A distributed business process is executed in a distributed computing environment. The service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm is a popular option for the integration of software services and execution of distributed business processes. Entailment constraints, such as mutual exclusion and binding constraints, are important means to control process execution. Mutually exclusive tasks result from the division of powerful rights and responsibilities to prevent fraud and abuse. In contrast, binding constraints define that a subject who performed one task must also perform the corresponding bound task(s). (authors' abstract)

Business Process Management (BPM) is often adopted by organizations as a method to increase awareness and knowledge of their business processes. Business process modeling is used as a method to represent business processes in form of business process models. The number of organizations adopting BPM is quickly increasing. By this means, so is the number of business process models as result of a BPM initiative. Within a single organization the number of business process models often ranges from hundreds to even thousands. In order to handle such large amount of business process models, organizations structure them by the help of a process architecture. It includes a process map, which is considered as the top-most view of the process architecture where the organization's business processes and the relations between them are visually and abstractly depicted. The details of each business process shown on the process map are stored in the lower levels of the corresponding process architecture. The purpose of a process map is to provide an overview of how an organization operates as a whole without necessarily going into the process details. Therefore, the design of a process map is vital not only for the understanding of the company's processes, but also for the subsequent detailed process modeling. This is primarily because, a process map is often the result of the process identification phase of the BPM lifecycle, and is used as a foundation for the subsequent phases, where the detailed process modeling and process improvement takes place. Despite their importance, the design of process maps is still more art than science, essentially because there is no standardized modeling language available for process map design. As a result, we are faced with a high heterogeneity of process map designs from practice, although they all serve a similar purpose. This has accordingly been our main motivation for pursuing the research presented in this thesis. The research question for this thesis is the following: How to effectively model processes on an abstract level? In this thesis, we document the development of a language for designing process maps. In particular, we provide the following contributions. First, we present a holistic reference BPM framework. It is a consolidation of procedural frameworks introduced by prominent BPM researchers. The framework includes eleven BPM elements, each holding activities organizations need to consider when adopting BPM. Second, we provide a method for assessing cognitive effectiveness of process maps used in practice. For this, we follow the nine principles for cognitively effective visual notations introduced by Moody cite{moody2012physics}. In addition, we employ the cognitive fit theory to check whether the design of process maps has an effect on the BPM success in the respective organization. Second, we conduct a systematic literature review on the quality of modeling languages and models. We use the quality requirements we found as basis for developing the language for designing process maps. Third, we define the abstract syntax, semantics, and concrete syntax of the language for process maps. We follow an explorative method, hence we rely on empirical data for the language development. Accordingly, we reuse symbols in our language which have already been used in practice as part of process maps. We follow this approach in order to ensure the language will consist of elements already familiar to organizations. We evaluate the language by means of an experiment, in which we assess the effectiveness and efficiency of process maps designed using elements from our language against process maps that have not been designed using our language. Last, this thesis provides a method for testing the suitability of existing languages for specific purposes. (author's abstract)

無 / Global investment in process-management technology has vastly increased for the purpose of integrating both external and internal processes with aligned resources to adapt to the changing environment of the service-based economy. The management of business processes in the service-based economy requires dynamic capabilities in order to continuously integrate knowledge, coordinate activities, learn from experience, and reinvent services to acquire and retain customers. A growing pattern within the characteristics of path dependency has been observed in the development of process management capabilities, which evolved from awareness to optimization. This paper reports the findings of a study of the development of process-management capabilities in six companies across two different industries. By tracking the growth of its process-management capabilities, three points are made: (1) organizations develop their business process-management capabilities through five stages, which are awareness, repetition, standardization, management, and optimization; (2) each maturity level is characterized by different business focuses, process designs, knowledge management, measurement methods, and management attitudes; and (3) the development path is characterized by ups and downs and is influenced by both external and internal changes.