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Open Source Business Process Management for Handling Processes in the Public Sector

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Open Source Business Process Management for Handling Processes in the Public Sector Open source Business Process Management for handling processes in the public sector MIKAELA NÖTEBERG Master’s Thesis at CSC Supervisor: Joel Brynielsson Examiner: Jens Lagergren TRITA xxx yyyy-nn Abstract Business processes are part of every organization, in more or less structured ways. They serve as a documentation of how work should be performed. Business Process Management (BPM) is a set of methods and technologies to support the modeling, execution, administration, and analysis of busi- ness processes. BPM aims to bridge the gap between strat- egy and operations in an organization. Inefficient manual processes in this gap introduce problems with consistency, traceability and agility. This degree project investigates the suitability of open source Business Process Manage- ment Systems (BPMSs) for handling processes in govern- ment agencies to address these issues. The Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board’s (EKN’s) application process for export guarantee offers is used as case. Interviews were conducted and a proof of concept using open source BPM for EKN’s application process was implemented, which to- gether with the literature review are analyzed to find key factors indicating a process’ successful execution in a pro- cess engine. The key factors found are that the process should be delimited, repetitive, not running for too long, and be predictable with regard to every possible outcome. Referat Open source Business Process Management för handläggningsprocesser inom offentlig verksamhet Alla organisationer har processer, i mer eller mindre struk- turerade former. Processer fungerar som en dokumentation över hur arbete ska genomföras. Business Process Mana- gement (BPM) är en uppsättning metoder och tekniker för att stödja modellering, exekvering, administrering och analys av processer. BPM är ett sätt att försöka minska klyftan mellan organisationen och verksamheten i en orga- nisation. Ineffektiva manuella processer däremellan skapar problem med hur konsekvent, spårbart och flexibelt arbe- tet blir. Detta examensarbete undersöker lämplighetsgra- den av open source Business Process Management System (BPMS) för handläggningsprocesser inom myndigheter för att hantera dessa problem. Exportkreditnämndens (EKN:s) ansökningsprocess för exportgaranti-offerter används som exempel. Intervjuer genomfördes och en proof of concept av open source BPM för EKN:s ansökningsprocess imple- menterades, vilket tillsammans med litteraturstudien ana- lyseras för att hitta viktiga faktorer för en process som in- dikerar framgångsrik exekvering i en processmotor. De fak- torer som hittats är att processen ska vara avgränsad och repetitiv, samt att processen inte får pågå under för lång tid och är känd avseende alla möjliga utfall. Contents 1 Introduction1 1.1 Background................................ 1 1.2 Purpose.................................. 1 1.3 Business processes ............................ 2 1.3.1 Process modeling......................... 2 1.3.2 Business Process Model and Notation............. 2 1.4 Business Process Management...................... 2 1.4.1 Lifecycle.............................. 3 1.4.2 Stakeholders ........................... 4 2 Theory5 2.1 Basic business process patterns in BPMN............... 5 2.1.1 BPMN definitions ........................ 6 2.1.2 BPMN modeling......................... 9 2.2 Business Process Management Systems................. 9 2.2.1 Brief history of BPMSs ..................... 10 2.2.2 BPMS components........................ 10 2.2.3 Open source BPMSs....................... 11 2.3 Why BPM?................................ 12 3 Methodology 15 3.1 Research design.............................. 15 3.2 Interviews................................. 16 3.3 Proof of concept ............................. 16 3.3.1 Context.............................. 17 3.3.2 Modeling in BPMN ....................... 17 3.3.3 Implementing an executable process .............. 17 3.3.4 Validation............................. 18 4 Results 19 4.1 Interviews................................. 19 4.1.1 Respondent A........................... 19 4.1.2 Respondent B........................... 20 4.1.3 Respondent C........................... 21 4.2 Proof of concept ............................. 22 5 Discussion 23 5.1 Business Process Management...................... 23 5.1.1 Predictability........................... 23 5.1.2 BPMSs over traditional system development ......... 24 5.1.3 To implement and use...................... 24 5.1.4 User acceptance ......................... 26 5.1.5 Open source............................ 26 5.2 Government agencies........................... 27 6 Conclusions 29 6.1 Key factors ................................ 29 6.2 Future work................................ 30 Bibliography 31 Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter is an introduction to this degree project. Section 1.1 presents the background, Section 1.2 presents the purpose and research questions, Section 1.3 introduces business processes, and Section 1.4 introduces Business Process Manage- ment. 1.1 Background There is often a gap between strategy (business: the what) and operations (IT, resources: the how) of an organization. Inefficient manual processes in this gap leads to problems with consistency, traceability and agility: work could get overlooked or duplicated, it is difficult to tell the whereabouts or status of an errand, and distributing or forwarding work between resources takes both time and effort. 1.2 Purpose Government agencies, e.g., the Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board (Export- kreditnämnden, EKN), often have business process models to document the way their organization works. The thesis objective is to investigate how open source Business Process Management (BPM) would suit handling processes in the public sector to address the issues mentioned above. The case used is EKN’s application process for export guarantee offers. Research questions • What are the strengths of using BPM for handling processes in the public sector? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an open source Busi- ness Process Management System (BPMS) compared to using a commercial BPMS? • What are the key factors indicating whether the execution in a BPMS is the appropriate solution for a given process? 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.3 Business processes Processes are part of every organization, every business, in more or less structured ways. A business process can be defined as a set of activities or tasks that given one or more inputs creates value for a defined customer [4]. A customer in this context could be both internal or external, and value could be anything from reaching a business goal to manufacturing a physical product. The identification and structure of these business processes is a key to taking ad- vantage of possible improvements, such as effectiveness (time), efficiency (cost), and quality (e.g., error rates) to ensure consistent outcomes. Davenport and Short[6] emphasize the improvement potentials of examining an entire process rather than each activity or task separately, which is the cornerstone of BPM. 1.3.1 Process modeling Business process modeling can be defined as the process of creating representations, i.e., models, of a business process with the intention to improve it [8]. A more general way of putting it is that process models are documentations of how an organization actually works [7]. There are many approaches, in the form of methods and techniques, to business process modeling; activity diagrams, use case diagrams, event-driven process chains, Petri nets, etc. [1, 27]. However, in the context of BPM, one widely adopted stan- dard for high-level representation of business processes is the Object Management Group (OMG) standard BPMN [5, 20], see the following section. 1.3.2 Business Process Model and Notation Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical and executable nota- tion standard for business processes. BPMN is designed to be used as a common language for all business users, from analysts to system engineers, i.e., in both business process design and implementation. The current version, BPMN 2.0, was released in January 2011 [20]. 1.4 Business Process Management Business Process Management (BPM) is a set of methods, approaches, techniques, and technologies to support the design, execution, automation, administration and analysis of business processes. BPM is an interdisciplinary field combining principles from – but not limited to – operations management, quality management, workflow management, industrial engineering and software engineering, to support the stages of a business process [7]. It is an area of interest for both business managers, industrial engineers, and system engineers because of the diversity it provides. Business managers and industrial engineers’ interest in BPM lies in the ability to optimize and improve organizational 2 1.4. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT performance, whilst it allows system engineers to implement and monitor systems in conjunction with the organizational view of the business managers. 1.4.1 Lifecycle The BPM lifecycle is an iterative process including the following phases: design, modeling, implementation, monitoring, and optimization (see Figure 1.1). The it- erations are preceded by identification of a relevant business process, i.e., a delimited process, including any related sub-processes, which is a candidate for execution. To be able to measure the performance of an implemented process it is important to define performance metrics or key performance indicators
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