strategic commitment by executive
  management
• 46 only occasionally had up-to-date
  documentation of processes
• Only 26 had standard process models for each of
  its value chains
• 23 had performed similar processes in a similar
  way

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Business process orientation (4)

• BPTrends Report, June 2006. The State of
  Business Process Management
• About 20 had standard measures to evaluate the
  performance of major processes
• The existing software supported core business
  processes in 18
• Most respondents felt that their software only
  occasionally (41) or frequently (33) supported
  their business processes

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Business process orientation (5)

• BPTrends Report, June 2006. The State of
  Business Process Management
• 5 spent over 10 million US on BPM in 2005.,
• 58 spent between 0-half million US
• The BPM software tool that was most important in
  2005
• Graphic tool (Visio, Power Point,..) 24
• Repository based process modelling tool (ARIS,
  iGrafx, Adonis,..) 22
• ..
• Simulation tool 6
• Business rules tool 5

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Features of BP tools (1)

• Business process modelling tool
• Organization and data modelling
• Static Process Modelling
• Dynamic Process Modelling
• Organization, Data and Process Modelling
  Interface
• RepositoryPublisher

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Features of BP tools (2)

• Business process modelling tool
• The features of data and static process modelling
  are most widely used.
• The term analysis is used with a rather broad
  meaning, including simulation, diagnosis,
  verification and performance analysis
• The two most important standardization efforts
  include the development of a Business Process
  Modelling Notation (BPMN) and a Unified Modelling
  Language (UML).

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Features of BP tools (3)

• Business process management system
• Business process management engine (server)
• Organization modelling tool
• Business process modelling tool
• Business rules
• Developer
• Administration tool
• Integration
• Business process monitoring, measurement and
  management
• Process adaptability

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Features of BP tools (4)

• Business process management system
• According to Miers and Harmon (2005) and Khan
  (2003) one of the major goals of business process
  management is to realize business activity
  monitoring (BAM).
• Business process management environment should
  have a formal foundation, providing a structured
  way of identifying and capturing all information,
  relationships and business rules that make up a
  business process.

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www.bptrends.comPaul Harmon Business Process
Trends
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Research about BP tools (1)

• Mojca Indihar Stemberger and Jurij Jaklic,
  University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics,
  Dept. of Information Management
• The research about the suitability of business
  process (BP) tools in relation to different
  project types, in 2006.
• The features evaluated were initially based on
  the classification used by Harmon (2004) in
  Business Process Trends report.
• ARIS, Corporate Modeler, IBM WBI, Adonis, iGrafx,
  Ultimus

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Research about BP tools (2)

• Evaluation of the features of BP tools
• Scale 1-5
• Legend
• A The level of importance in general for
  simulation/process modelling/BPC projects
• B The level of importance in general for
• BPM/WFM/ IS projects
• C Evaluation of vendors tool features

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• A Simulation/process modelling /BPC projects
• Process analysis/modelling
• Process simulation
• Process performance improvement

• B Business process management
• Process automation, WFM, BPM engine
• Integration
• Developing code based on diagrams

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How to select a BP tool? (1)

• In business practice
• Decide on re-use, buy, make or outsource
• Buy an off-the-shelf product
• Develop a new system
• Outsource the application
• Who is selling BP tools ?
• Internal sponsors, process owners, CPO
• A software vendor
• A system integrators and/or consultants

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How to select a BP tool? (2)

• In business practice
• Product aspects
• Customer experience
• Quality and reliability
• Performance
• Standards compliance
• Ease of migration
• Integration and compatibility
• User interface
• Management and administration tools

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How to select a BP tool? (3)

• In business practice
• Offer aspects
• Availability
• Finance, price and terms
• Licensing scheme
• Servicing and maintenance
• Support
• Training
• Project help

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How to select a BP tool? (4)

• In business practice
• Organization aspects
• Culture
• Corporate history
• Market channels
• Financial and human resources

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How to select a BP tool? (5)

• In business practice
• Which components of BP tool are required?
• Process design (modelling, analysis, simulation)
• Process management (workflow engine, business
  rules engine)
• Integrated document management system
• Reporting, Business Activity Monitoring
• .

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How to select a BP tool? (6)

• A theoretical overview
• Hommes and van Reijswoud (2000) a framework for
  the evaluation of business process modelling
  techniques that are the most important part of a
  process modelling tool.
• Hall, Harmon (2005) several expected
  characteristics for business process modelling
  and simulation tools - can be identified.
• Khan (2005) Business Process Management A
  Practical Guide, Meghan-Kiffer Press the main
  components of BPM tools

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Conclusion

• A big market
• A software selection process in organisations is
  typically not defined
• There are often no possibilities to learn from
  previous experience
• A selection of a business process
  management/modelling tool is a typical
  multi-criteria decision process
• General framework should be defined to help the
  selection of BP tools