1. 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

2. 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

3. Relevant WWW sites http://www.workflowcourse.com

4. 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 !

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

6. Context - role of models and trends -

7. Focus on models

8. 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

9. Before BPM: WFM - workflow management -

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. BPM: The next step - business process management -

14. 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

15. Alternative view on BPM: The BPM life-cycle

16. 1993

17. 1998

18. 2003

19. 2008 ???

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

21. 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".

22. Processes and the organization

23. 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.

24. 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!

25. History and CSCW - the WFM/BPM market -

26. CSCW spectrum

27. Refined view (without datbase applications)

28. Trade-offs

29. 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

30. 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.).