Business Process Management Cases

(a)Situation faced: In order to produce innovative solutions faster and more simply, SAP started in 2008 to transform its research and development processes. SAP moved away from complex and static project methods toward agile and simple processes, thereby significantly reducing the throughput time of the standard innovation cycle. Based on the experience of this transformation and optimization, the first at that time in a global company of knowledge workers, SAP decided to increase the emphasis on Business Process Management (BPM). Therefore, BPM initiatives were implemented on a company-wide level in the effort to establish a process infrastructure and a process improvement culture.(b)Action taken: The Productivity Consulting Group (PCG) was founded with the mission of strengthening the importance of BPM throughout the company. The SAP Process Map was established to create transparency in SAP’s key processes, roles, and responsibilities. The SAP Process Maturity Model was created with the aim of constantly increasing the maturity of SAP’s processes. An approach to performance measurement and process improvement and a portfolio of BPM-related services were introduced to support Process Managers on their way to reaching process excellence. In addition, activities were introduced to strengthen the BPM community, the foundation for BPM at SAP.(c)Results achieved: Implementing BPM at SAP was an important step toward overcoming the complexities that plague our businesses, a step that was important to both SAP and its customers. Following the operating principle “Run Simple,” SAP developed a process-management infrastructure throughout the company that led to transparency in SAP’s key processes and measurable process improvements.(d)Lessons learned: The key success factor in SAP’s journey from BPM concepts and ideas to measurable impact—that is, from paper to impact—was the strategic alignment of BPM with top management support. Strong governance with the SAP Process Map, the SAP Process Maturity Model, and BPM standards enabled the company to strive toward process excellence.However, a lively and engaged BPM community was as important as having the right methods or tools at hand. Implementing BPM from a top-down perspective helped to some extent, but building an understanding of BPM and its value from the bottom-up using a variety of mechanisms (introduced in this article) was also required.

(a)Situation faced: S-Y Systems Technologies Europe GmbH develops, manufactures, and distributes worldwide wire harnesses and associated components for automotive electronic distribution systems. Problems occurred with some automotive manufacturers’ ordering wire harnesses, who sent ordering files to the intermediate S-Y Systems to be converted, interpreted, enriched, and forwarded. Errors occurred even in the first steps of data processing errors (e.g., name, format, structure, content), but the exact allocation of errors in the process, the reasons for the errors, and their origin were not apparent. Therefore, S-Y Systems faced the challenge of investigating the processing errors, hoping to prove that the reason for most of these errors lay elsewhere.(b)Action taken: S-Y Systems decided to monitor their operative IT processes and started a Process Performance Management (PPM) project. PPM uses performance measurements to improve the performance of processes. Performance planning, monitoring, and controlling actions in PPM are strongly supported by process-oriented key performance indicators (KPIs) and IT systems. Our case describes a PPM approach to developing and implementing PPM systems and the results of applying this approach at S-Y Systems.(c)Results achieved: The findings from the case refer to the importance of a structured, top-down-oriented development procedure and provide concrete indications about the appropriate, goal-oriented, and useful KPIs of the processes to be monitored.(d)Lessons learned: The case reveals a clear risk of PPM projects’ losing their focus on the intrinsically relevant processes, the tasks in the processes, and particularly the overall initial goal of the project. Losing focus explains why many projects generate too many or inappropriate KPIs. The PPM approach presented in this paper helps to keep the focus on the overall goal and enables companies to develop a PPM system, including the appropriate KPIs.

(a)Situation faced: Because of customer churn, strong competition, and operational inefficiencies, the telecommunications operator ME Telco (fictitious name due to confidentiality) launched a strategic transformation program that included a Business Process Management (BPM) project. Major problems were silo-oriented process management and missing cross-functional transparency. Process improvements were not consistently planned and aligned with corporate targets. Measurable inefficiencies were observed on an operational level, e.g., high lead times and reassignment rates of the incident management process.(b)Action taken: The project was structured into three phases. First, countermeasures were identified and planned based on an analysis of the current situation. Second, a new organizational unit responsible for a central BPM was established and equipped with BPM methods and tools. Based on the reference model enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM), a company-wide process framework was defined. A process ownership model linked the central governance with the execution. As a pilot implementation, the incident management was improved on an operational level. The project was accompanied by continuous communication and training. Third, the project results were monitored and transferred to daily operations.(c)Results achieved: Quantitative performance improvements in the incident management process were achieved, such as reducing the average lead time from 13.0 days to 3.6 days. Those results confirmed the BPM artifacts that were developed. All of the artifacts (methods, tools, process framework, and process models) were officially accepted and communicated. The new BPM department was staffed with eight employees. The process ownership was implemented through nominations of responsible persons. In total 290 employees were trained in the new BPM methods and operational process changes. A company-wide repository was introduced that contains the process framework and all detailed process models.(d)Lessons learned: (1) Process content is an important success factor in a BPM implementation. (2) Process ownership requires consideration of the various BPM elements. (3) Early involvement of stakeholders from top management to the operational level is essential for successful implementation. (4) Customization of reference models requires a transparent approach to decision making. (5) General BPM governance and methods are important for an operational process improvement.

