Business Process Modelling

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Business Process Modelling
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What is a process?

•  A series of actions, changes, or functions
  bringing about a result
• Process can be applied to nearly everything,
  which is not a stationary position
• Process of walking, process of digesting,
  process of travel reimbursement

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What is a business process?

• Business process is a collection of related,
  structured activities or tasks that produce a
  specific service or product (serve a particular
  goal) for a particular customer or customers.

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Types of business processes

• Management processes, the processes that govern
  the operation of a system. Typical management
  processes include "Corporate Governance" and
  "Strategic Management".
• Operational processes, processes that constitute
  the core business and create the primary value
  stream. Typical operational processes are
  Purchasing, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Sales.
• Supporting processes, which support the core
  processes. Examples include Accounting,
  Recruitment, Technical support.

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Important persons in the History of Business
Process

• Adam Smith
• Frederick W. Taylor

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Business Process Modeling

• Business Process Modeling (BPM) in systems
  engineering and software engineering is the
  activity of representing processes of an
  enterprise, so that the current ("as is") process
  may be analyzed and improved in future ("to be").
  BPM is typically performed by business analysts
  and managers who are seeking to improve process
  efficiency and quality. The process improvements
  identified by BPM may or may not require
  Information Technology involvement, although that
  is a common driver for the need to model a
  business process, by creating a process master.

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Business Process Modeling

• Business Process Modeling has always been a key
  aspect of business process reengineering (BPR)
  and continuous improvement approaches, such as
  Six Sigma. For routine business activities, BPM
  tools such as Intalio, K2 blackpearl, Axway,
  Lombardi, Holosofx, Holocentric Modeler and TIBCO
  are used in order to represent a business
  process, to run a simulation of the process and
  for communication purposes. For innovative,
  adaptive, collaborative human work the techniques
  of human interaction management are required.

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BPM methodologies

• Gantt-charts
• Flow Charts
• PERT
• IDEF
• UML

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Gantt-chart

• A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that
  illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts
  illustrate the start and finish dates of the
  terminal elements and summary elements of a
  project. Terminal elements and summary elements
  comprise the work breakdown structure of the
  project. Some Gantt charts also show the
  dependency (i.e, precedence network)
  relationships between activities. Gantt charts
  can be used to show current schedule status using
  percent-complete shadings and a vertical "TODAY"
  line.

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Gantt-chart

• Although a Gantt chart is useful and valuable for
  small projects that fit on a single sheet or
  screen, they can become quite unwieldy for
  projects with more than about 30 activities.
  Larger Gantt charts may not be suitable for most
  computer displays. A related criticism is that
  Gantt charts communicate relatively little
  information per unit area of display. That is,
  projects are often considerably more complex than
  can be communicated effectively with a Gantt
  chart.

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Gantt Chart
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FlowChart

• A flowchart is common type of chart, that
  represents an algorithm or process, showing the
  steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order
  by connecting these with arrows. Flowcharts are
  used in analyzing, designing, documenting or
  managing a process or program in various fields.

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History of the Flowchart

• The first structured method for documenting
  process flow, the "flow process chart", was
  introduced by Frank Gilbreth to members of ASME
  in 1921 as the presentation Process ChartsFirst
  Steps in Finding the One Best Way. Gilbreth's
  tools quickly found their way into industrial
  engineering curricula. In the early 1930s, an
  industrial engineer, Allan H. Mogensen began
  training business people in the use of some of
  the tools of industrial engineering at his Work
  Simplification Conferences in Lake Placid, New
  York.
• A 1944 graduate of Mogensen's class, Art
  Spinanger, took the tools back to Procter and
  Gamble where he developed their Deliberate
  Methods Change Program. Another 1944 graduate,
  Ben S. Graham, Director of Formcraft Engineering
  at Standard Register Corporation, adapted the
  flow process chart to information processing with
  his development of the multi-flow process chart
  to displays multiple documents and their
  relationships. In 1947, ASME adopted a symbol set
  derived from Gilbreth's original work as the ASME
  Standard for Process Charts.

