Why Do We Need Business
Process Support?
Balancing Specialization and
Generalization with BPS Systems
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
1
Enterprises as Open Systems
Environment
Enterprise
Internal
Stakeholder 1
External
Stakeholder 1
External
Stakeholder 2
IT System
Internal
Stakeholder2
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
2
Enterprises and stakeholders
• Enterprises want to maintain identity in
a changing environment
• Need to define and enforce what
stakeholders can and cannot do
• Balance between strengths,
weaknesses, threats and opportunities
(SWOT).
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
3
Business Processes
• Part of identity of enterprise
• Need to be maintained stable in a
changing environment
• Regulate relationships between
enterprise and stakeholders
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
4
Two Kinds of Processes
• Hard normative
– Requiring strict control and specification
– Relatively stable
– Example: mission critical applications
• Soft normative
– Requiring appreciation
– Relatively unstable
– Example: customer relationships
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
5
Two kinds of BPS Systems
• Big brother: for hard normative processes
– Specification and control of activities
• Advisor: for soft normative processes
–
–
–
–
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Help people to behave responsibly
Know advisable process
Know conditions
Know risks of adherence and deviation
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
6
BPR Premises: Traditional
businesses
•
•
•
•
•
Inward view
Chopped processes
Many controls
Pasting and control
Run by specialists
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
7
BPR Premises: Reengineered
businesses
•
•
•
•
Customer oriented processes
As few controls as possible
Structure defined by process
Run by generalists
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
8
Specialization
Enterprise
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Investor relation
Investors
Customer
relation
Customers
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
9
Specialization
• Specialization is necessary for effective
action
• Specialization requires a specialized
worldview
• Specialization prevents business from seeing
reality and behaving in any other way
• Specialized process cannot be transformed
overnight into process run by generalists
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
10
Generalization
Enterprise
Investors
Relation
Department
Customers
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
11
Generalization
• May be better than specialization in
changing conditions
• Less effective than specialization for
known conditions
• Requires different education
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
12
Requirements for BPS Systems
for Soft normative Processes
• Help people to
– not overspecialize
– identify outcome expected from process
– identify different versions of process and
applicable conditions.
• Link generalists to specialists
• Help specialists to acquire generalist
view.
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
13
Outlook
• A BPS System could be seen as a
Knowledge Management System
• Help adopt mixture of generalized and
specialized processes and structures
• Navigate uncertain future
REBPS’03
June 17, 2003
Why Do We Need Business Process Support?
Gil Regev, Alain Wegmann EPFL-IC-LAMS
14