INF30035 Business Process Analysis – Assignment 2 Summer 2024
INF30035 Business Processes Analysis
Business Process Redesign and Automation: A Holistic Approach
Business process redesign and automation have emerged as critical aspects of enhancing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction in modern organizations. By leveraging best practices, methodologies, and emerging technologies, companies can streamline their processes, eliminate redundancies, and optimize resource utilization.
Process Redesign Strategies
Effective process redesign encompasses a comprehensive set of strategies and best practices. Activity elimination, which involves removing non-value-adding activities, can significantly improve process efficiency (Dumas et al., 2018). Additionally, activity composition, which involves consolidating related tasks, and activity automation, which involves leveraging technology to automate repetitive tasks, can contribute to process optimization (van der Aalst, 2018).
Other best practices, such as re-sequencing, parallelism, and control relocation, can further enhance process flow and decision-making (Hammer & Champy, 2009). Furthermore, outsourcing non-core activities and fostering asynchronous communication can facilitate resource optimization and improve collaboration (Weske, 2019).
Methodological Approaches
Lean, Six Sigma, and Lean Six Sigma are widely adopted methodological approaches for process improvement. Lean principles focus on eliminating waste and non-value-adding activities, while Six Sigma emphasizes defect reduction and process optimization (Laureani & Antony, 2017). The hybrid Lean Six Sigma methodology combines the strengths of both approaches, enabling organizations to streamline processes, reduce variability, and enhance customer satisfaction (Bhat et al., 2021).
Process Automation
Process automation, facilitated by Business Process Management Systems (BPMS), can significantly enhance efficiency and consistency by automating repetitive tasks and enabling real-time monitoring and optimization (Weske, 2019). However, automation should be implemented judiciously, considering the specific business requirements, complexities, and potential challenges (van der Aalst et al., 2016).
Change Management and Continuous Improvement
Successful process redesign and automation initiatives require effective change management strategies. Organizations must foster a culture of continuous improvement, provide adequate training, and ensure stakeholder buy-in to overcome resistance and facilitate seamless adoption (Jurisch et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Business process redesign and automation offer organizations a powerful means to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. By leveraging best practices, methodological approaches, and emerging technologies, companies can optimize their processes, eliminate waste, and drive continuous improvement. However, these initiatives require a holistic approach, considering organizational capabilities, potential challenges, and the need for effective change management strategies.
References
Bhat, S., Gijo, E. V., & Jnanesh, N. A. (2021). Lean six sigma approach for the process improvement in the IT sector. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 38(5), 1146-1165. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-04-2020-0117
Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. A. (2018). Fundamentals of business process management (2nd ed.). Springer.
Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (2009). Reengineering the corporation: A manifesto for business revolution. HarperCollins.
Jurisch, M. C., Palka, W., Wolf, P., & Krcmar, H. (2014). Which capabilities matter for successful business process change? Business Process Management Journal, 20(1), 47-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-11-2012-0115
Laureani, A., & Antony, J. (2017). Lean six sigma for small and medium sized enterprises: A systematic literature review. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(7-8), 915-934. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1075959
van der Aalst, W. M. (2018). Process mining: Data science in action (2nd ed.). Springer.
van der Aalst, W. M., La Rosa, M., & Santoro, F. M. (2016). Business process management: Don’t forget to improve the process! Business & Information Systems Engineering, 58(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-015-0409-x
Weske, M. (2019). Business process management: Concepts, languages, architectures (3rd ed.). Springer.
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INF30035 Business Process Analysis – Assignment 2 Summer 2024
Business and Law
INF30035 Business Processes Analysis
Summer, 2024
Assignment 2 due – Monday, 12th Feb. @ 10:00 am AEDST
Assignment 2 weight = 40%
Group assignment can be completed individually or within a group (up to 4 members in each group). Your
submission should include:
• Submit one copy of the report per group.
• Submit your group report via Canvas Assignment 2 on INF30035 Canvas
Assignment Assignment 2 Report Submission Links.
• Submit the modelling file (by using process modelling software, e.g. Bizagi file) through the
modelling submission link on the Canvas Assignments Assignment 2 Submission links.
• The Contribution Form MUST be included in the report appendix, and it must be signed by
all members. If you have any issue to complete it, members should make an appointment
with your tutor or convenor to discuss before the submission. Without the contribution form,
we will not mark your assignment (if you have any issues with the contribution, please
contact the teaching staff).
• Team Charter has to be submitted through the team charter submission link on the
Canvas Assignments Assignment 2 team charter Submission links.
Please read the ‘Submission Requirements’ section for details. If you have any queries, you may address
them in the discussion threads or with teaching staff.
Assessment 2 Requirements
If students need more detail either about the business or the assignment, they should talk to the
instructor, preferably before starting the task.
As a team, you need to review the proposals (Assessment 1) that each member puts forward for submission.
You need to discuss each proposal on its merits and decide which one will be best suited to use as your
foundation for this assessment (Assessment 2)*.