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the design of operational processes in information-intensive service delivery systems. Empirical data is presented which builds upon existing literature within the Business Process Management (BPM) and Service Operations Management (SOM) disciplines. Adopting a theory building mode, the thesis concludes with the formulation of several research propositions which specify the design characteristics of the processes that provide the service concept to the customer. The research addresses a number of gaps in the literature. First, there is little empirical evidence concerning the relationship between the service concept, customer inputs, and process design. Second, service classification schemes promote homogeneous thinking in the design of service systems delivering diverse service concepts. Third, the BPM literature provides generic process design principles which offer limited theoretical insights into the design requirements of operational processes. Finally, there is a need for process design research in information-intensive service organisations. A research framework that integrates theoretical models addressing service process design is investigated using a single case study approach. Fieldwork was carried out over a sixteen-month period in a large electricity supplier in the UK. In contrast to the macro-orientation found within the literature, this study employs a more granular level of analysis to address the unique requirements of ‘service concept – processes’ pairs. This approach results in a number of important findings which, in several instances, are in contradiction to current thinking. First, the results empirically validate the theoretical relationship between service concept, customer inputs, and process design. Different service concepts lead to different process designs, and the more customised the service concept, the more the process is uniquely designed. Significant differences in the design of the individual processes that collectively provide the service concept to the customer are highlighted. The results also provide some new insights into the design of front office – back office activities as well as into the design characteristics of processes characterised by low customer contact. In addition, the study refutes the view that generic process design principles are universally applicable irrespective of the context in which the processes operate. Finally, the research findings show that a process-based view of service systems allows for heterogeneity; that is differences in the design of service delivery processes within the same organisation.

Ingeniero Civil en Computación / Hoy en día, el levantamiento de procesos de negocio es un mecanismo ampliamente difundido y utilizado para el entendimiento de reglas, problemáticas y características de empresas y su negocio. Hoy en día se identifican numerosos problemas asociados al levantamiento de procesos, muchos de los cuales tienen su origen en que el conocimiento sobre los procesos no esta formalizado y/o esta repartido entre diversos actores. Para enfrentar esto se existen varias técnicas que involucran el trabajo en terreno y la colaboración de varios participantes a la vez. El trabajo de esta memoria fue la construcción de una herramienta que apoye dichas técnicas, facilitando el trabajo del levantamiento y modelado en terreno y en forma colaborativa. Fue así como se construyó MOBIZ, aplicación que permite el trabajo concurrente de varios actores en el modelamiento de procesos a través de dispositivos móviles. Al ser construida HTML5, puede ser accedida desde casi cualquier dispositivo moderno común navegador, móvil o no. Entrega una interfaz diferenciada para equipos móviles y de escritorio, y gracias la creación del framework COUPLINGSERVER, se pudo abstraer completamente la aplicación misma de la comunicación con otros usuarios.

<p>U doktorskoj disertaciji su predstavljeni modeli za unapređenje<br />organizacione strukture i upravljanja poslovnim procesima i<br />upravljanje performansom poslovnih procesa. U prvom modelu su<br />razvijeni postupci analize, modelovanja, ocenjivanja i vrednovanja<br />postupaka unapređenja struktura i poslovnih procesa, a u drugom<br />modelu su postavljene faze planiranja, merenja i vizuelizacije<br />performansi poslovnih procesa. Primenjeni su savremeni softveri<br />za upravljanje procesima i njihovim performansama. Mogućnost<br />praktične primene razvijenih modela istražena je u dve studije<br />slučaja realnog idustrijskog uslužnog preduzeća.</p> / <p>In his doctoral dissertation, presented models for improving organizational<br />structures and business process management and performance<br />management business processes. In the first model developed methods of<br />analysis, modeling, assessment and evaluation procedures to improve the<br />structure and business processes, and in the second model are set phases<br />of planning, performance measurement and visualization of business<br />processes. Were applied modern software management processes and their<br />performance. A possible application of the developed model was investigated<br />in two case studies of real industrial service enterprise.</p>

