A prototype for continuous improvement of processes and their results in the field of higher education

Purpose The concept of business process (BP) management plays a major role in information systems with several applications. Modeling languages and tools can be used by domain experts to help in the business process model (BPM) design. The purpose of this paper is to focus on quality improvement for BPMs through the proposition of a novel prototype and apply it on real case for BPMs in the field of higher education. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a prototype named Business Process Model Quality Assess (BPMoQualAssess) that works in two steps. In the first step, it allows designing and verifying the quality of BPMs in the field of higher education. Second, it focuses on evaluating process results through a set of criteria and specific measures for each process. Both steps are based on three main key concepts: measures, threshold values and guidelines in order to guide the modeler in assessing his/her model and also to get good results from the latter. Findings The authors implemented the BPMoQualAssess prototype to evaluate the quality of BPMs as well as its results. Furthermore, the authors have conducted a case study with a process in the field of higher education. Indeed, first, the authors obtained an improved BPM with a high-quality level. Second, the authors then evaluated the results by focusing on measures, threshold values and appropriate quality guidelines in order to obtain better results. Originality/value In the context of this study, the authors aim to make a significant contribution to the knowledge on the subject of the quality for higher education sector processes, on one hand on the models and on the other hand the results of processes. All these concepts are fully nested within a new quality prototype for process model evaluation and validated on real BPMs in the field of higher education. There are many publications focusing on BP quality in the literature, but only a few approaches combine the main keys thresholds, measures and guidelines. In fact, the principal contribution of this research consists in linking measures and threshold values to the resulting guidelines as they have been presented separately in the literature. Furthermore, the authors elaborate for each measure its own recommendation to guide the modeler in redesigning his/her model. Also, the authors define threshold values of process results in higher education and also took into account the opinion of domain experts. To sum up, the originality of this work appears in the application of BPM in the field of higher education given the lack of work in the literature for this direction, and it will pave a way for research in BP innovation areas.

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Business process model patterns: state-of-the-art, research classification and taxonomy

Business Process Management Journal ◽

10.1108/bpmj-01-2018-0021 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (5) ◽

pp. 972-994 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Fellmann ◽

Agnes Koschmider ◽

Ralf Laue ◽

Andreas Schoknecht ◽

Arthur Vetter

Keyword(s):

Business Process ◽

Process Model ◽

Pattern Language ◽

Future Research ◽

Business Process Model ◽

Content Type ◽

Research Activities ◽

Starting Point ◽

Research Classification

Purpose Patterns have proven to be useful for documenting general reusable solutions to a commonly occurring problem. In recent years, several different business process management (BPM)-related patterns have been published. Despite the large number of publications on this subject, there is no work that provides a comprehensive overview and categorization of the published business process model patterns. The purpose of this paper is to close this gap by providing a taxonomy of patterns as well as a classification of 89 research works. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyzed 280 research articles following a structured iterative procedure inspired by the method for taxonomy development from Nickerson et al. (2013). Using deductive and inductive reasoning processes embedded in concurrent as well as joint research activities, the authors created a taxonomy of patterns as well as a classification of 89 research works. Findings In general, the findings extend the current understanding of BPM patterns. The authors identify pattern categories that are highly populated with research works as well as categories that have received far less attention such as risk and security, the ecological perspective and process architecture. Further, the analysis shows that there is not yet an overarching pattern language for business process model patterns. The insights can be used as starting point for developing such a pattern language. Originality/value Up to now, no comprehensive pattern taxonomy and research classification exists. The taxonomy and classification are useful for searching pattern works which is also supported by an accompanying website complementing the work. In regard to future research and publications on patterns, the authors derive recommendations regarding the content and structure of pattern publications.

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Service quality of student services and student satisfaction: the mediating effect of cross-functional collaboration

The TQM Journal ◽

10.1108/tqm-10-2019-0234 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (6) ◽

pp. 1197-1215

Author(s):

Anwar Khamis Alsheyadi ◽

Jawaher Albalushi

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Service Quality ◽

Student Affairs ◽

Student Satisfaction ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

Quality Level ◽

Content Type ◽

Effect Model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the interaction of tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy dimensions of the service quality (SERVQUAL) and student satisfaction (SS), and second, to explore the mediating role of cross-functional collaboration (CFC) on these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and mediated effect models using data collected through a survey of 352 students from 18 higher education institutes (HEIs) in Oman.FindingsThe statistical analysis confirms our main hypotheses. First, the centrality of tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy dimensions of the service quality was established in the direct effect model, while the importance of tangibles and responsiveness was not confirmed in the mediated effect model. Second, it approved the partial mediation effect of CFC on the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsService quality, level of CFC and relative SS in higher education could be subjected to contextual verification and evaluation of these internal and external contextual factors should be considered.Practical implicationsSeveral implications are highlighted for the effective development of the service quality of student affairs departments (SADs), the development of CFC for effective management, development and deployment of various student affairs initiatives.Originality/valueThis paper satisfies the need to validate the SERVQUAL model in different contexts such as SADs, and the need to investigate the possible mediating effect of other factors on SERVQUAL dimensions and satisfaction to show how the latter can be achieved.

