The document discusses various business process management (BPM) tools and concepts. It describes tools for modeling processes like IDEF0 and Petri nets. It also covers workflow management systems, enterprise application integration (EAI), web services, and B2B integration. The key tools and approaches discussed are for analyzing, improving, and automating business processes involving both human and system interactions.

1. Business Process Management Tools Understand your processes and choose the appropriate TOOLS DOOR Ing. R.H.W. Claassens MIM VOOR Interpolis 23 augustus 2004

2. Outline B usiness P rocess M anagement H uman 2 H uman BPM S ystem 2 s ystem BPM B usiness 2 B usiness BPM

3. Business Process Management Definition from a Business Viewpoint Business process management is the concept of continuously defining, analyzing, and improving a business process. defining analyzing Improving More effective More efficient (faster, cheaper) More flexible More satisfying

4. Business Process Definitions from a Business Viewpoint business process is a recipe for achieving a commercial result. Each business process has inputs, method and outputs. The inputs are a pre-requisite that must be in place before the method can be put into practice. When the method is applied to the inputs then certain outputs will be created. A business process is a collection of related structural activities that produce a specific outcome for a particular customer. A business process can be part of a larger, encompassing process and can include other business processes that have to be included in its method. The business process can be thought of as a cookbook for running a business ; "Answer the phone", "place an order", "produce and invoice" might all be examples of a Business Process.

5. BPM “ BPM is the general term for the services and tools that support explicit process management (such as process analysis, definition, execution, monitoring and administration), including support for human and application-level interaction.” ( Gartner, 2003) “ Supporting business processes using methods, techniques, and software to design, enact, control, and analyze operational processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other sources of information.” (W.M.P. van der Aalst , A. H.M. ter Hofstede , M. Weske, 2003) “ BPM is not a new discussion, but rather a fundamental shift in the availability of integrated tools by which to enable many of the BPM concepts that have been heretofore nothing but pages in a textbook." (Delphi, 2001)

6. Modeling Results: Company A: Reduced underwriting cycle from 10 days to two hours while reducing processing costs by 40 percent in less than three months. Company B: Reduced training costs/time of service representatives by producing automated documentation in three weeks. Government: Reduced time to construct buildings by three months and raised the effectiveness of building inspectors. Risks of Not Understanding Processes: Company X: Wasted $100 million in building a customer service workbench by not simulating throughput times of service calls. Company Y: Sustained several days of systems’ downtime by not understanding the complete effects of a new compound flow. Your Company: How much time and money is wasted in your processes? To Manage Business Flows, or Not ?? Copyright © 2002

7. A Process IDEF0/ICOM-diagram transformed or consumed to produce outputs specify conditions to produce correct means that support execution Inputs outputs controls mechanisms Data or object Produced

8. A Process Place Transition Place Petrinets Petrinets IDEF0/ICOM-diagram versus Petrinets Inputs outputs controls mechanisms Semi-formal: Abstraction of the real world Formal: A further Abstraction of the real world specify conditions to produce correct data or object produced transformed or consumed to produce outputs means that support execution

9. Business process expert or end user Business process modeling expert S5 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 t12 t13 t14 t15 t16 t17 t18 O2 P19 t' t" p" A formal Process model : Petrinet The model (& tool) supply: Validation and Verification Deadlock detection Starvation detection Validation of test sets Analyses en simulation Stepwise process simulation Critical path analysis Process cost analysis Completion time analyses Quantitative stochastic simulation Analyses of resource utilization The model is: Hard to read and understand There are no relations with the Organizational structure Physical locations The data flows The information systems The business rules

10. Sales department Shipment planning department Order planning department Should (also) help the client to better understand his process Business Process Analyses tools

11. Business process models Can become large, and hard to manage Business Process Analyses tools might be necessary

12. Outline B usiness P rocess M anagement H uman 2 H uman BPM S ystem 2 s ystem BPM B usiness 2 B usiness BPM

13. A Process An ordinary activity in an administrative environment Inputs outputs controls mechanisms Human resource software application ------ ------ Human readable Physical document Machine readable storage Input = = Output Controls=Human/machine dialogue

14. A Process Human resource software application Human resource software application Human resource software application Human resource software application ------ ------ Physical Transport ------ ------ Physical Transport ------ ------ Physical Transport ------ ------ Physical Transport Physical Transport An ordinary process in an administrative environment

15. Process improvement Document imaging and document routing Human resource software application Human resource software application Human resource software application Human resource software application ------ ------ Scan index ------ ------ Human readable Physical document Human readable Electronic Image Electronic transport And automated routing Image viewer Image viewer Image viewer Image viewer archive

16. Opportunities for improvement No transport and (intermediate) storage of physical documents Reduction of document handling costs Reduction of physical storage costs Location independent access to relevant documents Improvement of productivity Accessibility to unlimited number of copies of the document Time span reduction

17. Possible risks and concerns Performance problems caused by a lack of network- and processing capacity The need for infrastructure upgrades The need for more advanced workstations and printers The need for an upgrade of devices Privacy and confidentiality More complex security measures

18. Process improvement Workflow management Human resource software Application UI WFM-UI WFM-UI Human resource WFM-UI Human resource software Application UI WFM-UI WFM Application Workflow control data & Workflow relevant data WFM-UI Human resource Work List Form Process definitions Work List Work List Work List

19. Opportunities for improvement Minimization of data-entry and data-compare activities Cost reduction Reduction of data quality issues Preventive and afterwards control of administrative rules Automated control (four eyes principle) Intelligent work distribution and redistribution Task simplification and differentiation Automated process monitoring Wait-time thresholds Scheduled work thresholds Process statistics Improved work staff planning Productivity monitoring Ad-hoc rerouting

