Automated design of of business processes
Contents
Introduction
.
Key definitions
.
Approaches to the identification of business processes
.
Architecture of an Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) methodology
sector has a strategic meaning for
the Russian Federation. Role of a rationalization of different transport modes
increases significantly due to the fact that it is important part of the market
infrastructure, in the context of development the market relations.
Undoubtedly, for Russia, which is the largest country in the world, a railway
transport is a link of a single economic system, provides a stable activity of
an industrial enterprise, provides an opportune supply of an important goods to
the most remote areas of the country, also it is the most cheapest transport
for millions of people. Therefore, the railway transport is a systemic industry
of Russian economic that largely forms additional demand in many related
industries and all sectors of economics depend on the work of railway
transport. So, the above - listed cause led to selection for this academic
project the company of development and maintenance of railways.study of
"SetStroyEnergo" organization will be placed on the features of identification
and formalization for basic procedure of the organization using a system
approach and Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS)
methodology.analyzing the system approach, firstly it is necessary to review
the historical background this method of identification business
processes.believed that the first step towards the formation of a systems
approach for solving problems of the development of mankind made an Austrian
biologist and author of "general system theory" Ludwig von Bertalanffy,
who in 1941 proposed this term. Bertalanffy published his most important work
"General System Theory" in 1969. There he formulated the objective of
a new science that is the development of the mathematical apparatus of the
study of systems of any physical nature and the establishment of the
isomorphism of laws in different areas of knowledge. Such outstanding
scientists as Russel Ackoff, U.Churchman, Fred Emery, Jay Wright Forrester and
many others also made a contribution to the further development of system theory.
However, it should be emphasized that many of the system ideas were expressed
much earlier by Russian scientist A.A. Bogdanov in his book "Tectology.
Universal Organization Science" (1922).the consideration of the
organization as a system is generally accepted. This fact inevitably leads to
the necessity of application of a system approach while solving problems
related to the study of activity of organizations. Moreover, among managers and
consultants there are ambiguous or inaccurate interpretations of the terms
"system", "system approach", "business process",
different views on the use of scientific methods to solve practical problems
related to the activity of the organization.
1. Key definitions
order to make clear the points
discussed later in this essay it is necessary to define the basic concepts
concerning business processes and system approach. So this paragraph will be
devoted to the definitions of the following concepts:
· a system;
· a system approach;
· an organization;
· integrity;
· business
processes.primary definition of a system is a set of two or more elements that
satisfies the following three conditions:
) The behavior of each element has
an effect on the behavior of the whole.
) The behavior of the elements and
their effects on the whole are interdependent. It means that the way each
element behaves and the way it affects the whole depends on how at least one
other element behaves.
) However subgroups of the elements
are formed, each has an effect on the behavior of the whole and none has an
independent effect on it. Therefore, the elements of the system are connected
in a way that the formation of independent subgroups is impossible. [1]to
Ackoff, the following important features result from the definition of a
system:
• Each part of the system has
essential properties that it loses in case of separation from the system;
• Each system has certain
essential properties that are not possessed by any of its parts. The essential
properties of the system as a whole stem from the interaction of its parts, and
not from their actions., when the system is taken apart, it loses its essential
properties. A system is a whole that cannot be understood through the analysis.
Therefore, an application of a system approach must be started with the stages
of synthesis.the assumption of Ackoff's definition a system approach is formed
by the following sequence:
• identification of a system, a part
of which is a subject that needs to be explained;
• explanation of the behavior or
properties of a system;
1. Model of
business process.
organization is a technical and
social economic system. The concept of the organization (organizational system)
is associated with a systematic, conscious union of actions of people who
pursue the achievement of certain goals through the implementation of specific
actions. [3]
. Approaches to the identification
of business processes
the methodological point of view,
there are two main approaches to the identification of business processes of an
organization.first one, which is the most frequently used in practice, consists
in making a list of the organization's processes based on the analysis of
documents, conducting of interviews, surveys, workshops with officials of the
organization. The view of the organization's activities practically "from
within a system" is the basis of this approach.second one is a system
approach, on the contrary, implements the view of the organization's activities
"from the outside of a system." The identification of processes
begins with the definition of strategies and strategic objectives defined by
the interested parties considering their expectations of the results of the
organization's activities and finishes by the identification of the results'
sources, that is, actual organization's processes.two approaches (see Chart 2)
are significantly different. They are different not only in the efforts that
should be made to obtain results, but also in the attitude to the already
obtained results.
Approaches to the identification of business
processes of an organization
|
1. Making a list of processes having a
significant meaning for an organization;
|
2. A system approach, which select the
following elements successively:
|
|
2.1. An organization's strategy;
|
|
2.2. An interested party, which define an
organization's strategy;
|
|
2.3. Expectation of products quality, which
have an interested party;
|
|
2.4. Business processes of an organization,
which support produce products or services;
|
Chart 2. Approaches to the
identification of business processes.
first approach gives fast results,
in the form of a list of the organization's processes, but bears the subjective
views of informational sources and is mechanistic: it begins with the
decomposition of the whole into elements, that is begins with the analysis of
the system.'s not a system approach and it cannot ensure requirements of the
integrity of identification of processes of an organization.is quite natural to
start with the synthesis of the system applying the second approach. That means
that firstly we need to determine what will be included in its composition.on
the purpose of research and complexity of the organization a whole organization
or its part can form the system.organization, depending on its type (financial
conglomerate, holding company, an industry group, an independent company, and
so on) can be considered, either as a whole system itself or as a number of
different systems.synthesis of a system it is necessary to determine its
behavior. Identify and describe the relationships of the organizational system
with the environment of the direct influence (see Chart 3): with customers,
suppliers, competitors, shareholders, banks, public authorities, etc.
