Towards a Thorough Evaluation Framework of Software Tools Suitable for Small and Medium Size Enterprises Focusing on Modelling and Simulating Business Processes (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design, 2017
Unquestionably, Business Process Modelling (BPM) is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and enterprises due to its effectiveness in enabling better planning of resources, business reengineering and optimized business performance. The understanding of Business Process modelling is an essential approach for an Organization or Enterprise to achieve set objectives and improve its operations.. Recent development has shown the importance of representing processes to carry out continuous improvement. The modelling and simulation of Business Processes has been able to show Business Analysts, and Managers where bottleneck exists in the system, how to optimize the Business Process to reduce cost of running the Organization, and the required resources needed for an Organization. Although large scale organizations have already been involved in such BPM applications, on the other hand, Small Medium Enterprises (SME) have not drawn much attention with this respect. It seems that SME need more practical tools for modelling and analysis with minimum expenses if possible. One approach to make BPM more applicable to SME but, also, to larger scale organizations would be to properly integrate it with analytical management computational techniques, including the game-theoretic analysis, the probabilistic modelling, the Markov-chain modelling and the Cognitive Maps methodology. In BPM research the Petri Nets methodology has already been involved in theory, applications and BPM Software tools. However, this is not the case in the previously mentioned as well as to other analytical management techniques. It is, therefore, important in BPM research to take into account such techniques. This paper presents an overview of some important analytical management computational techniques, as the above, that could be integrated in the BPM framework. It provides an overview along with examples of the applicability of such methods in the BPM field. The major goal of this systematic overview is to propose steps for the integration of such analytical techniques in the BPM framework so that they could be widely applied especially for SME since currently are well suited to smaller scale problems.
A comparative analysis of business process modelling techniques
Business process modelling is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and academia due to its usefulness in facilitating human understanding and communication. Several modelling techniques have been proposed and used to capture the characteristics of business processes. However, available techniques view business processes from different perspectives and have different features and capabilities. Furthermore, to date limited guidelines exist for selecting appropriate modelling techniques based on the characteristics of the problem and its requirements. This paper presents a comparative analysis of some popular business process modelling techniques. The comparative framework is based on five criteria: flexibility, ease of use, understandability, simulation support and scope. The study highlights some of the major paradigmatic differences between the techniques. The proposed framework can serve as the basis for evaluating further modelling techniques and generating selection procedures.
Determining the Suitability of a Business Process Modelling Technique for a Particular Application
The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2015
Organisations formally define and document their business processes in order to understand them and, subsequently, to enable continuous development, improvement, and management. Organisations can use business process modelling (BPM), which represents the design of graphical models that portray their business processes, to define and document their business processes formally. It is difficult, however, to select a suitable BPM technique in support of a specific application of BPM, owing to the considerable number of existing BPM techniques, the impact of their varying capabilities, and the lack of available formal measures to support evaluations of their suitability for specific modelling applications. This article presents a measurement framework to evaluate the usefulness of BPM techniques in specific modelling applications. It also presents the use of this measurement framework to determine an applicable BPM technique that can be applied in a specific modelling case.
An Evaluation Framework for Business Process Modeling Techniques
There are numerous Business Process Modeling Techniques (BPMTs) that capture the Business Process; each with different perspectives, capabilities, features and limitations. In addition, there is no one single Modeling Technique that's suitable for all Business Processes in the organizations. Difficulties arise when the stockholders have to select the right Model for their Business Process. Moreover, selecting an unsuitable modeling technique will lead to some obstacles e.g. defect in describing the Process as a real world, increase the complexity, decrease the understandability and communication, consuming the time, and inefficient execution, all these obstacles lead to an inability to achieve the expected goals. The main goal of this paper is to develop an evaluation framework for the Business Process Modeling Techniques, in order to help in selecting the most suitable Modeling Technique for each Business Process. The evaluation Framework has been developed based on two main phases; the first phase focuses on understanding and analyzing a specific Business Process needs, and the second phase aims to match the Business Process needs with the characteristics of the BPMTs, in order to find the suitable Modeling Technique.
Choosing approach to business process modeling-practical perspective
2005
One of the essential parts of a business process modeling project is choosing an approach to modeling and/or modeling notation/tool. The selection of a "right for the task" approach can substantially increase chances for success. To ensure the "right" choice, the following three sets of factors should be considered: (a) properties of modeling objects, i.e. business processes, (b) characteristics of the modeling environment, (c) intended use of the model. The paper is devoted to the analysis of these factors. It presents a simplified classification of the approaches to business process modeling. It lists the most essential properties of various business processes, it classifies modeling environments, and it discusses some practical tasks where the business process model can be used. Based on the analysis, practical recommendations on what approach to choose are given.
Exploring the Characteristics of Business Process Modeling Solutions in the Saudi Market
Journal of Software Engineering and Applications
Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a mechanism that separates all business aspects from the underlying technological and implementation features of a system. The aim is to capture an organization's processes and achieve its business objectives. Currently, there are many solutions for Business Process Modeling and Design offered by vendors. However, the selection of one solution or another by customers is usually conducted in an ad-hoc manner. Given the underlying environment that a customer might have and their limitations, there is no standard methodology that can help in the selection of the most appropriate solution. This paper therefore highlights the key characteristics of BPM solutions in the market to facilitate an understanding of the compatibility of a given solution with customer's environments; hence, customers can then make informed decisions regarding their selections.
Purpose: The offer of business process modeling methodologies is very extensive, making it difficult for BPM scholars to make a sustained choice. In this context, this paper aims to present the main modeling methodologies, with applications, examples and comparisons. Approach: A systematic bibliographic survey and a comparative analysis of these notations used in the implementation of BPM projects were carried out. Findings: According to the bibliometric analysis, the business process modeling notations most portrayed in the works surveyed are: BPMN, UML, EPC e IDEF. From the construction of a consistent overview that allows the comparative analysis of the methodologies, in order to select the one that best suits its specificities it can be verified that, although they share the same objective, each notation has its specific characteristics. Originnality/Value: This study has the main purpose of providing a basis for the adequate indication of the application of studies in the area, in particular those for papers, dissertations and theses.
Modeling and Managing Business Processes
The purpose of this chapter is to present tools and techniques for modeling and managing business processes. For this, business process modeling is defined and classified according to two levels of detail. These categories are chained together with the help of a transformation technique, which is explained with the help of an example. As soon as the number of processes increases, they cannot be managed manually. This motivates the need for a software system called a business process management system (BPMS). The properties of a BPMS are explained, and the components of a BPMS, which support the necessary requirements of managing processes, are also presented with their advantages. Also, the major principles of business process management (BPM) are presented in this chapter.
A literature review on business process modelling: new frontiers of reusability
Enterprise Information Systems, 2011
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