1. 1 Business Process and Workflow Management Dickson K.W. Chiu PhD, SMIEEE, SMACM These notes are based on the book (Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee. Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems. The MIT Press, paperback edition, 2004), its associated presentation slides, and also Dr. Franklin Leung’s slides. Thanks to Dr Reynold Cheng.

2. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-2 Lecture Objectives Workflow management overview Why is workflow important to business? Workflow system architecture Workflow and Groupware: how can they help KM?

3. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-3 What is Workflow? In 1996, the Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC) published a glossary of all useful terms related to workflow. It defines workflow as: The automation of a business process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action (activities), according to a set of procedural rules. A participant may be person or an automated process (computer system) local or in a separate remote organization.

4. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-4 Workflow management Goal To manage the flow of work such that the work is done at the right time by the proper person => Knowledge => especially procedural knowledge 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

5. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-5 Workflow Management By supporting integration of existing applications, workflow systems ensure global integration of people and programs in the framework of a business process. During business processing reengineering exercise, business processes are analyzed and streamlined.

6. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-6 Relevance of workflow management systems Trend : Organization processes: are becoming more important (BPR) are subject to frequent changes are becoming more complex are increasing in number Workflow Management System  OS DBMS appl. DBMS WFMS appl. UIMS 1965- 1975 1975- 1985 1985- 1995 1995- 2005

7. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-7 The basic idea: separation of processes, resources and applications focus on the logistics of work processes, not on the contents of individual tasks => procedural knowledge processesresources applications WFMS

8. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-8 What is Workflow (traditional)

9. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-9 What is Workflow (automated)

10. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-10 Workflow Management Systems Manual - 100 (2000+?) years of experience Army of managers and clerks Expediters to recover from errors Automated - 15 years of experience Control of procedures Automatic distribution and tracking Best person or machine does the work Most important work done first Parallel (concurrent) processes Management focus on staff and business issues Improved customer service

11. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-11

12. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-12 Loan Request Workflow

13. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-13 Purchase Requisition

14. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-14 Lecture Objectives Workflow management Why is workflow important to business? Workflow system architecture Workflow and Groupware: how can they help KM?

15. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-15 Motivation Processes are important: Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Business Process Management Workflow Management (WFM) Logistics Management (LM)

16. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-16 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".

17. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-17 Processes and the organization

18. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-18 Business process management and WFMS (Re)designOperation Diagnosis (Re)construction Analysis of existing and future situation, e.g., evaluating KPI’s of existing process or simulation of anticipated future situation. Modeling of new situation Configuration of workflow management system Enactment of workflow processes and gathering management information process centric

19. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-19 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 high impact frequency BPR CPI chaos stagnation change time BPR CPI BPR and CPI are both process centric and can be supported by a WFMS.

20. Dickson Chiu 2008 Separation of Management and Execution Workflow Management system Application management (process logistics) execution (task oriented)

21. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-21 The Management Layer Deals with logistical completion of cases without actually performing tasks itself Ensure the tasks/steps are not skipped carried out in correct order performed in parallel, etc. No application-specific characteristics Management may only consult the case attributes to make routing decisions Changing the case attributes is part of execution

22. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-22 Advantages of Management/Execution Separation Allows the reuse of same management functionality in more than one task (c.f., sub-process) Applications do not need management functionality Simpler design Independent of context in business process Makes it possible to integrate wide-ranging applications The business process is more traceable and manageable => knowledge

23. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-23 Benefits of Workflow Management Directed Cost Savings Savings that are readily measured Hidden Savings Hard to measure, but real Intangible Benefits Case value cannot be identified Valuable to the business

24. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-24 Benefit 1: Direct Cost Savings Better use of staff (or reduction of staff) Sorting, delivery, assignment Logging and tracking Reporting Expediters to recover from problems

25. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-25 Benefit 2: Hidden Savings – Cash value hard to measure Better control of work Best person handles each item Urgent work first, hard cases can’t get buried Management Assignment automated Status, analysis, quality Professional productivity Often 50% or more with improved workflow Tool for process improvement Question: What kind of knowledge is involved?

26. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-26 Benefit 3: Intangible – Cash value not known Improved service Employee satisfaction Better decisions Organizational options Decentralization Cross-department assistance Security No misplaced work; priority enforced Audit trail Privacy Access control Note: Compare with general benefits of KM

27. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-27 Financial Manufacturing Internal/Administrative Human Resources Marketing and Sales Product Development Functional AreaProcesses

28. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-28 Lecture Objectives Workflow management and KM Why is workflow important to business? Workflow system architecture Workflow and Groupware: how can they help KM?

29. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-29 Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) Workflow management has many aspects: flexibility, system inegration, process optimalization, evolutionary development, and so on. Functionalities can be confused easily Need a standard! The WfMC (Workflow Management Coalition) is founded in 1993 Concerned with terminology, standard interfaces, promotion of workflow technologies http://www.wfmc.org/

30. Dickson Chiu 2008 WfMC Reference model

31. Dickson Chiu 2008 Workflow Enactment Service (1) Is the heart of a workflow system! Consists of one or more workflow engines For improving system scalability Each engine handles a portion of cases/processes May not be noticed by users

32. Dickson Chiu 2008 The Workflow Enactment Service (2) Create/remove cases Route cases Manage case attributes Submit work items to correct resources based upon resource classification Manage / handle triggers Start up application software during activity execution Record historical data Provide a summary of the workflow Monitor the consistency of the workflow

