A 

prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.

The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον (prototypon), "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος (prototypos),

"original, primitive", from πρῶτος (protos), "first" and τύπος (typos), "impression"

Serena Prototype Composer

Instead of lengthy text-based documents or spreadsheets, Serena Prototype Composer provides a completely new way of
gathering requirements. Serena Prototype Composer makes it possible to simulate how an application will look and function
before any code is ever written. Instead of endless text entries, complex data hierarchies, or too technical UML diagrams, Serena
Prototype Composer makes it easy for business users and business analysts to collaborate on requirements by building simple,
high fidelity prototypes that simulate a working application.

Serena Prototype Composer enables IT organizations to quickly simulate process flows and mock up UI screens to help quickly
clarify requirements.

With Serena Prototype Composer, you can:

 Define and visualize the business process workflow together with business users
 Define or refine screens to mimic the business user interaction experience using a WYSIWYG editor
 Define system interactions over web services and map service inputs and outputs to model elements
 Simulate behavior to understand prototype dynamics.
 An Introductory Guide
by Peter Carter

Business process reengineering (often referred to by the acronym BPR) is the main way in which organizations become more efficient and
modernize. Business process reengineering transforms an organization in ways that directly affect performance.
The Impact Of BPR On Organizational Performance
The two cornerstones of any organization are the people and the processes. If individuals are motivated and working hard, yet the business
processes are cumbersome and non-essential activities remain, organizational performance will be poor. Business Process Reengineering is the
key to transforming how people work. What appear to be minor changes in processes can have dramatic effects on cash flow, service delivery
and customer satisfaction. Even the act of documenting business processes alone will typically improve organizational efficiency by 10%.

How To Implement A BPR Project

The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That
means:

 Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector
or industry.
 Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
 Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
 Defining behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
 Producing key performance measures to track progress.
 Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
 Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.
Once these building blocks are in place, the BPR exercise can begin.

Tools To Support BPR

When a BPR project is undertaken across the organization, it can require managing a massive amount of information about the processes, data
and systems. If you don't have an excellent tool to support BPR, the management of this information can become an impossible task. The use
of a good BPR/documentation tool is vital in any BPR project.

The types of attributes you should look for in BPR software are:
 Graphical interface for fast documentation
 "Object oriented" technology, so that changes to data (eg: job titles) only need to be made in one place, and the change
automatically appears throughout all the organization's procedures and documentation.
 Drag and drop facility so you can easily relate organizational and data objects to each step in the process
 Customizable meta data fields, so that you can include information relating to your industry, business sector or organization in your
documentation
 Analysis, such as swim-lanes to show visually how responsibilities in a process are transferred between different roles, or where data
items or computer applications are used.
 Support for Value Stream mapping.
 CRUD or RACI reports, to provide evidence for process improvement.
 The ability to assess the processes against agreed international standards
 Simulation software to support 'what-if' analyses during the design phase of the project to develop LEAN processes
 The production of word documents or web site versions of the procedures at the touch of a single button, so that the information
can be easily maintained and updated.
The software we use by choice is 2c8, a very comprehensive Swedish system that has been translated into English. 2c8 meets all the above
requirements, and many more, and is better than any system originated in English that we have seen.

Conclusion

To be successful, business process reengineering projects need to be top down, taking in the complete organization, and the full end to end

processes. It needs to be supported by tools that make processes easy to track and analyze

VENSIM

Vensim, the VentanaSimulation Environment, is an integrated framework that supports in

conceptualizing, building, simulatiiing, analyzing, optimizing and deploying models of complex
dynamic systems. Vensim uses a powerful workbench-toolbox metaphor to combine the
simplicity of visual model creation with easy access to a host of powerful model analysis tools.
This yields to spectacular increase in the speed of work and the quality of results.
Vensim comes in four different configuraations allowing users to choose only the functionality
that they need. Vensim Arrow allows user to buils and analyze visual models. Vensim Standard
allows users to simulate models-deriving behaviour fromstructure. Vensim Professional adds
more advanced modeling capabilities and allows users to optimize model performance.

