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Process Modelling
Applied IT
In this lecture
Processes
Process modelling using BPMN
Process redesign
using Information Technology
Business software
Ethics - Automated systems

3
Learning outcomes
S3. Interpret and construct representations of business
data flow and processes;
K3. List major information systems that support
business organisations;
K4. Relate the importance of data and knowledge
management;
K7. Recognize the impact of IT on broader societies;
A2. Select appropriate IT solutions for business
functions;

4
Motivation
IT has changed the way we do almost
everything in business
and elsewhere
Process models allow us to represent these
changes visually
We’ll use them throughout the course

5
Process modelling
Building models and representations of
processes, usually business processes
Usually with the goal of improving these processes
somehow

? What's a process?

6
What's a process?
Informally:
a series of steps taken to achieve something
Better:
Processes are a collection of related events,
activities and decisions, that involve a number of
actors and objects, that lead to an outcome that
is of value to an organisation or its customers
Dumas et al, 2013

There are plenty of other definitions!

7
Why do we care about this?
Every organization manages a number of processes
some examples:
• A customer makes an order; it's fulfilled and paid for
• A customer requests a quote and then submits an order
• Equipment is required, ordered, delivered and paid for
• A customer raises a problem; the organization fixes it
• Someone applies for approval; it's granted or denied
• A staff member calls in sick; a replacement is organized

8
Processes
Consider processes you may have experienced:
• Enrolling at University
• Buying stuff online or at a shop
• Opening a bank account
• Obtaining a learner's permit or driver's license
• Boarding an aeroplane
For each, there are events, activities, decisions,
actors and objects that lead to different outcomes
9
Models
A model is a representation of something in the
real world, made to aid understanding
For example, a floor plan or timber model to help
understand how a building will look and work, without
actually having to create it

10
Properties of models
A model should be
• A mapping
The model should represent an actual real-world
phenomenon or object
• Fit for purpose
A model is built with a goal or purpose in mind
• An abstraction
The model only includes stuff that's relevant for its
purpose

11
Why do we care about models?
Being able to model processes allows us to find
opportunities to improve or alter processes to
• Reduce time spent on processes
• Reduce cost of processes
• Increase flexibility
• Improve quality of product
These might be trade-offs! For example, changing processes
to improve on quality might slow things down or cost more

12
A (non-business) process
The card game, "Fish"

13
"Fish" is a game of collecting pairs of cards
Players start with 7 cards each. Each turn, the player:
• Chooses an opponent
• Asks that opponent for a card of a particular rank, which matches
one in the player's hand
e.g. "Cam, do you have a three?"

• If the opponent has a card of that rank, they must hand it over.
The player places the pair on the table and starts again
• Otherwise, the opponent says "Go Fish" - the player must collect
a card and play moves to the next player in turn
• The game ends when all pairs are formed 14
The "Fish" Process
"Processes are a collection of related events,
activities and decisions, that involve a number of
actors and objects, that lead to an outcome that is
of value to an organisation or its customers"

Playing a game of Fish involves events,

activities and decisions, between actors and
objects, which lead to an outcome
What are they?

15
Modelling Fish
We can model processes at different levels of
abstraction
One very popular way to represent processes is
using a Flowchart
IT students: these are similar to Activity Diagrams
which you may encounter in IT Problem Solving
Let's start with a very abstract flowchart model
of the whole game of Fish - with few details

16
Fish - High level
Activities are
One event, Start represented using
rectangles
Three activities -
dealing the cards, taking
Sequence between
a turn, and moving to the activities and decisions is
next player represented with
solid-line arrows
One of these is much more
complex than others!

One decision - should

we end the game?
Decisions are
One outcome represented with
diamonds

17
Process hierarchies
Activities and decisions may be made up of
other processes

In our Fish process model, how does the player

have a turn?

18
Fish - Taking a turn
One event, Start turn
Three activities - ask for
a card, making a pair,
draw from the pile
One decision - does the
opponent have the card?
One outcome

19
Limitations of flowcharts
Flowcharts are pretty great for simple processes
• Modelling basic events, activities and decisions
They are less good for showing actors and objects
where were the players and cards in the previous example?
UML activity diagrams aren't great at this either

They are also poor for showing parallel activities

doing two things at once

20
Swimlane diagrams
Swimlane diagrams are basically flowcharts
with a few extensions to show actors and
objects
In particular, swim-lanes allow showing which
actor has responsibility for activities
We'll BPMN, which is a standard for modelling
business processes
Business Process Model and Notation

21
Fish - BPMN Swimlane

A swimlane diagram categorizes

activities and events by
responsibility, represented by
horizontal or vertical "lanes"
Lanes could represent people,
teams, departments or systems
To keep the diagram BPMN calls these resources
simple, we're using two
resources - the player The whole "pool" contains
and a single opponent everything needed for the entire
process

22
Fish - BPMN Swimlane

This thin circle is an event that

triggers the process. In this
simple example, the start of
the player's turn gets things
moving

The thick circle is an outcome

There is only one outcome
here - your turn is finished

23
Fish - BPMN Swimlane

As with the flowchart, the first

step is to ask for a card

In a swimlane diagram, we can

see who is responsible for
asking (the player!)