(a)Situation faced: Snaga is a Slovenian public company that provides a series of waste treatment services for 368,000 citizens of the Municipality of Ljubljana and ten other municipalities. In 2006, prior to adopting BPM and implementing a new information system, the company had obsolete and non-integrated IT solutions that did not provide sufficient support to the business operations. The existing business processes were not well organized, resulting in unnecessary duplication of work and excessive delays. The company also faced new challenges in waste management and new legislation that dictated the development of waste-processing technologies.(b)Action taken: The company’s executives were aware that the company’s way of doing business was inadequate and that changes were necessary if the company was to improve its business operations and maintain its competitive advantage. The company comprehensively transformed its business operations and adopted BPM in order to undertake the critical examination, rethinking, and then redesigning of current business processes, practices, and rules. The BPM project was conducted in three phases: (1) planning for strategic business transformation, (2) business process restructuring and information architecture development, and (3) information system development and implementation in six interdependent projects.(c)Results achieved: Adopting BPM brought considerable benefits to the company. A key change brought by the BPM adoption was the transition from a functional to a more process-oriented organization with an increased customer focus. The company implemented an ERP solution to support the redesigned business processes, established process ownership and a BPM office, and introduced KPIs to measure the performance and efficiency of processes and business operations using a business intelligence solution. BPM became a way of life at Snaga, and the company has undergone considerable transformation in the last decade, evolving from a traditional, functionally organised and managed company in 2005 to a process-oriented company in 2010. Today it is one of the most effective and efficient municipal utility companies in Europe. In the past 2 years, the company also transformed itself from focusing on waste collection and delivery to separate waste collection, waste processing and promoting a zero-waste society. The company’s operating results improved significantly from 2012 to 2015, and in the 10 years ending in 2015 increased the waste it processed after collected separately from 16 to 145 kg per user, which ranked the company at the top of the industry in Europe.(d)Lessons learned: The involvement—rather than just support—of top management is one of the most important critical success factors in all phases of BPM adoption. The role of the chief process officer, who was enthusiastic and encouraging during all stages of the project, and business drivers were particularly important, and the chief process officer’s communication approach contributed to the employees’ openness to change, which was essential for success. The professional guidance of external consultants was also helpful. Identifying key performance indicators and persons responsible for their achievement was the most important critical success factor I the production phase. The company also integrated the BPM philosophy with ISO 9001:2015 into a strong management system.

(a)Situation faced: Insurance case work can follow established procedures only to a certain degree, as the work depends upon experienced knowledge workers who decide the best solutions for their clients. To produce quality documents in such a knowledge-intensive environment, business users of Die Mobiliar, the oldest private insurance company in Switzerland, were guided by a wizard application that enabled them to compose insurance documents from predefined building blocks in a series of pre-defined steps. As these steps were hardcoded into the wizard application, the processes could not adapt quickly enough to accommodate new insurance products and associated documentation. Rapidly changing insurance markets produce new types of documents daily, so business users must react flexibly to client requests. Although fully automated processes can be defined when sufficient process knowledge exists, they seriously hinder the innovation and business agility that is critical in insurance markets.(b)Action taken: To overcome this problem, Die Mobiliar uses the Papyrus Communication and Process Platform (http://www.isis-papyrus.com/e15/pages/software/platform-concept.html) as the basis for its customized “Mobiliar Korrespondenz System” (MKS, Mobiliar Correspondence System), with full functionality for online interactive business document production (ISIS Papyrus). Our approach combines automatically executed business compliance rules with process redesign to provide the flexibility that is essential for insurance processes. The original processes are split into reusable sub-processes, accompanied by a set of ad hoc tasks that the business users can activate at runtime to meet clients’ emergent requirements. A set of compliance rules guarantees that the process conforms to corporate and regulatory standards.(c)Results achieved: The business compliance rule approach has two primary benefits: (i) company management has a process that is well-documented and provably compliant, and (ii) the business users can respond flexibly to their clients’ needs within the boundaries of defined compliance rules, thus improving the customer experience. The flexibility achieved by this approach allows business users to adapt their insurance processes, an advantage from which the whole insurance industry can benefit. The redesigned process with few reusable core elements, combination with a set of ad hoc tasks, decreases the number of process templates (wizard processes) that are required to handle unpredictable situations. A smaller template library also reduces maintenance efforts for business administrators.(d)Lessons learned: Rigid process modeling is not suitable for highly dynamic business domains, like the insurance industry, that are moving into the digital era. Instead, a hybrid of declarative and imperative modeling is best suited to such domains. Our approach provides a maximum of flexibility within mandated constraints, enabling businesses to adapt to changing market requirements with minimal involvement by IT departments. In order to set expectations properly, the use of the two modeling types should be transparent to business users. The adoption of the new approach happens gradually to cope with business considerations like the integration of compliance checking into Die Mobiliar’s production system.