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Improving the quality of Business Process Models: Lesson learned from the State of the Art

Business Process Management Journal ◽

10.1108/bpmj-11-2017-0327 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (6) ◽

pp. 1357-1376 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fadwa Yahya ◽

Khouloud Boukadi ◽

Hanêne Ben-Abdallah

Keyword(s):

Quality Improvement ◽

Business Process ◽

State Of The Art ◽

The State ◽

Process Models ◽

Model Quality ◽

Content Type ◽

Quality Improvement Process ◽

Bp Model

Purpose The quality of a Business Process (BP) model is vital for the successful accomplishment of all its lifecycle phases. Indeed, a high-quality BP model makes its implementation, execution and evaluation easier. In the literature, the improvement of BP model quality has been dealt with using several techniques. For instance, modeling guidelines, refactoring techniques, and transformation rules are the most used ones. The purpose of this paper is to exploit existing initiatives in this field to help designers improve their BP models. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws up a systematic inventory of the existing approaches to improve the quality of BP models. Moreover, it provides a comparative evaluation with the aim of identifying the particularities of each approach as well as the common gaps in the state of the art. Finally, it proposes a guiding framework, called BP-Quality, that supports designers in improving the quality of their BP models. Findings The usability of BP-Quality is illustrated through a case study and a set of experiments. The preliminary experimental evaluation of this guiding framework shows encouraging results. Originality/value The proposed guiding framework has the merit of exploiting existing initiatives in the field of BP quality improvement. In addition, it customizes and optimizes the quality improvement process according to the particularities of each BP model.

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R-BPMN for abstract modeling of business process patterns

Business Process Management Journal ◽

10.1108/bpmj-08-2020-0371 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Dae-Kyoo Kim ◽

Yeasun K. Chung

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Business Process ◽

Process Model ◽

Process Development ◽

Formal Semantics ◽

Tool Support ◽

Tool Development ◽

Business Process Model ◽

Content Type ◽

Pattern Variability

PurposeThe authors use the extension mechanism provided by the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) to define roles, which allows roles to be fully aligned with the BPMN standard. The authors describe how a pattern can be defined in terms of roles and present the formal semantics of pattern realization and refinement to support systematic reuse of patterns in business process development.Design/methodology/approachIt is widely agreed that the use of business process patterns improves the efficiency and quality of business process development. However, few techniques are available to describe business process patterns at an appropriate level of abstraction to facilitate the reuse of patterns. To address this, this paper presents the role-based Business Process Model and Notation (R-BPMN), an extension of BPMN for abstract modeling of business process patterns based on a novel notion of role.FindingsThe authors apply R-BPMN in case studies for pattern realization and refinement and discuss tool support via an existing tool. The case studies demonstrate the practical benefits of R-BPMN in capturing pattern variability and facilitating pattern reuse.Practical implicationsThe findings imply a potential impact of R-BPMN on practical benefits when it is supported at the metamodel level in tool development.Originality/valueThis study addresses the need for abstract modeling of process patterns at the metamodel level, which facilitates the formalization of pattern variability and tool development to support various realizations of process patterns at the model level.

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Towards the Method and Information Technology for Evaluation of Business Process Model Quality

Information and Communication Technologies in Education, Research, and Industrial Applications - Communications in Computer and Information Science ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-77592-6_5 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 93-118

Author(s):

Andrii Kopp ◽

Dmytro Orlovskyi

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Business Process ◽

Process Model ◽

Business Process Model ◽

Model Quality

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Transformation of the BPMN Business Process Model into Smart Contracts for the Hyperledger Fabric Environment

10.18690/978-961-286-485-9.53 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Janko Hriberšek ◽

Keyword(s):

Business Process ◽

Process Model ◽

Research Paper ◽

Transformation Model ◽

Smart Contracts ◽

Business Process Model ◽

Smart Contract ◽

Metadata File ◽

The Future

Transformation of BPMN business process model will be a very important topic in the future of the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain environment. Machine transformation can increase the quality of transformation and thus reduce errors. The research paper first describes BPMN and the Hyperledger Fabric environment, what smart contracts are and why they are so important. In the second part, the raw transformation model is described, where the inputs for the transformations are BPMN and the metadata file, and the result is a smart contract written in Java that can be imported into the Hyperledger Fabric environment.

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BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL DEVELOPMENT IN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

International Journal Advanced Quality ◽

10.25137/ijaq.n4.v45.y2017.p39-44 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (4) ◽

pp. 39

Author(s):

Zoran Nešić ◽

Predrag Popović ◽

Miroslav Radojičić ◽

Leon Ljubić

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Business Process ◽

Process Model ◽

Relational Databases ◽

Business Processes ◽

Model Development ◽

Business Process Model ◽

Building Permits ◽

Starting Point

This paper emphasizes the importance of developing information systems aimed at improving quality of operations. It is presented the basic and most important steps which are the basis for the formation of information systems. An example which is illustrated in this paper refers to the modeling of business processes and relational databases. The importance of proper and documented business process model is reflected in the consistency of the flow of information, data models and activities and their clear perception. It can be considered that the present step is the basis for the further implementation of information technology. In line with this consideration, this paper aims to highlight the importance of the problem presented in the function of improving quality of operations. The presented methodological framework can be universally applied as a starting point for the design of information systems relating to the segment of building permits issuing.

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