Business process management has received considerable attention recently by
both business administration and computer science communities.
Members of these communities are typically characterized by different educational
backgrounds and interests. People in business administration are
interested in improving the operations of companies. Increasing customer satisfaction,
reducing cost of doing business, and establishing new products and
services at low cost are important aspects of business process management
from a business administration point of view.
Two communities in computer science are interested in business processes.
Researchers with a background in formal methods investigate structural properties
of processes. Since these properties can only be shown using abstractions
of real-world business processes, process activities are typically reduced
to letters. Using this abstraction, interesting observations on structural properties
of business processes can be made, which are very useful for detecting
structural deficiencies in real-world business processes.
The software community is interested in providing robust and scalable
software systems. Since business processes are realized in complex information
technology landscapes, the integration of existing information systems is an
important basis for the technical realization of business processes.
The goal of this book is to narrow the gap between these different points of
view and to provide a step towards a common understanding of the concepts
and technologies in business process management.
The introductory chapter looks at the motivation for business process management
from a high-level point of view. The background of business process
management is explained, and major concepts and terms are introduced. An
example featuring an ordering process is used to illustrate these concepts. The
phases in setting up and maintaining business process management applications
are discussed. A classification of business processes and an overview on
the structure of this book complete this chapter.
Motivation and Definitions
Business process management is based on the observation that each product
that a company provides to the market is the outcome of a number of activities
performed. Business processes are the key instrument to organizing these
activities and to improving the understanding of their interrelationships.
Information technology in general and information systems in particular
deserve an important role in business process management, because more and
more activities that a company performs are supported by information systems.
Business process activities can be performed by the company’s employees
manually or by the help of information systems. There are also business
process activities that can be enacted automatically by information systems,
without any human involvement.
A company can reach its business goals in an efficient and effective manner
only if people and other enterprise resources, such as information systems, play
together well. Business processes are an important concept to facilitating this
effective collaboration.
In many companies there is a gap between organizational business aspects
and the information technology that is in place. Narrowing this gap between
organization and technology is important, because in today’s dynamic markets,
companies are constantly forced to provide better and more specific
products to their customers. Products that are successful today might not be
successful tomorrow. If a competitor provides a cheaper, better designed, or
more conveniently usable product, the market share of the first product will
most likely diminish.
Internet-based communication facilities spread news of new products at
lightning speed, so traditional product cycles are not suitable for coping with
today’s dynamic markets. The abilities to create a new product and to bring
it to the market rapidly, and to adapt an existing product at low cost have
become competitive advantages of successful companies.
While at an organizational level, business processes are essential to understanding
how companies operate, business processes also play an important
role in the design and realization of flexible information systems. These information
systems provide the technical basis for the rapid creation of new
functionality that realizes new products and for adapting existing functionality
to cater to new market requirements.
Business process management is influenced by concepts and technologies
from different areas of business administration and computer science. Based
on early work in organization and management, business process management
has its roots in the process orientation trend of the 1990s, where a new way
of organizing companies on the basis of business processes was proposed.
In their seminal book Reengineering the Corporation, Michael Hammer
and James Champy advocate the radical redesign of the business processes
of a company. They define a business process as a collection of activities that take one or more kinds of input and create an output that is of value to the
customer.
While it has been argued that a radical redesign of business processes is,
in many cases, not the best choice and that evolutionary improvements are
more promising, the business process definition by Hammer and Champy is a
good starting point for our investigations.
This definition puts emphasis on the input/output behaviour of a business
process by stating its precondition (inputs) and its postcondition (output).
The process itself is described in an abstract way by a collection of activities.
Assuming that the term “collection” neither implies an ordering of the
activities nor any other execution constraints, the definition by Hammer and
Champy is quite liberal with regard to the process aspect.
Execution constraints between activities are identified by Davenport, who
defines a business process as ”a set of logically related tasks performed to
achieve a defined business outcome for a particular customer or market.”
The term “logically related” puts emphasis on the process activities, while
associating the outcome of a business process with a requestor of a product,
i.e., a customer. Davenport also considers the relationship of process activities,
including their execution ordering, by defining a business process as “a specific
ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end, and
clearly identified inputs and outputs.” He continues, “business processes have
customers (internal or external) and they cross organizational boundaries, i.e.,
they occur across or between organizational subunits.”
Based on these characterizations of business processes, we adopt the following
definition.
Definition 1.1
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.
After a first consideration of business processes, their constituents, and their
interactions, the view is broadened. Business process management not only
covers the representation of business processes, but also additional activities.
Definition 1.2
Business process management includes concepts, methods,
and techniques to support the design, administration, configuration, enactment,
and analysis of business processes.
The basis of business process management is the explicit representation of
business processes with their activities and the execution constraints between
them. Once business processes are defined, they can be subject to analysis,
improvement, and enactment.
Traditionally, business processes are enacted manually, guided by the
knowledge of the company’s personnel and assisted by the organizational regulations
and procedures that are installed.
Enterprises can achieve additional benefits if they use software systems
for coordinating the activities involved in business processes. These software
systems are called business process management systems.
Definition 1.3 A business process management system is a generic software
system that is driven by explicit process representations to coordinate the
enactment of business processes.
The definitions introduced so far are illustrated by a sample business process.
Because of its clarity and limited complexity, a simple ordering process is
well suited. In the ordering process, an order is received, an invoice is sent,
payment is received, and the ordered products are shipped.
This textual representation lists the activities of the business process, but
it does not make explicit the ordering according to which these activities
are performed. Graphical notations are well suited to expressing orderings
between activities of a business process.
The ordering process of a reseller company is shown in Figure 1.1. The
process consists of a set of activities performed in a coordinated manner.
The coordination between the activities is achieved by an explicit process
representation using execution constraints. The process starts with the company
receiving an order, followed by activities in concurrent branches. In one
branch, the invoice is sent and the payment is received; in the other branch,
the products are shipped. When both branches complete their activities, the
order is archived, and the business process terminates.
When the business process terminates, the reseller has processed an incoming
order, including shipping the product and receiving the payment, which
realizes a business goal of the reseller.
While there are several graphical notations for business process modelling,
their essence is quite similar. This introductory chapter uses a simplified variant
of the Business Process Modeling Notation. In this notation, activities
are represented by rounded rectangles, marked with the name of the activity.
Execution ordering of activities is expressed by directed arrows.
Branching and joining of nodes is represented by diamonds that can be
marked with different symbols. In the sample process shown in Figure 1.1, a
diamond with a plus sign, a single incoming arc, and multiple outgoing arcs
represents a parallel split, which means that the follow-up activities can be
executed concurrently. Concurrent activities can be executed in any order,
and any overlap in the execution time of concurrent activities is allowed.
The same symbol with multiple incoming arcs and a single outgoing arc is
the respective join node, merging the concurrent branches. In the example, this
join node makes sure that the archiving of the order can only be started once
both concurrent branches have completed.
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