*Note that forming an assignment 2 group should be made before the results for Assessment 1 are released
so that the selecting group members is not biased by results and feedback from the INF30035 marking
(this does not include those students who have not submitted assignment 1). If you did not submit
assignment 1, then we will delete your name from the groups.
Assignment Two
Analysing and Designing To-Be Process Modelling
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Outline
Assignment 2 will continue with the assignment 1 case (case description can be found in assignment 1
specification appendix). Focus on analysis and redesign the current business processes.
This assignment requires you to continue working on the models for assignment 2. As mentioned in the
case description, the current process does not work efficiently, and management is considering improving
the process. The purpose of this assignment is to improve the process in a way that addresses the issues.
Firstly, the project team needs to consider the key problems faced by the business and the process. Based
on the issues mentioned in your assignment 1, now is the time for you to attempt to solve all that you believe
to be the most important problems/issues by using the best practices, methodologies and
technologies/automation. Please keep in mind that technology and automation do not suit for all business
and also they cannot solve all problems; sometimes, the best practices can also improve the efficiency of
the processes. To make sure that management agrees with your decisions, you need to explain why your
solutions can solve the problems. You have to be realistic and need to consider business capabilities when
you provide suggestions and solutions.
Your Tasks
Your work should include three parts.
Part 1: Level 2 Business Process Modelling (please note that all models and
tables will be in appendix):
Model the current process using the Level 2 BPMN diagram(s). Correct, as needed, the Level 1 BPMN
diagram(s) selected from one of your group members.
• Correct the Level 1 AS-IS BPMN diagram(s) you drew in the previous assignment based
on the feedback (You don’t need to re-submit level 1 AS-IS models, but it is an
important step before you transfer models to level 2).
• Convert Level 1 AS-IS BPMN diagram(s) from assignment 1 into Level 2 AS-IS BPMN
diagrams. This time you should add all features which you were not able to present by
using level 1 BPMN in assignment 1 (A set of level 2 AS-IS models should be in the
report appendices).
• Design new process(es) (TO-BE models) using BPM level 2 modelling which addresses
the problems you have identified, and you suggest can feasibly be implemented. (A set of
level 2 TOBE models should be in the report appendices).
• All level 2 models should be labelled correctly in the model file (for example, a Bizagi
file include all models).
Advice on modelling format:
The following requirements are for the as-is and to-be model(s).
• Model the process in BPMN using the modelling software. You have to copy all models
into your report appendix. The original modelling file also required to submit through the
modelling submission link.
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• Each diagram should occupy no more than one page, Landscape!!!.
• All models in the file must be printable as they are, within margins and all diagram elements
legible. Layout your diagrams to ensure all contents are readable when your submission is
printed on A4 paper. Check the final result is readable. Indecipherable content cannot
be assessed and will attract a mark of zero.
• The models must be formatted logically and elegantly. The models should adhere to the
qualities mentioned in lectures.
• You must have a clear layer of processes which should include main and a set of
subprocesses.
• The process modelled should match what you have described in your analysis report. If
the suggested solutions do not impact how your models look, you need to provide a brief
explanation.
• The views of models must be consistent with each other, enabling the whole analysis to
make sense.
Part 2: Business Process Improvement Recommendation
You are required to provide recommendations for the possible changes to the business process or to the
way they are managed which you consider will add value to their business and why they are more efficient
and effective compared with the existing model.
You should carefully read the diagrams and link them to the key issues and consider if there are possibilities
to alter the diagrams based as a result of your recommendations for solving problems (for example,
combine the tasks, reduce double handling…). If so, you should provide the new to-be process diagram(s).
If not, then should indicate why they do not affect.
For solving problems/issues, you also need to consider the resources and performance. For example:
1. Where is the process bottleneck?
2. How to better organize staff and allocate jobs to achieve 80% utilization?
You don’t need to provide accurate numbers; general discussion and analysis will be efficient.
For each issue/problem selected, state the Best Practices (these can be selected from Appendix 1) you will
apply (if one exists). For each Best Practice, describe how it is applied and explain how your solution solves
or improves the issue identified. Document your analysis can be summerized in a table using the following
format:
a) The issue being considered.
b) Best Practice employed. Choose from the Best Practices discussed in the lectures.
c) Please describe how the Best Practice is applied to the process and how it addresses the problems.
d) Describe the possible advantages and any other issues addressed at the same time. e) Any
disadvantages.
INF30035 Business Process Analysis – Assignment 2 Summer 2024
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a. Issue b. Best
Practice/
c. Application
Description
and/or Solution
Explanation
d. Advantages e. Disadvantages
Note: This table should only be used to summarize your discussions. The table can be put in an
appendix. Detailed discussion should be in the report.
You also need to consider approaches (methodologies), Lean, Six Sigma & Lean Six Sigma. Which of them
is best suited for substantially improving the case business Process(es), and why? You will also need to
provide a discussion summarising how the case business Processes will be impacted and changed,
after adopt the methodology, how the processes be operated.
