1University of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20041Lecture 12:Modelling Enterprises Modeling business processes Why business processes? Modelling concurrency and synchronization in business activities UML Activity Diagrams Modelling organisational intent i* modelling language Modelling agents and the strategic dependencies between them Explaining these dependencies in terms of agents’ goalsUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20042Business Processes Business Process Automation Leave existing business processes as they are Look for opportunities to automate parts of the process Can make an organisation more efficient; has least impact on the business Business Process Improvement Make moderate changes to the way the organisation operates E.g. improve efficiency and/or effectiveness of existing process Techniques: Duration analysis; activity-based costing; benchmarking Business Process Reengineering Fundamental change to the way the organisation operates Techniques: Outcome analysis - focus on the real outcome from the customer’s perspective Technology analysis - look for opportunities to expoit new technology Activity elimination - consider each activity in turn as a candidate for eliminationUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20043Modelling Business Processes Business processes involve: Multiple actors (people, business units,…) Concurrent activities Explicit synchronization points E.g. some task cannot start until several other concurrent tasks are complete End-to-end flow of activities Choice of modelling language: UML Activity diagrams …based on flowcharts and petri nets Not really object oriented (poor fit with the rest of UML) Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) New (emerging) standard, loosely based on pi calculusUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20044Refresher: Petri NetsBefore:After: Petri net syntax: Places and transitions Tokens (possibly coloured)2University of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20045ExampleUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20046Example Activity DiagramReceiveOrderReorderItemDispatchOrderCheckLine ItemAssign toOrderAuthorizePaymentCancelOrder[for each lineitem on order]*[in stock][need toreorder][succeeded][failed]University of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20047Activity Diagram with SwimlanesReceiveOrderReorderItemDispatchOrderCheckLineItemAssign toOrder[for each lineitem on order]*[in stock][need toreorder][stock assigned toall line items andpayment authorized]AuthorizePaymentCancelOrder[succeeded][failed]ReceiveSupplyChooseOutstandingOrder ItemsAssign Goodsto Order[for each chosenorder item]*[all outstandingorder items filled]Add Remainderto StockOrderProcessingFinanceStockManagerUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20048i * Background Developed in the early 90’s provides a structure for asking ‘why’ questions in RE models the organisational context for information systems based on the notion of an “intentional actor” Two parts to the model Strategic dependency model - models relationships between the actors Strategic rationale model - models concerns and interests of the actors Approach SD model shows dependencies between actors: goal/softgoal dependency - an actor depends on another actor to attain a goal resource dependency - an actor needs a resource from another actor task dependency - an actor needs another actor to carry out a task SR model shows interactions between goals within each actor Shows task decompositions Shows means-ends links between tasks and goals3University of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 20049E.g. Strategic Dependency ModelThis diagram ©2001, Eric YuUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 200410E.g. Strategic Rationale ModelThis diagram ©2001, Eric YuUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Computer Science© Easterbrook 200411Summary Need to understand business processes Existing business process to understand the problem Potential changes to the business process To investigate alternative solutions Need to understand organisational interdependencies How people depend on one another to achieve their goals How goals relate to
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