Project R-4308

An integrated approach to business decisions and processes for business process optimization and control (Research)

Business Process Modeling and Decision Modeling are an important aspect in the management of an organization. Real-life business processes can become very complex, and creating a normative model ensures the desired process execution. A business process can often be regarded as the implementation of business decisions in a way that optimizes a set of business criteria and does not violate a set of process controls. While languages and notations like BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) have become a standard for the modeling of business processes, decisions hardly have a modeling standard. Complex decisions are sometimes even modeled as processes, that act as a guide for decision making. This however results in a serious lack of traceability, maintainability and difficulties during the (re)design of the decision. We propose an approach that first models the structure of the decision and defines the set of process controls. Next, a set of processes are compared and/or generated, which are ultimately evaluated against a set of business criteria. This proposal aims to develop a roadmap for the modeling of business processes based on decisions structures and process controls, and examines the challenges that arise when such decision structures are eventually transformed into more optimal business processes.

01 February 2013 - 31 January 2017