Business Process Management

Business Process Management Janne J. Korhonen Helsinki University of Technology

What is a business process?

Business Process 1993 Simply a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specified output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis upon how work is done within an enterprise, in contrast to a product focus s emphasis on what. A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end, and clearly identified inputs and outputs: a structure for action."¹ Input Activities Output A.k.a workflow process ¹ Davenport (1993): Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology

Business Process 2003 "A business process is the complete and dynamically coordinated set of collaborative and transactional activities that deliver value to customers."¹ Processes are (ibid): Large and complex Dynamic Widely distributed Long-running Automated (at least in part) Both business and technical in nature Involve human intelligence and judgment Difficult to make visible Executes as a network, not as a chain Input Activities Collaboration Output ¹ Smith and Fingar (2003): Business Process Management: The Third Wave page 4

Business Process 2013? IT and human resources will be exposed as software agents Agents play different roles in different processes Agents can coordinate their actions by agreeing upon their roles and future work in the goal-oriented collaboration Ad hoc processes; essentially mobile Challenging complexity Contract Context data instance data Agents are stateful: provider behavior not idempotent page 5

Some modern definitions A process is a coherent set of activities carried out by a collaborating set of roles to achieve a goal. Ould: Business Process Management: A Rigorous Approach A business process is the complete and dynamically coordinated set of collaborative and transactional activities that deliver value to customers. Smith and Fingar: Business Process Management: The Third Wave A business process consists of a set of activities that are performed in coordination in an organizational and technical environment. These activities jointly realize a business goal. Each business process is enacted by a single organization, but it may interact with business processes performed by other organizations. Weske: Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures

Levels of business processes (Weske) Business Strategy Determine Realize Goals Determine Determine Determine Organizational Business Processes Operational Business Processes Implemented Business Processes Realize Realize Realize

The Process Trinity (Ould) Unit of Work (UoW) Case Process Handles a single case of the UoW through its lifetime Cases Case Management Process Manages the continuing flow of cases of the UoW, monitoring over the medium term, scheduling, and prioritizing case process instances Case Strategy Process Observes long-term performance and trends, makes predictions, and determines the strategy for the case and case processes in the future

What is Business Process Management? Business Process Management (BPM) is about discovering the relationships between business process participants, analyzing and redesigning them, defining performance metrics for each participant, and monitoring and optimizing their performance. Optimize Discover Analyze Design Monitor Implement

BPM is a Strategic Tool Discovery Strategic Management Monitoring Roles Goals Processes Metrics

Industrial Age 1750-1960s

Mind the Gap? As-Is Analysis To-Be Design Business Infrastructure gap? IT Infrastructure Requirements Analysis Design Development Testing

Removing Process from Applications Business Application Business Application Business Application Business Application Transaction Processing Business Process Management Transaction Processing Data Management Data Management Data Management Operating System Operating System Operating System Operating System

The Modeling Spectrum Design-driven Model Level of abstraction Model-driven Code Model Roundtrip Engineering Code Model Code visualization Code Model Code only Code

Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up in BPMS Collaborative Business Process Model Process Development Service Fabric Executable Process Executable Process Business Process Management System Information Systems Software Development

Business Process Management System (BPMS) A business process management system is a generic software system that is driven by explicit process representations to coordinate the enactment of business processes. Weske (2007)

Functional Faculties of BPMS Process Modeling Orchestration Environment Workspace Process Administration Rules Engine Business Activity Monitoring Process Engine Process Repository Connectivity Resource Management

BPM Vendors Landscape SAP, Oracle Lombardi, Metastorm Pegasystems, Savvion Pure-Play BPM TIBCO, Vitria, webmethods Enterprise Application Integration BPM Functionality Application Platform Traditional B2B IBM, BEA, Microsoft, Sybase, SUN Enterprise Content Management Sterling Commerce, Inovis, GXS EMC/documentum, Open Text, FileNet Source: Forrester

Business Process as a Network: Private and Public Processes Private Process Specifies the process control logic within the context of a business process participant Executable Public Process Governs externally observable behavior of business process participants by specifying the message exchange between them Declarative Private process Public process

Orchestration and Choreography specify private and public process, respectively Orchestration is an imperative formal description of the sequence and conditions in which an executable process invokes services and interacts with other processes in order to achieve its design objectives. Orchestration Choreography Choreography is a declarative formal description of the coordination between multiple participants, specifying their roles and observable message exchange.

From an Orchestration Perspective Private Process Business A Orchestration From ERP Transform Send PO PO Request Receive PO Ack PO Acknowledgement To ERP Transform Receive PO Response PO Response Orchestration A private executable business process Adapted from Oracle

From a Choreography Perspective Business A Send PO Public Process PO Request Business B Receive PO Receive PO Ack PO Acknowledgement Send PO Ack Receive PO Response PO Response Send PO Response Choreography The observable public exchange of messages Adapted from Oracle

Orchestration and Choreography Together Business Analyst Tool Generate Process Model Business A Business B Generate Process Model Business A Orchestration Transform Send PO Receive PO Ack PO Request PO Acknowledgement Business B Orchestration Receive Transform PO Send PO Ack Transform Receive PO Response PO Response Receive PO Response Transform Two process models reflecting a business agreement Adapted from Oracle

Logical Levels of BPM Process Reengineering Process template Process Modeling Process Model (Notational) Choreography Process Integration Process Assets Orchestration Services Applications Orchestration Services Applications 25

IT Approaches to Process Management Workflow Management (WfM) Flow of work Imperative Suitable for workflow processes Controlled process Business Process Management (BPM) Declarative Suitable for structured collaborative processes Explicit interactions Coordinated process Human Interaction Management (HIM) Mobile behavior Agreements Suitable for irregular collaborations Tacit interactions Contracted process HIM BPM WfM

Evolution of Process Management Contracted Process Agreement Coordinated Process Choreography Story Controlled Process Workflow Orchestration Role Workflow Management Business Process Management Human Interaction Management

Four Waves of BPM