INFS3604 Notes PDF

INFS3604 Notes A business process is a set of end to end activities that provide value through the delivery of a product or service, to the customer of the service. It all starts from the need of a customer and is usually repeated multiple times within the business.          Events are ex...

INFS3604 Notes A business process is a set of end to end activities that provide value through the delivery of a product or service, to the customer of the service. It all starts from the need of a customer and is usually repeated multiple times within the business.          Events are external incidents that happen to an individual. From a business scope, they occur automatically. E.g. receive an invoice Activities: are tasks done by an organisation that are initiated by events. Decisions: particular types of activities where the purpose is to decide between activities. The decision affects the way a process is executed. Objects: documents that are related to elements of the process. Actors: : human actors; organisations; IT Physical objects : equipment; materials; products; locations; hard copies. Immaterial objects : electronic documents and records; Outcome : the execution of a process leads to one or several outcomes. Outcomes should deliver value to actors (customers) involved in the process. Customer : the actor who consumes the output of the Types of processes      Order to cash: starts when a customer places an order to receive a god or service and ends when good or service has been delivered and the corresponding payment has been received. Quote to order: starts when a request for quote is received from the customer and and ends when the customer places the purchase order. o (quote to order + order to cash = quote to cash) Procure to pay: starts when a a business sends a purchase order and ends when the order is received and paid for. Application to approval: starts when an application is received and ends when the application is approved or rejected Issue to resolution: starts when there is a fault in the product or service and ends when the problem is resolved. Negative outcomes are value reducing as the customer does not benefit from the process. Positive outcomes are value adding because they add value. Business process management (BPM) From a customer’s point of view, processes should be faster, better and cheaper. Hence the 3 dimensions of process performance are time, cost and quality. BPM is the body of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze, execute and monitor business processes , with the aim of improving their performance. IT systems and employees should work together as they are interrelated in processes. Process identification The value chain model is a collection of all the activities that an organization carries out to create value for its customers. Process identification refers to systematically defining business processes of organization and establishing criteria to select processes for improvement. The output is process architecture, which represents processes and interrelations and serves as framework for defining priorities and scope of projects. The process checklist is used to identify which chunks of work are business processes. - - - Is it a process at all? o It must be possible to identify main action, which is applied to a category of cases. o Name is of form verb + noun Can the process be controlled? o Repetitive series of events and activities to execute individually observable cases. o Without a clear case notion, process management is not feasible. o Also, without any sense of repetition, a group of business activities may better qualify as a project than as a business process . Is the process important enough to manage? o There is customer who is willing to pay for outcomes Organization that carries out the process would be willing to pay another party for taking over, or o Legal, mandatory framework compels an organization to execute it. Is the scope of the process not too big? o 1:1 relation between initial event and activities Is the scope of the process not too small? o Rule of thumb: there should be at least three different actors excluding the customer involved. o If there are no handoffs between multiple actors or systems, there is little that can be improved using BPM methods. o - Process identification helps identify an organisation’s business processes and prioritise their management based on certain criteria. Process identification steps: 1. Designation (process architecture): involves enumerating main processes and determine the scope of the process (where does the process start and end and how they relate to each other) 2. Prioritisation (prioritised process portfolio): arrange the processes by importance, feasibility and how well they are performing (health). Designation    Core processes generate value as they are directly linked to external customers. E.g. Sales (lead to quote, quote to order, order to cash), Purchase to Pay (direct procurement, e.g. supplies replenishment) Support processes provide resources to help core processes function. They do not have value to the customers. E.g. Purchase to pay (indirect procurement, e.g. parts replenishment, operational resources replenishment…), HR (policies update, recruitment, induction, probation…), Finance. Management process come up with strategic mission and goals of the business, solve conflicts, organise budget, etc. They provide direction, rules and practises. For every support process there is a management process to review the support process regulargly. E.g. Suppliers management (suppliers planning, suppliers acquisition…), Logistics management (logistics planning, logistics controlling…) Processes are independent, but insights into interrelations are required. This can be done by: - - Horizontal (sequence): upstream downstream processes and their value chains (sequence). E.g. breaking down the order-cash process into order-to-deliver and delivery-to-cash. The relationship between the two subprocesses is horizontal because the output of the first one is the input of the next one. Vertical (decomposition): a main process has many subprocesses. E.g. order-to-cash and delivery-tocash is a vertical relationship. Specialisation: general – special product/service Chain value modelling aka chevron notation is the Chain of processes an organization performs to deliver value to customers and stakeholders. More generally, a mechanism to group high level business processes according to an order relation (can be applied to core, support and management processes). Guidelines to identify horizontal boundaries in value chains - Change of key business object in the process Change of granularity of main business object Change in frequency/time Change in intermediate outcome/resolution/objective Prioritization    Importance: Which processes have greatest impact on the organization‘s strategic objectives? o Find out which processes have the greatest impact on the strategic goals. o Consider profitability , uniqueness , or contribution to competitive advantages. o Select those processes for process management that relate to strategy. Health (or Dysfunction): Which processes are in deepest trouble? o Determine which processes are in deepest trouble. These processes may profit the most from BPM initiatives. Feasibility: Which processes are most susceptible to successful process management? o Determine how susceptible process is to BPM initiatives, incidentally or continuously. o Culture and politics may be obstacles. o BPM should focus on those processes where it is reasonable to achieve benefits. How to define Process Landscape Model 1. Clarify terminology : a. Define key terms. b. Use organizational glossary. c. Use reference models. d. Ensure that stakeholders have a consistent understanding of process landscape model. 2. Identify end to end processes : a. Those processes interface with customers and suppliers. b. Goods and services that organization provides are good starting point. c. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Properties help to distinguish processes, including: Product type, Service type, Channel, Customer type. For each end to end process, identify its sequential processes : a. Identify the internal, intermediate outcomes of end to end process. b. Perspectives help set boundaries: Product lifecycle, Customer relationship, Supply chain, c. Transaction stages, Change of business objects, Separation. For each business process, identify its major management and support processes : a. What is required to execute the previously identified processes. b. Typical support processes are management of personnel, financials, information, and materials. c. However, these can be core processes if they are integral part of business model. d. Management processes are usually generic. Decompose and specialize business processes: a. Processes of process landscape should be further subdivided into abstract process on Level 2. b. Further subdivision until processes can be managed autonomously by single process owner. c. Considerations when this subdivision should stop: Manageability and Impact. Compile process profile : a. Each of the identified processes should be described using process profile. b. Process profile supports definition of boundaries, vision performance indicators, resources, etc. Check completeness and consistency : a. Reference models can be used to check whether all major processes are included. b. Reference models can help to check consistency of terminology. c. Check whether all processes can be associated with functional units of organization chart and vice versa. Focus on the process with the poorest health, highest importance and highest feasibility. In the above example you would focus on Loan controlling. Process discovery Process Modelling. BPMN (Business Process model and Notation) is the standard notation for modelling which is supported by a number of tools. Activity Activities capture work performed in a process E.g. Check stock availability (verb, noun format) Events: Start event: Start events trigger a new process instance by generating a token that traverses the sequence flow (tokens source) End event: End events signal that a process instance is completed with a given outcome by consuming a token (tokens sink) Gateway E.g. Purchase order received. (noun, past participle verb format) Gateways capture forking and joining paths in the control flow. Gateway conditions determine which way the process flows next and need to be specified. XOR Gateway: XOR-split: XOR-split captures decision points and takes one outgoing branch XOR-join XOR-join merges alternative flows and proceeds when one incoming branch has been completed. AND gateway AND-split AND gateways are a mechanism to create and synchronise parallel flows AND-split takes all outgoing branches AND-join OR gateway OR-split OR-join AND-join proceeds when all incoming branches have been completed OR gateways are used only when neither one of XOR or AND gateways can be used. OR-split takes one or more branches depending on conditions OR-join proceeds when all active incoming branches have been completed. Sequence Sequence flows represent the order in which activities and events will be performed. They can be assigned a condition to distinguish between alternative branches Guidelines   Give a name to every event and task For tasks: verb followed by business object name and possibly complement. E.g. Issue Driver Licence, Renew Licence via Agency     For message events: object + past participle. E.g. Invoice received, Claim settled Avoid generic verbs such as Handle, Record… Label each XOR split with a condition. E.g. Policy is invalid, Claim is inadmissible Pair up each AND split with