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History of the Flowchart

• According to Herman Goldstine, he developed
  flowcharts with John von Neumann at Princeton
  University in late 1946 and early 1947.2
• Flowcharts used to be a popular means for
  describing computer algorithms. They are still
  used for this purpose modern techniques such as
  UML activity diagrams can be considered to be
  extensions of the flowchart. However, their
  popularity decreased when, in the 1970s,
  interactive computer terminals and
  third-generation programming languages became the
  common tools of the trade, since algorithms can
  be expressed much more concisely and readably as
  source code in such a language. Often,
  pseudo-code is used, which uses the common idioms
  of such languages without strictly adhering to
  the details of a particular one.

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Flowchart building blocks

• Symbols
• A typical flowchart from older Computer Science
  textbooks may have the following kinds of
  symbols
• Start and end symbols
• Represented as lozenges, ovals or rounded
  rectangles, usually containing the word "Start"
  or "End", or another phrase signaling the start
  or end of a process, such as "submit enquiry" or
  "receive product".
• Arrows
• Showing what's called Flow of control in
  computer science. An arrow coming from one symbol
  and ending at another symbol represents that
  control passes to the symbol the arrow points to.
• Processing steps
• Represented as rectangles. Examples "Add 1 to
  X" "replace identified part" "save changes" or
  similar.
• Input/Output
• Represented as a parallogram. Examples Get X
  from the user display X.
• Conditional or decision
• Represented as a diamond (rhombus). These
  typically contain a Yes/No question or True/False
  test. This symbol is unique in that it has two
  arrows coming out of it, usually from the bottom
  point and right point, one corresponding to Yes
  or True, and one corresponding to No or False.
  The arrows should always be labeled. More than
  two arrows can be used, but this is normally a
  clear indicator that a complex decision is being
  taken, in which case it may need to be
  broken-down further, or replaced with the
  "pre-defined process" symbol.

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How a flowchart looks like
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PERT

• PERT is a method to analyze the involved tasks in
  completing a given project, especially the time
  needed to complete each task, and identifying the
  minimum time needed to complete the total
  project.
• This model was invented by Booz Allen Hamilton,
  Inc. under contract to the United States
  Department of Defense's US Navy Special Projects
  Office in 1958 as part of the Polaris mobile
  submarine-launched ballistic missile project.
  This project was a direct response to the Sputnik
  crisis. Some US government contracts required
  that PERT be used as part of management
  supervision.
• PERT was developed primarily to simplify the
  planning and scheduling of large and complex
  projects. It was able to incorporate uncertainty
  by making it possible to schedule a project while
  not knowing precisely the details and durations
  of all the activities. It is more of an
  event-oriented technique rather than start- and
  completion-oriented, and is used more in RD-type
  projects where time, rather than cost, is the
  major factor.
• This project model was the first of its kind, a
  revival for scientific management, founded in
  Fordism and Taylorism. Only DuPont corporation's
  critical path method was invented at roughly the
  same time as PERT.
• The most recognizable feature of PERT is the
  "PERT Networks", a chart of interconnecting
  timelines. PERT is intended for very large-scale,
  one-time, complex, non-routine projects.

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PERT
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IDEF

• DEF (Integration DEFinition) is a family of
  modeling languages in the field of systems and
  software engineering. They cover a range of uses
  from function modeling to information,
  simulation, object-oriented analysis and design
  and knowledge acquisition. These "definition
  languages" have become standard modeling
  techniques.
• Specifically, the initial (and most-widely
  recognized) languages are IDEF0, other languages
  (which are more complex) evolved later.

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IDEF
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UML

• The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is an open
  method used to specify, visualise, construct and
  document the artifacts of an object-oriented
  software-intensive system under development.UML
  offers a standard way to write a
  system's blueprints, including conceptual
  components such as
• actors,
• business processes and
• system's components, and activities
• as well as concrete things such as
• programming language statements,
• database schemas, and
• reusable software components.

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UML
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Information Systems in Organisations

• by Szabina Csontos AWQI37

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What does Information System mean?

• In a general sense, the term information system
  (IS) refers to a system of persons, data records
  and activities that process the data and
  information in an organization, and it includes
  the organization's manual and automated
  processes.
• In a narrow sense, the term refers to the
  specific application software that is used to
  store data records in a computer system and
  automates some of the information-processing
  activities of the organization.

