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

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 1357-1376 ◽  
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.

Process-oriented disaster response management: a structured literature review

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 966-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlen Hofmann ◽  
Hans Betke ◽  
Stefan Sackmann
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Disaster Response Management ◽  
Structured Literature Review

Purpose – The application of business process methods in the domain of disaster response management (DRM) is seen as promising approach due to the similarity of business processes and disaster response processes at the general structure and goals. But up to now only a few approaches were able to handle the special characteristics of the DRM domain. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the existing approaches and analyze them for the discussion of general requirements for applying methods and tools from business process management to DRM. Design/methodology/approach – A structured literature review covering a wide field of information system-related publications (conferences and journals) is used to identify and classify general requirements discussed as the state of the art. Findings – The work in this paper resulted in a suitable classification of requirements for the development of process-oriented DRM approaches deduced from the existing work. This was used to outline and analyze the current research landscape of this topic and identify research gaps as well as existing limitations. Research limitations/implications – Although the review of the state of the art is based on a wide set of publication databases, there may exist relevant research papers which have not been taken into consideration. Originality/value – The elaborated requirements provide value for both the research community and practitioners. They can be considered to develop new or improve existing DRM systems and, thus, to exploit the potentials of process-oriented IT in supporting DRM in the case of disaster.

Industry 4.0 and business process management: state of the art and new challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Bazan ◽  
Elsa Estevez
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Event Processing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Software Ecosystems

PurposeThe objective of the work is to analyze the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) concepts and associated technologies in the framework of organizations and the management of their processes and how event orientation, as well as the structure of said business processes, can play an important role in this new organizational model. The main contribution of this work is to present a conceptualization of the research, identify approaches and challenges that require further study, and as a result, a proposal for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology comprises a qualitative analysis using secondary data. The approach relies on searches of scientific papers conducted in well-known databases, identifying research work around the IoT and Industry 4.0 applied to business process management. Based on the identified papers, the authors selected the most relevant and the latest publications, and categorized their contributions and findings based on open and selective coding. In total, the analysis is based on 95 papers that were selected and analyzed in depth.FindingsThe results of this research allow analyzing and ordering the existing contributions around Industry 4.0 and its impact on current organizations. The proposed conceptualization was derived from the analysis of the state of the research and identifies four categories: (1) improvements caused by Industry 4.0 and its impact on inter-organizational relations, (2) new architectural models and infrastructure of remote resources, their movement from the cloud to the edge and its effect on business processes, (3) context-aware concepts brought to business process management (BPM) linked to unstructured business processes and (4) complex event processing as a possible means for business processes sensitive to IoT signals.Practical implicationsThe construction of current software ecosystems is strongly affected by the variety of information sources that feed them, as well as their volume. In addition, business processes represent organizations internally and are challenged to transcend the limits of companies due to the mentioned changes in software ecosystems. Industry 4.0 in conjunction with BPM re-defines the business process management paradigm and leads them to acquire the dynamism and sensitivity to the context that they usually did not have, as well as force them to move toward distributed platforms.Originality/valueThis paper assesses the state of the art in Industry 4.0 and business process management. The area can be defined as the intersection of two bigger areas highly relevant for organizations; on the one hand, the management and execution of business processes; and on the other hand, new conceptual, technological and methodological challenges to information systems that have to become more sensitive to event processing and also have to consume a large volume of data permanently and ubiquitously.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-190
Author(s):  
Fouzia Kahloun ◽  
Sonia Ayachi-Ghannouchi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Quality Level ◽  
Business Process Model ◽  
Threshold Values ◽  
Model Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domain Experts

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.

Automated support of software quality improvement

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hareton K.N. Leung ◽  
Li Liao ◽  
Yuzhong Qu
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Process Improvement ◽  
Software Quality ◽  
Software Process ◽  
Software Process Improvement ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Reference List ◽  
Content Type

PurposeQuality improvement is critical to the success of software development organizations. Automated tools can greatly assist in the implementation of quality improvement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of tool support of software process improvement.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first review three quality improvement models that can be used for improving the quality of software products, and then identify the required activities of the quality improvement effort based on those models. These activities identified then serve as a reference list to determine the support provided by commercial tools. The paper then conducts two surveys of software quality improvement tools and presents the results.FindingsThe results from two surveys indicate that: there is no tool that supports problem identification; most tools can provide several software process improvement functions to help software organizations to improve their process capability and the quality of their products; and there is no set of tools that can provide a complete coverage of all improvement activities.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the authors have conducted a detailed search on the internet to identify SPI tools, such a survey will miss those tools which have no presence on the internet. However, the authors are confident that their results can reflect what is available in the marketplace.Practical implicationsProcess practitioners will learn about the state of support available in the marketplace and what they may need to develop on their own to provide complete support for their improvement efforts.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a classification of software process improvement functions and present a first survey of software quality improvement tools. The results will be beneficial to process practitioners.

