Over the past decade, the ubiquity of business processes and their need for ongoing management in the same manner as other corporate assets has been recognized through the establishment of a dedicated research area: Business Process Management (or BPM). There are a wide range of potential software technologies on which a BPM o®ering can be founded. Although there is signi¯cant variation between these alternatives, they all share one common factor { their execution occurs on the basis of a business process model { and consequently, this ¯eld of technologies can be termed Process-Aware Information Systems (or PAIS). This thesis develops a conceptual foundation for PAIS based on the results of a detailed examination of contemporary o®erings including work°ow and case han- dling systems, business process modelling languages and web service composition languages. This foundation is based on 126 patterns that identify recurrent core constructs in the control-°ow, data and resource perspectives of PAIS. These patterns have been used to evaluate some of the leading systems and business process modelling languages. It also proposes a generic graphical language for de¯ning exception handling strategies that span these perspectives. On the basis of these insights, a comprehensive reference language { newYAWL { is developed for business process modelling and enactment. This language is formally de¯ned and an abstract syntax and operational semantics are provided for it. An assessment of its capabilities is provided through a comprehensive patterns-based analysis which allows direct comparison of its functionality with other PAIS. newYAWL serves as a reference language and many of the ideas embodied within it are also applicable to existing languages and systems. The ultimate goal of both the patterns and newYAWL is to improve the support and applicability of PAIS.

Para permitir um efetivo gerenciamento de processos de negócio, o primeiro passo é o desenvolvimento de modelos de processo adequados aos objetivos das organizações. Tais modelos são utilizados para descreverem papéis e responsabilidades dos colaboradores nas organizações. Além disso, a modelagem de processos é de grande importância para documentar, entender e automatizar processos. As organizações, geralmente provêm documentos não estruturados e de difícil entendimento por parte dos analistas. Neste panorama, a modelagem de processos se torna demorada e de alto custo, podendo gerar modelos de processo que estão em desacordo com a realidade prevista pelas organizações. A extração de modelos ou fragmentos de processo a partir de descrições textuais pode contribuir para minimizar o esforço necessário à modelagem de processos. Neste contexto, esta dissertação propõe uma abordagem para identificar elementos de processo de negócio em texto em linguagem natural de forma semiautomática. Baseado no estudo de processamento de linguagem natural, foi definido um conjunto de regras de mapeamento para identificar elementos de processo em descrição textual Além disso, para avaliar as regras de mapeamento e viabilizar a abordagem proposta, foi desenvolvido um protótipo capaz de identificar elementos de processo em texto de forma semiautomática. Para medir o desempenho do protótipo proposto, foram utilizadas métricas de recuperação de informação, tais como precisão, revocação e medida-F. Além disso, foram aplicados dois questionários com o objetivo de verificar a aceitação perante os usuários. As avaliações apresentam resultados promissores. A análise de 70 textos, apresentou, em média, 73,61% de precisão, 70,15% de revocação e 71,82% de medida-F. Além disso, os resultados do primeiro e segundo questionários apresentaram, em média, 91,66% de aceitação dos participantes. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é propor regras de mapeamento para identificar elementos de processo em texto em linguagem natural para auxiliar e minimizar o tempo necessário à modelagem de processos realizada pelos analistas de processo. / To enable effective business process management, the first step is the design of appropriate process models to the organization’s objectives. These models are used to describe roles and responsibilities of the employees in an organizations. In addition, business process modeling is very important to report, understand and automate processes. However, the documentation existent in organizations about such processes is mostly unstructured and difficult to be understood by analysts. In this context, process modeling becomes highly time consuming and expensive, generating process models that do not comply with the reality of the organizations. The extracting of process models from textual descriptions may contribute to minimize the effort required in process modeling. In this context, this dissertation proposes a semi-automatic approach to identify process elements in natural language text. Based on the study of natural language processing, it was defined a set of mapping rules to identify process elements in text. In addition, in order to evaluate the mapping rules and to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, a prototype was developed able to identify process elements in text in a semiautomatic way To measure the performance of the proposed prototype metrics were used to retrieve information such as precision, recall, and F-measure. In addition, two surveys were developed with the purpose of verifying the acceptance of the users. The evaluations present promising results. The analyses of 70 texts presented, on average, 73.61% precision, 70.15% recall and 71.82% F-measure. In addition, the results of the first and second surveys presented on average 91.66% acceptance of the participants. The main contribution of this work is to provide mapping rules for identify process elements in natural language text to support and minimize the time required for process modeling performed by process analysts.