an AND join and each XOR split with a XOR join, whenever possible Exception: sometimes a XOR split leads to two end events. Business objects Business objects can be physical or digital information artifacts. E.g. order on paper, invoice on pdf, box containing ordered goods. A data object captures an artifact required (input) or produced (output) by an activity. A data store is a place containing data objects that must be persisted beyond the duration of a process instance. It is used by an activity to store (as output) or retrieve (as input) data objects. A text annotation is a mechanism to provide additional test information to model reader Resources Active resources include process participants (people), software system, equipment. A resource class is a group of active resources that are interchangeable, e.g. a role, an organizational unit or the whole organization. A pool captures a resource class and is generally used to model a business party. A lane captures a resource sub-class within resource class by partitioning a pool and is generally used to model departments (e.g. shipping, finance), internal roles (e.g. Manager, Associate), software systems (e.g. DBMS, CRM) or equipment (e.g. Manufacturing plant) A message flow is used to communicated with other pools outside the company. To capture a message from a party to another, connect a message flow from one pool to the boundary of another. To capture a message that triggers a specific activity /event within a pool, connect a message flow from one activity in a pool to an activity in another pool. A start message event triggers a process by the receipt of a message when an incoming message flow is connected to the event. A white box is a pool that contains activities and events. A balckbox does not have any detail as it is not required. E.g. The seller is a whitebox. The customer is a blackbox. Begin by putting all events and tasks into one pool, making it a white-box. Leave all other pools “black boxed”. Once you have modeled this way, and once the process diagram inside the white box pool is complete, you can model the details (events and tasks) in the other pools if that is useful • Syntax guidelines:    The Sequence Flow cannot cross the boundaries of a Pool Both Sequence Flow and Message Flow can cross the boundaries of Lanes A Message Flow cannot connect two flow elements within the same pool Process decomposition An activity in a process can be decomposed into a sub-process to improve understanding and readability by breaking down large models. Sub processes should be created for the parts of the model that are repetitive, executed in parallel, interrupted or compensated. Decomposed processes are easier to understand and have decreased error probability. Multi-Level modelling Guidelines       Each section of the value chain should be a sub process Simple linear description of the phases of the process No gateways Expand each activity in the value chain nd incrementally add: o Decisions, handoffs (lanes, pools) o Parallel gateways, different types of events o Data objects & data stores Include only major objects used in the process No more than 20 nodes per model Rework and repetition BPMN also provides the loop activity construct to allow the repetition of a task or sub-process. SESE (Single Entry Single Exit) fragment is a fragment delimited by a single entry node and a single exit node. There are no other incoming arcs into the fragment or outgoing arcs from the fragment. This is a form of sequential repetition where you keep repeating the process until the outcome is satisfied. The multi-instance activity (parallel repetition) provides a mechanism to indicate that an activity is executed multiple times concurrently. This is useful when the activity needs to be executed for multiple entities or data items, such as; check availability for each line item in an order separately. Event handling Events model something instantaneous happening during the execution of a process.     Untyped events indicates that an instance of the process is created (start) or completed (end), without specifying the cause for creation/completion. Start message event indicates that an instance of the process is created when a message is received. End message event indicates that an instance of the process is completed when a message is sent. Intermediate message event indicates that an event is expected to occur during the process. The event is triggered when a message is received or sent Messages are used only when the corresponding activity would simply send or receive a message and do nothing else. (i.e. when activity does not really represent a unit of work. Timer event   Start timer event indicates that an instance of the process is created at certain date(s)/time(s), e.g. start process at 6pm every Friday Intermediate Timer Event – Triggered at certain date(s)/time(s), or after a time interval has elapsed since the moment the event is enabled (delay) In and X-OR gateway, a branch is chosen based on conditions that evaluate over available data so the choice is made immediately after the token arrives from incoming flow. If the choice must be delayed until an event happens, the events driven gateway is used after an event. Exception handling Exceptions are events that deviate a process from its normal course. The terminate end event notifies that there is a negative outcome and forces the whole process to abort and wipe off all tokens if any are left behind. If a terminate event is triggered from within a sub process , it will not abort the parent process. Sometimes, exceptions involve stopping a sub-process and performing a special activity. The following events are catching intermediate events. They stop the enclosing activity and start an exception handling routine. Exceptions should be attached to the activity boundary Internal: something goes wrong