UNIT 5 MODELING OF PROCESSES Flashcards
What is an Organizational Structure in modeling and what are its goals?
The organizational plan forms the organizational structure of a company. In most cases, this structure is hierarchical and defines the framework for processing tasks. In other words, it determines which tasks will be performed by who; in which division, department, or team they will be performed; and which resources will be used. This information will be characterized by role descriptions.
The goals of the organizational structure are a division of labor and an order of the operational action processes by creating and distributing tasks. In a hierarchy, management structures and authority to issue directives are formed, making it possible to assign tasks and responsibilities. In the organizational structure there are several forms of organization. Some examples include the single- and multi-line systems and the matrix organization.
Describe the single-line system Organizational Structure.
In the single-line system, the authority to issue directives is 1:n,
meaning that each hierarchy level, except for the top level, has exactly one higher level and n levels below. The upper level is authorized to issue instructions to and make decisions for the subordinate levels. The subordinate levels have the right to make suggestions to their superordinate level; each employee can make suggestions to change and improve the level above them. A line from top to bottom is called a chain of command, which shows four hierarchy levels. If two team leads want to
work together, the involvement of the higher-level department head(s) is mandatory.
The advantages of the single-line system lie in the clear authority to issue instructions and assign positions within the hierarchy. This leads to explicit authority and areas of responsibility. Conversely, there are long information paths, since communication between equal management levels takes place exclusively via the higher level, which can lead to excessive demands on higher-level positions. Overloading superiors is likely since they must make every decision and cannot delegate the decision-making authority.
Describe the multi-line system in Organizational Structures and the matrix organization.
The multi-line system is structured in the same way as the single-line system, with the difference that superiors of equal rank also have authority to issue directives across teams. The principle is based on the fact that supervisors are subject-matter experts and can therefore be consulted by employees. For organizations that handle many projects, the line organization is not advantageous; they need flexibility in assembling project teams from different lines. In a matrix organization, employees are arranged in a matrix.
In a matrix organization, staff can keep the affiliation to their team or department, and the leader of the unit takes the lead in personnel matters. For a project, employees from different teams are assembled based on whether they
have the required skills. A team lead or project manager then takes over the technical leadership along the dotted line. Consequently, employees in a matrix organization may have at least two leaders to report to, which could be regarded as a disadvantage for some employees. The advantages include:
* better sharing of equipment, facilities, machinery, and human resources.
* greater availability of experts.
* improved information flow in the project and company.
* faster decision-making processes.
* enhanced motivation and working morale.
* better development of self-management skills (employees working autonomously despite reporting to more than one lead).
* increased exchange of information across departments as specialists continue to work in the company for other projects.
* increased production and innovation due to the inclusion of functional specialists.
What is the Process Organization in modeling?
The process organization depends on the organizational plan. The process organization documents the design of the organizational structure’s work processes by linking individ-
ual work steps using the resources (jobs, departments, roles, instances, and tasks) of the organizational structure. The focus is on goal-related human action and the provision of work processes with material resources and information. The goals of the process organization are to:
* maximize the utilization of the service production,
* keep lead times as short as possible,
* minimize waiting times to keep the costs of service production as low as possible, and
* improve the quality of processing and working conditions.
The process organization is defined by business processes, the elements of which will not be explained.
What is a Business Process and what are some of its typical elements?
A general definition of a business process is “a goal-oriented, chronological sequence of tasks that can be performed by several organizations or organizational units using ICT
(information and communications technology)”. A BP uses the
specified process objectives to create services. In a business process, a series of activities is organized in a specific sequence with the aid of IT into several organizational units (job, role, department, division, and organization).
In each component, there is a graphical model, called a shape, which is linked to other shapes by their edges. These are known as sequence flows. Depending on the context in which they are drawn, they can mean “belongs to,” “executes,” or “is
responsible for,”. Even though the edges usually look the same, their different meanings can be managed in a professional tool for business process modeling (BPM).
Some typical elements are: Process, Activity, Business object, Status, Event, Role, User, Business rules and Organizational unit.
What is the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)?
The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a notation for modeling business processes, which is managed and developed by the Object Management Group (OMG). With the BPMN, the OMG provides a modeling standard that defines graphical notation elements and their interaction. The understanding of process models can be enhanced by thinking of the process as a computer program in which a “token” is routed from one step to the next, depending on
the progress of the activities being performed or the conditions given in the logical links.
What are Gateways and what types exist in BPMN?
Gateways initiate or terminate branches (splitting or joining gateways) in the sequence flow of a diagram. In other words, gateways route the token at the input port(s) to one or more output ports. They also create new tokens or destroy surplus tokens during the merging of information flows.
The marking of the gateway determines its meaning. As with the operations of the logic or logic functions of a programming language, we distinguish between exclusive, inclusive, and parallel gateways. Additionally, “event-based gateways” are a hybrid of gateways and events.
Exclusive OR (XOR): the flow can be only enabled to one output port.
Inclusive OR (OR): the flow is enabled to one or more output ports if the condition is fulfilled. As a joining gateway, it can be used to join flows without conditions.
AND: the flow is forwarded only if there are tokens at all input ports. As a splitting gateway, new tokens for all output ports are generated, and the flow goes to all output ports.
Event-based: the flow will only continue if one or more triggers from events reach this gateway.
What are the basic elements of BPMN?
- Activity: Tasks that are executed in the process and are atomic (cannot be further decomposed in a meaningful way). Activities should be formulated in the active tense and named according to the pattern [object] + [verb]. If the subject is not clear, then the subject must also be added.
