Browsing by Author "Ilahi, Latifa"
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- BPFlexTemplate: A Business Process template generation tool based on similarity and flexibilityPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Ghannouchi, Sonia Ayachi; Martinho, RicardoIn large organizations with multiple organizational units, process variants emerge due to many aspects, including local management policies, resources or socio-technical limitations. Organizations then struggle to improve a business process which has no longer a single process model to redesign, implement and adjust. In this paper, we propose an approach to tackle these two challenges: decrease the proliferation of process variants in these organizations, and foresee, at the same time, the need of having flexible business processes that allow for a certain degree of adjustment. To validate our approach, we first conducted case studies where we collected six real-world business process variants from two organizational units of the same healthcare organization. We then proposed an algorithm to derive a template process model from all the variants, which includes common and flexible process elements. We implemented our approach in a software tool called BPFlexTemplate, and tested it with the elicited variants.
- BPFlexTemplate: a software tool to derive flexible process model templatesPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Martinho, Ricardo; Ghannouchi, Sonia AyachiMost organizations have difficulties in enforcing the same procedures/business processes across their multiple organizational units. For instance, we can find different activities, activity orders or even subprocesses in student enrollment procedures across several faculties of the same belonging University. This happens due to the need of these organizational units to adjust and adapt their business processes to different and evolving contexts, lack of resources or even cultural aspects. On the other hand, handling a significant number of these process variants becomes hard for an organization that seeks to manage and optimize time and resources allocated to these business processes. In this paper we present a web-based software tool that is able to compare several process variants and derive a flexible template process model. The template foresees not only the inclusion of process elements that are common to all compared variants, but also non-common (flexible) elements which result from adjustments made in each variant. These flexible elements can or cannot be later executed by each organizational unit. This process model template will allow process engineers to: 1) enforce a similar process model across all the organization, and therefore control process variants proliferation and manage business processes more efficiently; and 2) allow organizational units to benefit from adjustments made throughout time, based on each organizational unit’s experience and knowledge.
- A Real-World Case Scenario in Business Process Modelling for Home Healthcare ProcessesPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Ghannouchi, Sonia Ayachi; Martinho, RicardoOrganizations strive to improve the quality of provided services to their customers by making efficient use of Business Process Management (BPM). Home healthcare structures are considered as an enabler for linking daily life of patients with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). BPM relies first on business process model specifications that capture the desired workflows in the organization and how exceptional conditions should be handled. Home healthcare is still less developed in Tunisia than in other countries such as Canada, United States, Australia, France and Italy. This is due to many reasons, being one of the most relevant the expensive cost of hospitalization at home with no support from health insurances. In addition, it is badly organized, with many ad-hoc processes, making them hard to implement and improve. In this paper, we assess a real-world case scenario of home healthcare in Tunisia through interviews with involved actors in a private clinic. Also, we present the derived process models of home healthcare for this case. Our main goal is to have a sound starting point for the BPM cycle, by accurately modelling all business processes involved in home healthcare. With these models, we intent to: 1) optimize the processes by automating and rationalizing some activities, 2) implement them in a Business Process Management System (BPMS), 3) execute them, and 4) improve them through instance harvesting and remodeling.
- Similarity Based Approach for Comparing Home Healthcare Processes Models in PortugalPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Martinho, Ricardo; Ghannouchi, Sonia Ayachi; Domingos, Dulce; Rijo, Rui, Rui Pedro Charters LopesSimilarity metrics applied to business processes are used to compare and assess the similarities and differences between a set of process models. The results of this comparison can then serve as input to take management decisions, such as to prevent the proliferation of process variants. This is particularly useful in large (enterprise or governmental) organizations with multiple organizational units that share the same business processes. Examples include faculties of a university and their student enrollment process, hospitals or primary care centers of National Health Services and their medical appointment process, or even the pick and pack process across several warehouses of a large company. Due to many aspects (i.e. local policies, resources, socio-technical aspects, culture), a certain business process is individually evolved and refined across the multiple organizational units of the same organization. Organizations have then to deal with several process variants, which hampers the collection of performance indicators, optimization procedures and business process management overall. In this paper, we perform a similarity based approach to assess the similarities and differences that exist between home healthcare processes for two public primary healthcare centers in Portugal. We will achieve this by eliciting business process models according to best practices. Then, we lead a similarity based comparison between the elicited models. This is in order to show how much models are different in the same organization.
- Towards a Business Process Management Governance Approach Using Process Model Templates and FlexibilityPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Martinho, Ricardo; Ghannouchi, Sonia Ayachi; Domingos, Dulce; Rijo, Rui, Rui Pedro Charters LopesOrganizations that include several organizational units with similar business processes often suffer, with time, from the proliferation of processes variant models that significantly deviate from the original (to be followed) one. Take, for instance, student enrolment processes on distinct faculties of the same university, or healthcare processes of a National Health Service across distinct health centers. This can lead to poor global (process) management, since measuring and improving processes can be difficult with too many variants of the same business process. Related works analyse the generalisation and flexibility aspects of process models and related variants, but do not deal with the overall process model lifecycle, especially for this kind of organizations. This paper introduces a novel approach for the Governance and continuous improvement of process models for this kind of organizations. The approach is based on the general Business Process Management (BPM) cycle for process models, proposing concrete techniques for the phases of evaluation, classification and analysis between real and concrete variant models from each organizational unit. It includes the use of similarity metrics and flexibility in business processes, and the main output is a continuously improved template process model. This template foresees a common process part (best practice-based) including process elements collected from the process model variants verified in organizational units, and a flexible part, referring to possible (controlled) deviations that can be tolerated by the organization’s headquarters. This approach enhances overall business process management and associated resources by enforcing uniform (good) behavior across similar organizational units. We present the results of our approach applied to a real-world case study of homehealthcare related business process models.