O gerenciamento de processos de negócios (Business Process Management - BPM) é uma abordagem de gestão cada vez mais utilizada pelas organizações para a operacionalização da estratégia devido a sua capacidade de geração de benefícios; contudo, há crescentes e elevados os índices de insucesso as iniciativas de promoção de BPM. Isso vem ocorrendo principalmente porque BPM vem tendo foco nos processos de negócios internos e não tem conseguido se ajustar com rapidez e flexibilidade para lidar com a dinâmica do ambiente de negócios. A agilidade é um elemento que ajuda a lidar com esses aspecto; tal como aconteceu com a manufatura e com o gerenciamento de projetos (que evoluíram para manufatura ágil e gerenciamento ágil de projetos, respectivamente) BPM vem tendo elevada demanda por agilidade, e um BPM Ágil se apresenta como uma evolução de BPM com elevado poder de contribuição para o tema. BPM Ágil traz o cliente para atuar de maneira ativa no processo e impõe uma flexibilidade para interação da operação com a dinâmica ambiental de maneira mais assertiva. Um gerenciamento é realizado por meio de Práticas (conjunto formado por técnicas, ferramentas e ações), de maneira que o presente estudo tem como principal objetivo propor Práticas para a promoção da BPM Ágil nas organizações. Para o alcance de novas iniciativas empíricas e avanços na teoria, este estudo se propõe a construir um novo conceito de BPM Ágil, uma nova definição e estabelecer as suas práticas. É fundamental que os processos de negócios alcancem seus objetivos produzindo respostas com rapidez e flexibilidade para mudanças, de modo que BPM Ágil deve aumentar a exploração e o aproveitamento de oportunidades. A proposição de Práticas para o BPM Ágil presente nesta tese é uma contribuição inicial que deve ajudar a desbravar um novo campo de estudos por meio de uma abordagem científica. Para tanto, foram utilizadas 7 abordagens metodológicas distintas para a elaboração deste estudo: revisão sistemática de literatura, análise indutiva, consulta a especialistas, análise de juízes, survey, painel de especialistas e mais dois estudos de caso. Como principal resultado tem-se 78 Práticas, sendo 23 técnicas, 13 ferramentas e 42 ações para a promoção do BPM Ágil / Business Process Management (BPM) is a management approach increasingly used by organizations to operationalize the strategy because of their ability to generate benefits; however, there are increasing and high failure rates for BPM promotion initiatives. This has been mainly because BPM has been focusing on internal business processes and has not been able to adjust quickly and flexibly to deal with the dynamics of the business environment. Agility is an element that helps deal with these aspects; as occurred with manufacturing and project management (which evolved to agile manufacturing and agile project management, respectively). BPM has been in high demand for agility, and an Agile BPM is an evolution of BPM with a high power of contribution for the theme. Agile BPM brings the client to act in an active way in the process and imposes a flexibility to interact the operation with the environmental dynamics more assertively. A management is carried out through Practices (a group formed by techniques, tools and actions), so that the main purpose of this study is to propose Practices for the promotion of Agile BPM in organizations. For the achievement of new empirical initiatives and advances in theory, this study proposes to build a new concept of Agile BPM, a new definition and establish its practices. It is critical that business processes reach their goals by producing responses with speed and flexibility for change, so that Agile BPM must increase exploration and se\'ize opportunities. The proposal of Practices for Agile BPM in this thesis is an initial contribution that should help to open up a new field of studies through a scientific approach. In order to do so, 7 different methodological approaches were used for the elaboration of this study: systematic literature review, inductive analysis, expert consultation, judges analysis, survey, panel of experts and two other case studies. As a main result there are 78 Practices, being 23 techniques, 13 tools and 42 actions for the promotion of Agile BPM

The current business environment is rapidly and fundamentally changing. The main driver are digital technologies. Companies face the pressure to exploit those technologies to improve their business processes in order to achieve competitive advantage. In the light of increased complexity of business processes and the existence of corporate Big Data stored in information systems, the discipline of process mining has emerged. Investigate how process mining can support the optimization of business processes. In this qualitative study, an illustrative case study research is utilized involving eight research participants. Hereby, data is primarily collected from semi-structured interviews. The data is analyzed using content analysis. In addition, the illustrative case serves the purpose to demonstrate the application of process mining. The research revealed that process mining has important impacts on current business process improvement. Not all of them were explicitly positive. The derived success factors should support vendors, current and potential users to apply process mining safe and successfully.

