TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
School of Industrial Engineering
Exam Business Process Management (1BM05),
Tuesday July 1st 2011, 9:00 - 12:00 hours.
For this written exam a maximum number of 10 points can be obtained. It is NOT
allowed to use the book, notes, or any other course-related material during the
examination. It is, however, allowed to use a basic calculator. The solutions for the
assignments should be formulated in DUTCH or ENGLISH, concisely, and list any
assumptions that are not explicitly stated in the assignment. Only use the pre-printed
forms for your solutions – only these will be corrected. Please note the mnemonic
appendix at the end of the exam.
Assignment 1 (2 points)
a) In the paper entitled “Best Practices in Business Process Redesign: An Overview
and Qualitative Evaluation of Successful Redesign Heuristics”, a framework is
described that can be used to classify the various best practices. This framework is
partially represented below, see Figure 1.
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
1.
2.
Business process
3. view
Operation
Behavioural
view
Behavioural view
4.
Information
Organisation
- Structure
- Population
Technology
Technology
Figure 1: Framework
Please list the names of the elements at locations 1, 2, 3, and 4. (0.5 points)
1
b) In the course on business process redesign, a distinction is made between the
various redesign methodologies. One way is to distinguish the approach, which
can be either evolutionary or revolutionary. What is the other criterion that was
discussed during the lecture and what are its different values? (0.5 points)
c) As discussed during the BPM course, process data can be used for both discovering
and monitoring of a business process. Notwithstanding the fact that the boundary is
not always sharp, explain the differences between discovering and monitoring.
Discuss at least the following aspects: (i) the necessary data, (ii) the goal, and (iii)
a typical example of an action after the data analysis. (0.5 points)
d) An important purpose for which workflow systems are developed, is the separation
of ‘management’ and ‘execution’. In chapter 5 of ‘Workflow Management –
Models, Methods and Systems’, Van der Aalst & Van Hee (2002) explain the
advantages of separating ‘management’ and ‘execution’. Give 3 of the advantages
of separating ‘management’ and ‘execution’ that are mentioned by Van der Aalst
& Van Hee (2002). (0.5 points)
Assignment 2 (2.5 points)
ASML1 is the world's leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor
industry. These systems are critical to the production of integrated circuits and
microchips. Because of the tremendous inflow of new engineers in this company over
the past years, ASML wants to take a look again at the way it trains its new hires. The
first step here is to model the current training process.
The training process for an engineer that will be working at the Operations department
starts with an assessment of the initial skills of the newly hired. This is done by a
clerk of the Human Resources (HR) department. The next step is to match the existing
skills with the desired skills for the job that the engineer is hired to do. This is a task
for one of the managers of the HR department. If this manager finds that the
engineer’s existing skills are insufficient in comparison to the requirements, an
individual training program is developed. If the manager sees no descrepancies, a
report is created for the manager of the respective operations department and the
training program for the new engineer ends here.
A training program may contain one or more courses. All courses aim for acquiring
one of two different types of skills: (1) Manufacturing & Logistics skills, or (2)
Technical & Safety skills. We will refer to these courses as respectively M&L and
T&S courses. M&L skills can only be acquired in training sessions at an ASML site,
with access to the machines that the new employee will be working with, and under
guidance of qualified trainers. T&S skills, on the other hand, can be acquired through
independent, computer-mediated training at any location the candidate prefers.
1
See http://www.asml.com
2
A new employee needs to complete all courses in his/her program and is free to
follow these courses in any order. However, at any time an employee can at most be
involved in one M&L course and one T&S course simultaneously.
When a new engineer wishes to initate an M&L course, he or she registers for the
course through the HR system. Depending on the availability of trainers, training
rooms, etc. the candidate is assigned by the system to the first available slot to take
the course. He or she receives the training material for this course ten working days in
advance of the actual training. Entering and following the training session is
considered to be sufficient for completing a particular M&L course.
A T&S training can be initiated by the new employee at any time. After the
theoretical part of the training, the new employee can start a test. If the test is passed,
the course is considered completed. Otherwise, the candidate can choose to re-do the
test or redo the theoretical part and the test.
If all courses have been completed, the training program ends.
Model the above process, using the notation of the book, i.e. a process definition
(including triggers) and a resource classification. Make sure that the process definition
is sound. Hint: consider what the case is for this process.
Assignment 3 (1.5 points)
Have a look at the following declarative process mode, see Figure 2.
Declarative Process Model S
Activities A
A
B
C
D
E
F
Legend
A
B
A
B
A
B
NOT CO- EXISTENCE
A and B are mutually exclusive
RESPONSE
For every A that is executed,
there is a B executed afterwards
PRECEDENCE
For every B that is executed,
there is a prior execution of A
Constraints C
A
B
C1
C
F
C2
B
F
C3
Execution trace producible on S:
σ1 =
σ2 =
σ3 =
Execution trace not producible on S:
C1 
σ4 =
σ5 =
C2 
σ6 =
C3 
Figure 2: Declarative process model S
Provide three traces that are producible on S and three traces that are not producible.
Make sure that each of the latter three violates only one constraint and a different
constraint than the other two. Each of the six traces must contain at least three
elements.
3
Assignment 4 (2 points)
In the figure below (see Figure 3), you will see a screenshot of the ProM plug-in
known as the Conformance Checker.
Figure 3: ProM screenshot
Provide an answer to each of the following questions.
a) What is the necessary input for this plug-in? (0.5 points)
b) In general terms, what is the output of this plug-in? (0.5 points)
c) Explain the meaning of the available information in the screenshot, i.e.:
1. the numbers inside the places of the Petri net,
2. the numbers alongside the arcs of the Petri net,
3. the fintness measure at the right side of the screen shot,
4. possible other information. (1 point)
4
Assignment 5 (2 points)
The figure below shows a contracting process (see Figure 4). It describes for a
particular company how it establishes contracts with its suppliers.
The company negotiates with the supplier about the contract and the results of the
negotiations are stored in SAP. If the result is positive, a contract is sent to the
supplier for signing. When the signed contract is received, a (paper) file for the
supplier is created and a financial case is opened. Financial cases for suppliers of
product-related goods must be opened in Exact, cases for suppliers of non productrelated goods must be opened in SAP.
The company plans to implement the process in Staffware. (Note that Staffware does
not support the deferred choice pattern.)
Figure 4: Contracting process
Provide an answer to each of the following questions.
a) The process contains three omissions of different types, which must be corrected
before the process is implemented in Staffware. Indicate which omissions exist and
where these omissions are in the process. Use task names to indicate where the
omissions are in the process (e.g.: at ‘negotiate contract’ there is a … omission).
(1.0 point)
b) Draw a new process in which the omissions that you identified under (a) are
corrected. (1.0 point)
5
Notation book
AND-join
AND-split
OR-join
Explicit OR-split
condition
task
case
subprocess
case variables
• Automatic
No trigger is required.
• User
A resource takes the initiative.
• External
A external event (message, phone call) is required.
• Time
The task requires a time trigger.
M/M/1-queue:
, L = (1-), W=/(-), S=1/(-).
M/M/c-queue:
(c)
6
Redesign best practices
Control relocation
Contact reduction
Integration
Order types
Task elimination
Order-based work
Triage
Task composition
Resequencing
Knock-out
Parallelism
Exception
Order assignment
Flexible assignment
Centralization
Split responsibilities
Customer teams
Numerical involvement
Case manager
Extra resources
Specialist-generalist
Empower
Control addition
Buffering
Task automation
Integral technology
Trusted party
Outsourcing
Interfacing
7