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Brief History of IS in Organizations
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The Main Areas of Work in IS

• IS Strategy
• IS Management
• IS Development
• Workers with specialized technical knowledge
  and strong communications skills will have the
  best prospects. People with management skills and
  an understanding of business practices and
  principles will have excellent opportunities, as
  companies are increasingly looking to technology
  to drive their revenue." - Sloan Career
  Cornerstone Center

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IS and Business Strategy

• Business strategy determines
• The products and services a firm produces
• The industries in which the firm competes
• Competitors, suppliers, and customers of the firm
• Long-term goals of the firm
• At each strategic level, the firms need to use
  IS differently.

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Porters Value Chain Model

• The value chain model looks at a business in
  terms of a set of primary and support activities
  that add value to the firms products or
  services.
• VC model can be used to determine where
  information systems can have the most impact to
  affect the competitive position of the firm
• Firm gains a competitive advantage when it
  provides the product or service with more value
  or the same value at a lower price
• Managerial decisions are needed to implement the
  IS most effectively in the VC

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IS Management

• Challenges- Some firms face big hurdles in
  implementing contemporary systems resistance to
  change.- Once an advantage is achieved, there
  are difficulties in sustaining the advantage.-
  Organizations often cannot change fast enough to
  accommodate new technologies (Kodak).
• Managers must understand what is happening in
  their industry in general and the role of
  technology in particular they should perform
  strategic system analyses on IS for example

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IS Development

• Information technology departments in larger
  organizations tend to strongly influence
  information technology development, use, and
  application in the organizations
• Examples of methods and tools in different phases
  and tasks of ISD work flow modelling tools,
  performance analyzer tools, code generators, etc.

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A Few Types of IS

• Transaction processing systems
• Management information systems
• Decision support systems
• Expert systems
• Business intelligence

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How does IS affect Organizations?

• Economic Theories
• Behavioral Theories
• Post-industrial Theories
• Increasing flexibility as evidenced by ability of
  organizations to respond to changes and take
  advantage of new opportunities
• The Internet and Organizations

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Conclusions

• Decreasing costs of IT mean higher quality IS can
  be used in all firms
• Competition hinges on the creative use of IS
• Employees who understand IS and can use it in
  creative ways have high value
• Innovation and creative use of IS is increased by
  increasing the number of IS-knowledgeable
  employees

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Competency Models

• Everyone uses competencies everyday.
• They are simply the knowledge, skills and
  abilities needed to successfully perform at work,
  in school and in everyday life.
• A competency model is useful to organize the
  competencies needed to perform in a particular
  work setting such as a job, an occupation, or an
  industry.

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• A competency model is a collection of
  competencies that together define successful
  performance in a particular work setting.
• Competency models are the foundation for
  important human resource functions such as
  recruitment and hiring, training and development,
  and performance management because they specify
  what is essential to select for or to train and
  develop.

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Elements of a competency model

• Competency models can take a variety of forms.
  Typically, they include the following elements
• Competency names and detailed definitions. For
  example, a competency model could include a
  competency called "Teamwork" defined as follows
• Establishing constructive and solid interpersonal
  relationships
• Treating others with courtesy, tact and respect
• Working effectively with others, regardless of
  organizational level, background, gender, race or
  ethnicity
• Working to resolve disagreements, attempting to
  persuade others and reach agreements
• Biding by and supporting group decisions and
• Facilitating team interaction and maintaining
  focus on group goals.

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• Descriptions of activities or behavior associated
  with each competency.
• Handling differences in work styles effectively
  when working with coworkers
• Capitalizing on strengths of others on a team to
  get work done
• Anticipating potential conflicts and addressing
  them directly and effectively
• Motivating others to contribute opinions and
  suggestions
• Demonstrating a personal commitment to group
  goals

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The diagram of the model

• A diagram of the model. Typically, the model (or
  a summary of the model) is presented as a
  visually appealing graphic. Presentation of the
  model in graphical form helps users to quickly
  grasp the key features of the model.

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Competency Model for HR Professionals

• BusinessMission Oriented
• Strategic Planner
• Systems Innovator
• Understands Team Behavior
• HR ExpertKnows HR Principles
• Customer Oriented
• Applies Business Procedures
• Manages Resources
• Uses HR Tools
• Change AgentManages Change
• Consults

• Analyzes
• Uses Coalition Skills
• Influences Others
• LeaderTakes Risks
• Decisive
• Develops Staff
• Creates Trust
• Ethical
• Advocate
• Values Diversity
• Resolves Conflict
• Communicates Well
• Respects Others