An experimental study on feature-based SLAM for multi-legged robots with RGB-D sensors

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał R. Nowicki ◽  
Dominik Belter ◽  
Aleksander Kostusiak ◽  
Petr Cížek ◽  
Jan Faigl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Metrics ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Bundle Adjustment ◽  
The State ◽  
Legged Robots ◽  
Evaluation Methodology ◽  
Walking Robots ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Feature Based

Purpose This paper aims to evaluate four different simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems in the context of localization of multi-legged walking robots equipped with compact RGB-D sensors. This paper identifies problems related to in-motion data acquisition in a legged robot and evaluates the particular building blocks and concepts applied in contemporary SLAM systems against these problems. The SLAM systems are evaluated on two independent experimental set-ups, applying a well-established methodology and performance metrics. Design/methodology/approach Four feature-based SLAM architectures are evaluated with respect to their suitability for localization of multi-legged walking robots. The evaluation methodology is based on the computation of the absolute trajectory error (ATE) and relative pose error (RPE), which are performance metrics well-established in the robotics community. Four sequences of RGB-D frames acquired in two independent experiments using two different six-legged walking robots are used in the evaluation process. Findings The experiments revealed that the predominant problem characteristics of the legged robots as platforms for SLAM are the abrupt and unpredictable sensor motions, as well as oscillations and vibrations, which corrupt the images captured in-motion. The tested adaptive gait allowed the evaluated SLAM systems to reconstruct proper trajectories. The bundle adjustment-based SLAM systems produced best results, thanks to the use of a map, which enables to establish a large number of constraints for the estimated trajectory. Research limitations/implications The evaluation was performed using indoor mockups of terrain. Experiments in more natural and challenging environments are envisioned as part of future research. Practical implications The lack of accurate self-localization methods is considered as one of the most important limitations of walking robots. Thus, the evaluation of the state-of-the-art SLAM methods on legged platforms may be useful for all researchers working on walking robots’ autonomy and their use in various applications, such as search, security, agriculture and mining. Originality/value The main contribution lies in the integration of the state-of-the-art SLAM methods on walking robots and their thorough experimental evaluation using a well-established methodology. Moreover, a SLAM system designed especially for RGB-D sensors and real-world applications is presented in details.

ISO 9001 and the public service: an investigation of the effect of the QMS on the quality of public service organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Armando López-Lemus
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Iso 9001 ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence exerted by a quality management system (QMS) under ISO 9001: 2015 on the quality of public services organizations in Mexico. Design/methodology/approach The methodological design was quantitative, explanatory, observational and transversal, for which a sample of 461 public servants from the state of Guanajuato, Mexico was obtained. To test the hypotheses, a structural equation model (SEM) was developed through the statistical software Amos v.21. For the analysis of the data, software SPSS v.21 was used. Regarding the goodness and adjustment indices of the SEM (χ2 = 720.09, df = 320, CFI = 0.933, TLI = 0.926 and RMSEA = 0.05) which, therefore, proved to be acceptable. Findings According to the results obtained through the SEM model, the QMS under ISO 9001: 2015 is positively and significantly influenced tangible aspects (β1 = 0.79, p < 0.01), reliability (β2 = 0.90, p < 0.01), related to response quality (β3 = 0.93, p < 0.01), guarantees (β4 = 0.91, p < 0.01) and empathy (β5 = 0.88, p < 0.01) of the quality related to public services in Mexico. The study’s key contribution is that it discovered that implementing a QMS in accordance with the ISO 9001: 2015 standard has an impact on the quality of public services, with the most influential quality of response. Similarly, the assurance and dependability of service quality turned out to be important in providing public service quality. Research limitations/implications In this paper, the QMS was only evaluated as a variable that intervenes in the process of obtaining quality in public service under the ISO 9001 standard in its 2015 version. In this regard, the results’ trustworthiness is limited to the extent that the findings may be generalized in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico’s public service. As a result, the scientific community is left primarily focused on service quality to promote new future research. Practical implications The ISO 9001: 2015 standard’s QMS is one of the tools for success in both the commercial and government sectors. However, there are practical limitations, which focus on the time during which managers exercise their vision in the public sector: first, the dynamics that managers play in public policy; second, the length of time they have served in public office; and third, the interest of directors of public institutions to improve the quality of service provided by the government. Other practical consequences concern organizational culture and identity, public servant commitment, senior management or secretaries of government, as well as work and training. Originality/value The findings of this paper are important and valuable because they foster knowledge generation in the public sector through the ISO 9000 quality area. A model that permits the adoption and implementation of a QMS based on the ISO 9001: 2015 standard in public organizations that seek to provide quality in their services offered to the user is also presented to the literature. Similarly, the paper is important because there is currently insufficient research focusing on the variables examined in the context of public service in Mexico.