Para permitir um efetivo gerenciamento de processos de negócio, o primeiro passo é o desenvolvimento de modelos de processo adequados aos objetivos das organizações. Tais modelos são utilizados para descreverem papéis e responsabilidades dos colaboradores nas organizações. Além disso, a modelagem de processos é de grande importância para documentar, entender e automatizar processos. As organizações, geralmente provêm documentos não estruturados e de difícil entendimento por parte dos analistas. Neste panorama, a modelagem de processos se torna demorada e de alto custo, podendo gerar modelos de processo que estão em desacordo com a realidade prevista pelas organizações. A extração de modelos ou fragmentos de processo a partir de descrições textuais pode contribuir para minimizar o esforço necessário à modelagem de processos. Neste contexto, esta dissertação propõe uma abordagem para identificar elementos de processo de negócio em texto em linguagem natural de forma semiautomática. Baseado no estudo de processamento de linguagem natural, foi definido um conjunto de regras de mapeamento para identificar elementos de processo em descrição textual Além disso, para avaliar as regras de mapeamento e viabilizar a abordagem proposta, foi desenvolvido um protótipo capaz de identificar elementos de processo em texto de forma semiautomática. Para medir o desempenho do protótipo proposto, foram utilizadas métricas de recuperação de informação, tais como precisão, revocação e medida-F. Além disso, foram aplicados dois questionários com o objetivo de verificar a aceitação perante os usuários. As avaliações apresentam resultados promissores. A análise de 70 textos, apresentou, em média, 73,61% de precisão, 70,15% de revocação e 71,82% de medida-F. Além disso, os resultados do primeiro e segundo questionários apresentaram, em média, 91,66% de aceitação dos participantes. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é propor regras de mapeamento para identificar elementos de processo em texto em linguagem natural para auxiliar e minimizar o tempo necessário à modelagem de processos realizada pelos analistas de processo. / To enable effective business process management, the first step is the design of appropriate process models to the organization’s objectives. These models are used to describe roles and responsibilities of the employees in an organizations. In addition, business process modeling is very important to report, understand and automate processes. However, the documentation existent in organizations about such processes is mostly unstructured and difficult to be understood by analysts. In this context, process modeling becomes highly time consuming and expensive, generating process models that do not comply with the reality of the organizations. The extracting of process models from textual descriptions may contribute to minimize the effort required in process modeling. In this context, this dissertation proposes a semi-automatic approach to identify process elements in natural language text. Based on the study of natural language processing, it was defined a set of mapping rules to identify process elements in text. In addition, in order to evaluate the mapping rules and to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, a prototype was developed able to identify process elements in text in a semiautomatic way To measure the performance of the proposed prototype metrics were used to retrieve information such as precision, recall, and F-measure. In addition, two surveys were developed with the purpose of verifying the acceptance of the users. The evaluations present promising results. The analyses of 70 texts presented, on average, 73.61% precision, 70.15% recall and 71.82% F-measure. In addition, the results of the first and second surveys presented on average 91.66% acceptance of the participants. The main contribution of this work is to provide mapping rules for identify process elements in natural language text to support and minimize the time required for process modeling performed by process analysts.

