School of IT seminar slot (compulsory if scheduled)

School of IT seminar slot (compulsory if scheduled)

Speaker: Ross Veitch Presentation Title: Increasing the level of complete process model reuse in a process modelling repository Abstract: Business Process Modelling has become a common activity in organisations. However, as the number of process models increases, the number of duplicated models also increases because the same process is often carried out in different parts of the organisation. As a result, the level of process model reuse has been found to be surprisingly low, and this leads to wasted effort modelling processes which already exist. Given this situation, the motivation for this study was to develop a modelling method which increased the level of reuse of process models in a repository. We named this modelling method EPReS (Enterprise Process Reuse System). This study specifically focussed on improving factors which impacted increased process model reuse. Incorporated in this study is also the first method to objectively measure the Level of Reuse of process models in a repository. Finally, this study describes the system dynamics that are setup within an organisation when process models are not reused. A pragmatic research paradigm was adopted to answer the research questions. Using a Design Science Research strategy, EPReS was designed and tested in a real-world setting in a large South African financial services organisation. A mixed-methods approach was used, consisting of semi-structured interviews conducted with Process Modellers and a quantitative analysis of the process repository. EPReS incorporates reuse concepts from the software development domain. This study makes three contributions to knowledge. Firstly, this study develops a new modelling method which increases the level of reuse of process models in a process repository. Secondly, the study develops a measure which can be used to determine the level of process model reuse in a process repository. Finally, it explains the consequences for the organisation, using system dynamics, of not reusing process models, and illustrates how vicious cycles are established, which result in continually increasing costs. This study has made practical contributions as it also offers the vendors of process modelling tools opportunities to further enhance their products by incorporating elements of EPReS to facilitate the increased reuse of complete process models by users. This study has limitations. This research project was carried out in a single organisation and data collection from semi-structured interviews was limited to those Process Modellers who were using the new modelling method. It is possible that other Process Modellers could identify additional factors impacting the consequences of not reusing complete process models. Also, the new modelling method designed is dependent on the underlying architecture of the modelling tool in use and therefore, this method will not be suitable for every available process modelling tool. Future studies may improve the method further or better quantify the consequences of not reusing process models. Bio: Ross has been involved in business process management and process improvement for over 25 years. He graduated as a chemical engineer in 1986, worked for Anglo American in the gold mining industry, then worked for a process control consultancy where he was involved in designing, testing and implementing control systems in various industries (mining, brewing, iron & steel). In 1995 he took a leap of faith and took up a position at Nedbank improving and automating processes. In 2005 Ross left Nedbank to do freelance consulting work during which he has worked at Telkom, Engen, Government Pension Administration Agency, BCX and again at Nedbank. He has also done software development in Pascal, C++, Visual Basic and Java. He currently contracts to Discovery Bank Being an engineer, his interest is in “how things work” and common patterns and principles across apparently unrelated issues / processes. He believes that the identification of such patterns and synthesizing a design which accommodates different scenarios lies at the heart of effective software and process automation. A fundamental activity in process automation is the modeling of business processes using a modeling tool. It became apparent that organisations are prepared to spend vast amounts of money modeling processes and are prepared to model the same process over and over again. It makes sense that processes which have been previously modelled should be reused in future projects to reduce costs and save time. Particularly, Ross is interested in maximizing the value process engineers through process modeling in large organizations. All (most) large organization model their business processes, and yet, tacitly, many involved will admit that they do not believe that they are adding the value that has been promised.

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