24
Fish - BPMN Swimlane
The diamond is a
The opponent branch in the process
checks that they
have the card In this branch, only one
path is followed
(exactly like in the
flowchart)

25
Fish - BPMN Swimlane

After either of these activities,

responsibility moves back to
the player, either to make a
pair or draw a card

26
Rework and Repetition
We're almost there with this diagram
We just need to handle repeating the process
After you make a pair, you get to ask again
In the flowchart this was straightforward…

27
Fish - Taking a turn

A flowchart represents a single

sequence of activities and
decisions - you can only do one
thing at a time - so it's
unambiguous for the sequence
to flow to a previous activity

28
Repetition in BPMN
Just as with flowcharts, BPMN lets us choose a
path based on a decision
However, in BPMN, multiple activities and
decisions might happen in parallel
For instance, while the player is drawing a card, their
opponent might be choosing a card to ask about at
the same time

29
Branching and Merging
There are two important types of branch and
merge gateways in BPMN:

Exclusive - XOR-split and XOR-join

Follow exactly one path through the process, wait for one on join

Parallel - AND-split and AND-join

Follow all paths on split; wait for all paths on join

30
Branch and Merge - XOR
So we only wait for
Eating ice-cream
one of the preceding
activities here

Making the XOR means

decision is an we only follow one
activity of these paths

31
Branch and Merge - AND
Making tea

So we should wait for

AND means we all of the preceding
follow all of the paths activities here
Note: no decision

32
Branch and Merge - OR So we should wait for
all active preceding
More tea activities here

OR means we
follow as many paths
as necessary. More trouble than
Choosing is an activity they’re worth

33
Back to Fish - BPMN Swimlane

At this point, we are here either

because the turn just started or
because we made a pair.
We use the same diamond X
symbol to represent responding to
only one of these at a time

34
 Ominous Foreshadowing

AND, XOR and more will return

next week in completely different outfits…

35
BPMN
BPMN has much more to it than we've seen
Messages, timers, exceptions, rollbacks, data,
documents
What we have is enough for this course
You may do more in later courses!

Refer to the resources on Moodle for more

36
Modelling real processes
Playing Fish, eating ice-cream and making tea is one
thing, but how do we go about modelling a real-world
business process?
You need domain expertise
Intimate knowledge about how processes or activities are
performed (Dumas et. al. 2013)
For some processes, you will be able to apply your own
domain knowledge
For example, enrolling in a University course is something you
could probably come up with a reasonable model for, even if
there’s bits you don’t know

37
Collecting information
In practice, a process analyst builds a model using
information gathered in a number of ways:
• Evidence-based
Gathering documents, taking observations of people engaged in
the process
• Interview-based
Talking to individual domain experts and process participants
• Workshop-based
Gather experts and use systematic approach to identify process
components

38
Modelling - an approach
One way to approach modelling processes is to perform the
following series of steps:
1. Identify process boundaries
What are the triggers and outcomes?
2. Identify activities and events
What are the tasks? Are there any other events?

3. Identify resources and handovers

Who or what is responsible for the activities?
4. Identify control flow
What is the sequence of activities?
Where are the decisions?

39
1. Identify the process boundaries
What events cause this process to start?
These could be external to the business
e.g. A customer places an order
or internal
e.g. A staff member applies for a promotion
What are the possible outcomes?
e.g. The order is fulfilled. The promotion is approved
or denied.

40
2. Identify activities and events
What tasks do people and systems actually
perform?
Performing this step separately is a good idea when
working with domain experts who are not IT experts -
or who don't have an understanding of the entire
process
Are there any other events which may occur?
We won't worry too much about this part in this
course

41
3. Identify resources (and handovers)
For each identified activity:
Who is responsible?
Allocate activities to swim-lanes
When or where does the process sequence
switch from one resource (participant) to
another?
Where does responsibility for the process get handed
over to another resource?

42
4. Identify control flow
When and why are activities (and events)
undertaken?
What are the dependencies?
What order do activities need to be done in?
Where are the decision points?
What is done in parallel?
What is done repeatedly?