Advice on Best practices:
• Of the Best Practices mentioned in the lesson overview, only the Customer, BP Operation
and Behaviour Best Practices affect the BPMN diagram. The other Best Practices,
especially the Organization/Resources Best Practices, have little or no effect on the
diagram. Therefore it is advisable to apply Customer, BP Operation and Behaviour Best
Practices before Process Automation, and the rest after. However, you should do this in
the interests of simplifying the process and therefore, the diagram.
• Many of the Best Practices apply to a specific part of the process. It must be clearly stated
how and where the Best Practice is applied in the process, preferably in column c. For
example, if applying the Activity Elimination Best Practice, it must be clear what activity is
being eliminated.
• Your applications of cited Redesign Best Practices form a set of recommendations for
process improvement. Your recommendations must be consistent as a whole. That is, they
must all be able to be applied together to obtain a consistent and coherent To-Be process.
• To address a single problem, it might be necessary that more than one Best Practice will
be required. Also, once a Best Practice is applied potentially more than one problem will
be addressed.
Part 3: Logical Automated Business Processing:
In the report part, you need to discuss if automation is one of the solutions for the current business process’
problems/issues. You should include key advantages, disadvantages, challenges and limitations and how
important it is to consider automation in the long-term business process improvement practices.
In the modelling part, you should transform one of the current BPMN level 2 AS-IS model(s) into a logical
automated model that shows how the process can be automated by a process engine (BPMS). It should
clearly show how each participant communicates with the process engine and what data is transmitted. For
this assignment, to present a logic automation model, you only need to consider the ‘happy’ path when
everything goes smoothly or a sub-process.
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Advice for logical Automated Design
• The automated design model must contain one Executable pool (for the process engine).
In the executable pool, you may have service or script tasks, gateways and intermediate
message events. It will require BPMN Level 2 elements (BPMS lane).
• The automated logical design model will, in general, have many non-executable pools, one
for each internal participant, generally human. Non-executable pools may contain just
process fragments. Level 1 BPMN is acceptable. For the non-executable pools, it is not
necessary to include start event and end events.
• A non-executable pool interacts with the executable pool (BPMS) by Message Flows. A
Message flow will connect with a Message Event in the executable pool and a task in the
non-executable pool.
• The logical automated design model will also have many white-box pools, one for each
external participant. An external participant may interact with either an internal participant
in a non-executable pool or directly with the process engine in the executable pool via a
user interface, such as a website.
Group Assignment Submission Requirements
Just submit a single MSWord. Archives with multiple files and subfolders will not be accepted.
• A word-processed report of around 2500 +/- 10% words which includes:
o Executive Summary (not included in the word count) o Table of Contents (not
included in the word count) o Introduction o The main body which includes:
? Your analysis of identified solutions for the key problems
? Your recommendations (as described in Part 2)
? A summary is providing a holistic picture of how you have approached the
problems or opportunities and of how the All You Need Office Supplies Ltd.
Order Handling Process will be improved if your recommendations are
implemented.
? Discuss if automation is a future solution, why or why not (part 3).
? Assumptions and limitations.
? A change management plan (how you manage changes).
o Conclusion
o References (not included in the word count)
You MUST use the Harvard Referencing style throughout your report and include an
accurate list of references at the end of the report. You can access the correct style from
the library: Harvard System (http://www.swin.edu.au/lib/guides/harvard_system.pdf )
o Appendices: All models and model explanations (not included in the word count)
• Pages of the report should have appropriate headers and footers and should include printed page
numbers and the number of pages in the document (i.e. page number/total number of pages) ?
Size 12 and 1.5 line space
• The cover sheet which includes:
o All members’ full names and student IDs
o Your tutor’s name and time of the tutorial class.
o Unit code and name, assessment number, due date and % weighting
Late assignments may result in a lower grade for the assignment in terms of the University’s
Extensions and Late Penalties policies. Please refer to the unit guide for further details.
INF30035 Business Process Analysis – Assignment 2 Summer 2024
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Any request for an extension must be directed to the convenor before the assignment due date. You must
include appropriate supporting documentation such as a doctor’s certificate or a letter from your employer.
These forms may be scanned and emailed to the convener.
INF30035 Business Process Analysis – Assignment 2 Summer 2024
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Appendix 1
Business Process Redesign Best Practices (please read more details in the lecture
notes, lesson overviews)
Activity Elimination Extra Resources
Activity Composition Generalist-specialist
Activity Automation Empower
Re-sequencing Foster asynchronous communication
Knockout Integration
Control Relocation Outsourcing
Parallelism Interfacing
Triage Present a standard interface to integration partners
Prioritization Separation of Duties
Case Manager Buffering (subscription)
Case Assignment Trusted Party
Customer Teams Job Types
Flexible Assignment Technology
Resource Centralization Exception
Split Responsibilities Case-based Work
Numerical Involvement Batch-based Work
You should also check the lesson 3-4 and adopt industry best practices.
