IS 788
[Process] Change Management
 Lecture: Workflow and business
process languages and Simulation of
processes
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For the next Class:
Wednesday. 10/24/07
The next class meets in
AB 208!
 Each group should have a draft BPMN
model of their project process
 Be prepared to develop a simple
simulation of the process using
SIMUL8
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Workflow
 Workflow management systems are a
technology success story
 Workflow is the automation of manual form
processing. Many business documents
require attention from multiple business
roles. For example, an insurance form will
need policy clerk and accounting signoffs.
 Workflow turns the paper into a digital
format and routes it via the network.
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Workflow (2)
 In the 1990’s early workflow
successes gave rise to the myth of
the paperless office.
 Paper consumption actually
increased, but workflowing a manual
process typically results in a 30+%
productivity increase
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Workflow engines
 A workflow engine is the software
system responsible for routing work
document(s) and associated data
records and approvals according to a
high level description of the workflow
process
 The process description can also
specify process monitoring to
determine bottlenecks and
opportunities for improvement
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Workflow engines (2)
 Typically client-server applications
 Server Functions:
 Data storage (document and associated data)
 Interpretation of workflow description languages
 Information routing
 Client functions
 Data display and entry
 Error checking
 (optional) recording of work statistics – time
document opened, time in process, etc.
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Workflow processes
 In a workflow approach to process change,
an process is viewed as a set of changes to
a document or form stored in a database.
Each activity consists of the changes
provided by 1 role.
 Analysis consists of determining:
 What data and approvals constitute a complete
document transaction
 Who supplies each datum and approval
 Design the form to be presented for each data
entry/approval role, including error checks
 Design the routing sequence
 Describe the above 4 steps in a usually
proprietary workflow language
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A simple workflow-ing example
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A workflow case
 Anova – a Dutch health insurance
carrier
 Required:






Software (packaged workflow engine)
Servers
Scanners
Laser disk storage banks
PC network connectivity for all users
Training, training, training
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Anova, continued
 Results:
 Jobs in process dropped from 60,000 to
4,000 (+93%)
 Call center calls dropped from 18,000 to
10,000 and the character of the calls
changed
 Average time to process an application
dropped from 16 days to 2 days with 75
% of all applications processed the same
day
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Business process languages
 In the beginning EDI
 EDI was to be the lingua franca of
information systems – any business could
conduct any transaction with any other
business using any type of computer at any
time
 A huge specification of ‘mix ‘n match’
document sections, i.e. PO header, etc.
 Semantics – different meanings for
different documents in different types of
businesses – caused the universal language
to fragment into domain specific EDI’s –
grocery, auto manufacturer, etc.
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EDI, continued
 EDI was and is expensive. So
expensive (both to set up and to run)
that only large organizations with inhouse IS departments and large
transaction volumes can justify the
cost.
 For security reasons (20 years old
now) EDI still runs through 3ed party
VAN’s (value added networks) adding
to the expense and complexity
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Beyond EDI
 The vision of universal business
connectivity and commerce is a compelling
one.
 Many business communication and ‘trading’
languages have been proposed since EDI
 All serious languages under consideration
today are based on XML
 Alas, as of this time all are ‘smoke and
mirrors’
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Beyond EDI, continued
 Some systems have been
implemented between large sponsor
organizations (sponsors for a
particular initiative) but the vision has
yet to be realized
 Some contenders:
 XPDL – XML process definition language
– but note – for all BPL’s – a language
specifies syntax but not semantics (ex:
“I see the blue cow, your friend.” –
Syntactically correct but . . .
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Other acronyms
 BPSS – business process specification
language from the ebXML consortium
 BPEL4WS – business process execution
language for web services – from the
unlikely collaboration of Microsoft and IBM
 The above languages specify process
execution. Some groups have seen the
need for higher level “business process
orchestration” languages that control how
and when processes execute and with
whom.