I dagens konkurrensutsatta marknad är det en nödvändighet för organisationer att kontinuerligt effektivisera sina affärsprocesser med avgörande betydelse för tillväxt. Eftersom dessa processer är essentiella byggstenar för en organisations framgång har systemstöd avseende processmanagement blivit en viktig faktor i strävan efter att uppfylla organisationens mål och förbättra sin konkurrenskraft. Med detta i åtanke är det intressant att studera i vilken grad workflowsystem kan bidra till att förbättra organisationers affärsprocesser. Mot bakgrund av dessa snabbskiftande marknadsförutsättningar kommer studien behandla processrelaterade systemstöd med syftet att undersöka situationen för samtidens workflowbaserade optimeringar och utröna framtida visioner gällande automatisk processmanagement. Undersökningen har utförts genom en kvalitativ kund- och marknadsanalys avseende IT-företaget Medius AB där intervjuer, deltagande observationer och dokumentstudier legat till grund för en abduktiv analys. Företaget är en leverantör av processrelaterat IT-stöd och den övergripande affärsidén är att med hjälp av system förenkla och automatisera organisationers skilda processer. Studien visar bland annat att leverantörserbjudanden och definitioner gällande processmanagement skiljer sig åt globalt och nationellt och att det i dagens konkurrensutsatta marknad är svårt att motivera processer utöver sådana som genererar en direkt organisationsnytta. Vidare framkommer trender inom processmanagementområdet, bland annat Case Management, Business Process Management och outsourcing av organisationsprocesser. Studien visar också att den framtida workflowmarknaden förutspås innehålla produkter som stödjer hela organisationer involverandes partner, leverantörer och kunder och inte endast interna processer. / In today's competitive market it is a necessity for organizations to continuously improve their business processes which are critical to growth. Since these processes are essential for organizational success it has become important to support them via information systems in order to meet organizational goals and to improve competitiveness. Thus it is interesting to study to what extent workflow systems can help improve organizations' business processes. In light of these rapidly changing market conditions, this study will examine process-related system support with the aim to investigate the situation of today's workflow-based optimizations, and explore future visions regarding automatic process management. The study was conducted through a qualitative customer and market analysis for the IT company Medius AB, where interviews, participant observations and document studies formed the basis of an abductive analysis. The company is a supplier of process-related IT support and its overall business concept is to offer systems to simplify and automate organizations' separate processes. The result of this study shows, for example, that the definitions and offerings from the vendors differ globally and nationally, and that it is difficult in today's competitive market to justify processes other than those that generate direct organizational benefits. Furthermore, different trends in the field of business process management have been identified, a few examples being Case Management, Business Process Management and outsourcing of organizational processes. The study also shows that the future workflow market is predicted to contain products that support the entire organization and not only specific processes, including partners, suppliers and customers.

The area of business process management in general and and especially business process design has only recently discovered potential applications of social software to facilitate and support collaboration [Scheer and Klueckmann, 2009]. This development is also fueled by the practical insight that organizations have experienced top-down approaches in the design and implementation of business processes to be not effective. In fact, many process management initiatives failed due to a lack of acceptance of chosen methods and tools. As a consequence in many organizations so called [Klückmann and Scheer, 2009] "Guerilla approaches" have been followed where individual organizational units introduced their own business process management philosophy and as well techniques and tools that fit their specific needs. However, Klückmann and Scheer [2009] stress the fact that although distributed business process management initiatives should generally not be hindered, it is important to channel and integrate these initiatives towards a more consistent and efficient process management in the large. Business process modeling in this context serves several purposes in the process management cycle. One purpose is the analysis of business processes to uncover potential performance weaknesses and provide a basis for improvements. Another purpose is the unambiguous documentation of business processes as a resource for knowledge transfer, organizational learning and governance. An increasingly important purpose is the use of process models to support the design and engineering of respective enterprise information systems [Davies et al., 2006]. Hence, the complex and abstract nature of process models and the closedness of process modeling environments has prevented them to be broadly accepted and used by non-experts [Nolte et al., 2011] viz the process community in a wider sense. Consequently, process documentation and models in organizations frequently is outdated, incomplete and inconsistent. This model-reality divide in turn leads to even more reluctance towards the adoption of process modeling environments and use of process models. Bridging this model-reality divide by fostering open and fluent col- laboration through adequate features inspired by social software has gained growing attention by academia and industry [Mathiesen et al., 2012]. Although both industry and academia have addressed the need for collaboration support in process modeling only limited insight exists regarding the specific requirements for software-support in collaborative process modeling. This work refers to existing research (e.g. [Mendling et al., 2012; Riemer et al., 2011]) on requirements for software-support in collaborative process modeling and wiki-based process modeling (e.g. [Ghidini et al., 2010; Dengler and Vrandecic, 2011]). and pursues the following goals: (1) gain an understanding of the nature and requirements of collaborative process modeling in practice, (2) investigate how these requirements can be addressed through the design of a wiki-based collaborative process modeling environment, and (3) gain insight how a wiki-based collaborative process modeling environment supports process design activities in practice. To address these goals a design science approach has been followed. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative expert interviews a preliminary understanding of the problem domain and specification of requirements has been achieved. Through the extension and adaption of a well-proven collaboration platform (a wiki engine) for process modeling support several of the previously identified design issues have been addressed. In particular, issues regarding the flexible integration of a visual process modeling interface component into a collaboration environment and issues regarding concurrent scenarios in process modeling have been discussed in detail and realized partly on a technical level. Two major software components have been developed for the support of collaborative process modeling. First, a light-weight and easily integratable user-interface component for process model creation has been developed and integrated into the collaboration environment (a wiki engine). Second, the identification and handling of concurrent situations when multiple modelers access and modify a process model page has been implemented on an element level which allows for the interactive resolution and semi-automatic merging of conflicting revisions of a process model. Case-studies in an industrial and an academic setting provided valuable insights in the practice of collaborative process modeling and gave feedback on the applicability of a wiki-based approach. The first case-study of a process re-design in the recruiting department of an office supply manufacturing company in Hungary describes the insights gained during a long-term collaboration within a small group. Findings were especially valuable for further enhancements of the software and an understanding of practical requirements in iterative model creation and validation. The second case-study in the context of two bachelor and master courses in information system design has lead to insights regarding the requirements in highly dynamic collaboration scenarios in small groups and large groups but as well regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of wiki-based process modeling in collaborative learning processes. (author's abstract)

The thesis focuses on the creation of functional requirements for an information system based on process analysis of an organization. In the theoretical part introduces the reader to the basic concepts related to business processes, their modeling and relationship with the company information system. Then, two approaches to analysing the functioning of the organization are presented, namely the approach of consultancy company Logio and the MMABP methodology. The practical part describes a real project of process analysis and creation of functional requirements for IS of a trading company. The MMABP approach is then applied to the same company. In conclusion, suitability of both approaches is evaluated and observed differences between them are identified.

Context: Organizations strive to improve their business processes, and adaptive business processes have recently attracted much attention in that context. However, much research in that area has a narrow focus and does not consider a comprehensive view of the organization and its goals. In addition, Business Intelligence-based monitoring methods are useful for business process improvement but they often present information in a format that is not entirely suited for decision making. Objectives: The main objectives of this thesis are to provide: • A framework to model goals, processes, performance, situations, and improvement patterns using one modeling notation, in an iterative and incremental manner; • A method for the modeling and analysis of cause-effect relationships between indicators used to measure goal satisfaction; and • A technique allowing the detection of undesirable, sub-optimal conditions and the application of improvement patterns to the context Method: We develop an iterative framework based on the User Requirements Notation (URN) for modeling, monitoring and improving business organizations and their business processes. In addition, we introduce a formula-based evaluation algorithm allowing better analysis of the relationships between the business performance model elements (namely indicators). Furthermore, we use a profiled version of the Aspect-oriented URN (AoURN) with extensions (Business Process Pattern profile), for detecting undesirable conditions and for business process adaptation. We validate the novelty and feasibility of our approach by performing a systematic literature review, by assessing it against Zellner’ mandatory elements of a method, by developing tool support, by performing a pilot experiment and by using real-life examples from different sectors (healthcare and retail). Results: The two examples show that through the framework’s iterative approach, organizations at different levels of maturity in their business improvement journey can benefit from the framework. Furthermore, our systematic literature review shows that although there are existing works that enable our vision, most of them have a narrow focus and do not cover the three organization views that are of interest in this research. AoURN allows analysts to find repeated patterns in a context and bundle goal, performance and process models as a self-contained unit. AoURN hence enables the modeling of complex circumstances together with analysis techniques for what-if analysis and process adaptation, all using a unified and integrated modeling language. Finally, the pilot experiment suggests that, with some level of documentation and training, users who are already familiar with URN can use the profiled AoURN provided in this thesis as well as the discussed improvement patterns.

The master thesis deals with business process optimization which has to be in a place due to a global implementation of a new logistic information system. The aim is to ensure a process analysis of a current status of selected processes of a company part which is going to be influenced by this implementation. Then to highlight and to stress on the biggest risks and disadvantages of a current status. Final result will be a proposal of new optimized process flows on a higher level of maturity which will meet all requirements set by a new information system, by an information need of a local management and will be helpful to customer service improvement. The first part of the thesis covers theoretical base of a business process management, process modeling and business process optimization approaches which prepare a base for their application in the second practical part of this thesis.

