Markus Nüttgens

ARIS Architecture and Reference Models for Business Process Management

In this article a general business process architecture is presented, which is based on the Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) and which is composed of the four levels of process engineering, process planning and control, workflow control and application systems. The ARIS-House of Business Engineering encompasses the whole life-cycle range: from business process design to information technology deployment, leading to a completely new process-oriented software concept. At the same time, the architecture bridges the gap between business process modeling and workflow-driven applications, from Business Process Reengineering to Continuous Process Improvement.

EPC markup language (EPML): an XML-based interchange format for event-driven process chains (EPC)

This article presents an XML-based interchange format for event-driven process chains (EPC) that is called EPC markup language (EPML). EPML builds on EPC syntax related work and is tailored to be a serialization format for EPC modelling tools. Design principles inspired by other standardization efforts and XML design guidelines have governed the specification of EPML. After giving an overview of EPML concepts we present examples to illustrate its features including flat and hierarchical EPCs, business views, graphical information, and syntactical correctness.

Business Process Modeling with EPC and UML: Transformation or Integration?

Process and object-orientation are basic concepts of modeling, implementing and customizing information systems. In this paper we present two approaches of combining those concepts into a coherent way. In the first approach we discuss how to transform business process models (Event-driven Process Chain (EPC) diagrams) into object-oriented models (Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams). The main focus is to support the co-existence of both modeling methods focusing on the modeling context. The second approach deals with the integration of both modeling methods extending the EPC-model by business object classes.

Web 2.0 in SME Networks - A Design Science Approach Considering Multi-Perspective Requirements

As small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) face new challenges in a complex and dynamic competitive environment, they need to cooperate due to their restricted resources and limited capacities. At this, Enterprise 2.0 is seen as a supporting approach. To this date, there is a lack of academic publications concerning recommen dations for the application of Web 2.0 artifacts in SME-networks. This paper aims at bridging this gap by su ggesting a conceptual base following the design science approach. Based on tech ni cal and organizational requirements resulting from exploratory interviews with re presen tatives of SMEs participating in a regional SME-network, we transfer the requirements in a prototypic concept. This developed artifact provides a basis for a field test to evaluate the concept and for further research.

Yet another event-driven process chain

The 20 workflow patterns proposed by Van der Aalst et al. provide a comprehensive benchmark for comparing control flow aspects of process modelling languages. In this paper, we present a novel class of Event-Driven Process Chains (EPCs) that is able to capture all of these patterns. This class is called “yet another” EPC as a tribute to YAWL that inspired this research. yEPCs extend EPCs by the introduction of the so-called empty connector; inclusion of multiple instantiation concepts; and a cancellation construct. Furthermore, we illustrate how yEPCs can be used to model some of the workflow patterns.

XML-based Reference Modelling: Foundations of an EPC Markup Language

The advent of XML has forced the vendors of Business Process Modelling (BPM) tools to include respective import and export interfaces in their packages. But in order to leverage the benefits of XML model interchange, standardised vocabularies have to be developed. This paper describes the proposal of an EPC Markup Language from its guiding design principles to its concrete definition. We gather findings from other XML standardisation initiatives and derive general EPML design principles, as well as theoretical and practical XML design guidelines. A survey on graph representation in XML languages founds the decision to model EPC processes as edge element lists. Subsequently, the syntactical elements of EPML describing EPC hierarchies, EPC control flow, graphical display of objects, and business perspectives on EPCs are discussed.

XML-basierte Geschäftsprozessmodellierung

In diesem Beitrag wird ein Konzept zur XML-basierten Geschaftsprozessmodellierung vorgestellt. Dieses ermoglicht eine Verbesserung der Integrationsfahigkeit von Werkzeugen und Methoden zum Geschaftsprozessmanagement. Mit der Entwicklung einer EPK-Markup-Language (EPML) wird hierbei ein werkzeugunabhangiges Beschreibungsformat fur Ereignisgesteuerte Prozessketten (EPK) vorgeschlagen, welches den Entwurfsprinzipien Lesbarkeit, Erweiterbarkeit, Tool-Orientierung und Syntaktische Richtigkeit genugt. Das Austauschformat bietet Werkzeugherstellern und Endanwendern einen transparenten und produktunabhangigen Bezugsrahmen zur XML-basierten Geschaftsprozessmodellierung.

Business Process Reengineering in der Verwaltung

Die meisten Verwaltungen beklagen sich uber fundamentale organisatorische und finanzielle Probleme: Langwierige Vorgange, wenig Ablauftransparenz, fehlende Basisdaten, unklare Zustandigkeiten, aufwendige Kommunikation, hohe und immer weiter steigende Personalkosten sind die meist genannten Probleme. Unter dem Oberbegriff “neue Steuerungsmodelle” werden deshalb die wichtigsten Bestrebungen zusammengefast, die auf eine Anderung dieser Situation abzielen. Schlagworte wie Dezentralisierung, Teambildung, Outsourcing, Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung sowie Controlling seien hierfur nur einige Beispiele.

XBRL: Impacts, Issues and Future Research Directions

Only 13 years ago in April 1998 Charles Hoffman, a CPA investigated how XML could be used for the reporting of business and financial information. By now many researchers are dealing with this topic. The high (practical) relevance of XBRL is emphasized by several laws and a large number of regulatory requirements stipulating the use of XBRL for business and financial reporting. Giving an overview of conducted research is complicated due to the rich diversity of XBRL. On top, traditional literature reviews are focusing on the performed research, not including any indication of the relevance of the investigated topic. We will go one step further and include discussed impacts and issues weighted by their occurrence in literature. Based on this approach the paper concludes that frequently mentioned impacts and issues of XBRL are not yet researched but in turn minor research questions are well investigated.

Business Process Mining and Reconstruction for Financial Audits

In modern companies business processes and information systems are highly integrated and transactions are executed system based and automated. The data generated in the course of processing transactions commonly provides the basis for internal and external financial reporting. The financial statements are subject to audits due to regulatory requirements. Contemporary audit approaches take into account internal control frameworks over relevant business processes and underlying information systems, but they lack adequate audit procedures needed to handle voluminous data flows when business processes are highly integrated and automated. We face a discrepancy between an integrated and automated transaction processing on the one side and manual audit procedures on the other. Financial audits would be more effective and efficient if an audit approach with system based and automated procedures would be applied. This article describes how business process mining and reconstruction of mined processes can be used to overcome this discrepancy.