- Sub-process: They clarify business processes and can be refined by another BPMN diagram. The representation with a “+” hides the internal flow in the sub-process. They are formulated in active tense and named according to the [object] + [verb] pattern.
- Event: Something that influences and happens in the course of a process. They have causes (triggers) and effects (results). Events can have different shapes and colours referring to what kind of event they are and if they were successful or not. An event is described according to the pattern [object] and passive [verb].
- Business object: They are used or created for the execution of activities. They can represent individual objects or entire collections. Data objects are instantiated and destroyed by the process that encloses them. They have no persistence beyond the process if they are not stored in the database. A message is a special business object and gets its own shape.
- Pools: They are the participants and responsible parties of a process. They can be organizations, persons, roles, or systems. Pools are also commonly used as black boxes. Each pool identifies a sub-process and therefore requires a start and an end event. Pools are used to model the change of responsibility in a business process.
- Lanes: They assign responsibilities for tasks to task owners and is always located within a specific pool. Tasks owners can be namde persons, roles and applications. Lanes can be nested arbitrarily to represent a refinement of responsibilities. A flow object (activity or event) may only be positioned in one lane.
- Annotations: They allow further details, comments, or notes, and can be attached to each flow object.
Which are the possible connection types in BPMN?
The three connection types of BPMN are sequence flow, message flow, and association.
The sequence flow specifies the order of activities and can cross lane boundaries, but not pool boundaries. A message flow can connect activities or events in different pools where communication is via messages. Association links data objects and annotations to flow objects.
What are Event-Driven Process Chains (EPC) and how does it differ from BPMN?
Event-driven process chains (EPC), also known as Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS), are widely used in German-speaking countries. The EPC is used to model operational processes. Extended event-driven process chains (eEPC) increase the expressive power of the EPC through additional notation elements.
An event is something that happens in the course of a process and affects the flow. Events usually have a cause (trigger) and effect (result). However, it is passive and does not make any decisions. This means that events consume neither resources nor time. Every business process has at least one start and one end event. Several start events occur in sub-processes. The event shape is also used as a status shape, which, for example, after a splitting gateway, indicates for what condition the attached path can be treated. This makes an EPC drawing less compact than BPMN. The same is true for a trigger to start a sub-process. EPC uses the construct of a process interface to link to other processes. The difference in eEPCs is that activities can be decorated with additional shapes bearing the following information:
* Who (what person or role) is executing or has participated, e.g., following the responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) model? If EPCs are not modeled in swim lanes where at least the responsible person or role is mentioned, then this additional shape located above the activity shape is obligatory.
* Which information technology (IT) system is involved in this activity, or which document is read (connection from object to activity) or written (connection from activity to object)?
Which are the basic elements of EPC models?
- Event/Status: an event is something that happens in the course of a process and effects the flow. Events usually have a cause (trigger) and effects (results). However, it is passive and does not make any decisions. This means that events consume neither resources nor time. Every business process has at least one start and one end event. Several start events can occur. The same shape can be used to document the status or result of an activity, which can be used as the basis of a decision in a gateway afterwards.
- Activity/Function: They are activities that are executed in the process and are atomic (they cannot be decomposed in a meaningful way). Activities should be formulated in the active tense and named according to the pattern [object] + [verb]. If the subject is not clear, then the subject must also be added.
- Control flow: after the trigger event, one or more activities linked by edges follow. A rule in EPC modeling says that, after a group of activities, another status shape should follow in order to document the result of the activities. Strict rules for flow control in EPC are as follows: all shapes in a model are connected (no breaks between shapes in a process), all of the shapes have only one input and one output connector, splitting or merging is realized exclusively via gateways.
What are connectors and connections in EPC?
EPC does not use event-based gateways, but their functionality can be replaced by on-board resources. These connectors initiate branches (splits) or terminate them (joins). A connector is either a split or a join, but never both at the same time. Connectors are the only symbols that branch or join control flows. Events and functions never have more than one input and one output. AND connectors enclose sub-processes that are executed simultaneously or independently. OR connectors enclose alternative paths, where multiple alternatives can be executed simultaneously. EXCLUSIVE-OR connectors enclose alternatives, and only one may be executed at a time.
Connections between individual shapes are usually arrows that indicate the process flow or the flow of documents as input and output for activities.
What are some shapes available for Extended Event-based Process Chains (eEPC)?
- Role/Person/Organizational Unit: with these shapes the modeler can specify who is executing an activity to which one or more of these shapes are linked.
- Process interface: individual processes can be “called” like subroutines in software at different places in the overall model. The beginning and end of the sub-process get a process interface with an individual name, so the insertion of an interface is realized by another named interface. To obey the rule that there must be no interruptions in the flow of a process, constructions become necessary for such calls. AND gateways are used to synchronize and OR gateways model concurrent processes.
- Artifacts: in order to describe where an inpupt is coming from, or where an output is going, activity shapes can be extended using these shapes.
- Systems: in order to document which IT system is involved in a process, the system shape can be attached to an activity.
What are some advantages for beginners of using EPC?
The EPC method offers fewer shapes for models than BPMN. For this reason, EPC is easier to understand for beginners if the modeler follows the rules of this methodology. For beginners, the benefit of switching between activity and state is sometimes difficult to understand, and mistakes are often made in the modeling of the logic, i.e., the use of the connectors (gateways) in BPMN. Nevertheless, following the rules is important in order to make the processes understandable for the reader. The modeler is supported in adhering to the rules if they use a tool that checks the syntax and draws attention to errors or ambiguities.
