Business

 
Process Extraction for Information
Technology/Business Alignment
Azmat Ullah Richard Lai
Department of Computer Science & Computer Engineering Department of Computer Science & Computer Engineering
La Trobe University La Trobe University
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne, Australia
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Structuring a good working relationship between has a rich history. It first originated in Fredrick Taylor’s
business and information technology (IT) is synonymous with theories of scientific management that appeared in the early
structuring good alignment. Alignment refers to the degree of fit 1920s [4]. Ever since, scholars have studied the issue of BPM
between business and IT to reach a common business goal. in organizations which has resulted in the availability of
However, it has long been accepted that establishing strong
alignment is a complex task due to a lack of information on how
different BPM techniques today such as [2, 7-15]: business
organizational components and their included activities can be process modelling, business process reengineering, business
extracted. Organizations consist of several components such as performance management, workflow, Six Sigma, etc. After a
model, strategy, operations, processes etc. Processes in business comprehensive literature survey on the issue of alignment and
operations are stable key elements which need to be well BPM, we believe that the concept of extracting business
managed and fit optimally with the proposed business strategy processes and business process modelling in the context of
and other related organizational activities. In this paper, we alignment has not been previously studied in great depth. Only
present a method of Business Process Extraction (BPE) at an a few researchers have examined the business process
early stage of development of the information systems (IS). modelling issue [1-3, 29], but, so far, there is no published
Keywords—business process extraction; business process
work on business process extraction from the perspective of
activities extraction; IS requirements; business-IT alignment; IS alignment between business and IT [18].
development; bubble diagram; brain storming. Extracting business processes in alignment research is the
art of discovering business processes in depth, which includes:
I. INTRODUCTION firstly, who the process stakeholders are, which client will be
Over the past several years, researchers have paid an paying for the implementation of the process, which users will
increasing amount of attention to the importance of alignment interact with the process, and which developers will
between business and IT. Alignment can be defined as the implement the process. It secondly examines why business
optimized synchronization between dynamic business needs processes including business goals and objectives.
objectives and respective technological support by IT. The Thirdly, where a process is going to be used, it discovers the
concept first appeared in the early 1970s and since then, business organization environment. Fourthly, when business
researchers have tried to fix the issue by studying various needs a process, it discovers the process development
organizational factors [29]. Alignment can be examined from timeframe. Therefore, the in-depth extraction of business
different perspectives representing different organizational processes is required prior to deriving the system requirements
factors such as: structure [25], culture [26], strategy [27], and from the process and to develop the IS [18-21-33].
social aspects [28]. It can be categorized into different phases, This paper extends the already published work [18] and
where every phase represents a precise part of the presents a bubble diagram-based method, namely BPE, that
organization, such as internal or external phase, department enables business and IT analysts to extract the complete
phase, project phase etc. Successful alignment may result in business process and its included activities in the early stage
better business performance for the organization [16-17]. of IS development. The steps in this method are as follows: 1)
However, achieving strong alignment has long been regarded the identification and confirmation of business process
as a complicated task by alignment researchers and business activities, which answers what needs to be included in the
executives [18, 33], as alignment is an adaptive method within process; 2) the derivation of business process tasks and their
the firm rather than an event, requiring an ongoing effort of analysis, which describes the behaviour of the process and
long term business process planning, the reengineering of encompasses the frequent communication with business
business goals/objectives, and business process formulation process user to determine the detailed activities and features of
that supports and shapes the system requirements. the process, resolution or ambiguity in the process; 3) the
Consequently, business process management is required. derivation of business sub-models from tasks to identify the
Business process management (BPM) is a standard to hierarchy among the process included tasks; and 4) the
manage and improve business processes in organizations. The analysis and linkage of business sub-models to represent the
term BPM might be new but the concept of business process flow of the business process sub-models.

