International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (17 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Analysing supply chain risk management capabilities through collaborative and integrative approach  
  by Waqar Ahmed, Arsalan Najmi, Asif Khan 
  Abstract: In this era of market turbulence and external uncertainty, supply chain risk management is getting top attention in almost every dynamic business. This study is carried out to empirically investigate relational factors influencing demand side and supply side risk management. The sample of 149 valid responses was gathered through a structured questionnaire from marketing, planning, supply chain and logistics professionals from the textile sector and was analysed using Partial Least Squares Smart (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS 3.2.4. This research will significantly contribute to the literature of supply chain risk management as well as helping risk management professionals to understand the integrative and collaborative approach to improve supply chain resilience and robustness.
  Keywords: supply chain risk management; supply chain integration; supply chain collaboration; organisational performance.
  
  
• Simulation modelling and analysis of fresh agri-food supply chain configuration: the case of Arusha City in Tanzania  
  by Martin Dome, Sadananda Prusty 
  Abstract: The purpose of this study was to achieve threefold objectives viz. analyse the existing supply chain configuration of fresh agri-food supply chain (AFSC) in Tanzania, apply the simulation technique to the supply chain configuration and evaluate it using a specialised software. The method adopted in this study involved collection of primary data on arrival of consignment from farmers, brokers, wholesalers and retailers seeking to be served timely and accurately from the Kilombero Central Market (KCM) in Arusha City of Northern Tanzania. For the departure to other designated distribution points, the data were collected concurrently and both were triangulated with secondary data held by the Market Master. The part of the methodology involved building a simulation model based on SIMUL8 Professional and the input data were run as part of studying the largest central market for fresh produce in the northern zone of Tanzania. The findings indicate that, the supply chain configuration of fresh agri-food sub-sector under the case has a defined configuration resulted from doing the business as usual and in an informal arrangement. However, the configuration is marked by inefficiencies of the key facility (KCM) such as time wastage and under-utilisation of personnel and tools/workstations posing a bottleneck in the whole supply chain of the fresh produce in meeting the time-sensitive performance criterion. The managerial implication on the findings suggests for dedicated interventions in restructuring the AFSC and formalising operations and business practices accordingly. Moreover, large-scale simulation studies in AFSC are suggested as part of strategies to improve performance of the sub-sector in Tanzania.
  Keywords: simulation modelling; agri-food supply chains; SIMUL8 Professional; supply chain configuration.
  
  
• Effectiveness of enterprise resource planning systems: case study of Shirin Asal Company  
  by Nader Rezaei, Alireza Mirzaeinezhad 
  Abstract: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems consist of a broad variety of software modules which support the business operations of organisation and decision making process. This research is aimed at investigating the implementation of ERP systems and its effectiveness in Shirin Asal Company of Tabriz. The considered effectiveness criteria in this study are some system features comprise customer-orientation, sharing information, notification way and cooperation of unities. The research population consists of the employees of Shirin Asal Co. including 134 people. The present research is an applied one of field descriptive-survey studies type. The method of testing the hypothesis is correlation and regression test. The results of analyzing the research data suggest that employing enterprise resource planning systems in Shirin Asal power information sharing. Also, using ERP systems will influence the cooperation between the units, enhance customer-orientation, and develop the way of notification.
  Keywords: enterprise resource planning; customer-orientation; sharing information; notification way; cooperation of units.
  
  
• Configurable artifact-centric business process modelling with proclets  
  by Guosheng Kang 
  Abstract: To promote reuse and rapid modelling of business process models, configurable business process modelling is proposed for traditional activity-centric business process models. However, to the best of our knowledge, few approaches on configurable process modelling have been developed for artifact-centric business process models which have emerged in recent years. This paper fills the gap by proposing a configurable process modelling approach for artifact-centric business process models. In our approach, proclets are used to describe the internal lifecycles of artifacts, and the proclet system describes the artifact-centric process model: artifact lifecycles and their interaction. To derive the integrated representation of artifact-centric process model variants, we propose merger operation for two artifact-centric process model variants. We obtain a configurable proclet system by setting configurable points in the integrated proclet system. In a proclet system, transitions and ports can be defined to be configurable elements, and the associated configuration alternatives are proposed correspondingly. Therefore, new proclet systems can be derived by configuration based on the behaviour of the configurable proclet system. The data model can be also derived correspondingly based on the configured proclet system. A running example is presented throughout the paper to illustrate the specification of configurable proclet system modelling and the derivation of new proclet systems.
  Keywords: configurable model; artifact-centric; business process modelling; proclet system.
  