A realização de diagnóstico de processo auxilia a compreensão dos fatores internos e externos que influenciam o Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP) e de suas características, como capacidade técnica da equipe, forma como as atividades são organizadas, recursos disponíveis, exigências dos clientes ou poder de barganha com os fornecedores. No entanto nas últimas décadas não foi vista uma atenção especial aos métodos e ferramentas de diagnósticos voltados ao PDP. Analisando diagnósticos reais do PDP de empresas que utilizaram o método da árvore da realidade atual foi levantada a possibilidade de existir um conjunto significativo de problemas comum a todos os diagnósticos do PDP que poderiam servir de referência para diagnósticos futuros. O objetivo, portanto, desse trabalho é propor um método de diagnóstico que utiliza problemas recorrentes para aumentar a eficiência e eficácia do diagnóstico do PDP e apoiar a identificação de oportunidades de melhoria. O método proposto, denominado de Diagile, aprimorou o método de construção de árvore da realidade atual e é composto de melhores práticas de gestão de projetos e identificação e priorização de oportunidades de melhoria. Para apoiar a execução do método foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta de automação de diagnóstico (FAD) e uma planilha eletrônica para priorizar projetos de melhoria. As principais entregas da aplicação do Diagile são uma árvore da realidade atual e um portfólio de projetos de melhoria customizado por empresa. Para avaliar o método proposto foram executados um experimento controlado e dois estudos de casos. De acordo com os resultados do experimento, primeiramente, foi confirmado que a utilização do Diagile aumentou a eficiência da realização de diagnóstico comparado com a realização de um diagnóstico aplicando o método tradicional da árvore da realidade atual. Após as realizações dos estudos de caso, que serviram para avaliar o método, foi visto que as empresas ficaram satisfeitas com os resultados obtidos com o diagnóstico, relatando a boa qualidade das árvores e a pertinência dos projetos de melhoria sugeridos. Conclui-se que o objetivo desse trabalho foi atingido, demonstrando o aumento da eficiência e eficácia do diagnóstico utilizando o método proposto. / The execution of process diagnostic assists the comprehension of internal and external factors that influence the product developing process (NPD) and its characteristics such as team technical capacity, way that the activity are organized, available resources, client requirements or suppliers negotiation power. In the last decades, any special attention it was given to the diagnostic methods and tools focused to NPD process. The analysis of real NPD diagnosis cases from enterprises that used the reality tree method suggested the possibility that it may found a significant group of problems that are common to all NPD diagnostic that can be used as reference for future diagnosis. The objective of this work is to propose a diagnostic method based on the use of recurrent problems to increase the efficiency and efficacy of the NPD diagnosis and assist the identification of improvements opportunities. The proposed method, called Diagile, is based on the construction of the current reality tree and is composed of project management best practices prioritizing improvements opportunities. To support the application of the proposed method a computational diagnostic tool and an electronic spread sheet has been developed to prioritize project improvements. The main deliverables of the application of Diagile are a current reality tree and a customized portfolio of improvements project of the company. To evaluate the proposed method a controlled experiment and two cases studies was performed. According to the experiment results, it was first possible to confirm that the use of Diagile increased the efficiency of the diagnostic execution when compared with the performance of the diagnosis using the traditional current reality tree method. After the execution of the two case studies, that was used to evaluate the proposed method, if has been confirmed that the companies where satisfied with the obtained diagnostic results, reporting the good quality of the tree and the importance of the suggested improvement projects. With this it has been concluded that the objective of this work was complete, and that the proposed method and tools increase the efficiency and efficacy of the NPD diagnosis.