978-1-4799-7996-7/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 II. BUSINESS PROCESS EXTRACTION To overcome these issues in business processes, senior
Processes   in business operations are stable key elements management invests a huge part of the company’s budget in
which need to information technology resources because they believe the
  be well managed and fit optimally with the method of organizing business processes suffers due to poor
proposed business
  strategy and other related organizational
activities. IT support. This raises a fundamental question underlying
  these conversions: how can an IT department actually help
Business process extraction in the field of process
  business to implement their processes if they lack information
management is the art of discovering the process stakeholders
 
and all the processes, including the tasks, which motivate the on process extraction.
development   of a software system that fulfils the proposed The aims of this method are twofold: firstly, to extract the
 
process implementation. A process stakeholder is an business process which includes: what problems need to be
individual or  organization that will either gain or lose from the solved in the process?; how to identify the process including
 
success or failure of a software system, such as clients who stakeholders and system boundaries?; who is the process
 
pay for the development of the process, users who interact stakeholder?; why do processes need to be implemented?; and
 
with the system to do their work, and developers who where is the process going to be used?; and secondly, to
implement and maintain the system. Stakeholders who are identify the process in detail and establish a process hierarchy
clients and users play a pivotal role in the extraction of including tasks, which is known as business process modeling.
business process, as usability can only be defined in terms of BPE is divided into two parts: the identification of the overall
the location where the process is going to be used and in terms enterprise, and the extraction of business processes as well as
of the targeted user population. Moreover, the method of their related activities, as shown in Figure 1. Part 1 describes
identifying tasks within the process focuses the system the specifications of the overall enterprise, which consist of
analysts on the process problem domain and the needs of the the organization, the business strategy, and the business
stakeholders rather than on solutions to those problems. infrastructure. All these must be in concordance to assure the
Clients often have difficulties articulating their business complete extraction of business processes. The concept of part
process. Therefore, it is the IS analyst’s responsibility to 1 of the method is based on our already published work [18].
identify information about the process that the clients In stage 1, the organization environment was designed by
currently use in the process and those they might want to means of organizational aims objectives, leadership, resources,
include in the process. and organizational strategy. The organizational aims and
Moreover, modelling in process extraction is referred to as objectives are used to map long and short range business
a collection of techniques and methodologies that are used to goals, which are the goals that help to achieve the
model the system’s behaviour and its requirements. In other organizational mission statement. Leadership represents the
words, process modelling is a language which is used to process in which one or more persons use the employee
identify organizational goals that need to be achieved. The workforce to accomplish organizational tasks. Resources
language is derived from a modelling language known as the describe the organizational rules and regulations, and finally
Extended Enterprise Modelling Language (EEML). It is a the business strategy is used to present the organizational
useful technique by which to capture, clarify and link the plans.
business goals of an organization. Linking goals within the The concept of business strategy has been widely studied
business process is a complex task, as one business process in the areas of business and information technology. It is
can carry more than one goal. Therefore, it is important that defined as a long or short term plan of action in the business
every goal/task within the business process is explored and that aims to achieve a particular goal or set of goals. Defining
linked with others for better clarification of the process. To and modelling a business strategy is always a difficult task for
model the business process, we used business process business executives and managers. As a consequence, various
modelling notation (BPMN). The language was developed by techniques such as [16, 31-32], have appeared in the literature
the business process management initiative group and is in order to support business strategy definition, strategy
widely accepted by business analysts and business process modelling, and extraction of strategy. In stage 2 of the
researchers [22]. methodology, business strategy was designed by means of
organizational scope (aims); who are your customers and what
III. THE METHOD OF BPE are their needs (strategic target and goals); are the customers
Organizations have their own unique way of conducting aware of the company product (awareness); how to evaluate
business and these unique ways are captured in the business the strategy (fulfilment); and how to maintain company
processes of the organization. The processes in the business achievements in the market (quality). In stage 3, the business
are primary elements of organizational success. However, infrastructure was designed by means of a business role
although effectively managing business processes is a key model, a process map, an activity model, processes, and a
activity for business prosperity, there remains huge gaps in resource model. A role model is a standard model that is used
understanding how to drive business efficiency through a to measure the organizational actors’ roles and
process approach. Building a comprehensive and clear responsibilities, where each role defines a set of activities
understanding of business processes, how they function, and within the process. In the process map, the business strategy
how to manage them remain key issues in modern businesses. process was modelled, which defines the managerial scope
and organizational planning. The activity model represents the activities that bring value for the consumers. Finally, the
organizational activities that have been used to work with resource model presents the most vital notions of the
 