  
• A semantic abstraction criterion to reduce complexity on automatically discovered declarative maps  
  by Pedro Richetti, Fernanda Baião, Flávia Santoro 
  Abstract: A declarative approach can be employed on the definition of constraints that limits process execution possibilities. This perspective is appropriate when dealing with unstructured or flexible processes, a.k.a. knowledge-intensive processes. Declarative process mining may result in complex models owing to the discovery of a high quantity of constraints, producing models with excessive complexity. As abstractions are seen as an effective approach to represent readable models, this work proposes to create language-independent hierarchical declarative maps using a linguistic hierarchy of activities. The proposed approach applies natural language processing to build more abstract declarative models produced by process mining. The presented method was evaluated in a case study with real-life data and support from domain experts. The findings showed that it is possible to generate meaningful groups by looking for the semantics of activity labels in order to create abstract process views with reduced complexity, starting from a low-level declarative map.
  Keywords: process mining; declarative modelling; semantic abstraction; business processes; natural language processing.
  
  
• People management: modelling the work of an ICT team in a coordination and governance organisation of state-owned enterprises  
  by Edna Dias Canedo 
  Abstract: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and people management are crucial to achieve the organisational strategic objectives. In the Secretariat of Coordination and Governance of State-owned Enterprises (SEST), established in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management, Brazil, there is an ICT governance team allocated to the General Coordination of State Information Management (CGINF), which is responsible for the support and maintenance of structuring ICT services. This team has been working since its creation in August 2016, without detailing the work processes and structuring its positions. Therefore, this study aimed to map the work processes and job structure of the CGINF team, in order to provide a healthy work environment, in which the organisational culture contributes to the efficiency and effectiveness of the work performed. Several processes and sub-processes of work have been mapped that will support the people management from this work environment. The processes were modelled and validated with the responsible teams. This paper will present the main identified processes, which will facilitate team management and achieve greater clarity in the implementation of the activities carried out by them, Although the processes have been validated in a specific context, they may be applied in any state-owned enterprise or organisation, since the best practices of people management are adherent for both private or public companies.
  Keywords: people management; process mapping; organisational productivity; people management policy; skills.
  
  
• Rethinking balanced scorecard for organisational strategy performance management and measurement  
  by Monday Osemeke 
  Abstract: This study focused on designing an effective performance management structure of continuously premeditated standpoints of the balanced scorecard model. The papers objective complements expounding illusion of performance measurement as espoused by eminent scholars. The varied nature of the literature assessment, which was separated into sections, is suggestive of the abundance and usefulness of performance measurement; thus its improvement would be adequately understood. The starting points of all performance measurement initiatives were succinctly studied, then evaluation of performance measurement frameworks was performed. Concise examination of the performance management systems and theoretical evaluation of the developing performance measurement was undertaken. This study revealed that application of a balanced scorecard in organisations involves the entire overhaul of the existing control system and its implementation is a costly task. Based on the exploratory methodology adopted by this study, some further research areas are recommended.
  Keywords: balanced scorecard; organisational strategy; performance management; performance measurement.
  
  
• Investigating the impact of external environment on strategic market planning: a case study for NetSol Technologies Inc.  
  by Shahzeb Zulfiqar, Fayaz Ahmed 
  Abstract: The objective of this paper is to propose a model for effective strategic marketing planning process by investigating the impact of external environmental factors on the international strategic marketing planning of NetSol Technologies, Inc. For an effective marketing strategy to be designed, the analysis of internal and external environment holds crucial importance. Following multiple theoretical approaches, the paper investigates and analyses international strategic marketing planning for NetSol Technologies, Inc. This paper also investigates if this analysis supports these theoretical models. Finally, the paper proposes a strategic marketing planning model that is proposed based on the strategic marketing planning applied by NetSol Technologies during its successful expansion throughout 30 countries. This model is proposed for all industries, primarily the tech industry.
  Keywords: adaptation; standardisation; NetSol; application software; financing and leasing industry; niche market; strategic marketing planning; software industry; model development.
  
  
• Towards a reusable business process modelling approach  
  by Denis Silveira, Eliane Loiola, João Araújo, Ana Moreira, Pedro Fernandes 
  Abstract: In general, model reuse requires specific techniques that provide facilities for model configurations, such as variability modelling. Reuse of business processes is key to have a more efficient way to produce business process models, which are used during requirements elicitation to provide information when developing software to automatise an organisations procedures. A configurable process model represents multiple alternatives of a business process model, identifying its variabilities and commonalities in a business domain. Thus, reuse of business processes models requires techniques to discover benefits from process patterns that preserve semantics after model composition. Current approaches lack systematic and pattern-based mechanisms for the construction of a configurable process model that uses the facilities of feature modelling. This paper defines an approach to build and configure a process-oriented feature model aiming at representing a family of business process models by means of its reusable process modules. Modules may be concrete or abstract, and composed via mandatory, optional, alternative or multiple relationships. The process-oriented feature model captures a business process family, and the configuration process maintains the semantic properties of business process models.
  Keywords: configurable process model; process-oriented feature model; business process family; business process management notation.
  
