Definition of system for business process modeling

Abstract

The modern business world is getting more and more complicated. In order to satisfy customer needs, companies investigate different options to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness. Business processes management has recently become a focal topic for big and small organizations because accurately designed business processes can ensure competent execution of value-added activities. Apart from that, business process management allows for structured management of process portfolio when based on clearly defined process architecture. This is exactly where this work starts.

The objective of the study is to discuss the development of training material in the form of guideline to contribute to the systematic approach to business process modeling and quality improvement. When modeling business processes, process developers in the case function are going for an ad-hoc approach, and for this reason, training material as a tool to introduce a systematic way of process modeling is needed. The case function can benefit from the defined methods not only by having processes of a higher quality that are easy to follow but also by improved communication with other business areas in the business management system. These benefits may further lead to the improvement of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The desired outcome of the study is the clear definition of process model classification based on the process-architecture-related literature review and current state analysis of the case function as well as the development of the step-by-steep guideline for process modeling. The guideline is built to ensure availability of an easy-to-follow system for process modeling leading to positive impact on process model quality. To reach the goal, the research addresses problems of standardization, methodology and detailed level of models.

Quality of process model is a topic which does not have an extensive literature coverage. As a response to this fact, criteria for evaluation of the quality of training material and process models are set during the research based on the available information from the literature combined with specific needs of the case function. As the result of the research, quality evaluation of initial and improved models proved evidence of the effectiveness of having a defined system for process modelling. Reliability of quality improvement led to the settlement of the defined approach to process classification and methods of modelling to be adopted as a baseline for business management system where process-related documentation is created and stored. Finally, limitations and opportunities for the future research are presented to conclude the thesis work.