partner organizations including clients, dealers, competitors organizational domain that are used within processes, such as
 
etc. The process model is used to define a complete and rules and regulations.
dynamically  synchronized set of mutual and transactional
 
 
 
 
     
 
 
 
 

   

FIGURE 1: BPE FRAMEWORK

selected business process and encompasses this with the

Business process management (BPM) is the method used analysis of business tasks; step 3 represents the way to derive
to tie together all organizational elements to ensure a business sub-models from the tasks; and step 4 depicts the
successful business environment within the organization. analysis and linkage of business sub-models in order to
Moreover, BPM is a management practice that provides identify all included sub-models within the selected business
support to companies in order to model, organize, and process and established hierarchy between them.
optimize their business processes for significant growth. A Identification and confirmation of business process
number of techniques have appeared in the literature to activities (Step 1): One of the first and most important
manage the business processes [2, 4-15], but problems still requirements of business process extraction is to identify what
exist due to rapid changes in the business environment, problem needs to be fixed in the process, and hence identify
particularly in relation to changes in consumer services, process boundaries. These process boundaries describe where
technologies and product lifecycles. To overcome these issues, the process will fit into the business environment and what
organizations continuously update their business processes in needs to be included in the process (process activities). It is
response to market demand; for example, in the 60s, the often the case that business experts find it hard to articulate
predominant organizational concentration was to produce their business process requirements. To this end, IT experts
quantity, in the 70s to produce low cost products, in the 80s to are responsible to identify the process included activities that
produce quality products, in the 90s to produce products in business currently performs and those activities that they
less time, and in the 21st century, the organizational process might need to perform in the future. To extract and confirm
has changed towards offering more services [30]. Part 2 of the business processes among business and IT experts, BPE uses
BPE method divides the aims of this paper into four steps: step the concept of the bubble diagram by considering the
1 extracts the business process in the form of identification following rules:
and confirmation of the process as well as their included
activities; step 2 is used to derive the business tasks from the
 that must be reached. In another words, a task is a planned
The loop discussion rule describes business process cyclic event that can be used to represent the business process
 
behaviour under certain conditions. For example, the activities in the form of simple structures. To compute activity
 
discussion process between business and IT experts continues functionality similarity and duplication among the process
 
until they reach the last activity in the studied business activities, we apply Cosines and Dice in the below mentioned
 
process. In the Loop_Discussion rule, PA is the process ratio to construct a goal tree.
activity and  LA is the condition rule. Therefore, the loop
discussion PA   continues until the condition PA is true and will Cosines ratio:
  “Loop_Discussion (PA, LA)”. Similarly, P in
be indicated as
the Loop_Discussion
  rule is the business process and L is the
last activity   in the process. Continue a function P until
condition L   is true and will be indicated as
Dice ratio:
“Loop_DiscussionManage
  (P, L)”.
 