  
• Business process management: from a critical review to a contemporary ontological entity  
  by George Tsakalidis, Kostas Vergidis 
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical foundations of the business process domain and to propose a conceptually unified and agile approach. The authors undertake a systematic examination of literature from a critical perspective on key business process aspects, introduced by the most influential approaches based on their citation impact. The review and interpretation of established business process definitions and the association of structural elements, lead to a conceptual business process structure with clear boundaries and interrelated components that considers business process as an ontological entity. The proposed structure encompasses continuous modification of its design, by acknowledging the particular context and the feedback it generates. Following, a similar analysis of BPM definitions and life-cycles results in matching the most frequently occurring cycle steps on specific components of the proposed structure, thus bridging the gap between business process and BPM life-cycle models. Overall, the review process aims to clarify and connect core business process aspects and the proposed structure and life-cycle to assist organisations in apprehending the various set of stages towards using appropriate and adaptive tools and phases.
  Keywords: business process specification; business process management; BPM life-cycle; critical review.
  
  
• Indonesia terrestrial border control information system and business processes alignment  
  by Fransiskus Tjiptabudi, Raul Bernardino 
  Abstract: Information technology (IT) has enhanced the effectiveness of business processes in all sectors. IT is rapidly developing but is also a technological disruption for industries. The IT professionals' decisions are based on the specific user requirements and needs. Investments are based on business processes and IT alignments. The terrestrial border control system of customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) is still manual. The travellers' passports or pas lintas batas (PLB) documents are collected, based on the customers handwriting on the arrival or departure immigration cards. These is challenging work for the officers in organising the archiving, retrieval of data, and production of reports. This paper proposes the use of AS-IS and TO-BE methodology within the software development lifecycle and aims to produce an effective, efficient, and secure sistem informasi lintas batas wilayah (SINTASWIN) prototype. This prototype application system is user and environmentally friendly, cross-platform, and has a high return on investment.
  Keywords: immigration; CIQ; PLB; AS-IS and TO-BE; SINTASWIN prototype; business process and systems alignment; cross-platform.
  
  
• Data warehouse and decision support on integrated crop big data  
  by Vuong M. Ngo, Nhien-An Le-Khac, M-Tahar Kechadi 
  Abstract: In recent years, precision agriculture is becoming very popular. The introduction of modern information and communication technologies for collecting and processing agricultural data have revolutionised agriculture practices. This has started a while ago (early 20th century) and it is driven by the low cost of collecting data about everything: from information on fields such as seeds, soil, fertiliser, and pests, to weather data, drones and satellite images. Specially, the agricultural data mining today is considered as a big data application in terms of volume, variety, velocity and veracity. Hence it leads to challenges in processing vast amounts of complex and diverse information to extract useful knowledge for the farmer, agronomist, and other businesses. It is a key foundation to establishing a crop intelligence platform, which will enable efficient resource management and high quality agronomy decision making and recommendations. In this paper, we designed and implemented a continental level agricultural data warehouse (ADW). ADW is characterised by its (1) flexible schema; (2) data integration from real agricultural multi datasets; (3) data science and business intelligent support; (4) high performance; (5) high storage; (6) security; (7) governance and monitoring; (8) consistency, availability and partition tolerant; (9) cloud compatibility. We also evaluate the performance of ADW and present some complex queries to extract and return necessary knowledge about crop management.
  Keywords: Data warehouse; decision support; crop big data; smart agriculture.
  
  
• Enhancing delivery of information technology projects through stakeholder sense-making  
  by Diana Ominde, Edward Ochieng 
  Abstract: The aim of this paper was to examine the applicability of sense-making concepts within the context of stakeholder management in ICT projects in Kenya. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach that triangulates action research design, case-study and grounded theory. A total of 12 senior project management practitioners were identified through non-probability sampling. Conversational semi-structured interviews were carried out, responses were collated and analysed through the NVivo qualitative data analysis framework. It was found that existing stakeholder management and sense-making concepts in ICT project delivery contribute to the accurate identification of stakeholders in ICT projects. It was further found that conceptualisation encourages stakeholder engagement in ICT projects, enhances the understanding of stakeholder roles in the projects, and improves public commitment to stances that are aligned with proffered stakeholders.
  Keywords: stakeholder sense-making; communication; risk management; stakeholder management; project delivery.
  
