Business Process Modelling

- 1.2/2013 -

Marcello La Rosa

Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, 25 July 2013

 How novices model a business process

Mark is going on a trip to Sydney. He decides to call a taxi from

home to the airport. The taxi arrives after 10 minutes, and takes
half an hour for the 20 kilometers to the airport. At the airport, Mark
uses the online check-in counter and receives his boarding pass.
Of course, he could have also used the ticket counter. He does not
have to check-in any luggage, and so he proceeds straight to the
security check, which is 100 meters down the hall on the right. The
queue here is short and after 5 minutes he walks up to the
departure gate. Mark decides not to go to the Frequent Flyer
lounge and instead walks up and down the shops for
15 minutes and buys a newspaper before he returns to the gate.
After ten minutes waiting, he boards the plane.

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Many ways of modelling a process…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Issues?

• Different representation of concepts

• Different level of granularity
• Different level of scope
• Different terminology

→ What is the right process model?

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 What is a model?

Prepare Ship
shipment goods

Register (Re)send Archive

order bill order

Receive
payment
Requirement
for material
has arisen

Contact Purchase
Requisition

customer

Requisition Purchase
released requisition
for scheduling released
agreement for purchase
schedule/SA release order

Purchasing

Enter Invoice Check Invoice no

Post Invoice
Details Mismatches mismatches
Invoice
received
Inbound Purchase
Goods
delivery order
received
entered created
mismatch
exists
Block Invoice

Goods
Receipt

Goods
receipt
posted

Warehouse/ Material Invoice

Stores is released received

TO item Transfer
confirmed order Invoice
without item Verification
differences is confirmed

Payment
must
be effected

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 A little bit on modelling theory

Models are abstractions from real world phenomena, developed for the
purpose of reducing overall complexity.

Models aggregate information and document only relevant aspects of the

real world.

Models are being developed in a specific modelling subject for a specific

target audience with a specific modelling purpose in mind.

no right/wrong, but relevant/irrelevant model

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 What is the relevant model?

?
© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013
 Our Phenomena of Interest: Business Processes

Collection of related events, activities and

decisions, that involve a number of actors and
objects, and that collectively lead to an outcome
that is of value to an organization or its customers.

Examples:
• Order-to-Cash
• Quote-to-Order
• Procure-to-Pay
• Application-to-Approval
• Fault-to-Resolution (Issue-to-Resolution)
• Claim-to-Settlement
Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling, Reijers, 2013
© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013
 “My washing machine doesn’t work…”

Insurance
Call Centre Company
Technician

Customer Customer
Parts
Service Store
Dispatch
Centre

VALUE
fault-to-resolution process

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Processes and Outcomes

• Every process leads to one or several outcomes, positive or

negative
– Positive outcomes deliver value
– Negative outcomes reduce value

• Fault-to-resolution process’ outcomes:

1. Fault repaired without technician intervention
2. Fault repaired with minor technician intervention
3. Fault repaired and fully covered by warranty
4. Fault repaired and partly covered by warranty
5. Fault repaired but not covered by warranty
6. Fault not repaired (customer withdrew request)

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 What is a Business Process: Recap

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 The Core Elements of a Process

• Activities
– active elements (e.g. ‘enter sales order’)
– time-consuming, resource-demanding
– state-changing

• Events
– passive elements (e.g. ‘sales order has been entered’)
– represent conditions / circumstances
– atomic, instantaneous

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

17
 The Core Elements of a Process

• Business Objects (or Data)

– the organizational artifacts that undergo state changes
– physical or electronic information
– examples:
• sales order, digital object, consulting proposal

• Actors (or Resources)

– the entities performing process activities and generating events
– human and systems
– examples:
• financial officer, warehouse clerk
• ERP, CRM, SAP, application X…

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

18
 How do we combine these?

1. What needs be done and when? - Control flow

2. What do we need to work on? – Data
3. Who’s doing the work? - Resources (human & systems)

Finance ERP Invoice Report Invoice

Department
Enter Check
no
Invoice Invoice Post Invoice
mismatches
Invoice Details Mismatches
Invoice
received posted

Invoice DB Invoice
Senior Finance Officer
mismatch Block
exists Invoice
Invoice
blocked

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Process Perspectives

• Control Flow Perspective Enter

Invoice
Check
Invoice no
mismatches
Post Invoice
Invoice Details Mismatches
Invoice
– “what needs to be done and when” received posted

– predecessor/successor relationship among activities and events mismatch Block

exists Invoice
– the central information depicted in a process model Invoice
blocked

• Data Perspective
– “what do we need to work on”
– input/output data to activities Invoice Report Invoice DB

– complements the control flow

• Resource Perspective
Finance ERP

– “who’s doing the work” Department

– human participants and systems that perform

control flow activities and generate events Senior Finance Officer

– complements the control flow

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

20
 Example: Student Enrollment

Complete Set up Accept Register

Plan
pre- online offer and Enrol for
enrolment
enrolment access T&C classes

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

21
 Further Potential Elements in a Process

• Objectives, Goals
– link to strategy
• Risks
– for risk-profiling the process
• Policies, Rules
– for checking process compliance
• Knowledge
– to depict expertise required
• …

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

22
 Process Modelling…

• is a common language for naming and framing an issue

• integrates processes with other artefacts
(e.g. systems, organisations, data, services, risks)
• enables walk-through, validation and testing (e.g. via simulation)
• can be used as a benchmark for measuring improvements –
“what-if” analysis
• provides a blueprint for process automation

Adapted from Davis, 2000; Wreden, 1998

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

23
 Why Process Modelling?

• Business processes are increasingly valued as essential

assets of an organisation
• This significance demands dedicated management of
processes
• We need ways to extract processes out of the
organisational complexity in order to discuss,
analyse, improve and automate them

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

24
 Where does process modelling fit in BPM?

Body of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze, execute

and monitor business processes, with the ultimate goal of
improving them.

IT systems
Customers People

Organizational
Business Processes

Data Trading
Partners

IT infrastructure Suppliers
Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling, Reijers, 2013
© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013
 Where does process modelling fit in BPM?

…design, analyze, execute and monitor business processes…

Process
identification

Focus of this unit Process

Process architecture
architecture

Conformance
Conformance and Process As-is
As-is process
performance
performance insights
insights discovery model
model

Process
monitoring and Process
controlling analysis

Executable
Executable Insights
Insights on
process
process weaknesses
weaknesses and
and
model
model their
their impact
impact

Process Process
implementation To-be
To-be process
process redesign
model
model

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Time Investment in BPM Projects

Process Discovery
9% 4%
Project Team Selection 11%
Business Case
Deployment and Training 12%
Testing and Debugging
41%
Implementation
Tool Evaluation and Selection 7%
8%
Functional and Technical Specification 5% 3%

Project Documentation

BPTrends, 2006

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013

 Top 10 Technology Skills

• Business Process Modelling

• Database
• Messaging/Communications
• IT Architecture
• IT Security
• Project Management
• Data Mining
• Web Development
• IT Optimization
• Networking

NetworkWorld, 30 March 2009

© INB/INN320 1.2/2012 – 25 July 2013
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