Intelligent software tools for workflow process design (EIT.6446)

Research
Business Process Redesign (BPR) is a popular methodology for companies to boost the performance of their operations. In essence, it combines a radical restructuring of a business process with a wide-scale application of information technology (IT). However, BPR on the work floor currently more closely resembles the performance of an art than that of a science.
Available scientific methods hardly find their way to practice. This proposal aims to close the gap between theory and practice. It focuses on the design of a general type of business process, which is often found within banks, insurance companies and governmental agencies: the workflow process. The proposed project aims at an extension of the capabilities of an existing, widely used process modeling tool in industry with 'intelligent' capabilities to suggest favorable alternatives to an existing workflow design. The proposed capabilities of the integrated tool are twofold. On the one hand, there is the possibility to generate a revolutionary new alternative of an existing workflow. This is done on the basis of a specification of the product that it is supposed to deliver, in conformance with the 'Product-based Workflow Design' methodology. On the other hand, the 'intelligent' tool can suggest evolutionary, local updates to an existing workflow design. These updates only gradually improve its performance. Improvements are suggested on the basis of 'best practices' that have accumulated in the literature on BPR over the last decade. The incorporation of both the revolutionary and evolutionary approach in an existing workflow modeling tool leads to two interrelated subprojects. Funding is requested for two Ph.D. students to perform this research.

Utilization
Due to the current economic recession, BPR seems to enjoy a second rise after its introduction in the early nineties. Many companies try to reduce cost and BPR is a popular instrument to accomplish this. An 'intelligent' workflow modeling tool, should facilitate organizations in getting the most out of their BPR initiatives.
The applicability of the 'intelligent' workflow modeling tool in practice is a core element of the proposed research. This explains the attention in the proposed approach for the evaluation of a working prototype in realistic settings. In addition, we have selected as a basis for the integrated workflow modeling/redesign tool the popular tool Protos. It is used by hundreds of organizations in more than 25 countries for the specification, documentation and analysis of workflow processes and the dominant process modeling tool on the Dutch market. The selection of Protos ensures a large community who will be interested in the outcomes of this research in the short term. In the longer term, other user communities may profit from this research, as this project aims at the development and application of generally accessible research results. The developer of this tool, Pallas Athena, will be actively involved in this research. Pallas Athena will provide the necessary support to extend the existing tool and will also provide valuable input in the form of realistic, historic workflow models to the researchers. The company will actively look for opportunities among its clients to test the tool in practice. The project is divided into two related subprojects. The first subproject aims for the integration of revolutionary redesign capabilities on the basis of a matured redesign methodology. The proposed evaluation activities will very closely resemble the tool's use in practice, by involving real end-users and realistic workflow models. The focus in the second subproject will be on the development of a sound scientific basis for the evolutionary redesign 2 capabilities. The evaluation of this part of the tool will take place on the basis of the analysis of historic workflow models from practice.

Er zijn 4 bedrijven bij dit project betrokken.