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Microsoft’s BizTalk
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ebXML’s vision (cf. UDDI)
Note that the
scenario’s and
profiles in the registry
are babble without
widespread agreement
on semantics (business
document standards).
Just like EDI.
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Public process interfaces stand the
best chance (IMHO) (discuss)
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Executable specifications
 The ‘full bore’ business language
vision includes direct translation of
analyst process drawings (BPMN) to
working software systems
 Here’s the universal law that governs
all such schemes:
Large, predefined
procedural units
Granular
procedural units
Analytic &
implementation
simplicity
Analytic &
implementation
complexity
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Simulation
 System simulation or simulation
modeling:
 “Mimicking the activity of the operation
of a real system in a computer with the
focus on process flow, logic and
dynamics.” El-Haik and Al-Aomar
 The simulation model is exactly that – a
model – and so captures only a portion
of the actual system
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A simulation overview
(astigmatics, look away)
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An aside: the simulation practicum
for IS 788:
 The TIBCO process modeling
environment offers a simulation
module.
 However, after 8 hours of exploration, I
was not able to get it to run. (Their
example doesn’t run either.)
 Thus, for the simulation lab we will be
using SIMUL8, which is available on all
COBA machines. The latest version is
freely downloadable by 788 students.
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Process simulation basics
 Most simulation software traces the flow of
a piece of work (or it’s components)
through a series of steps.
 As the work-piece flows, small logic
(program) routines are triggered to direct
the flow conditionally and compute the time
taken, cost, backlog, etc.
 Most simulation software was designed for
and is used by logistics and manufacturing
personnel and so uses their terminology
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Basic terms and notations
 Source (start)
 Queue (SIMUL8 calls this ‘storage’)
 Process step (or ‘server’, or what
SIMUL8 calls a ‘work center’)
 Routing connection
 End (or ‘stop’ or ‘sink’)
 Flow logic (control) entry (for SIMUL8
= ‘Visual Logic’)
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Elementary simulation process:
single queue, single server (1)
Entry of work into the system is
usually specified by flow logic as a
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time distribution function:
random, Possion, etc.
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Elementary simulation process:
single queue, single server (2)
Time in the queue can be
specified by flow logic as a time
distribution function or a function
IS#
788
of the
of 9.1
elements in the queue,
etc.
26
Elementary simulation process:
single queue, single server (3)
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Likewise, time to process can be
specified by flow logic as a time
distribution function or a function
27 of the
# of elements in the queue, etc.
Common simulation computations
 Min, max an average time to process
a unit; completely through the
process or to step A, B, etc.
 Taking downtime and repair cost into
consideration as a function of # of
units served or total time
 Counting costs accrued at various
points or for various lengths of
production run
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An interesting and key simulation
concern:
 Time in queue (waiting) should be
minimized
 Free time (waste) of the servers should be
minimized
 But, the two quantities are interdependent
and cannot both be optimized.
 Moreover, when the entry into the system is
stochastic (basically, ‘random’) then there
is no ‘closed form solution’ – no ‘formula’
and so simulation is the only recourse
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Shorter wait process:
single queue, three servers
But – what is the unit cost now?
Given what source arrival
distribution?
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Why simulate?
 In the net, simulation is much less
expensive than any real-world pilot
and frequently provides justification
for a real-world pilot study.
 However, simulation results are only
meaningful if compared with a
reasonably complete (statistically
valid) sampling of the simulated
measures on the AS-IS system.
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Note the
different cases
identified in
the course of
measurement.
This is critical –
the assumption
of uniform
claims cases
would make
meaningful
analysis
impossible.
* Best case
* Worst case
* Average
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From El Sawy, Ch. 6.
1. Does the process have sufficient capacity? How much is capacity
improved in the TO-BE process?
2. What are the bottlenecks in the AS-IS and TO-BE processes? Where
should resources be increased to improve the process?
3. Stress testing – what happens to the process under exceptional (but
possible) conditions? How well can the AS-IS and TO-BE processes
handle the event(s)?
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