BILMA: business process improvement based on measurement activities

• Autores: Laura Sánchez González
• Directores de la Tesis: Félix O. García Rubio (dir. tes.) , Francisco Ruiz González (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha ( España ) en 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Mario G. Piattini Velthuis (presid.) , Aurora Vizcaíno Barceló (secret.) , Antonio Ruiz Cortés (voc.) , Alfonso Enrique Rodriguez Rios (voc.) , Juan Manuel Vara Mesa (voc.)
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• Resumen

  • Process improvement is recognized as the principal benefit of process modeling initiatives. Quality considerations are important when conducting a process modeling project. While the early stage of business process design might not be the most expensive, it tends to have the highest impact on the benefits and costs of the business processes implemented. In this context, the quality assurance of the models has become a significant objective. Little research has taken place with regard to the characteristics that should be considered for an effective assessment of the models¿ quality. These quality characteristics can only be assessed a posteriori, so it is of central importance for quality management to identify significant predictors for them.

    In this line, the quality assurance of business process models is considered to be an important factor for modeling success at an enterprise level, and should be addressed in the most objective manner through the application of measures on these models. However, the assessment of measurement results is not a straightforward task: it requires the identification of relevant threshold values for each measure, which are able to distinguish different levels of process model quality. Design decisions usually have to build on thresholds, which can reliably indicate that a certain counter-action has to be taken. This cannot be achieved by solely providing measures, but requires a systematic identification of effective and meaningful thresholds. There is currently no consensual technique with which to obtain these values.

    Furthermore, few initiatives with which to guide the redesign of business process models have been published, and one of the few examples is a collection of pragmatic hints that lack a sound research foundation. This constitutes another limitation in business process model improvement.

    Bearing in mind the aforementioned ideas, in this thesis we define a framework for Business Process Model Improvement based on Measurement Activities (BPMIMA), which includes a group of quality characteristics and a set of empirically validated measures with which to predict them. This framework also includes thresholds associated with these measures to provide an evaluation of measurement results. When the thresholds exceeded indicate non-suitable quality levels, redesign takes place by using BP modeling guidelines. Finally, most of these activities can be automated by a prototype tool. In summary, the aims of this thesis are the following: ¿ To define a framework for business process model improvement ¿ To collect a group of quality characteristics in order to describe a reference model for the quality assessment of business process models.

    ¿ To contribute to the empirical validation of measures with which to predict the quality of business process models ¿ To determine threshold values for the assessment of measurement results.

    ¿ To define guidelines for novice modelers.

    ¿ To automate the measurement and evaluation of the quality of models.