33. Dickson Chiu 2008 Process Definition Tools Manage process definitions, resource classification, and analysis issues Entails 3 components: 1. Process definition tools 2. Resource classification tools 3. Analysis tools

34. Dickson Chiu 2008 (1) Process Definition Tool Specifies a process with e.g., Petri- net Establish process and task definitions Model routing constructs Definition of case attributes Correctness checking

35. Dickson Chiu 2008 (2) The Resource Classification Tool Classification of resources for decomposing tasks from specific employees List roles (qualifications, functions, skills) and organization units (teams, branches, departments) Show relationship between classes (e.g., hierarchy of roles / organizational units) graphically

36. Dickson Chiu 2008 (3) The Analysis Tool Check semantic correctness of process definition Perform simulation to gain insight into expected completion times of cases Only limited analysis possibilities provided by current workflow systems

37. Dickson Chiu 2008 Workflow Client Applications Used by employees for process execution Each employee has a worklist/in-tray/in-basket show which work items need to be carried out Personal worklist and group worklist Work items are Push/Pull driven Standard and integrated worklist handler

38. Dickson Chiu 2008 Standard Worklist Handler Presentation of work items and their properties Sort and select Provision of state information Starting of a work item Report the completion of an activity Locking / passing on of a work item

39. Dickson Chiu 2008 An Example of a Worklist Handler (COSA, © Software-Ley)

40. Dickson Chiu 2008 The Integrated Worklist Handler A customized worklist handler adapted to specific situations e.g., additional security and assurance support Supports 2 processing modes: Batch processing: Perform work items of same type (i.e., repeat the same task) Chained processing: Perform successive tasks for a specific case Avoid continually switching between the worklist handler and applications for higher efficiency

41. Dickson Chiu 2008 Invoked Applications Can be started by the performance of a task Do not form part of WFMS; but belongs to WFS Case attribute values may be submitted to application (e.g., searching a database with the case ID) may be modified by applications (but not by WFMS)

42. Dickson Chiu 2008 Interactive and fully automatic applications Interactive application: initiated by a selection of a work item from worklist handler e.g., word processor, spreadsheet, electronic form filling Fully automatic application: No user intevention e.g., a program for establishing the amount of an installation payment

43. Dickson Chiu 2008 Other Workflow Enactment Services Link several autonomous workflow systems Cases / parts of cases transferred from one WFS to another Workflow interoperability – linking different workflow enactment services

44. Dickson Chiu 2008 Administration and Monitoring Tools Operational management tool Addition/removal of staff Input/revision of employee ’ s details (name, address etc.) Reconfiguration of system parameters Recording and reporting tool Collect historical data for performance analysis (e.g., waiting time/processing time) Prompt warnings about bottlenecks and overcapacity To produce data for management decision, may need data mining, data warehousing, and OLAP techniques

45. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-45

46. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-46

47. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-47

48. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-48 Lecture Objectives Workflow management and KM Why is workflow important to business? Workflow system architecture Workflow and Groupware: how can they help KM?

49. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-49 Groupware Functions and Applications Software for enabling collaboration within and between companies Promote team work and improve efficiency through Increased information sharing Reducing communications overheads Providing coordination

50. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-50 Groupware Examples CSCW (computer supported cooperative work) Workgroup systems (WGS) – Gartner Group Big industry – 40 million groupware users

51. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-51 Groupware Function E-mail Group discussions Document sharing for joint authoring of reports Electronic meetings software such as video- conferencing Group decision support Group coordination software for time management and scheduling

52. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-52 Distinction between workflow systems and groupware Both used for collaboration Considered as separate types of product since groupware is usually used in an ad-hoc way while workflow imposes a more strict, structured way of working

53. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-53 Spectrum

54. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-54 human oriented system oriented groupware workflow transaction processing P2P = Person To Person A2P = Application To Person A2A = Application To Application

55. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-55 Aspects of workflow and groupware process awareness(WFM) (tasks, routing, roles,...) management instrument(WFM) (measurements, control,...) allocating work to resources(WFM) (scheduling, priorities,...) documents(GW) (imaging, sharing, transport) collaboration(GW) (interaction, cooperation,...) systems integration(WFM,GW) (integrating applications, legacy software,...) distribution(WFM,GW) (network, transparency, robustness)

56. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-56 Classification of Workflow Management Software Administrative workflow Handles large number of users, simple process definitions (e.g., routing an expensive report, travel request) low to medium throughput Production workflow Imposes a strict/inflexible process definition The software is instrumental in managing the tasks and instructing the operators, e.g., insurance claims Ad-hoc workflow Provides process support like normal workflow systems do Supports modification of the process for specific cases

57. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-57 Collaborative Technologies Classification Groupware Administrative Workflow Ad-hoc Workflow Production Workflow Same time/same place Same time/different place Different time/same place Different time/different place CSCW Workflow management software

58. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-58 Workflow Management Trends Adaptive workflow systems managing changes to workflow while the system is running Improved simulation tools Example: business simulation game for training new staff Better planning and resource management support Improved application programming interfaces (API) for interaction of WFMS and application software Integration with Internet technologies, e.g., Java, COBRA

59. Dickson Chiu 2008Workflow BPM-59 Extra Resources Go to www.wfmc.org and try to have an understanding of the mission of such organizationwww.wfmc.org Download and read some articles as listed below: http://www.e-workflow.org/White_Papers/index.htm