Itp Irene Vanderfeesten

Evaluating workflow process designs using cohesion and coupling metrics

Building on the similarities between software programs and workflow processes, this paper proposes a heuristic that offers guidance for the creation and evaluation of process designs in administrative settings. Designers can use it to select from several alternatives the process design that is strongly cohesive and weakly coupled. It is argued that such a design will result in fewer errors during information exchanges and in more understandable activity descriptions. The paper includes an application of the heuristic in an industrial workflow setting, which supports its feasibility and practical value. The paper also presents the freely available CoCoFlow tool that implements the metrics and the heuristic.

Cohesion and coupling metrics for workflow process design

Workflow designers experience considerable freedom in designing the smaller steps (or activities) within a process. An operational notion of activity cohesion and coupling may help them to design more well-structured workflow activities. Inspired by resemblances between software programs and workflow processes, this paper gives an overview of software quality metrics and their applicability to workflow process design. New cohesion and coupling metrics – inspired by these software metrics – are introduced, which are integrated in a design heuristic. This heuristic can be used by workflow designers to identify the strongly cohesive and weakly coupled process design among several alternatives. The paper includes an application of this heuristic in a realistic workflow process setting.

Product-based workflow support

Despite the industrial need for the improvement of information-intensive business processes, few scientifically grounded approaches exist to support such initiatives. In this paper, we propose a new approach that builds on concepts that are part of a product-oriented view on process optimization. Essentially, this approach allows end users to flexibly decide on the best possible way to create an informational product within the limits that are imposed by regulations and logical dependencies. We argue that this provides various benefits in comparison to earlier work. To support end users in making sensible decisions, we describe two alternative approaches to provide them with recommendations to this end. We formalize these alternatives and discuss their relative strengths and weaknesses. The feasibility of the overall approach, which we refer to as Product-Based Workflow Support, is demonstrated by a workflow system that is realized using ProM and DECLARE.

Product Based Workflow Support: Dynamic Workflow Execution

Product Based Workflow Design (PBWD) is a successful new approach to workflow process support. A description of the product, the Product Data Model (PDM), is central to this approach. While other research so far has focused on deriving a process model from the PDM, this paper presents a way to directly execute the PDM. This leads to a more dynamic and flexible support for the workflow process.

Case Handling Systems as Product Based Workflow Design Support

Case handling systems offer a solution to the lack of flexibility and adaptability in workflow management systems. Because they are data driven they potentially provide good support for Product Based Workflow Design (PBWD). In this paper we investigate to which degree current case handling systems (FLOWer and Activity Manager) are able to support PBWD. This is done by elaborating the design process of a case from industry in both systems. From this evaluation we concluded that current case handling systems are not yet completely ready for supporting PBWD. Therefore, we recognize that better tool support is needed to make PBWD more suitable for practical use.

Automatic support for product based workflow design: generation of process models from a product data model

Product Based Workflow Design (PBWD) is one of the few scientific methodologies for the (re)design of workflow processes. It is based on an analysis of the product that is produced in the workflow process and derives a process model from the product structure. Until now this derivation has been a manual task and is therefore a time-consuming and error-prone exercise. Automatic support would enhance the use of the PBWD methodology. In this paper we propose several algorithms to automatically generate process models from a product structure and we present a software tool (implemented in ProM) to support this. Finally, the properties of the resulting process models are analysed and discussed.

How to increase work autonomy in workflow management systems

Purpose – Current workflow management systems (WfMSs) are often too rigid and lead to “chain production” in the office. The paper proposes a number of “tuning measures” to reconfigure an implemented WfMS in such a way that it is more agreeable to the needs of its users.Design/methodology/approach – The “tuning measures” are generated through a creative process that is founded on two theoretical pillars: the job characteristics model, from the domain of job design theory and work psychology, and the assignment and synchronization policies, from the area of workflow management.Findings – By combining theories from both job design theory and workflow management we have developed a number of measures to “tune” WfMSs in a human oriented way. An expert panel has selected the six most promising of these measures. These six measures have been used in the evaluation of three contemporary WfMSs. From this evaluation we concluded that current workflow technology is only partly able to support our measures.Researc...

“Intelligent” tools for workflow process redesign: a research agenda

Although much attention is being paid to business processes during the past decades, the design of business processes and particularly workflow processes is still more art than science. In this workshop paper, we present our view on modeling methods for workflow processes and introduce our research aiming for the development of an “intelligent” software tool for workflow process redesign. This tool uses two approaches to redesign workflows: an evolutionary approach, focussing on local updates to a given process, and a revolutionary approach, starting with a clean-sheet of paper.

Composing workflow activities on the basis of data-flow structures

The proper composition of activities is important for the efficient execution of a workflow process. In this paper, an approach is presented that utilizes the data-flow underlying a workflow process to determine the importance and semantic relatedness of the various, elementary data-processing steps. Based on these aspects, fundamental guidelines are proposed to drive and objectify the task of activity composition in the context of workflow design.

When cognitive biases lead to business process management issues

There is a broad consensus that design decision making is important for Business Process Management success. Despite many business process design approaches and practices that are available, the quality of business process analysis and design relies heavily on human factors. Some of these factors concern cognitive biases. In this paper, we explore the role of cognitive biases in four key issues regarding the design-time phases of the business process management lifecycle. We outline some research directions that may help us understand and improve the effects of cognitive biases in the design-related practices of business process management.