The use of design process models is of great importance for developing better products. Indeed, it is one of the factors that may differentiate the best companies from the rest. However, their adoption in companies is declining. Usefulness and usability issues may be responsible for process models not to meet the needs of its users. The goal of this research is to provide deeper understanding of the users needs of design process models. Three main perspectives are provided: (1) why organizations use process models, (2) who are the users of process models, and (3) how the context of use of process models is. The research methodology adopted was the Design Research Methodology (DRM). Three stages were performed: (i) Research Clarification, (ii) Descriptive Study I, and (iii) Prescriptive Study. In the first stage, an initial literature review was carried out to collect evidences of why researching process models and their users needs is relevant for the design theory. During the second stage (Descriptive Study I), literature was reviewed to identify the purposes of use of design process models and its potential users; a focusgroup section with 24 subject matter experts was carried out to evaluate these purposes and identify process model users; and, lastly, a case study was perfomed to investigate the context of use of design process models in one organization and to portray the profile of the core users. Finally, the third stage (Prescriptive Study) aimed to uncover directions for organizations develop user-centered design process models. Four main results were achieved through this research. The first result is a deep understanding of three types of application of the design process models: (a) develop the design activity, (b) manage the design project, and (c) improve the design process. The purposes for these aplications were investigated and their level of importance were revealed. In addition, it was mapped the core users of process models for the three applications. The second result is the definition of the context of use of the models.Three dimensions of the context were depicted: the product, the design process, and the organizational structure. The third result is the set of users profiles. Empathy Maps were elaborated to represent the profiles of product engineers, project managers, and technical leaders. The last result consists in recommendations regarding the content provided to users and the process models system design. Finally, industrial practitioners will benefit from this research once it was provided evidences that the activity development application type is not properly considered in organization and that important users needs are not getting proper attention in the current models. Therefore, they will be able to make use of the recommendations outlined here. / O uso de modelos de processo de design é de grande importância no desenvolvimento de novos produtos. De fato, isto é um dos fatores que pode diferenciar as melhores empresas das outras. De qualquer modo, a adoção dos modelos nas empresas esta declinando. Problemas em utilidade e usabilidade podem ser responsáveis pelos modelos não satisfazerem as necessidades de seus usuários. Nesta pesquisa, busca-se entender as necessidades dos usuários dos modelos de processo de design. Três perspectivas são dadas: (1) porquê organizações usam modelos de processo, (2) quem são os usuários dos modelos de processo e (3) como é o contexto de uso de modelos de processo. A metodologia de pesquisa adotada foi a Metodologia de Pesquisa em Design (DRM). Três estágios foram realizados: (i) Clarificação de Pesquisa, (ii) Estudo Descritivo I, e (iii) Estudo Prescritivo. No primeiro estágio, uma revisão inicial da literatura foi executada para coletar evidências do porquê estudar modelos de processo e as necessidades de seus usuários é relevante para a teoria de design. No segundo estágio (Estudo Descritivo I), revisão da literatura ajudou a identificar os propósitos de uso de modelos de processo de design e os seus potenciais usuários; uma seção de focus group com 24 especialistas no assunto foi executado para avaliar estes propósitos e identificar usuários dos modelos de processo; e, por fim, um estudo de caso foi realizado para investigar o contesto de uso dos modelos em uma organização e para retratar o perfil dos usuários principais. Finalmente, o terceiro estágio (Estudo Prescritivo) buscou revelar direções para que as organizações desenvolvam modelos de processo de design centrados em seus usuários. Quatro principais resultados foram alcançados por meio desta pesquisa. O primeiro resultado é um entendimento profundo dos três tipos de aplicação dos modelos de processo: (a) desenvolver atividade de design, (b) gerenciar o projeto de design, e (c) melhorar o processo de design. O propósito destas três aplicações foram investigadas e os níveis de importância evidenciados. Além disso, os usuários centrais dos modelos de processo foram mapeados. O segundo resultado é a definição do contexto de uso dos modelos. Três dimensões do contexto foram retratados: o produto, o processo de design, e a estrutura organizacional. O terceiro resultado é o conjunto de perfis dos usuários. Mapas de Empatia foram elaborados para representar os perfis de engenheiros de produto, gerentes de projeto, e líderes técnicos. O último resultado consiste em recomendações feitas a respeito do conteúdo fornecido aos usuários e o sistema a ser desenvolvido. Finalmente, profissionais da indústria podem beneficiar desta pesquisa uma vez que evidências são fornecidas de que a aplicação de desenvolvimento das atividades não é adequadamente considerada em organizações e que necessidades importantes dos usuários não recebem atenção satisfatória nos modelos atuais. Sendo assim, eles serão capazes de fazer uso das recomendações aqui feitas.