Vensim Arrow
Vensim Arrow is a flexible tool that allows you to sketch information in a fre form and
intelligently rearrange that information to the format most useful to you. Vensim Arrow is as
simple to use as a drawing program but much more powerful. It attaches meaning to the
concepts that you enter allowing easy rearrangement and thorough analysis of your visual
models.

Brainstorming
Vensim allows you to record concepts and associations among those concepts just as users
would on a flip chart. You can use colors, fonts and icons to emphasize ideas and rearrange
things to capture points made in discussion. Vensim allows diffrent people to communicate
their mental models of a process and improve shared understanding.

Casual Loop Diagrams

Vensim Arrow makes building and annotating casual loop diagrams simple and straight
forward. Just enter the concepts you want to include and connect them with arrows. Vensim
Arrow maintains the connections and allows you to rearrange and customize the diagrams as
you want.

Stock and Flow Diagrams

Vensim Arroe supports stock and flow diagramming to capture physical portions of a system.
You cna mix the stock and flows with casual loops to distinguish system components.

Tree Diagram and Outline Tools

The Tree Diagram tool allows you to look at the causes or uses of a concept. Thsi allows you
trace through the logicla connections in a model step by step. The diagrams are generated
automatically on the basis of the connections you have made. You can adjust tje depth of the
diagram to meet your needs. The Outline tool preesents the same information as the Tree
Diagram tool in an outline format.
Loops and Documentation Tools
The Loops tool looks for feedback loops - circular logical interconnections - passing through a
variable. The Documentation tool allows you to review commentary entered on the concepts
in your model and document your model for archival puposes.

Other Diagrams
Vensim Arrow allows you to build a number of different typres of diagrams including flow
charts and fishbone diagrams. You can use different diagrams to represent the same
information. Because Vensim Arrow keeps track of the concepts you enter and their
connectionc, diagrams in different formats can be kept logically consistent.

Workbench Toolbox Metaphor

Vensim uses an intuitive workbench-toolbox metaphor to let you analyze the models you have
built. The tools arrayed along the left are applied to the model you are workign with focusing
on a particular concept. For a given concept, these tools allow you to identify what causes it,
where it is used and which feedback loops it was involved in. You can change the concept you
are focused on by clicking in a tool output window on the next concept of interest and thus
trace through your model's structure. All tools can be configured to meet your specific needs.

Vensim Standard
Vensim Standard provides an integrated environment for the developement and analysis of
dynamic feedback models. Form the free form entry of cause and effect relationships to the
thorough analysis of simulation ersults Vensim Standard speeds you through every step.

Flexible Diagramming
Vensim Standard contains all the functionality of Vensim Arrow. The construction of casual
toop and stock and flow diagrams is straightforward and rewarding. Vensim Standard allows
you to further develop these diagrams into complete simulation models.

Visual Model Creation

clicking on an input, fuctiomn, or symbol enters it into the equation. Vensim Standard has over
50 built in fuctions to choose from including a relaitonal IF THEN ELSE

When you have finished writing an equation, Vensim checks it, and records the relationships
defined. If you enter an equation with structure different from that on a diagram, the diagram
will automatically be updated to reflect whatever changes you have made.
While facilitatinf diagram based equation writing, Vensim Standard allows you to write any
equation you choose, with or without an underlying diagram. Vensim facilitates the
straightforward expression of mathemeticla relaitonships:

profit = revenue - cost

the addition of unit and description fiels further clarify the meaninf, purpose, and origin of
every equation. A Units Checking tool allows you to check for dimensional consistency across
equations.

Simulation and Analysis

Simulation is the process of taking the equations you have entered and using them to generate
behaviour. this process is straightforward, and Vensim provides a simple mechanism to enter
and record changes to assumptions. In gaming mode, simulation can be interrupted and
restarted, with any inputs you make recorded to help in late analysis.

