Workflow/Business Process Management Introduction business process management and workflow management Wil van der Aalst Eindhoven University of Technology Faculty of Technology Management Department of Information Systems P.O. Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands w.m.p.v.d.aalst@tm.tue.nl

Overview of this course Business Process Management process mining Relation with BPR (Re)design of workflows Resource management Logistical aspects Analysis of workflows Staffware Patterns Protos Concepts Guidelines FLOWer Workflow management systems Simulation Techniques for business process modelling Interorganizational workflow Adaptive workflow With or without WFMS Workflow management

Relevant WWW sites http://www.workflowcourse.com http://www.workflowpatterns.com http://www.processmining.org http://is.tm.tue.nl/ http://is.tm.tue.nl/staff/wvdaalst http://www.wfmc.org http://www.aiim.org http://www.waria.com http://www.workflow-research.de http://www.sigpam.org http://www.pallas-athena.com/ http://www.staffware.com http://is.tm.tue.nl/research/woflan/ http://www.exspect.com http://www.ids-scheer.com

WARNING It is not sufficient to understand the workflow models WARNING It is not sufficient to understand the workflow models. You have to be able to design them yourself !

WARNING Start early with the assignment and tools: You really need the time !!

Context - role of models and trends -

Focus on models

Some trends in Information Systems From programming to assembling From data orientation to process orientation From design to redesign and organic growth operating system generic applications domain specific applications tailor-made applications

Before BPM: WFM - workflow management -

Workflow management Goal To manage the flow of work such that the work is done at the right time by the proper person. Definitions A workflow management system (WFMS) is a software package that can be used to support the definition, management and execution of workflow processes. A workflow system (WFS) is a system based on a WFMS that supports a specific set of business processes through the execution of computerized process definitions

Relevance of workflow management systems Trend: OS DBMS appl. WFMS UIMS 1965-1975 1975-1985 1985-1995 1995-2005 Processes: are becoming more important (BPR) are subject to frequent changes are becoming more complex are increasing in number Þ Workflow Management System

The basic idea: processes resources applications WFMS separation of processes, resources and applications focus on the logistics of work processes, not on the contents of individual tasks

BPM: The next step - business process management -

Business Process Management (BPM) “True Business Process Management is an amalgam of traditional workflow and the 'new' BPM technology. It then follows that as BPM is a natural extension of – and not a separate technology to – Workflow, BPM is in fact the merging of process technology covering 3 process categories: interactions between (i) people-to-people; (ii) systems-to-systems and (iii) systems-to-people – all from a process-centric perspective. This is what true BPM is all about.” Jon Pyke, CTO Staffware. “…a blending of process management/workflow with application integration.” David McCoy, Gartner Group

Alternative view on BPM: The BPM life-cycle

1993

1998

2003

2008 ???

BPR, CPI, Office logistics - relationships to other domains -

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) (Business Process Redesign) Hammer and Champy: "Reengineering the corporation" (1993) Keywords: fundamental radical dramatic process The "organize before automate"-principle is replaced by "process thinking".

Processes and the organization

Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Instead of of seeking a radical breakthrough, optimizing the process by continuous, incremental improvements. Part of the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach ("doing it right the first time", "eliminate waste", ...) high low impact frequency BPR CPI chaos stagnation change time BPR and CPI are both process centric and can be supported by a WFMS.

Differences between information logistics and production logistics Making a copy is easy and cheap. There are no real limitations with respect to the in-process inventory. There are less requirements with respect to the order in which activities are executed. Quality is difficult to measure. Quality of end-products may vary. Transportation of electronic data is timeless. Production to stock is seldom possible. Loops or rework occurs frequently in administrative processes, but are very seldom or even impossible in production processes. The customer (can) influence(s) the handling in an administrative process. The difference between design and control is fading!

History and CSCW - the WFM/BPM market -

CSCW spectrum

Refined view (without datbase applications)

Trade-offs

P2P = Person To A2P = Application To Person A2A = Application To human oriented system groupware workflow transaction processing P2P = Person To A2P = Application To Person A2A = Application To

Focus on "classical" workflow management systems, but ... Four types of "workflow-like" systems: Information systems with hard-coded workflows (process& organization specific). Custom-made information systems with generic workflow support (organization specific). Generic software with embedded workflow functionality (e.g., the workflow components of ERP, CRM, PDM, etc. systems). Generic software focusing on workflow functionality (e.g., Staffware, MQSeries Workflow, FLOWer, COSA, Oracle BPEL, Filenet, etc.).