43
A more realistic example
An order fulfilment process (Dumas et. al. 2013, p. 170)

Here’s an XOR branch AND branch

gateway gateway

Matching
AND merge
gateway
This is a
different kind
of event: a
message
received. And matching
XOR merge
gateway 44
Guidelines for process modelling
7PMG* guidelines:
G1: Use as few elements in the model as possible
G2: Minimise the routing paths per element
G3: Use one start and one end event
G4: Model as structured as possible
G5: Avoid OR-gateways
G6: Use verb-object activity labels
G7: Decompose a model with more than 30 elements
* The extremely creatively-named "Seven Process Modelling Guidelines"
(Mendling et al, 2010)

45
Process Redesign
What can IT do for you?

46
Reasons to redesign
There are plenty of reasons why you might
choose to redesign a process
Improve quality, reduce inefficiencies, lower costs,
lower time, increase flexibility
Processes always change over time
there may be steps which were once necessary but
not anymore
See Dumas et al (2013, section 8.1.1)

47
Approaches to process redesign
Just as are there are many reasons to redesign processes,
there are many ways to go about redesigning
Two main approaches:
• Gradual improvement by applying piecewise changes
Take the existing process, and redesign parts to make incremental
improvements, using heuristic approaches
• Complete process redesign
Look at the outcomes and create new processes to meet them

We'll look at the first approach only, through the lens of

applying Information Technology

48
Redesigning with IT
Many activities or process components can be
automated using technology
Keep the activity, but make a computer speed it up
Consider our basic Fish process - which steps
can be automated?

49
Back to Fish - BPMN Swimlane

Which
activities could
be kept, but
automated with
a computer or
robot?

50
Automation
Automation allows processes to be performed quickly,
reliably and with less opportunity for human error
However, automating activities through an IT system
may
• be expensive
systems need to be developed and deployed
• reduce flexibility
an automated system cannot adapt as quickly as a human
• miss opportunities to replace whole processes

51
Integral technology
We can also change the set of processes to
embrace technology more fully
Consider Fish again - what if we developed a
system to manage the whole process?

52
Back to Fish - BPMN Swimlane

Which parts of
this process could
be replaced
entirely using
technology?

53
Skipping the models
Process modelling and redesign is hard,
expensive and time consuming
and it still might not help!
There are some processes that exist in many
organizations
somebody else has solved the hard stuff, and has a
solution that gets you most of the way

54
Common types of business processes
• Customer management
sales, marketing, communications
• Payroll and Human Resources (HR)
payments, taxes, annual leave, sick leave
• Manufacturing and supply chain
purchase, scheduling, inventory
• Monitoring and governance
tracking performance, strategic decisions
“Off-the-shelf” systems exist for all of these

55
An example: CRM
Customer Relationship Management systems
allow organizations to track customers, sales
leads, communications, and support cases
A CRM might also support marketing and promotions,
social media and other communication functions
Who are our customers? Where are they from?
What are they buying? Where are we losing
them? Who is our best salesperson? What
promotion worked?
56
An example: DMS and CMS
Document and Content Management
Systems allow organizations to store and
maintain documents that support processes
CMS are also used to manage web content
These systems also handle document
distribution, tracking of revisions, indexing
and search, and document security
only authorized people should have access to certain
types of document

57
Groupware
Groupware systems allow users to share
documents with one another, communicate
directly, and collaborate
Groupware might include systems such as email or
instant messaging
These allow us to change a whole bunch of
processes that previously required physical
presence

58
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning systems are generally
very large suites of software applications which
manage all sorts of processes
ERP systems may include components to manage:
• Inventory and supply chain
• Project management
• Finance and Human Resources
• Manufacturing
• Business Intelligence

59
ERP
ERP vendors claim that their processes are
best practices
SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics
Organizations often change their processes
to match the system, rather than change the
system to match processes
We have whole degrees about enterprise systems,
these few slides don’t do them justice

60
Spreadsheets
In many, many, many cases, the software used
to handle business problems is simply a
spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel
We will be using Excel in labs quite a bit this semester
Excel is cheap, ubiquitous, flexible and
powerful
…and about 88% of spreadsheets have errors
(Panko, 2008)

61
Ethics of automation

62
In early 2017,
Centrelink sent
automated letters to
customers, claiming
they had significant
outstanding debt
20% of letter
recipients had no
Centrelink debt at all
This was a system
which had previously
had human
oversight, but was
automated to reduce
costs
63
64
Automated systems
Is it ok to automate processes this far, without
human oversight?
Consider:
• The savings from automation vs the costs
(tangible and intangible) of getting it wrong
• The opportunities for humans to intervene
positively and negatively

65
Automated systems
Is it ok to automate processes that are
currently somebody’s job?

66
In this question
from a QA site, a
programmer
automated their
job, and now works
“probably 1-2
hours per week on
my job for which I
am getting a full
time wage”

67
Next lecture
Getting technical

68
References
Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. (2013). Fundamentals of
business process management. London: Springer.

Mendling, J., Reijers, H.A., van der Aalst, W.M.P. (2010). Seven process
modeling guidelines (7PMG). Information and Software Technology.,52, 127-
136.

69
Questions?