Vensim Standard employs the same workbench-toolbos metaphor availabe in Vensim Arrow. In
addition to the Tree, Outline, Loop and Documentaion tools Vensim Standard provides tools
for displaying simulaiton results and analyzing and comparin simulation runs.

Graphs and Tables

Vensim Standard makes it easy for you to generate graphs and tables for simulaiton output.
Because of the way Vensim stores data it is easy to compare simulaiton results among different
simulations of a model and different models.

Casual Tracing
Vensim Standard provides you with Casual Tracing capability that allows you to quickly
determine the cause of behaviour you are seeing. By double clicking on a variable of interest
you cna immediately see graphs for the casual inputs to that variable. Analysis that would take
hours with other tools cna be done in seconds with Vensim.

Reality Check
Reality check is a powerful technology available in Vensim Standard that allows you to test
simulaiton models against your understanding of a problem. Reality Checks ar statements
about conditions and the consequences that must follow, such as "if there are no workers we
do not produce anything," or "if production is constant sales cannot continue to grow." these
statements are about the behaviour of the real world as you understand it. Vensim tests to see
if the model conforms to this understanding, and highlights any violation of a Reality Check.
Vensim will automatically exercise every Reality Check you write to help you ensure model
quality throughout the developemnt process.

Vensim Professional
Vensim Professional provides an integrated environment for the developemnt, analysis and
optimization of dynamic feedback models. It allows easy incorporation of data from outside
sources, has subscripting capabilities to represent multiple sectors, offices, or regions and
supports the definitions of specialized functions using macros.

Vensim Professional contains all the diagramming, model building and analysis tools of Vensim
Standard. It also has tools for building Bar Charts from simulation results, and doing statisticla
results.

Straightforward Model Building

In addition to allowing equation by equation editing, Vensim Professional has a text editor that
lets you modify all equations together, facilitating many of the shortcuts a text editor can
supply. In addition to standard editor features, Vensim's text editor has automatic cursor
positioning for error correction and model analysis.

Syntactic and semantic errors are reported, with automatic cursor positioning at the place the
error was detected. The text editor also supports automated backup and, at your option,
maintains a log of all changes made.

Vensim Professional allows you to move between equation by equation editinf and full model
editing without losing information. Any changes you make in a diagram, an equation, or the full
model are automatically incorporated into the alternative model representations.

Vensim Professional also supports the importation of equations written in alternative modeling
languages through the use of a translator. The traanslated model can be used just as any
Vensim model.

User Defined Macros

In many cases you want to repeat a set of computations for a number of different variables.
For example, you might have a particular trent extrapolaiton technique you would like to use.
Vensim Professional allows you to define and use macros in ordeeer to minimize repetitive
equation writing. Vensim will, at your option, allow you to look inside the macros during model
analysis to uncover any hidden behaviour they generate.
Data Use
Vensim is designed to make extensive use of varied forms of data (time series, data with
missing values, subjective data) both as inputs ot models and for testing and validating model
behavior. You can enter any number of data series, each with any number of arbitrarily spaced
data points. Data from databases and other sources is easily incorporated.

Data and simulation results can be viewed and used in the same way. Vensim can make full use
of data with measurement errors. You can apply Vensim's Kalman filtering techniques to
extract the maximum amount of information available in the data.

Optimization
Vensim Professional has a powerful optimizer that enables model calibration, in order to
reconcile what is happening between real data and the model. The optimizer also allows
assessment among various policy alternatives for selection of the optimal policy. Randomized
search, grid search and vector search can all be performed. Vensim Professional can also be
used to test the sensitivity of model performance to changes in any and all parameter values.

Vensim provides a Kalman filtering capability to estimate the values of hidden and unobserved
variables. In addition, the optimization capabilities can be used to statistically estimate
unknown parameter values.