inside an activity, whose execution must thus be interrupted. Handled with the Error event. External: something goes wrong outside the process, and the execution of the current activity must be interrupted. Handled with the Message event (e.g customer cancelled the order) Timeout: an activity takes too long and must be interrupted. Handled with the Timer event Non-interupting boundary events are used when we may need to trigger an activity in parallel to the normal flow, i.e. without interrupting the normal flow. This must be attached to the activity’s boundary Qualitative Process Analysis Value added analysis 1. Decompose the process into steps. This includes steps performed before a task, during the task and afterwards in preparation for the next task. 2. Classify each step as either: a. Value adding (VA) b. Business value adding (BVA) c. Non value adding (NVA) Value adding activities produce value or satisfaction to the customer. The criteria for this is:    Is the customer willing to pay for this step? Would the customer agree that this step is necessary to achieve their goals? If the step is removed, would the customer perceive that the end product or service is less valuable? E.g. Order to cash process: Confirm delivery date, Deliver products. Business value adding activities are necessary or useful for the business to operate. The criteria for this is:    Is this step required in order to collect revenue, to improve or grow the business? Would the business (potentially) suffer in the long term if this step was removed? Does it reduce risk of business losses? Is this step required in order to comply with regulatory requirements? E.g. Order to cash process: Check purchase order, Check customer’s credit worthiness, Issue invoice, Collect payment, Collect customer feedback Non-value adding activities includes everything else besides VA and BVA. Includes:    Handovers, context switches Waiting times, delays Rework or defect correction Waste analysis Waste analysis is focused from a negative perspective, unlike value adding analysis. Not all NVA activities are in the process model, hence the waste analysis is required to find the invisible sources of waste Sources of waste  Move o o   Unnecessary Transportation includes sending or receiving materials or documents taken as input or output by the process. E.g. university application process involves sending completed form and other relevant documents via post. Motion of resources internally within the process. This is common is manufacturing processes and less common in business processes. E.g. approval process involves a process worker moving around the organization to collect signatures Hold o Inventory includes materials inventory where there is more inventory han what is strictly required and WIP inventory which shows the number of cases that have started but not yet been completed. E.g. when a vehicle does not pass inspection, it is sent back for adjustments and in the pending status o Waiting (and idleness) involves tasks waiting for materials and/or resources or resources waiting for work. E.g. waiting for a request approver during a university admission process. Over-do o Defects involves correcting, repairing or compensating for a defect. Defects encompass rework loops. E.g. request sent back to requestor because of incomplete information or review. o Over Processing involves tasks performed unnecessarily given the outcome of the process or unnecessary perfectionism. Officers spend time verifying the authenticity of transcripts and degrees when only 1% of cases have authenticity issues. o Over Production involves unnecessary process instances are performed, producing outcomes that do not add value upon completion. E.g. equipment being rented and not being used at all Stakeholder analysis Stakeholders have different views on the process. They raise issues from their own perspective. Stakeholder analysis is about gathering data from multiple sources by interviewing stakeholders of different types and reconciling their viewpoints In BPM, stakeholder analysis is commonly used to gather information about issues that affect the performance of the process from different perspectives. There are typically five categories of stakeholders:      The customer(s) of the process. The process participants (workers). The process owner and the operational managers who supervise the process participants. The external parties (e.g., suppliers, sub contractors) involved in the process. The sponsor of the process improvement effort and other executive managers who have a stake in the performance of the process. 5 why’s diagram helps identify the root cause of an issue. Quantitative Process Analysis The thre main dimensions that measure process performance are; quality, time and cost. Flow analysis Cycle time is the one of the most common time related process performance measures. Processing Time+Waiting Time=Cycle Time i.e. time taken by VA activities + time taken by NVA activities = time between start and completion of a process instance.   Processing time: service time Waiting time o Idle time: waiting time in the process o Transit time: time spent in transit between steps, working being moved but no value is being added o Queue time: The time an item is lined up before a critical or bottleneck resource: the work item is ready to go on, but is waiting for the resources for the next step to get to it. o Setup time: time required for a resource to switch from one type of task to another. Calculating the Cycle Time For a sequential path, add all the task times together. CT=T A +T B For an alternative path (XOR gateway), find the weighted average cycle time based on the probability of taking each path. CT = p1 T A + p2 T B For a parallel path (AND gateway), CT is determined by the slowest activities in the path. CT=T A + max ⁡( T B , T C ) For a rework loop, use 1 minus the reword probability. CT=T 1 (1−r ) Cycle time Efficiency Cycle time efficiency is the percentage of time spent actually working on processes. Cycle time efficiency=Processing time÷ Cycletime Process Redesign First, we need to understand the AS-IS process through descriptive modelling, then identify possibilities for improving the design of a process and do prescriptive modelling of the TO-BE process. Transformational methods Explorative redesign is transformational as it puts into question the fundamental assumptions and principles of the existing process structure and aims to achieve breakthrough innovation. E.g. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is an analytical method based on a set of principles that foster outcome-driven processes and integration of information gathering, work and decisions. E.g. Ford case study involved the need to review its procurement process to:    Do it cheaper (cut costs) Do it faster (reduce turnaround) Do it better (reduce error rates) Ford realised that they don’t need to automate things that don’t need to be done at all. Principles of BPR :   Capture information only once at the source o Shared data store  All process workers access the same data  Don’t send around data, share it! o Self service  Customers capture data themselves  Customers perform tasks themselves (e.g. collect documents)  This is a win-win situation as it reduced workload for the business and the customer also has control over the process Subsume information-processing work into real work that produces the information o Evaluated receipt settlement: when receiving the products, record the fulfillment of the PO, which triggers payment    Have those who use the output of the process drive the process o Vendor-managed inventory as the vendor has the primary incentive to place purchase orders o Scan based trading o Push work to the actor that has the incentive to do it Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process o Empower the process workers o Provide process workers with information needed to make decisions themselves o Replace back and forth handovers between workers and managers (transportation waste) with well designed controls Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized. o If same people perform the same function in different locations, integrate and share their work wherever possible o Larger resource pools - less waiting times even with relatively high resource utilization Transactional Methods Exploitative redesign is transactional and inward looking as it operates within the scope of the AS-IS process. It seeks to identify problems and resolve them incrementally, one step at a time. E.g. Heuristic design. The devils triangles shows the trade-offs between cost, time, quality and flexibility. When you gain in one dimension you may lose in another dimension. Flexibility is the ability of a business to act to changes in:    Workload Customer demands and expectations Resource and business partner availability and performance E.g: Following natural disasters (e.g. storms), the number of home insurance claims increases by tenfold. To address this surge, flexibility is required at:    Resource level: Staff redeployment, faster performance Process level: Performing tasks differently to speed up the front end Management: Relaxing business rules and controls where possible Redesign heuristics Task-level 1. Task elimination involves eliminating non-value adding steps wherever these can be isolated and considering reducing manual control steps (checks and appprovals) by o Skipping them when feasible o Replacing them with statistical controls. E.g. : some types of employees are empowered to trigger isolated purchases below $500 without supervisor approval o Skipping them selectively. E.g. invoices from trusted suppliers under $1000 are not checked on a one by one basis 2. Task composition/decomposition involves: o Merging two tasks to eliminate transportation and reduce context switches. This improve waiting time which speeds up processes E.g. : Merging two checks: “Check necessity of purchase”and “Check budget” OR o Splitting a task into two and assigning to separate, specialised resources. This improve processing time which reduces costs. E.g. : Separate a single thick “prepare quote” task into “prepare bill of materials”, “prepare production plan” and “estimate costs and delivery time” 3. Triage involves: o Specialising a task by dividing a general task into two or more alternative tasks. E.g. : Separate approvals of small purchases, medium purchases and large purchases OR o Generalising by integrating two or more alternative tasks into one general task. E.g. Integrate quote preparation for two product lines into one single task Flow-level 4. Resequencing involves reordering tasks according to their cost/effect ratio to minimize overprocessing. E.g. in a university admission process, authenticity check is very slow and only leads to 1% of applications being rejected while committee’s check leads to 80% of applications being rejected. Therefore, put committee’s check first. o Postpone expensive tasks that may end up not being necessary until the end o Put knock out checks first in order to identify problems early 5. Parallelism enhancement involves parallelizing tasks where possible to do tasks that are independent of each other at the same time, in order to reduce cycle time. E.g. : Parallelize “Approve budget” and “Approve necessity of purchase” Process-level 6. Process specialisation/standardisation involves: o Specialisation: one process is split into multiple ones; by customer class, by geographic location, by time period (winter, summer), etc. This decreases flexibility. E.g. : One claims handling process for the summer season (stormy season peak) and one for the winter season (off peak) o Standardisation: two processes are integrated and resources are pooled together. This increases flexibility. E.g. Integrate claims handling for motor insurance  across different brands of a group 7. Resource optimisation involves o Using resources of a given type as if they were in the same room. Avoid one group of people overloaded and another similar group idle. E.g. Share resources across different types of claims (e.g. motor and personal insurance) o Letting people work on things they are good at, however ensure that this does not affect flexibility o When allocating work to resources, consider the flexibility in the near future. Allocate the specialised resources first as they do not have much capacity for other work. o Avoid setups as much as possible  Chain multiple instances of the same task [sequential] – same resource does the same task, hence reduces transport time and contact switching.  