Hoorcollege 6 Flashcards
Business processes
Besides strategy and structure, organizations need business processes in order to:
- Determining the tasks that need to be done. Organizations need to classify everything into manageable sub-tasks.
- Assigning tasks to units (people/teams/departments).
- Arranging those units into a decision-making framework.
This is what we call an organization.
Business processes in organizations
Organizations need
processes to be ordered. There are many processes in an organization. All the processes can be classified in hierarchic
order. From important processes to very detailed processes.
For example, on top is the management process because this is very important.
This is relevant because it lets us analyze processes in an organization and
gives us the possibility to optimize these processes.
A business process can
be defined as:
- A set of activities from start to finish,
- Including the flow, decisions, & loops of these activities,
- That creates a concrete deliverable output unit (e.g., a customer or
other department within organization).
Process management
Traditionally process management is seen as more fixed & structured, with need to set up processes once with little change, except for redesign/restructuring. Most of the time, there is not a continuous change
in the business processes.
- Waterfall (traditional) method of development
- Structured methodologies, such as:
o BPR (Business Process Engineering)
o Prince 2 (project manages)
o Six sigma (quality control)
Now oftentimes, the process management is more flexible. Teams work on smaller processes that may change frequently. The fact that process management is more flexible is called agile development. Agile development does not work in traditional ways. Flexible methodologies are used, such as:
- Rapid prototyping
- Scrum
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
BPR is a way to redesign business processes to improve their performance and efficiency. You want to make processes in an organization better. Organizations do this in order to get a significant change in the organization. Organizations become more organized around the processes they do instead of a departmental/compartmentalized focus.
The key here is performance and efficiency. Usually Information Technology (IT) is the enabler to make the processes more efficient.
BPR is built upon older methods of process management:
- Taylorism: ‘Scientific management’: focus on efficiency of production.
- TQM (Total Quality Management): precursor of BPR, continuous improvement of service.
- Kaizen (change for better): continuously work toward efficiency throughout organization.
Why would you need BPR?
It is a helpful methodology to look at how organizations work. It
allows you to:
- Identify and document existing processes.
- Identify inefficiencies.
- Create models of improved processes.
- Capture and enforce business rules for performing, automating processes.
- Integrate existing systems to support process improvements.
- Verify that new processes have improved.
- Measure impact of process changes on key business performance indicators.
BPR Methodology
There are several methodologies for BPR. Most of them are licensed by consultancy agencies. All the methodologies focus on analyzing & improving existing processes:
- Preparation (consensus to change)
- Process think (which processes & why)
- Creation (identifying processes)
- Technical design (reengineering)
- Social design (people)
- Implementation (take away resistance)
All BPR methodologies apply modeling techniques to (re-)design processes
Modeling of BPR
All BPR methodologies apply modeling techniques to (re-)design processes.
This is also called an activity diagram. Every box is an activity. All models are built up the same:
- Activities (boxes)
- Flows (arrows)
- Decisions (diamond with question)
- Loop
- Start & finish
Systems Design
Systems design is BPR using in the context of IT. In systems design, people are thinking about how to use IT in order to optimize the business processes.
Mostly, this is done by:
- Analyzing & improving a process
- Analyzing the role of information in that process
- Improving the information flows using IT.
Hierarchy of process design
There is a hierarchy of process design. Information flow modeling provides a high-level overview of processes in organizations. This is usually less detailed than
process modeling. It is done by identify key flows of information in the organization.
Information flow modeling
An information flow provides a high-level overview of processes in organizations.
- This is usually less detailed than process modeling.
- This identifies key flows of information in the organization.
With an information flow you can see the information that flows through different units.
Information flow modeling allows to determine whether:
- Units receive necessary information (so no information missing of too much
information).
- The information is correct in terms of accuracy, speed & timeliness, sufficiency, and
cost.
- The improvements that can be made through IT or in other ways.
An information flow diagram contains…
An information flow diagram contains:
- Sources and destinations
- Connections
- Specification of information
Symbols that are used are →:
Circle = Source / Destination
-> and <- = Information flows (labeled)
What can you do after looking at the information flow diagram?
After looking at the information flow diagram:
- You can advise on new IT to be put into place.
- IT systems can support and improve the information flow.
- Units are connected through correct information.
- Defines the boundaries of a system
- Used to define who needs access to which
Information system - And who needs to access what information
Information flow diagram can be used to…
- Create a system design
- Create a database
Data flow diagram
-Defines the processes of a system
-Which information goes in and out and where it is stored
-Used to document information requirements
of a system
-Process: converts data into information or
other data
-Datastore: data that is transferred or stored
-Data always flow from process to datastore or external source, never from process to process or store to store
Modeling types
-Information flow modeling
-Process modeling (UML)
* Activity Diagrams (flow, sequence)
-Data modeling
* Data types (Integer, String),
* Entity-Relationship diagrams