(a)Situation faced: Siemens is a complex organization with offices worldwide. Through many years of development, it grew into a set of businesses, each with a substantial degree of autonomy, supported by central departments. This autonomy gives the departments the flexibility needed to achieve customer intimacy, which requires different process flows in different businesses. When the global initiative concerning the implementation of standard business process management was introduced and enacted, businesses were bundled into four sectors. Every sector in the Siemens organization, including that in Poland, was managing its processes according to the local business specifics and needs, which made the comprehensive process management approach challenging. The processes were disconnected and stored in multiple conventions. Corporate initiatives that were intended to address the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes were not supported.(b)Action taken: Siemens strengthened its process-wise approach and worldwide process standardization by implementing a formalized process policy. As a first step, the Business Process Excellence (BPE) regulation (also referred to as BPE policy) was introduced. It formulated the Siemens Processes for Excellence (SIPEX) process standards, which replaced the previous processes base, referred to as Reference Process House (RPH). At the same time, process roles (sponsor, owner, and manager) and corporate tools with which to visualize the processes, such as ARIS, were introduced. In the Polish organization, the program was formulated as a vehicle with which to implement the process organization. The goal of the initiative, which was referred to internally as “Streamlining business processes,” included chief financial officers (CFOs) as process sponsors and the head of the business process management team as the program manager.(c)Results achieved: At present, on the corporate level Business Excellence is a core element of Siemens—Vision 2020. It is embedded into the Corporate Technology structure, which enables it be the part of innovative products and management standards. It is also a key lever that empowers the company’s lasting business success and strengthens its competitiveness in the market.(d)Lessons learned: From the implementation of the program we learned four primary lessons:Complexity in many dimensions (number of processes, number of roles, and number of formal documents and circulars) is not supportive of effective process management.Having a strong, dedicated sponsor is one of the most important keys to success.Not everyone in the organization will appreciate the effort at first, but they will if an attempt is made to understand their businesses and support their efforts.Be flexible: without putting one’s best effort into implementing the corporate recommendations and without alignment with the business, no appreciation or cooperation should be expected.

(a)Situation faced: This case study is a unique example of a people-centric ICT-enabled BPM effort that overcame many challenges through steady championship fuelled by a multi-sectorial support network (local community, government agencies, private sector and institutes of higher education). Driven by a desire to make a difference, a weakly reputed regional hospital in Sri Lanka with chaotic, mundane, manual processes became a landmark success in its service efficiency and effectiveness via staged-continuous improvements, collaborative ideation, creative resource utilization, and effective management of its “people” aspects.(b)Action taken: The project took a multi-staged people-centric approach. Major attitudinal change efforts with staff helped to build a unified internal workforce that was empowered to understand the patients’ needs. The hospital’s physical environment was transformed into a peaceful, pleasant atmosphere that was free of chaos. The entire patient-care-process was mapped, analyzed, and transformed with IT enabled process improvements. A new patient records management system and a mobile-channeling system was implemented to eliminate long queues and increase the quality of patient care. Continued reviews and improvements are key in this case, as the vision to make a difference does not end with a single initiative.(c)Results achieved: The case illustrates how an ordinary government regional hospital’s patient-care process was transformed with the collective efforts of multi-stakeholder power. The reforms have enabled the hospital to increase the quality of patient care, enhance staff satisfaction, gain deep support, and get buy-in from higher authorities and the community. These process reform efforts enabled not only a one-off improvement initiative but a sustained success story that has received national and international attention.(d)Lessons learned: A key takeaway is how all of the enabling elements (championship, community, and executive support), lined up, each making its own significant contribution. The absence or misaligned timing of any one of these elements could have caused the effort to stall or fail. The e-champion and his supporters selected and managed the people-centric resources and opportunities in a highly resource-constrained environment while balancing and strengthening the ongoing stakeholder relationships. These efforts served as the foundation for the success and sustainability of this case.

(a)Situation faced: Autogrill Belgium, part of the world’s largest provider of catering services to travellers, drifted into a worrisome position in 2006. The company had just gone through a merger, was experiencing financial difficulties, and appeared unable to respond adequately to a changing market context.(b)Action taken: The case addresses Autogrill’s approach to aligning its staff with the company’s vision and strategy, and increasing internal communication and cooperation between functions and departments using a business process perspective as part of a holistic approach to business transformation that led to organisational survival in adverse conditions.(c)Results achieved: The main outcomes of the business transformation were the establishment of an internal customer orientation, increased decision-making speed and the organisational resilience required to thrive under adverse market conditions.(d)Lessons learned: The Autogrill case study provides a valuable example of and insights into how business transformation can be managed successfully. The story triggers critical thinking about major pitfalls and success factors and how the business process perspective can add value to a holistic approach to business transformation.

