BUS303: Strategic Information Technology

The planning, realization, supervision, and control of processes can supported by software. The spectrum of software support includes simple modeling tools to Workflow Systems, Document Management Systems, EAI-tools (Enterprise Application Integration), Business Rules Engine (which can automatically perform certain defined processes). The supply and demand for process technology is still growing strongly. We discuss a few tools that are mainly used for process modeling and process analysis.

Process modeling software is often similar to CASE-tools (Computer Aided Software Engineering), which were originally created for software design and software development. CASE tools provide some support for process modeling.

Workflow management describes another group of tools, which are well-suited for chain of activity modeling. The tools are frequently used to support group work and are sometimes called groupware. The tools were designed to support office automation, office communication, and office organizational systems, and their development started in the 1980s.

Tools support the systematic definition, storage and analysis of data collected during process analysis and process modelling. In large projects, they are especially useful in coping with handling volumes of data. They promote process understanding and process thinking. However, they don't automatically indicate how to improve a process, that is something for humans to undertake.

A process modeling tool needs to support different views of a process (e.g. understanding a process across functions or departments).Tools should also be able to show processes at different levels of detail and integration. The goal is to have an Enterprise or Information Model. An enterprise model supports definition of:

• functions 
• data objects, documents, and data flows 
• processes 
• organizational structures (organizational units and organizational set-up, employment structures). 
• resources and other process features (e.g. cost, resource consumption, length of a run, frequency, volume etc.), 
• process responsibility (e.g. process owner) 
• process results 
• process triggers (events) 

An enterprise model creates the possibility of a range of views of the organization to suit different purposes (e.g. strategic planning or process improvement). Most process modeling tools offer the breadth of functionality to support development of an enterprise model. The centre of a process modeling tool is a description language, which must fulfill certain requirements for it to be useful. The most important features include:

• Power of expression: A language must be capable of representing all relevant aspects of a process. It must capture all properties and relationships. 
• Formalization and degree of precision: A description language must be flexible to adapt use to a particular project's goals. If the language is not flexible enough, it loses power of expression and might be unsuitable for some modeling tasks. 
• Visualization: A modeling language should support multiple organizational views, so that all aspects of the various processes are represented. A graphical representation is very helpful, as one loses the general idea very easily with a plain text description of a system. The ability to change the level of detail in a process model is also useful. One should be able to fade out irrelevant facts for a closer inspection of the fine detail of a process or summarize different processes to gain a high level perspective of a process. 
• Development support: A process modeling tool, ideally, should also support software development as software is often written to automate processes. 
• Analysis and validation: In most cases process modeling enables analysis of internal processes and to represent different feasible process structures and sequences. The modeling language must support precise representation of existing and proposed processes and validation for the testing of redesigned processes. 
• Performance simulation: An analysis of organizational processes often identifies possible improvements in the structure and working of processes. To ensure that the potential changes result in process improvement, it is necessary to test them before implementation. Process simulation is a way of testing a change before making a costly commitment to an organizational process change. Implementation without testing or simulation can have costly consequences if the new process is flawed. 

The usefulness of a modeling tool is also determined by other factors beyond the capability to meet the preceding requirements. A tool must also be easy to use and support the interaction of the team working on the project.

Process models must be constantly updated to reflect organizational change if they are to remain of value. Only the employees that carry out a process, will know if the process has changed or its requirements modified. Ideally, model maintenance is undertaken by employees and not of the modeling specialists. Consequently, process modeling tools should be readily used by employees. Of course, they might need some appropriate training, but this should not be extensive because they are likely to be infrequent users of the tool.