The effect of export tax rebates on product quality: evidence from China's agricultural product processing industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Liang ◽  
Jingqi Dang ◽  
Shuai Chen
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Agricultural Product ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Processing Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Export Tax

PurposeThis study aims to establish the linkage among export tax rebate (ETR), firm innovation and product quality of Chinese agricultural product processing industry (APPI), so that more targeted policy implications can be discussed.Design/methodology/approachUsing highly disaggregated firm-product-destination-level data through 2001 to 2013 of Chinese APPI, this study employs a two-way fixed effects specification to establish the linkage between ETR and product quality, while the mediational model is adopted to examine potential mechanisms.FindingsBaseline estimates show that a 1% increase in ETR rate leads to a significant increase in the product quality of APPI by 0.12% on the whole. However, there is a nonlinear, inverse-U shaped relationship between ETR and product quality, and the optimal inflection point occurs when ERT rate equals 0.15. Mechanism analyses show that firm innovation is an important impact channel, which explains 9.8% of quality improvement induced by raising ETR. Further heterogeneous analyses reveal both the total effects of ETR on product quality and the mediation effects of innovation are dominated by young SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises).Practical implicationsAuthorities can promote the innovation and then product quality improvement of young SMEs by moderately increasing ETR rate. To ensure ETR more effective in improving quality, it is necessary for the government to encourage innovation. Authorities can reduce the risk of innovation failure for low-tech firms by increasing R&D subsidies, while ensuring innovation returns for high-tech firms in combination with stronger intellectual property protection.Originality/valueFirst, this is one of the earlier studies to explore the relationship between ETR and product quality specifically for Chinese APPI. Second, we show firm innovation as an important mediator so that policies aim at raising ETR rates are eventually beneficial to product quality. Third, using the highly disaggregated data, we allow ETR rate to vary across different products, which is an improvement in the accuracy of previous literature. Finally, our research provides additional empirical evidence for revealing the micro-mechanism of ETR affecting firm behaviors.

scholarly journals Business processes exceptions in relation to operational performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 908-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Dijkman ◽  
Oktay Turetken ◽  
Geoffrey Robert van IJzendoorn ◽  
Meint de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Normal Flow ◽  
Throughput Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Business process models describe the way of working in an organization. Typically, business process models distinguish between the normal flow of work and exceptions to that normal flow. However, they often present an idealized view. This means that unexpected exceptions – exceptions that are not modeled in the business process model – can also occur in practice. This has an effect on the efficiency of the organization, because information systems are not developed to handle unexpected exceptions. The purpose of this paper is to study the relation between the occurrence of exceptions and operational performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper does this by analyzing the execution logs of business processes from five organizations, classifying execution paths as normal or exceptional. Subsequently, it analyzes the differences between normal and exceptional paths. Findings The results show that exceptions are related to worse operational performance in terms of a longer throughput time and that unexpected exceptions relate to a stronger increase in throughput time than expected exceptions. Practical implications These findings lead to practical implications on policies that can be followed with respect to exceptions. Most importantly, unexpected exceptions should be avoided by incorporating them into the process – and thus transforming them into expected exceptions – as much as possible. Also, as not all exceptions lead to longer throughput times, continuous improvement should be employed to continuously monitor the occurrence of exceptions and make decisions on their desirability in the process. Originality/value While work exists on analyzing the occurrence of exceptions in business processes, especially in the context of process conformance analysis, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first work that analyzes the possible consequences of such exceptions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document