Detecting potential weaknesses in business processes. Issue 1 (30th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bergener, Philipp; Delfmann, Patrick; Weiss, Burkhard; Winkelmann, Axel
• Is Part Of: Business process management journal. Volume 21:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 25
• Page End: 54
• Publication Date: 2015-01-30
• Subjects: Industrial management -- Periodicals; Reengineering (Management) -- Periodicals; Total quality management -- Periodicals; 658.4063
• DOI: 10.1108/BPMJ-07-2013-0103
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-7154

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title> <p> – Automating the task of identifying process weaknesses using process models is promising, as many organizations have to manage a large amount of process models. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a pattern-based approach for automatically detecting potential process weaknesses in semantic process models, thus supporting the task of business process improvement. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title> <p> – Based on design research, combined with a case study, the authors explore the design, application and evaluation of a pattern-based process weakness detection approach within the setting of a real-life case study in a German bank. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title> <p> – Business process weakness detection can be automated to a remarkable extent using pattern matching and a semantic business process modeling language. A case study provided evidence that such an approach highly supports business process analysts. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Research limitations/implications</title> <p> – The presented approach is limited by the fact that not every potential process weakness detected by pattern matching is really a weakness but just gives the impression to be one. Hence, after detecting a weakness, analysts still have to decide on its authenticity. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</title> <p> – Applying weakness patterns to semantic process models via pattern matching allows organizations to automatically and efficiently identify process improvement potentials. Hence, this research helps to avoid time- and resource-consuming manual analysis of process model landscapes. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title> <p> – The approach is not restricted to a single modeling language. Furthermore, by applying the pattern matching approach to a semantic modeling language, the authors avoid ambiguous search results. A case study proves the usefulness of the approach.</p> </sec> </abstract>