The business models are good means to provide a common communication platform about the process flows. Normally a system consists of human elements and physical, non-human elements. The gap between the human and non-human elements and business objectives can be closed, just if they communicate in a common language.
The ‘spoken’ and ‘understood’ language should have the same meaning (semantic). In order to get a basic overview about a complex system, it is required to have a model that translates the details into a measurable system. Once this model is available, it can be evaluated. Based on the evaluation, the analysis and optimization will be manageable.
The following standard-classification will be used as grounding in the current paper (Ko et al., 2009)
execution (BPEL, WSFL (Leymann, 2001), XLANG (Thatte, 2001)),
interchange (XPDL , BPDM (Bock, 2008)),
graphical (BPMN, UML (OMG, 2015), EPC),
diagnosis (BPRI, BPQL).
The execution standard helps with the deployment and automation of business processes, with the interchange standards the data can be transferred from one place to
the other and the related the diagnosis standard establishes the capabilities for administrative purposes.
The graphical standard allows describing the business processes visually in a graphical way.
In the coming two paragraphs, two very important graphical standards will be introduced the Business Process Model and Notation v2.0 (BPMN) and the event-driven process chains (EPC).
2.3.1 BPMN
The graphical standards are readable by most of the humans and they are easy to be interpreted, even without previous induction. The BPMN is one of the most expressive way to present the business processes, it is also available for the other three elements of the above mentioned classification, they can cooperate with that. The BPMN originates from 2004 when the 1.0 version was released by the Object Management Group (OMG), now it is at 2.0 version, latest release was in 2011 (OMG, 2011). This graphical notation is one of the instruments for bridging the gap between the human actors and the ICT-environment. The standard modeling notation is very important for the readability and the alignment of different business teams.
The BPMN can handle events, flows, gateways, activities, and it offers precise flow control semantics. It can also handle various levels of granularity and more role-perspective at the same time. Its theoretical background is based on the Petri nets (Harvey, 2005). Figure 6 shows the collaboration model-type, one of the specific types. This diagram is a best practice to show one process in one pool.
Pool (White Box) Lane 2Lane 1
BPMN is a collection of multiple model types, the coming EPC is a specific model-type.
2.3.2 EPC
The EPC represents the control, the logical and temporal flow of individual function of a process. It delineates the chain of functions and events. The events are the trigger of the functions, the results of the functions are events. The EPC begins with, at least, one start event or a connecting process path and ends with, at least, one event (or a connecting process path). Figure 7 shows how simple the structure of the model is.
(Scheer, 1992, Scheer, 1998)
Process The EPC has the following objects:
event - trigger or result,
function - activity or task,
organization unit - role or actor,
application system - usually an ICT system,
input information / document - references, documented knowledge, information carrier, email, etc.,
process path - process interface, link to another EPC,
logical rules - decision (single input, multiple outputs)
o OR - one or more possible paths will be followed as the result o XOR - (only) one of the possible paths will be followed
o AND - the process flow splits into two or more parallel process paths
logical rules - preceding functions (multiple inputs, single output)
o OR - any combinations of the event trigger the following function o XOR - one (only) of the possible events will trigger the following
function
o AND - all preceding events must occur to trigger the following function The model allows getting involved every role, every document, and all the processes.
The logical operators makes the EPC model able to cope with all of the logical operations, ‘AND’ covers the conjunction, ‘OR’ the disjunction, ‘XOR’ the antivalence (exclusive), and indirectly the negation, the equivalence, the inhibition, and the implication (etc.) can be derived, too.
For addressing the explicit, built-in knowledge management, it is good to have this integrated view of process across the business entity. The process-based and the role-based view can be presented for the same processes, the visual representation enables to represent what to do and how to do.
Not just the common understanding can be enhanced with the EPC, but also the process awareness can be increased, by providing a prompt learning and improvement tool for a wide range of audience. This solution can help with the process change management and impact analysis, too.
The BPM related models and tools have a huge warehouse, here they were shown just with presentation purposes, in order to reveal what can be built into the system and what can be drawn from the system.
Since the focus of the thesis is more on the interaction of the human and the non-human side, the pure technical side was briefly introduced and not discussed in detail, so the knowledge-management perspective is predominate.
Some basic international and global standards were already introduced and the basics of the BPM models. In the next point, the connecting methodologies and best practices are brought out to complete the business process management aspect.