Batch multiple instances of the same task [parallel] – increases waiting time. e.g. : Batch all claims for a given geographic area and assign them to the same resources. 8. Communication optimisation involves automating, handling, recording and organization of messages and monitoring customer interactions. 3 areas of optimisation include: o Number of interactions: Gather sufficient information to get to the next milestone (reduce external interactions) o Type of interactions:  Synchronous interactions effective to resolve minor defects. E.g. phone call, face to face  Asynchronous to notify, inform, resolve major defects, request additional information to reach next milestone. E.g. SMS, email o Timing of interactions:  Front loaded process : bulk of information exchange and processing happens upfront. Complete kit concept principles are:  Provide complete and easy to follow instructions for those who will initiate the process.  If a process cannot start, the client should be notified of all defects that could be reasonably identified at the onset of the process  Consider the tradeoff between “incomplete kit” process initiation vs. roundtrip to revise and resubmit a request  Back loaded process : bulk of information exchange and processing happens downstream. E.g. CVS Pharmacy in early 2000s 9. Automation involves: o Use data sharing (Intranets, packaged enterprise systems) to increase availability of information to improve visibility and decision making (subject to security/privacy) and avoid duplicate data entry and transportation o Use network technology to replace physical flow (e.g. paper documents) with information flow. Enabling self-service can achieve this i.e. online forms and web data services o Use tracking technology to identify and locate materials and resources through identification: (Bar code, RFID) and location (e.g. GPS, indoor positioning) o Use business rules technology to automate information processing tasks (including decisions) o Automate end-to-end processes with a dedicated BPM system or system with process automation functionality Process automation There are 2 sides to the BPM story: Conceptual TO-BE process models:      are made by domain experts provide a basis for communication amongst relevant stakeholders must be understandable must be intuitive and may leave room for interpretation contain purely a relevant set of process information Executable process models      are made by IT experts provide input to a process enactment system – BPMS must be machine readable must be unambiguous and should not contain any uncertainties contain further details that are only relevant to implementation There are 5 steps that help to bridge the gap between the two sides 1. Identify the automation boundaries Principle: not all parts of a process can be automated. Start by identifying each task’s type:  Automated tasks: can be fully automated. E.g. o Send task: sends a message through a system. E.g. request raw materials o Receive task: receives a message through a system. E.g. order confirmation o Service task: comes from web service. E.g. check stock availability o Script task: do not require communication with external systems.  User tasks: process participants need to provide input into the process. These tasks are supported partially by the system but still require human intervention. E.g. a claim handler needs to review the case and assign an insurance claim policy accordingly.  Manual tasks: tasks that cannot be automated as it includes a physical component. E.g. retrieving products from the warehouse. 2. Review manual tasks Principle: if it can t be seen by the BPMS , it doesn’t exist.  Find ways to support manual tasks via IT.  Isolate manual tasks and automate the rest 3. Complete the process model Principle: exceptions are the rule. Consider incomplete paths  If we send something to another party, what happens if they do not respond? What happens if the response comes late? What happens if they do not respond the way we expect?  For each task: Can it go wrong and what happens if it goes wrong?  For each external party: Have we captured all messages or queries they might send us? Review all business objects use CRUD (create, read, update or delete) analysis Principle: no data = no decisions, no tasks  Specify all ( electronic) business objects  For each task, determine which business objects it creates, reads, updates, delete (CRUD analysis)  For each decision , determine which objects it needs 4. Adjust task granularity Principle: BPMSs add value if they coordinate handovers of work between resources.  Aggregate any two consecutive tasks assigned to the same performer  Split tasks if they require different performers 5. Specify execution properties  Process variables, messages, signals, errors  Task and event variables and their mappings to process variables  Service details  Code snippets  Participant assignment rules and user interface structure  Task, event and sequence flow expressions  BPMS specific: work queues, forms, connectors…