Managing the alignment between business processes and software systems |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand;2. College of Management, Mahidol University, 69 Vipawadee Rangsit Road Samsennai, Phayathai District, Bangkok 10400, Thailand;3. Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Hoa Sen University, 8 Nguyen Van Trang, D.1, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam;1. Division of Nephrology Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ;2. Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ;3. Division of Infectious Diseases Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ;1. Higher Institute of Management of Sousse, University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia;2. Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal;3. Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Porto, Portugal;4. RIADI Laboratory, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia |
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| Abstract: | ContextThe alignment degree existing between a business process and the supporting software systems strongly affects the performance of the business process execution. Methodologies and tools are needed for detecting the alignment level and keeping a business process aligned with the supporting software systems even when they evolve.ObjectiveThis paper aims to provide an adequate support for managing such a kind of alignment and suggesting evolution actions if misalignment is detected. It proposes an approach including modeling and measuring activities for evaluating the alignment level and suggesting evolution activities, if needed.MethodThe proposed approach is composed of three main phases. The first phase regards the modeling of business process and software systems supporting it by applying a modeling notation based on UML and adequately extended for representing business processes. The second phase concerns the evaluation of the alignment degree through the assessment of a set of metrics codifying the alignment concept. Finally, the last phase analyses the evaluation results for suggesting evolution activities if misalignment is detected.ResultsThe paper analyses the application of the proposed approach to a case study regarding a working business process and related software system. The obtained results provided useful suggestion for evolving the supporting software system and improving the alignment level existing between them and the supported business process.ConclusionThe approach contributes in all phases of the process and software system evolution, even if its improvement can be needed for identifying the impact of the changes. The proposed approach facilitates the understanding of business processes, software systems and related models. This favors the interaction of the software and business analysts, as it was possible to better formulate the interviews to be conducted with regard to the objectives and, thus, to collect the required data. |
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