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How to Incorporate Sustainability into Business Process Management

Lifecycle?

Conference Paper · September 2016

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-58457-7_32

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 How to Incorporate Sustainability into Business Process
Management Lifecycle?

Andréa Magalhães Magdaleno1,2, Leticia Duboc3, Stefanie Betz4

1 UFF – Fluminense Federal University, IC – Computer Institute
Zip 24210-346 – Niterói – RJ – Brazil
2 EY Brazil Consulting – http://www.ey.com/br/pt/home
3
Instituto de Matemática e Estatística – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
4
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

andrea@ic.uff.br, leticia@ime.uerj.br, stefanie.betz@kit.edu

Abstract. The impact of human activities has become one of the greatest
concerns of our society, leading to global efforts to achieve sustainable
development. Business organizations play an important role on this endeavor.
Business Process Management (BPM) offers a comprehensive approach for
designing, implementing, executing and monitoring business processes. This
position paper aims to raise the discussion about how BPM can be extended to
consider the direct and indirect effects of the business processes in the
environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable business processes, green business

processes, green BPM, sustainable BPM.

1 Introduction
Sustainable development is defined [15] as “the development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”. This ability includes the satisfaction of three interdependent dimensions:
environmental, social and economic [5]. It requires integrating social justice, quality of
life, health and prosperity, while respecting the Earth’s capacity to support life.
The impact of sustainability has been classified in three orders [4]: First order
(direct) - impacts resulted from the creation and running of technology. Second order
(indirect) - impacts caused by the continuous use of technology and application of its
surrounding processes. Finally, third order (systemic) - impacts resulted from the use
of technology and its process by many people over medium and long term.
The objective of this work is to develop concepts, methods and tools that can be
applied throughout the BPM lifecycle in order to incorporate sustainability practices
into business processes. It focus on the first phase of the business process lifecycle: the
modeling. Process modeling is key to describe the activities, tasks, roles, artifacts, IT
systems, and business rules of an organizational business process. Therefore, it was
considered an appropriate starting point in the design of sustainable processes.

2 Why use BPM to promote Sustainability?

Sustainability has become a driving force in our society. Consumers’ preferences for
products and services with a sustainable character have led organizations to value an
image of “green business”. Others are obliged to comply with regulations to have
permission to operate, such as companies that exploit natural resources. Finally, some
have realized that sustainability practices can actually bring financial benefits [11].
In designing, implementing, executing and overall managing their business
processes, organizations have traditionally focused in time, costs, efficiency, and
quality drivers only [3]. With the emergence of sustainability, these classical drivers
are increasingly subjected to critical scrutiny [13].
Existing approaches in the area of sustainability and BPM are focusing primarily on
the environmental dimension, often overlooking social and economic dimensions [14].
They are normally concerned with “the understanding, documenting, modeling,
analyzing, simulating, executing, and continuously changing of business process with
dedicated consideration paid to environmental consequences of the business processes”
[2] and are subsumed under the umbrella of Green BPM. Moreover, discussions on
Green BPM are still in early stages and so far few approaches exist [6, 9].
In order to truly incorporate sustainability into BPM, one must execute each phase
of its lifecycle with explicit consideration for the direct, indirect and systemic effects
of the business processes in the three dimensions of sustainability. The BPM lifecycle
consists of four different cyclic phases: process modeling, simulation and optimization,
implementation and execution, monitoring and improvement. Such an holistic approach
requires not only considering sustainability in every phase of the business process
lifecycle, but also using concepts, methods, techniques, and tools to support the
stakeholders. By doing so, stakeholders can model and simulate alternative
sustainability practices into the business processes and optimize them, while
considering the different degrees of impact on the environment, economy and society.

3 Research Agenda: A Roadmap to Community Discussion

Our research agenda on Sustainability and BPM topic is initially focused on modeling
phase of BPM lifecycle and comprises four specific goals (SG), which we would like
to discuss with the community during the workshop:
SG1: Definition of a conceptual model of the relations between sustainability and
business processes
From the existing definitions of Green BPM and Sustainab (le/ility) BPM, the research
area have now some basic concepts used in these areas. We aim to establish a common
and shared understanding of the concepts to avoid the proliferation of multiple
definitions and different applications of the concepts within the community. There is
already a preliminary work of one of the authors that can serve as the starting point for
this conceptual model or taxonomy [1]. We intend to invite other researchers to
contribute and validate the model. The main idea is to promote the collaborative and
open construction of the model to increase its soundness, dissemination and acceptance.

SG2: Development of a sustainable BPM Language (BPML)

Study typical BPM notations - BPMN [8] and EPC (Event Process Chain) [12] - to
identify if they already meet all the representation requirements of the sustainability-
related concepts or if they need to be adapted to obtain a sustainable BPML. In a first
literature review, we identified two possible approaches: models annotations [6] or
notations extensions [10]. Models annotations include in every activity of a business
process, relevant values concerning, such as the consumption of resources or the
production of waste materials. On the other hand, notations extensions propose new
constructs or stereotypes, to characterize the process map (and its elements). For
instance, one can have a special symbol for activities related to fuel or paper
consumption, or highlight gas emissions indicators. Summarizing, both approaches
have the same proposal: to capture relevant information for business processes
regarding the sustainable dimension, but with different levels of structure. The use of a
more structured approach, as in the case of notation extensions, facilitates data
collection and analysis to process simulation, monitoring and measuring.

SG3: Production of a catalog of metrics

We are aware that general literature on sustainability metrics already exist [7].
However, it is necessary to verify which of the metrics proposed can be applied in
business processes context. In addition, the current literature on sustainability metrics
for BPM seems still limited and mostly targeted at the environmental dimension. Our
aim is to consolidate these works, producing a catalog of metrics that encompasses the
three dimensions of sustainability and that are applicable to the context of business
processes. If this reuse of metrics proves to be effective, our main contribution should
be to develop a measuring method that indicate how to fit the particular business
process structure, i.e., traditional process elements or new sustainable process elements
(defined in the conceptual model and represented in the notation).

SG4: Process visualization

Explore the process visualization approaches and tools that already exist to verify if
they can be used to amplify the sustainability lens of business processes. To achieve
process improvements regarding sustainability, it is fundamental that process
specialists can understand and analyze the business process model to make decisions.
The process visualization allows the observation of facts and knowledge extraction. If
necessary, an initial prototype can suggest some possible visualizations that would be
helpful in the sustainability context. In addition, it is also possible to offer awareness
and interaction mechanisms with the process model to potentialize the results.
 References
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