20. Possible risks and concerns Mismatch between the human tasks and the workflow concept of the tools The straitjacket of the formalized navigation and user interaction Mismatch between reality and modeled workflow Incomplete and unreliable input data Exceptions in the standard flow Application integration issues Many existing applications are hard to open up Unreliable communication and transaction protocols Integration constraint between various BPM-tools

21. Source: WfMC reference model Worklist Handler Generates References Manipulate Interact via Invokes Invokes Definition Tool Interpreted by External product/data Software component System control data maintain use update (Supervisor) Organisation/ Role Model Workflow control data Workflow Relevant Data Data Build Time Run Time WfMC Workflow Reference Model User Interface Process Definition Work List Application(s) May reference Workflow Application Data WFM Engine(s) Application(s) may refer to Workflow Enactment Service Administration & Control

22. Workflow concepts : View 2 Low value processes High Value Business processes Production Collaborative Administrative Ad Hoc Loan Origination Insurance claims Accounting Tech doc creation Expense reports Purchase approvals Budgeting “ Transaction workflow” “ Process management” “ E - Forms” “ Groupware” FYI Routing Review and Approve Product brand mgmt. Software development Repetitive process Unique processes Source: BIS Strategic Decisions Workflow Application Segments

23. Workflow Application Segments A d-hoc workflows do not have a well-defined process model to follow. The execution path is more or less determined at runtime, and is basically controlled by humans. These are generally not mission critical, and accomplish the flow of information among people within the organization. Production workflows are also predictable and repetitive. They have well defined process models. These usually involve a number of information systems that may be heterogeneous and distributed. Production workflow management systems are thus, more complex and critical than ad-hoc or administrative. Administrative workflows are based on simple, repetitive and predictable processes. The ordering and coordination of tasks can thus be automated. However, these too, like ad-hoc workflows, do not involve complex information processing systems, and are generally not mission critical. Collaborative workflows are characterized by high mission criticality. They are mostly controlled by humans, and lack a well-defined process model. Thus most of the task ordering and coordination is determined at runtime by the workflow participants. Workflow concepts : View 2

24. explicitly structured implicitly structured ad-hoc structured unstructured data-driven process-driven ad-hoc workflow groupware production workflow case handling Workflow concepts : View 3

25. 1. Written request 2. Search name Data entry Under- Writer 3 WFM activity Role Role 1 3. Register request 4. Check blacklist 2 4 5. BKR-check 6. VIS-check 6. 2 time name entry 7. Print 8. Produce label 5 6 7 The large amount of transfers results into an inefficient proces with relative long duration Exception handling is hard to implement Transfer to WFM-engine Production Workflow

26. 1.Writen request 2. Register request 3. Check 2.1. Search name 2.2. Register request 2.3. Check black list 3.1. BKR-check 3.2. VIS-check Data entry Under- writer 4. Final check and completions 2 4.1.2 time name entry 4.2.Print 4.3.Produce label 1 WFM activity Rol Case steps Rol Case steps A small amount of transfers results in a efficient process with a relative short duration Exception handling becomes easier to implement Transfer to WFM-engine Case handling

27. There are no clear market leaders Many mergers, splits, new products and product discontinuations Limited support of Workflow-related standards Slow adoptions of new developments (existing vendors) Operation systems Unix, Windows, Linux WWW Java/J2EE XML/BPEL Possible risks and concerns

28. Outline B usiness P rocess M anagement Human2Human BPM S ystem 2 s ystem BPM B usiness 2 B usiness BPM

29. Process improvement A2A coupling Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Additional code Additional code Additional code

30. Process improvement EAI Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Broker application Human resource software Application API

31. Process improvement Broker application EAI – Based on distributed Transactions Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API The availability and performance becomes highly depended on the participating applications and the network Centralized control for a short period of time

32. Process improvement EAI – Based on asynchronous messaging Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API The state of the total system becomes fuzzy and unpredictable Broker application Control in respect to routing and not in respect to the actual overall state

33. Process improvement EAI – Based on BPM (=WFM for systems) Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API Human resource software Application API More overview and coordination over a long period of time Broker application Overall control API’s can/will be replaced by more open services Easy Integration with human2human BPM

34. Web Services Process - “Orchestration" Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) Define flow as abstract series of activities Each activity is implemented by a WSDL interface Provides means for handling shared state, compensations, faults etc. Expose a process as a web service Web Service Orchestration Activity 1 Shared state and context Public Private Web Service Web Service WSDL Interface WSDL Interface WSDL Interface Activity 2 Activity 3 Individual application transactions

35. Outline B usiness P rocess M anagement Human2Human BPM System2system BPM Business2Business BPM

36. B2B Middleware XML Flat file EDI ebXML other … Partner Interface ERP EJB/JMS RDBMS Conversation Transformations State-/ Document Mgmt Business Process Management System Service Interface Business Document XML XML XML Process EAI connectors Interfacing with partners

37. Orchestration executable process (that interacts with other web services) control from the perspective of one business partner for implementation workflow Choreography sequence of messages public message exchanges for collaboration protocols Orchestration versus Choreography

38. Opportunities for improvement Reduced transaction cost Faster responses Business Process Outsourcing

39. Possible risks and concerns Security risks Reliability of the protocol The lack of industry standards Lack of knowledge and experience Be careful with Human2Human BPM experts New unproved business models

40. Business Process Management Tools Understand your processes and choose the appropriate TOOLS