(a)Situation faced: The higher education sector faces like most information-intensive industries an opportunity-rich, digital future. Nowadays, students demand contemporary, multi-channel learning experiences and fast evolving digital affordances provide universities with a growing design space for their future processes. Legislative changes, a globalizing market of learners and educational providers, and the emergence of new technology-based business models (EduTech) are further features of the current situation in this sector. In order to prepare for and to capitalize on this changing environment the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), like any university, needs to ensure operational inefficiencies are addressed as part of the required organisational transformation. However, traditional BPM approaches are often time-consuming, exclusively focused on pain points and not tailored to immediate process transformation, meaning a new, dedicated and agile approach for QUT was needed.(b)Action taken: A rapid process redesign methodology called the NESTT was developed by QUT, facilitating accelerated process improvement in the four stages of ‘navigate’, ‘expand’, ‘strengthen’ and ‘tune/takeoff’. An integral and defining feature of the NESTT is the way physical space is used as part of the methodology. Each of the four walls and the floor of the workshop space carry specific meaning leading to a new process design experience. Two such NESTT rooms have been established at Queensland University of Technology and a number of processes have been redesigned based on this methodology. Further, the involvement of QUT’s human resource experts ensured that the NESTT experience is embedded into QUT’s capability building framework.(c)Results achieved: The NESTT led to three tangible outcomes for QUT. First, the performance of the processes, which were redesigned using the NESTT, has been significantly improved. Many of the ideas were implemented within a 20 days timeframe and proposals for 20 months and by the year 2020 now guide QUT process implementation teams. Second, the NESTT, as a methodology, a dedicated physical space and with its growing team of trained facilitators has provided the organisation with a much valued, business-as-usual redesign capability and capacity. Third, participation in the NESTT has been an important up-skilling for the QUT staff involved (across a broad range of designations) and has had a positive impact on the organisational culture and attitude towards change.(d)Lessons learned: It is proven possible to rigorously redesign complex business processes in 20 days. However, a number of success factors needs to be addressed including (1) a sound methodology with short term milestones and well articulated and monitored intentions for each stage, (2) participants who are intellectually agile, collaborative and have a positive attitude towards emerging design options and the changes required to today’s process, (3) facilitators who are able to guide conversations under time pressure on multiple levels of conceptualization, from vision to individual idea assessment, (4) a decisive attitude among the NESTT team and the judging panel, and (5) a smart utilisation of the spatial affordances, in particular the ability to articulate the right level of information and to ensure an always correct, relevant and easy to use display of information across all dimensions of the NESTT space.

(a)Situation faced: The case focuses on the digitization of service processes in the City of Ghent. Front-office e-services are integrated into the corporate website and into the back office thanks to digitization of the internal way of working in value chains. Before 2014, the City’s digital services were limited primarily to web forms offered by three departments for taxes, mobility and parking affairs, and citizens’ affairs in a non-integrated way, as the departments used different applications and a considerable amount of manual work in the back office. Other departments focused primarily on downloadable forms that were available on the corporate website. Customers could also create profiles for some services, resulting in multiple user names and passwords to be managed for the same customer. Because of this silo mentality, the digital investments did not pay off, and a more integrated approach was needed to make the digital service processes more efficient in terms of return on investment (ROI) and customer-oriented.(b)Action taken: The City of Ghent formulated a digitization vision based on fifteen reusable building blocks, including that facilitate the use of an authentication platform, a single customer profile, a digital signature platform, and a service-oriented architecture. These building blocks guide projects that digitize the total value chains or business processes. To stimulate reuse, the building blocks were built as generic components or process activities that e-services typically contain (e.g., “create profile,” “pay electronically”). The generic components were first translated to the digitization of three pilot chains regarding taxes, environment-related subsidies, and citizens’ affairs. The pilots were chosen based on their having volunteered to participate and their opportunities to take advantage of digitization.(c)Results achieved: Although the pilot for citizens’ affairs is still running, the results of the pilots for digital tax submissions and environment-related subsidies are already positively perceived. All environment-related subsidy requests are now digitally processed in the back office, with a digital alternative in place for the process steps of receiving and responding to the subsidy requests in the front office since 2015. The number of digital tax submissions increased to a third of all submissions in 2016, compared to only five percentage in 2014, while the number of input forms was cut in half in favor of prefilled tax proposals. Besides being generalized to apply to all services in the City of Ghent, the digitization approach with building blocks and building projects will also be applied in other business processes and future projects such as a participation platform or intranet, so it is not exclusive to e-services. The main idea is to develop once and then to reuse it maximally.(d)Lessons learned: The case concludes with five lessons learned, from which other public and private organizations may benefit. First, from the perspective of reuse and inter-organizational collaboration, data about products or services should align semantically with external partners. The City of Ghent used linked open data for this purpose. Two lessons learned promote a pragmatic approach to achieving success by concretizing initial principles and temporary workarounds to achieve quick wins. The fourth lesson was the need for assistance by an internal support office or competence center. Finally, the demonstrated advantages arise from working with a single profile per customer, rather than working in silos.