The thesis is mainly driven by the modelling of business processes focusing on process optimization namely processes related to Investment Banking. The main goal of the thesis is driven by the EPC process modelling for optimization the key Investment process in a particular company APS HOLDING SE. The theoretical part contains processes descriptions optimizations and process modelling standards. The practical part is devoted to design and optimize of the process related to Debt Assets Investment Banking under the EPC modelling standards. Each part of the Investment process is described below the model. Reader can feel more comfortable by using the glossary of terms attached in appendix. Focus on higher efficiency of the Investment management process will be the key goal for the company management in 2016.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-07-27T12:57:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertacao_FabioFerreira_Digital.pdf: 2972458 bytes, checksum: f0d2fa1803fb21110efdc841f63933b1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-27T12:57:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertacao_FabioFerreira_Digital.pdf: 2972458 bytes, checksum: f0d2fa1803fb21110efdc841f63933b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-01 / Na busca por agilidade, economia e qualidade em seus processos, um número crescente de empresas tem adotado técnicas de Gerenciamento de Processos de Negócios (do original em inglês: Business Process Management - BPM), já que esta permite que a organização torne seus processos mais eficientes, com maior precisão, rapidez, flexibilidade e qualidade. No entanto, mesmo gerenciados, os processos podem enfrentar riscos que podem causar forte impacto sobre os objetivos da organização se estes riscos não forem gerenciados de forma apropriada. Como o gerenciamento de riscos demanda recursos e a execução de várias atividades (entrevistas, análises, reuniões etc.) que também são demandados pelo BPM, a integração destes dois campos tem sido tema de pesquisa frequente nos últimos anos. Um problema com os trabalhos existentes, no entanto, é que as atividades de gerenciamento de riscos propostas são aplicadas apenas a algumas fases do ciclo de vida BPM. Esta dissertação teve como objetivo construir e avaliar uma metodologia para realizar o gerenciamento de riscos em processos de negócios de forma integrada com o ciclo de vida BPM. A metodologia, chamada R-BPM, é composta por um conjunto de fases e uma ferramenta de apoio. Ela é inspirada na estrutura de gerenciamento de riscos do COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) e foi construída através da abordagem de Design Science Research, que envolve um ciclo iterativo de construção e avaliação. Para avaliar a metodologia e a ferramenta de software construída para apoiá-la, foi realizado um estudo de caso em uma organização pública. Os artefatos foram avaliados através de grupos focais e surveys com especialistas da organização. Os resultados mostraram que a metodologia R-BPM, além de permitir que as atividades relacionadas à gestão de riscos sejam executadas em conjunto com o ciclo de vida BPM, permite também compartilhar a responsabilidade pelos riscos e fornecer melhores condições para os analistas e donos dos processos avaliá-los. Como a metodologia foi utilizada para resolver um problema do mundo real na organização estudada, esta pesquisa também contribuiu para a disseminação de conhecimento acadêmico para o mercado. / In search for agility, economy and quality in their processes, an increasing number of companies have adopted techniques of Business Process Management (BPM), as this allows the organization make its processes more efficient with greater precision, speed, flexibility and quality. However, even when managed, processes may face risks that can cause strong impact on the organization's goals if these risks are not managed appropriately. As risk management requires resources and the execution of many activities (interviews, analysis, meetings and so on) which are also demanded by BPM, the integration of these two fields has been a research theme frequent in recent years. A problem with existing works, however, is that the risk management activities proposed are applied only to some phases of the BPM lifecycle. This work aimed to construct and evaluate a methodology to manage risks of business processes integrated with the BPM lifecycle. The methodology, called R-BPM, is composed of a set of phases and a supporting tool. It is inspired by the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) risk management structure and was built by Design Science Research strategy, which involves an iterative cycle of construction and evaluation. To evaluate the methodology and the software tool built to support it, we conducted a case study in a public organization. The artifacts were assessed through focus groups and surveys with the organization's experts. The results showed that the R-BPM allows the activities related to risk management can now be implemented together with the BPM lifecycle, as well as shares responsibility for the risks and provides better conditions for process owners evaluate them. As the methodology was used to solve a real-world problem in the organization studied, this research also contributed to the dissemination of academic knowledge to market.