Detailed evaluation of 'Horus' tool, used for Business Process Modeling. Includes various features such as Performance evaluation, Comparative study, Benefits, etc

1. Horus Tool Report
Presented By,
Nishanth T S
Eashwar V
Venkatesan M
International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore

2. Introduction
• Horus Business Modeler is the pro-tool for modeling and
simulating business processes.
• Combines simple usability and great capability to a real high
end product. The formal elements can be related to all kinds
of multi-media documents.
• The functional range includes reports that map the model
contents in a clear overview.
• With Horus Business Modeler business processes are modeled
from different point of views. This simplifies the models and
increases the flexibility of model design.

3. Modeling Languages of Horus
• Petri-Nets (XML-Nets).
• Organization charts.
• Semantic-hierarchical structures.
• An object/relationship model.
Installation and setup
• Easy installation. Just unzip the setup file and you are ready
with the horus tool.
• Java memory set up down by default, still if the user prefers
modified memory allocation , the same can be done using
Horus -vmargs -Xmx<memory size>
with the <memory size> value set to greater than “256M”

4. Capabilities and Features
• Process Architecture Model
• Procedure Model
• Object Model
• Business Rules
• Organization Models
• Resources
• Key Figures
• Risks
• Context Models
• Supply & Services
• Objectives
• SWOT Models
• Business Strategies
• Business Units
• System Architectures
• Roles
• Simulations

5. SWOT Model
• SWOT analysis will investigate the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats for the enterprise.
• The results are relevant for the focal areas of subsequent
analytical activities.
• It helps to avoid unnecessarily detailed analysis and, on the
other hand, ensures that important analysis fields with high
optimization potential are not neglected.
• A model that helps to do risk analysis and plan risk mitigation.

6. Example of SWOT Model

7. Process Model
• What is a Process Model?
• Petri Nets v/s XML Nets
• Important terminologies:
• Business Processes
• Objects
• Organization Structure
• Roles and Resources

8. Example of Process Model

9. Procedure Model
• What is a Procedure Model?
• Elements of Procedure Modeling
• Activities
• Object Stores
• Connections
• Procedure Models can be ‘Refined’

10. A ‘Refined’ Procedure Model

11. Object Model
• What is an Object Model?
• Basic Elements for modeling of Business Object Structures:
• Elementary object with attributes (simple business object)
• Aggregation of (elementary) objects (complex business
object)
• Relationship and inheritance edges between simple
business objects
• Collective constraints for relationship edges

12. Example of Object Model

13. Context Model
• Gives a framework which serves as a fixed and usually
unchangeable reference point within the modelling project
• It acts as a single high-level process and then shows the
relationship that the system has with other external entities
(systems, organizational groups, external data stores, etc.)
• Main advantage of this modeling method is it shows the scope
and boundaries of the system at glance and no technical
knowledge required to understand the system.

14. Example of a Context Model

15. Objectives Model
• Objectives models deliver important references for estimating
the required depth of detail necessary in specific analysis
areas.
• They are derived from the enterprise mission, and then
broken down through specialization until they span a
complete objective area for the system to be examined.
• Objective Models serves the propose of the two major stake
holders Decision makers and business users.

16. Example of Objectives Model

17. Evaluation of the Tool
• Performance
• Usability Analysis
• Benefits
• Drawbacks

18. Performance
• The Performance was tested with a system having 3 Gb RAM,
Windows 7 Operating System. Whenever a Repository is
saved, all models get saved in a separate folder, with an XML
File stating the relationship between various components and
an image of the respective model.
• The .hwa file loads fast
• Horus tool itself takes lesser time for startup

19. Usability Analysis: Positive
Aspects
• Feature of Smart Mode.
• The tool leverages on what the user has already learnt in other
tools.
• Visibility of all the operators is good.

20. Usability Analysis: Negative
Aspects
• No proper documentation. Basically in German language.
• ‘Smart Mode’ not enabled for all.
• There is no consistency in the tool. We cannot save all models
as pictures.

21. Benefits
• The functional range includes reports that map the model
contents in a clear overview. For further going analyses and
individual reports, the tool Horus Model Intelligence is used
• Supports variety of essential models
• A single tool for all people in the project phase, viz Manager,
Developer, End user
• Features such as ’Drag drop’, ’Smart mode’ makes easy usage
• Freeware

22. Drawbacks
• The output format is a proprietary format called .hwa, which
cannot be used
• User cannot export an individual model outside
• There is no predefined template that a naive user can use to
learn the tool
• No compatibility with any other tool

23. Comparative Study

24. Conclusion
• We found the tool to be an efficient and easy to use modeling
tool for various Business process models.
• It covers a gamut of models.
• It is beneficial to the first time users and expert users working
with Business Processing Tools, especially the usage of ‘smart
mode’ feature.

25. Conclusion
• Beginners may choose to work with the Drag and Drop
feature. Thus, users can explore the wide range of options
provided by Horus.
• However, based on the Comparative Study, certain additional
features, when added to Horus Tool, could make the tool even
more User friendly to work with. These features include user
management, cloud support, monitoring, etc.

26. Thank You