Lecture 2

Question 1

What is a business process?

Answer 1

• Sequential or parallel series of seperate functions
• Start and end point
• Processes within the corporate reality are called business processes

Question 2

How can data be collected for BP-Modeling?

Answer 2

• External events: Customer requires / Supplier delivers
• Internal Events: Predefined state or step in workflow is completed
• Periodic Events: Regularly repeated

Question 3

How can business processes be characterized?

Answer 3

• Complexity: Number of sub tasks, arrangement, dependence among sub tasks, roles involved…
• Degree of changeability: frequency of repetition without structural changes, transparency of result, susceptability to change
• Degree of detail
• Degree of division of work
• Interprocess integration

Question 4

What are process types according to Picot?

Answer 4

• Routine Process: Well defined and predictable
• Standard Process: Controllable structure and complexity, but frequent changes
• One-time “process”: Neither course of events or roles defined, manual processing, individual

Question 5

What are the aims of process modelling?

Answer 5

• Cross-functional modeling of reality
• Removal of artificial boundaries between departments
• Continuous flow of information
• Identification of unnecessary functions

Question 6

What does process analysis examine?

Answer 6

• Purpose of a function
• Function sequence
• Interfaces
• Positions that carry out function (optional)

Question 7

What are quality characteristics of business processes?

Answer 7

• Few organizational barriers
• Few breaks regarding IT and data flows
• Short process time
• No superfluous functions

Question 8

What are methods for modelling business processes?

Answer 8

• Petri nets
• EPC
• Semantical object modeling
• Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)
• UML Diagrams