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Decision Support Systems

• BGF-KVIFK
• Business Information Technology
• Urbán Gergely

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Definition

• Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific
  class of computerized information system that
  supports business and organizational
  decision-making activities.
• A properly-designed DSS is an interactive
  software-based system intended to help decision
  makers compile useful information from raw data,
  documents, personal knowledge, and/or business
  models to identify and solve problems and make
  decisions.
• DSS applications are not single information
  resources, such as a database or a program that
  graphically represents sales figures, but the
  combination of integrated resources working
  together

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An example

• A national on-line book seller wants to begin
  selling its products internationally but first
  needs to determine if that will be a wise
  business decision. The vendor can use a DSS to
  gather information from its own resources (using
  a tool such as OLAP) to determine if the company
  has the ability or potential ability to expand
  its business and also from external resources,
  such as industry data, to determine if there is
  indeed a demand to meet. The DSS will collect and
  analyze the data and then present it in a way
  that can be interpreted by humans. Some decision
  support systems come very close to acting as
  artificial intelligence agents.

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History

• DSS evolved from two main areas of research
• the theoretical studies of organizational
  decision making done at the Carnegie Institute of
  Technology during the late 1950s and early 1960s,
  
• the technical work on interactive computer
  systems, mainly carried out at the Massachusetts
  Institute of Technology in the 1960s.
• In the middle and late 1980s, executive
  information systems (EIS), group decision support
  systems (GDSS), and (ODSS) evolved from the
  single user and model-oriented DSS.
• In 1987 Texas Instruments completed development
  of the Gate Assignment Display System (GADS) for
  United Airlines. This DSS significantly reducing
  travel delays by aiding the management of ground
  operations at various airports, beginning with
  O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

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History

• Beginning in about 1990, data warehousing and
  on-line analytical processing (OLAP) began
  broadening the realm of DSS.
• As the turn of the millennium approached, new
  Web-based analytical applications were introduced

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Taxonomies

• no universally-accepted taxonomy
• Haettenschwiler
• Passive DSS is a system that aids the process of
  decision making, but that cannot bring out
  explicit decision suggestions or solutions
• Active DSS can bring out such decision
  suggestions or solutions
• Cooperative DSS allows the decision maker (or
  its advisor) to modify, complete, or refine the
  decision suggestions provided by the system,
  before sending them back to the system for
  validation

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Taxonomies

• Daniel Power
• model-driven DSS emphasizes access to and
  manipulation of a statistical, financial,
  optimization, or simulation model. Model-driven
  DSS use data and parameters provided by users to
  assist decision makers in analyzing a situation
  they are not necessarily data-intensive. is an
  example of an open source model-driven DSS
  generator
• communication-driven DSS supports more than one
  person working on a shared task examples include
  integrated tools like Microsoft's NetMeeting or
  Groove
• data-driven DSS or data-oriented DSS emphasizes
  access to and manipulation of a time series of
  internal company data and, sometimes, external
  data
• document-driven DSS manages, retrieves, and
  manipulates unstructured information in a variety
  of electronic formats
• knowledge-driven DSS provides specialized
  problem-solving expertise stored as facts, rules,
  procedures, or in similar structures

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Applications

• Clinical decision support system for medical
  diagnosis.
• Bank loan officer verifying the credit of a loan
  applicant or an engineering firm that has bids on
  several projects and wants to know if they can be
  competitive with their costs.
• In business and management allow faster decision
  making, identification of negative trends, and
  better allocation of business resources.
• In agricultural production, marketing for
  sustainable development. For example, the DSSAT4
  package developed through financial support of
  USAID during the 80's and 90's, has allowed rapid
  assessment of several agricultural production
  systems around the world to facilitate
  decision-making at the farm and policy levels.
• A specific example concerns the Canadian National
  Railway system, which tests its equipment on a
  regular basis using a decision support system. A
  problem faced by any railroad is worn-out or
  defective rails, which can result in hundreds of
  derailments per year. Under a DSS, CN managed to
  decrease the incidence of derailments at the same
  time other companies were experiencing an
  increase.

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Benefits of DSS

• Improves personal efficiency
• Expedites problem solving
• Facilitates interpersonal communication
• Promotes learning or training
• Increases organizational control
• Generates new evidence in support of a decision
• Creates a competitive advantage over competition
• Encourages exploration and discovery on the part
  of the decision maker
• Reveals new approaches to thinking about the
  problem space