(a)Situation faced: During the review of an information system for medical material purchasing at a Brazilian insurance company, it became clear that part of the process supported by this system was done informally and there was no consensus among the employees about some of the related fundamental concepts and procedures.(b)Action taken: A consulting firm hired by the insurance company to find a solution to these challenges proposed to use the Design Thinking approach to process redesign, by aligning the Design Thinking stages with the phases of the Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle. A series of workshops that applied various Design Thinking tools was conducted with representatives from all of the company’s departments that deal with the purchasing process, as well as a team of information technology (IT) professionals.(c)Results achieved: The Design Thinking approach facilitated the following outcomes: (1) formalization of the employees’ perceptions regarding the existing purchasing process, (2) design of a to-be process for material purchasing, which was approved by all stakeholders, and (3) formalization of requirements for the new information system for managing the material-purchasing process.(d)Lessons learned: The case demonstrated the value of applying the Design Thinking approach to process redesign and improvement, adding useful instruments for BPM analysis. The BPM lifecycle phases correspond well with the Design Thinking stages, and Design Thinking techniques match BPM’s social-construction viewpoint well.

Many business changes in the telecommunications sector are initiated by mergers and acquisitions, and the fast pace of this sector requires that businesses adjust or extend business processes in a minimum of time. “3,” the mobile communication brand of CK Hutchison Holdings, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, is a leading global mobile telecommunications, data services operator, and pioneer of mobile broad-band technology. Therefore, “3” constantly faces the challenges associated with take-overs and mergers. To master these challenges a comprehensive social BPM environment with predefined process structures was developed to master these challenges within given time restrictions. Corresponding process structures support the merging of telecommunication processes during a merger and can be used for collaborative drafting of business processes across organizations. The key task in these projects is to use the knowledge and experience of all parties involved efficiently and in a short amount of time in order to carry out process consolidations or to build comprehensive processes. Therefore, support for collaborative work was implemented on all project phases, from requirements specifications for designing, implementing, and testing the respective software components to launching the new processes and providing training.(a)Situation faced: Many business changes in the telecommunications sector are initiated by mergers and acquisitions, and the fast pace of this sector requires that businesses adjust or extend business processes in a minimum of time. “3,” the mobile communication brand of CK Hutchison Holdings, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, is a leading global mobile telecommunications company, data services operator, and pioneer of mobile broadband technology. Therefore, “3” constantly faces the challenges associated with take-overs and mergers.(b)Action taken: A comprehensive social BPM environment with predefined process structures was developed to master these challenges within given time restrictions. Corresponding process structures support the merging of telecommunication processes during a merger and can be used for collaborative drafting of business processes across organizations. The key task in these projects is to use the knowledge and experience of all parties involved efficiently and in a short amount of time in order to carry out process consolidations or to build comprehensive processes. Therefore, support for collaborative work was implemented on all project phases, from requirements specifications for designing, implementing, and testing the respective software components to launching the new processes and providing training.(c)Results achieved: A business process repository with predefined process and function documentation was built, and a collaborative BPM environment, embedded self-service training components, and integrated test management system were established to provide the basis for conducting projects during acquisitions, mergers, and other businesses transformations.(d)Lessons learned: Four lessons learned were identified: (a) Successful implementation of BPM in a company requires combining it with other fields of operation, such as testing and training; (b) interconnecting a variety of model types helps to manage the increasing demands regarding speed of change and complexity of both business and IT; (c) embedding BPM in a collaborative environment also supports active knowledge management; and (d) business transformations require that management provides the necessary strategic control.