3. The relationships
of the organizational system with the environment.
business information
management architecture
Additionally, external environment
of the indirect influence can be included in the description. It includes: the
political situation, normative legal acts, social and cultural factors,
economic trends, environmental factors, scientific and technical factors and
many others.a result of the research of the environment we should create a
strategy (or strategies) of behavior of the organization and define its
strategic objectives. Strategies and objectives that were designed in that way
should allow the organization to adapt itself to the characteristics of the
environment and to oppose the influence of negative factors, including by force
of reorganization of the internal environment (in particular, of processes).,
only the second of the methodological approaches stated above (see Chart 2)
corresponds to the definition of the system approach and provides the
integrity.on what have been discussed, can draw the following findings:
. The concept of "the system
approach" is inseparable from the concept of "the integrity of a
system".
. A system approach to the
identification of the organizational processes consists of the following steps
that ensure requirements of the integrity:
· A synthesis of a
system is an identification of the elements that are included in the
organizational system being under consideration, and of the elements related to
the environment;
· Identification and
description of the interaction of the organizational system as a "black
box" with the external business environment (inputs and outputs);
· Identification of
processes that should comply with the relevant roles in the interaction of the
organization with the environment and be aimed to achieve strategic objectives.
The inputs and outputs of processes are inputs and outputs of the organization
as a "black box";
· Identification of
the whole list of processes (main and auxiliary, of management or development)
based on the view "from within a system", and on the industrial and
international experience (e.g. standard and reference models);
· Combination of the
two previous steps to complete the identification of processes.
3. A system approach to the
identification of processes is used in the initial determination of the
organization's processes (if the organization is not involved in its own
processes) as well as in the restructuring of processes caused by changes in
the environment and in strategy.
3. Architecture of an Integrated Information
Systems (ARIS) methodology
of the modern methodologies of a
computer-aided design of business processes is the Architecture of Integrated
Information Systems (ARIS) methodology. This methodology contains approximately
one hundred different business models, used for describing, analyzing and
optimizing the various aspects of the organization structure.consideration of a
large number of business models the ARIS methodology divides them into four
groups:
· Organizational
structure <http://lingvopro.abbyyonline.com/ru/Search/GlossaryItemExtraInfo?text=%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b3%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b7%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%8f%20%d1%81%d1%82%d1%80%d1%83%d0%ba%d1%82%d1%83%d1%80%d0%b0&translation=organizational%20structure&srcLang=ru&destLang=en>
group.
This group consists of models, which
describe the organizational structure of the company, as well as other elements
of the internal infrastructure of the organization.
· Function
group.group consists of models, which used to describe the company's strategic
goals, functions, and other elements of the functional organization.
· Information
group.section, "Information group" consists of models, which describe
the information using in the organization.
· Processes grouptype
of group consists of models, which used to describe the business processes and
the various relationships between the structure, functions and information.
analysis of the opportunities of
ARIS for a computer-aided design of business processes, BPwin and Erwin, Visio.
Visio
|
BPwin & ERwin
|
ARIS
|
1) Creating a graphics image and a visual
analysis of an individual chart, using structural and object-oriented
approaches.
|
1) Design an organizational structure
|
1) Control system simulation
|
|
1) Design a functional structure
|
2) Management of business processes of an
organization
|
3) Supply a chain management
|
|
3) Design a business processes
|
4) Process improvement and change management
|
|
4) Engineering an information system
|
5) Implementation workflow - systems
|
|
5) Generation a database
|
6) Implementation ERP - systems
|
|
6) Generation a source code boilerplate
|
7) Knowledge management
|
|
|
8) System balanced scorecard
|
|
|
9) Certification
|
|
|
10) ARIS process risk scout
|
|
|
11) Generation of a database and a source code
boilerplate
|
|
|
12) Engineering and integration of an
information system
|
, analyze differences between the
ARIS opportunities for a computer-aided design of business processes, the BPwin
and Erwin, the Visio opportunities, can find that the ARIS methodology is the
most advanced and modern methodology from above - listed and allows to the
users to perform many functions by computer - managed.
Conclusion
a result of this research is
expected the relevant and efficient models of business processes of the
organization - "SetStroyEnergo" for a management efficiency increase.
To achieve this goal the main emphasis will be placed on the features of identification
and formalization for basic procedure of the organization using the system
approach and an Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS)
methodology.on what have been discussed can draw the following conclusion about
the system approach and an Architecture of Integrated Information Systems
(ARIS) methodology. Firstly, the first approach, which includes making a list
of processes having a significant meaning for an organization, gives fast
results, but bears the subjective views of informational sources and is
mechanistic: it begins with the decomposition of the whole into elements, that
is begins with the analysis of the system. In second turn, strategies and
objectives that were designed with using the system approach allow the
organization to adapt itself to the characteristics of the environment and to
oppose the influence of negative factors. Therefore, only the system approach
provides the integrity.same way, if turn to comparative analysis of the
opportunities of ARIS, BPwin and Erwin and Visio, can find that the ARIS
methodology is the most advanced and modern methodology from above - listed.,
use the most innovative and improved tools for study aim to achieving visible
results in short terms.
Bibliography
1. Ackoff
Concept of Corporate Planning. - New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1970
. The
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
4. Шеер
А.-В. Бизнес-процессы. Основные понятия. Теория. Методы. - М.: Весть-МетаТехнология,
1999
. Каменнова
М.С., Громов А.И., Ферапонтов М.М., Шматалюк А.Е. Моделирование бизнеса. Методология
ARIS. - М.: Весть-МетаТехнология, 2001
6. А.И.
Громов, В.Г. Чеботарев. Применение системного подхода к идентификации процессов
организации // Информационные технологии в проектировании и производстве. №3.
- М. Изд-во ФГУП "ВИМИ", 2008.