Effective application of process improvement patterns to business processes

Abstract

Improving the operational effectiveness and efficiency of processes is a fundamental task of business process management (BPM). There exist many proposals of process improvement patterns (PIPs) as practices that aim at supporting this goal. Selecting and implementing relevant PIPs are therefore an important prerequisite for establishing processaware information systems in enterprises. Nevertheless, there is still a gap regarding the validation of PIPs with respect to their actual business value for a specific application scenario before implementation investments are incurred. Based on empirical research as well as experiences from BPM projects, this paper proposes a method to tackle this challenge. Our approach toward the assessment of process improvement patterns considers real-world constraints such as the role of senior stakeholders or the cost of adapting available IT systems. In addition, it outlines process improvement potentials that arise from the information technology infrastructure available to organizations, particularly regarding the combination of enterprise resource planning with business process intelligence. Our approach is illustrated along a real-world business process from human resource management. The latter covers a transactional volume of about 29,000 process instances over a period of 1 year. Overall, our approach enables both practitioners and researchers to reasonably assess PIPs before taking any process implementation decision.

Development Planning versus Participation of Inhabitants in Management

“…A similar point of view presented by Cehlar et al (2015), Cismas et al (2017), Lekkas et al (1997), Brueckner (2011), Paparrizos et al (2016, Lekkas et al (2017), Schuck (2014), Lamprou and Vagionas (2017), Stiglitz (1989), Konisky and Teodoro (2016), Welch (2015), Straka et al (2014), Garcia (2011), Johannsen and Fill (2017), Sánchez-González et al (2017), Lohrmann and Reichert (2016), Rahmat (2019), Rofiq and Pramono (2019), Rutkowska and Rembielak-Vitchev (2008), and Damme et al (2017).…”

Enabling Flexible and Robust Business Process Automation for the Agile Enterprise

“…To accomplish this, the business processes need to be mapped to executable process models. Thereby, a business process comprises a set of one or more connected activities that collectively realize a particular business goal [15]. A process is linked to an organizational structure defining functional roles and organizational relationships.…”

“…To provide additional value for the business, any process automation should be preceded by process reengineering and optimization efforts [15]; that is, business processes have to be (re)designed to meet organizational goals in an economic and efficient manner. Goals pursued may include shortening process cycle times, reducing process costs, increasing customer satisfaction, and decreasing error rates.…”

“…Business processes evolve over time due to changes in their legal, technical, or business environment, or as a result of organizational learning [14,15]. Consequently, PAIS implementations need to be adapted accordingly.…”

“…Therefore, enterprises have identified business agility as a competitive advantage to address business needs like increasing product variability or faster time to market as well as to tightly align business and IT. Improving the efficiency and quality of their business processes and optimizing their interactions with partners and customers have become crucial success factors for enterprises [15,19].…”