(a)Situation faced: Frener and Reifer (F&R) is a leader in engineering, fabricating, and installing facades with non-standard designs. The company was looking for comprehensive, domain-specific approaches to improve the company’s control over facade processes, from design to execution and monitoring. What makes process management particularly challenging in this setting are some peculiarities of the domain, such as high levels of variability, unpredictability, and inter-organizational synchronization (vom Brocke et al., BPM Trends, 1, 2015), as well as the non-standard and non-repetitive nature of the designs, which complicates the ability to formulate reliable estimates. Indeed, in many cases the installation department exceeded the number of hours that were initially estimated.(b)Action taken: A group of researchers developed a domain-specific methodology, called PRECISE, that provides methods with which to support the process lifecycle (Dumas et al., Fundamentals of business process management. Springer, 2013) in construction. F&R applied the methodology to construction of the hospital in Bolzano, Italy, by implementing three steps: (i) collaborative process design, with the main figures taking part in the construction project (e..g the project manager, the architect and the foreman on site); (ii) process implementation, which involves defining short-term (i.e., daily or weekly) schedules for tasks based on actual data on the progress of the work; and (iii) continuous monitoring and measurement of the progress of the work on site.(c)Results achieved: By applying the methodology, which supports a detailed modelling and monitoring of the activities, F&R could perform reliable estimates of progress on tasks and expected cost to completion. For instance, F&R recognized that the budget it had initially estimated was too tight. By analyzing the up-to-date data on the progress of the work and consulting with the workers on the construction site, the company could identify problems and sources of delay promptly and act to mitigate their effects. During the application of PRECISE, F&R recorded an increase in productivity that was estimated to have saved 400 man hours.(d)Lessons learned: Application of the methodology singled out some aspects of the process that should be addressed to improve process management. Flexibility, which is required in dealing with the domain variability, is achieved by defining a process model and a short-term schedule, while the availability of reliable and up-to-date data on the progress of the work is obtained by applying continuous, detailed process monitoring. Engagement of the workers in the process management allows the project to benefit from their expertise (Rosemann and vom Brocke, Handbook on business process management, introduction, methods, and information systems. Springer, 2015), which is the basis of the collaborative approach. However, better IT support for the methodology is needed (Rosemann and vom Brocke, Handbook on business process management, introduction, methods, and information systems. Springer, 2015; Dumas et al., Fundamentals of business process management. Springer, 2013).

(a)Situation faced: Processing injury-compensation claims, such as compulsory third party (CTP) claims, is complex, as it involves negotiations among multiple parties (e.g., claimants, insurers, law firms, health providers). Queensland’s CTP program is regulated by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC). The Nominal Defendant, an arm of MAIC, determines liability for claims when the vehicle “at fault” is unregistered or unidentified and manages such claims from injured persons. While the relevant legislation mandates milestones for claims processing, the Nominal Defendant sees significant behavioral and performance variations in CTP claims processing, affecting the costs and durations of claims. The reasons for these variations are poorly understood.(b)Action taken: The BPM initiative took a process-mining approach that focused on the process identification, discovery, and analysis phases of the BPM Lifecycle. We undertook automated process discovery and comparative performance analysis with the aim of identifying where claims processing across cohorts of interest to the Nominal Defendant differed. In parallel, we conducted a context analysis with the aim of identifying the context factors that affect claim duration and cost. The personal injury literature and interviews with representative Nominal Defendant staff informed our selection of data attributes.(c)Results achieved: Process models were developed to facilitate comparative visualization of processes. The Nominal Defendant was particularly interested in differences in the processes for specific cohorts of claims: (i) overall claims, (ii) claims involving unregistered vehicles versus unidentified vehicles, and (iii) direct claims versus legally represented claims. The model facilitated identification of aspects of claims processing where there were significant differences between cohorts. Data mining/feature selection techniques identified a set of process-related context factors affecting claim duration and cost. Models utilizing these context factors were able to distinguish between cases with short and long durations with 68% accuracy and between low-cost and high-cost claims with 83% accuracy.(d)Lessons learned: This multi-faceted process-mining study presented many challenges and opportunities for refining our process-mining methodology and toolset. Data-related challenges arose because of the replacement of claims-management software during the study. Legislative changes, changes to key personnel, and the semi-structured nature of CTP claims-processing introduced issues related to concept drift. Each of these issues affected process discovery, but close collaboration with the stakeholders proved valuable in addressing these issues. Novel visualization techniques were developed to support delivery of insights gained through comparative analysis that will guide process improvement. Consideration of context considerably broadens the scope of process mining and facilitates reasoning about process specifics.

(a)Situation faced: The quality of the technical support of business processes plays an important role in the selection of corresponding software products. Against that background, software producers invest considerable capital and manpower in improving their business software’s usability with regard to customers’ needs and process-related requirements. However, existing approaches from the field of usability engineering generally require laboratory environments, which do not cover the real user behavior without limitations. Therefore, the case described here seeks to improve a user-centric UX approach based on the idea of automatic identification of real customer needs.(b)Action taken: For that purpose, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and Software AG analyzed the issues in the currently available UX process at Software AG. Research and practice were searched for additional approaches to the critical point of understanding the user. Finally, a four-step approach based on process mining, consisting of user monitoring, trace clustering, usage model derivation, and usage model analysis was conceptualized and evaluated in a user study.(c)Results achieved: The application of the developed approach showed high flexibility and scalability in terms of the level of detail. Despite the small number of participants, it was possible to identify several process-related software issues and to reduce significantly needed resources (e.g., cost and time). Hence, a promising alternative to the existing techniques of understanding was found, leading to important improvements regarding a comprehensive and continuous lifecycle.(d)Lessons learned: The adapted UX approach increases flexibility and a widens the spectrum to proceed to the development of a user-centric business software. Although the improved procedure had a promising performance for further application in production environments, there are some open questions, such as handling the possibly high amount of upcoming data or privacy aspects that must be addressed in the future. Independently and regarding the transferability to other application scenarios, promising potential were identified, such as a mechanism for controlling the software’s evolution, the inductive development of usage reference models, and an approach to measuring the ease of learning a new business software.