In most of the scenarios, IT experts are responsible for In these ratios, X and Y are indicated as business process
exploring the process included activities/requirements and activities and SIM is a function that computes the functionality
giving options to business experts. If business experts are similarity in activities and duplication. For example, SIM (X,
agreed on any optional activity, it is then selected for Y) = 1, if both X and Y activities are identical with each other;
implementation, otherwise the activity is rejected. In the SIM (X, Y) = 1-x, if both X and Y activities have a similar
ProcessActivity_Discussion rule, PAx, and PAy are two functionality but different names and origins; SIM (X, Y) = 1-
alternative activities in the business process, and OC is the y, activity X is a hyponym of Y if X has similar functionality
optional condition. If OC, then PAx, else PBy indicated as with Y and finally; SIM (X, Y) = 1-x, activity Y is a hyponym
ProcessActivitiy_Discussion (OC, PAx, PBy). Moreover, PA of X if Y has similar functionality with X. A goal tree is a tool
and PB are two process activities, C is a condition. The for breaking down an abstract level of business process
optional activities are indicated as Activity_option (C, Ax, By). requirements into further smaller requirements that break
The method at this stage answers the following: (1) who are down the process required action into more detailed or specific
the business process stakeholders, including consumers or actions..
clients (who pay for the process implementation), information Derivation of business sub-models from tasks (Step 3):
system engineers (who model, design, develop, and maintain Despite how accurately business tasks reflect the business
the business process), and consumers (who interact with the process needs, it may not be possible to implement these tasks
business process after implementation). For implementation of all at once. In finalizing the process activities to be
the business process, consumers play a pivotal role in the implemented, it will be important to prioritize them according
extraction of process included activities, as process usability to their functionality. A model is a fundamental activity in the
can only be defined in terms of identification and confirmation field of requirements engineering which can be used to
of consumer exactions; (2) what needs to be included in the describe the complete system or specific function of the
business process (identification of process included activities); system. Moreover, it can be defined as a graphical
(3) why business processes are needed (identification of representation of the tasks in the business process that interact
process aims and objectives); (4) where the process is going to with the system. However, in the context of business process
be used (identification of the process belonging to the business extraction, the model deals with understanding a business
environment); (5) a clear understanding (developing the organizational structure, process included tasks, and behaviour
agreement between business and IT experts on one single of tasks. Modelling a business process is often used to capture
point); and (6) what else needs to be included in the process the objective of the information system, by describing the
(alternatives). behaviour of the business process that the system has to fulfil.
Derivation of business process tasks and their analysis This behaviour can be described in terms of business process
(Step 2): Once the business process and its related activities goals/tasks, objectives, and resources.
are identified and confirmed between the business and IT Once the business process tasks are identified and
analysts, there is a need to interpret and match the process- analysed, we then model each task separately, according to
generated activities to the system requirements. The process algorithm 1. For each task, we first check the validity of the
activity matching method uses similarity techniques when any task. If the task is invalid or contains some errors, the message
duplication or mismatch issue is raise. This allows IT experts “invalid business process task” is generated and we quit the
to identify duplicated activities in the process as well as to process and start with a new task. But if the selected task is
identify the activities which are functionality wise-dependent valid, we then set up the following elements in order to
with each other, so that the activities can be grouped into the generate a model from the task: “set up the start activity”, “set
task that clarifies their purpose, according to the system up the task included goals”, “set up the gateway”, and “set up
requirements. A task can be defined as a business objective the end activity”. Finally, the task has been modelled using the
business process modelling notation (BPMN). BPMN is a been badly affected due to non-alignment between business
standard modelling language to bridge the gap between the and IT. Organizations need to change their business processes
  and implementation.
business model rapidly for a number of reasons: the appearance of new laws
  and regulations, the need for bigger and more complex
 
Algorithm 1: Modeling business process tasks systems, the increasing demand of user expectations and so
  on. This rapid change in business processes results in a lack of
1. PROCESS_ENTRY:
  business process understanding in IT departments, which is
  the reason why IT is often unable to implement a system
2. FOR COMPLETE Business Process
3.  
Obtain PROCESS_TASKS; according to the business’ demands. In this paper, we have
 
4. IF PROCESS_TASK # is valid presented a business process extraction method in the context
5.   Set up Process_Model Start_Activity; of aligning information technology with business. The method
6.   Write Process_Model Start_Activity; is based on the bubble diagram and an extension to our
7. ELSE   previous work [18].
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