  
• A context-based approach for modelling and querying versions of BPMN processes  
  by Mohamed Amine Chaâbane, Imen Ben Said, Fatma Ellouze, Eric Andonoff, Rafik Bouaziz 
  Abstract: Versioning is an interesting solution to deal with process flexibility, which is an important issue in BPM (Business Process Management). It consists of the definition of several process versions for taking into account the significant changes occurring to the processes and their components (i.e., activities, data consumed and produced, roles involved in their execution). It allows the running of several instances of the same process according to different schema/models. However, in a multi-version environment, where numerous versions co-exist, it is important to specify the context in which these versions can be used. The context is used in particular to find out, for a given situation, the appropriate process version to be executed at run-time. Existing works addressing process modelling and querying do not consider either standard of process modelling or context, as a base of their querying. Therefore, we aim in this paper at offering a solution to model context of versions of intra- and inter-organisational processes and to query these versions using their context. More precisely, the recommended solution extends BPMN2.0, the de-facto standard for process modelling, to consider versions and contexts, and introduces a context-based language for querying versions. To prove the feasibility of the recommended solution, we have implemented our propositions in a BPMN-modeller.
  Keywords: BPMN processes; versions; modelling context; process ontology; querying versions.
  
  
• Improving software development process using simulation: case study in ICT services sector  
  by Sarandis Mitropoulos, Maria Xroni, Christos Douligeris 
  Abstract: This paper presents a business process that unfolds in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department of a large-scale company and proposes an optimised model for launching a software service, derived using business process simulation. The paper first provides a literature review and related work around the importance of waterfall and agile methods in software development processes. Then, the problem space and its reasons are explained. Next, our methodology and the respective technical approach are presented, as well as a comparison between six business process simulation tools. Afterwards, the examined business process is introduced. Based on the well-known theory in software development projects, we enforce two sets of improvements in the examined business process. The implications are presented and discussed, with a special focus on the benefits provided to enterprises.
  Keywords: software development project management; business process; service launching; simulation; KPI-based evaluation.
  
  
• Application of a knowledge management system as the supporting factor of success in a rural innovation program  
  by Wilopo Wilopo 
  Abstract: This study aims to test the application of a knowledge management system as the supporting factor of success in a rural innovation program. The study used the Soft System Methodology (SSM) (Checkland and Scholes, 1990). It is a methodology based on systems thinking and system concept dealing only with human activity system (Hardjosoekarto, 2012) which consists of seven stages. Data was collected using literature studies concerning the law, presidential decrees, government regulations, Ministry of Social Affairs Regulation, Regulation of the Ministry of Rural Development and Transmigration (KDPDTT) associated with the Social Space of Knowledge (RSP). An in-depth interview technique was used through Focus Group Discussions (FGD). The Knowledge Management for Rural Innovation program already existed but it is not successful to support good governance. Knowledge management will effectively benefit the learning organisation through knowledge that allows for developing a community group memory to prevent a 'brain drain' as a result of a shift or change in leader/community leaders at the expiration of a program (legacy capture). The originality of this research can be seen from the documentation of practices in community development and empowerment, such as sharing forums regularly, replication innovation of quantity and quality in infrastructure development, local economy, and human resources, and establishment of knowledge management system.
  Keywords: knowledge management; supporting factor; rural innovation program.
  
  
• A framework for evaluating migration strategies of evolving business processes  
  by Khebizi Ali, Seridi-Bouchellaghem Hassina 
  Abstract: To adapt their information systems to the new and ever-present changes that occur in the environment at an increasing rate, organisations must continuously update and improve their business processes. However, managing dynamic business process evolution is a complex task for which a large spectrum of approaches and techniques has recently emerged to cope with the related challenges. In particular, the problem of active instances migration has been addressed from different perspectives, and the research literature exhibits a panoply of instances migration strategies. But, it's observed that there does not exist a widely-accepted benchmark to evaluate and to compare the proposed strategies. As a result, it can be difficult for a protocol manager to select the suitable migration strategy for a given evolution scenario. To address this challenge, we propose a comprehensive framework and we provide computational models for evaluating and comparing migration strategies intended to handle the impact of business process changes. In our approach, selecting the best migration strategy is perceived as an optimisation problem for which a migration cost model is suggested and an associated objective function is formalised. The proposed framework can be used by business process managers to efficiently choose the most adequate migration strategy for a given evolution context.
  Keywords: business processes; dynamic evolution; change impact; migration strategy; migration cost; objective function.