(a)Situation faced: Improving Emergency Department (ED) patient flows in terms of processing time, resource use, costs, and patient outcomes is a priority for health service professionals and is vital to the delivery of safe, timely, and effective patient care. Poor patient flows manifest as overcrowding in the ED, prolonged length of stay (LoS), patients “boarding” in EDs and “access block” for admission to inpatient wards. Consequences include poor patient outcomes, reduced access for new patients who present at the ED, and negative effects on staff, including dissatisfaction and stress. Further motivation for improving patient flows in EDs arises because Commonwealth- and state-sponsored financial incentives for hospitals are tied to achieving targets for improved patient access to emergency services. One measure of such improved access is meeting nationally agreed targets for the percentage of patients who are physically discharged from the ED within 4 h of arrival.(b)Action taken: A key challenge in deriving evidence-based improvements for patient flows is that of gaining insight into the process factors and context factors that affect patient flows. The case study reported here adopted the BPM Lifecycle reference framework to improve patient flows. In particular we focused on the process identification, discovery, and analysis phases of the BPM Lifecycle. Process-oriented data-mining techniques were applied to real practices to discover models of current patient flows in the ED of St. Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital (SAWMH) in Queensland, Australia. The discovered models were used to evaluate the effect on patient flows of certain context factors of interest to stakeholders. Case histories of 1473 chest pain presentations at SAWMH between September 2011 and March 2013 were analyzed to determine process differences between ED patients with short stays (<4 h) and those with long stays (>4 h).(c)Results achieved: Process models were discovered for the hospital’s ED patient flow. From a control-flow perspective, only minor differences were observed between short- and long-stay patients at SAWMH, although there were timing differences in reaching specific milestone events. Waiting time in the ED following a request for hospital admission added significantly to overall ED LoS.(d)Lessons learned: This project demonstrated that process mining is applicable to complex, semi-structured processes like those found in the healthcare domain. Comparative process performance analysis yielded some insights into ED patient flows, including recognition of recurring data-quality issues in datasets extracted from hospital information systems. The templated recognition and resolution of such issues offers a research opportunity to develop a (semi-)automated data-cleaning approach that would alleviate the tedious manual effort required to produce high-quality logs. The project highlighted the importance of hospital information systems collecting both start and end times of activities for proper performance analysis (duration, wait time, bottlenecks). Additions to our process-mining toolset include novel comparative process-performance visualization techniques that highlight the similarities and differences among process cohorts.

(a)Situation faced: An inadequate number of publicly available charging points is among the main reasons that consumers do not buy electric vehicles (EVs). To address this problem, we suggest a peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing approach for private charging infrastructures. We formed a joint consortium between academia and industry to design and implement a web platform and an underlying business model for an infrastructure of individually owned EV-charging stations for public use. Currently, there are no standardized processes for EV charging, so we had to look elsewhere for processes that could be adapted or partly adopted as a foundation for the proposed web platform.(b)Action taken: We interviewed representatives of seven organizations that are already operating in the domain of EV charging about the relevant business processes. Applying the BPM lifecycle (Dumas et al., Fundamentals of business process management. Springer, 2013), we analyzed the resulting as-is processes for best practices and redesigned them for the scenario of a P2P platform for EV charging.(c)Results achieved: Sixteen to-be processes that comprised registration, authentication, charging, billing, and administration were modeled in BPMN and implemented in a software prototype. The prototype and associated processes are currently being evaluated to ensure their validity and effectiveness in the target environment while the partnering utility company prepares the solution’s staged roll-out to operate their own charging stations and then open the system to other providers.(d)Lessons learned: Analyzing and then designing business processes to reach a common goal has been a unifying factor in our joint research project, where partners from industry and academia have differing backgrounds, expectations, and individual goals. BPM practices enabled the project team to create an innovative business model and corresponding business processes that will have an impact in practice.

(a)Situation faced: Recent developments in the medical and industrial laboratory market have increased the need for highly flexible laboratory processes. This pressure results from new requirements that have accompanied the internationalization of laboratories and the digitalization of paper-based, bureaucratic work practices. The execution of laboratory processes is supported by laboratory information systems (LISs), which handle the control and information flow of incoming orders end-to-end. State-of-the-art LISs do not feature sufficient flexibility-to-use and flexibility-to-change capabilities. To prepare medical and industrial laboratories for the challenges ahead, LISs require more advanced flexibility capabilities that meet the need for flexibility in complex laboratory processes.(b)Action taken: To address the challenges of medical and industrial laboratories, MELOS, a leading German LIS provider, and the Project Group BISE of the Fraunhofer FIT conducted the LIS4FUTURE project. The project team compiled requirements on the flexibility of laboratory processes and derived corresponding requirements for the LIS’s flexibility-to-use and flexibility-to-change. The lack of configuration capabilities and modularity across all layers of the software architecture was identified as a major inhibitor of flexible laboratory processes. Following an agile development process and grounded on extant knowledge, the project team developed the LIS4FUTURE demonstrator, a process-aware LIS with a modular architecture and a rule-based configuration mechanism.(c)Results achieved: Based on identified requirements, the project team iteratively developed and evaluated the modular architecture and the rule-based configuration mechanism as part of the development of the LIS4FUTURE demonstrator. The modular architecture allows for the complete replacement of process steps at build time, while the rule-based configuration mechanism makes it possible to meet the ever-increasing demands for flexibility at runtime. The LIS4FUTURE demonstrator, which shows the applicability of the developed concepts in real-world scenarios, will help MELOS develop an innovative release of their LIS.(d)Lessons learned: During the LIS4FUTURE project, the project team learned that: (1) advanced flexibility-to-use and flexibility-to-change IS capabilities are needed to prepare for flexibility demands on the process level; (2) radical redesign of existing processes and systems should be preferred over incremental improvement in order to tap the disruptive potential of innovation opportunities; (3) the LIS architecture must be aligned with the process paradigm if it is to be flexible; (4) discussions among academics and practitioners are more effective if they are based on running prototypes rather than on theoretical concepts; and (5) project results improve if project team members work a substantial fraction of their time at the same location.

(a)Situation faced: The law demands environmental compensation for interventions in nature and landscapes through the Federal Nature Conservation Act. Deutsche Bahn, one of the largest construction facilitators in Germany, encounters several hundred new such compensation obligations per year. Deutsche Bahn plans and develops compensation measures that usually require long-term maintenance. The Federal Railway Authority demands regular reports on the state of these obligations. Prior to the beginning of the case study described here, Deutsche Bahn had no IT system that could meet these requirements.(b)Action taken: In order to create a comprehensive and legally compliant report, Deutsche Bahn initiated the project called FINK. Compensation obligations can last 30 years or more as they progress through various of Deutsche Bahn’s business units. This life-cycle of a compensation obligation was initially modelled as a process using BPMN and, with the participation of stakeholders, an improved target process was developed. In order to control the transitions of responsibility within Deutsche Bahn and to ensure the quality of data, a web application based on Open Source components was developed, the core of which is a Business Process Management System (BPMS).(c)Results achieved: The FINK project was initiated to engage intensively with the process of compensation obligations at multiple levels in Deutsche Bahn. Today, committees at both the management level and the user level coordinate the processes across the business units. The result is a uniform understanding of what data needs to be stored for compensation obligations in order to ensure quality-controlled reporting. An interdisciplinary team of environmental experts, process experts, and software engineers developed FINK using agile methods. In the spring of 2016, the system was handed over to Deutsche Bahn and began regular operation. It is now used by a multitude of employees at Deutsche Bahn and by many external partners.(d)Lessons learned: Successful BPM projects involve change. Business departments lacking sound competencies in process analysis, process design, and requirements management can build expertise gradually with the help of external experts. Mapping from quality requirements to business rules can largely automate the quality-assurance process, and the notation standards of BPMN and DMN integrate well. The use of a BPMS can also facilitate monitoring, documentation, and verification duties. Finally, a consistent Open Source approach using standard Java components was successful in the project presented here.

(a)Situation faced: Exformatics, a Danish adaptive case-management vendor, wanted to leverage declarative process tools to support the flexible processes found at BRFkredit. However, switching from the more common flow-based notations to a declarative notation brought new challenges in terms of understandability. We undertook the project described in this chapter to investigate and address these challenges.(b)Action taken: We started our investigation by having several full-day and half-day meetings to discuss BRFkredit’s requirements. Based on these requirements, we proposed and developed a prototype hybrid process-modelling approach with which models are defined declaratively, but the possible behavior of the model can be viewed and investigated using flow-based notions. The prototype was then presented to BRFkredit for feedback.(c)Results achieved: Our investigation helped to clarify the requirements for making declarative process models understandable to end users at BRFkredit and showed how a hybrid approach could be used to satisfy these requirements. Based on these insights, we developed tools to enhance our existing declarative modelling framework with flow-based visualizations.(d)Lessons learned: Different stakeholders have different needs and preferred levels of abstraction when process models are used as tools for communication. However, one model that seems to fit most situations is a simple no-branches sequential swimlane diagram that was extracted automatically from a more detailed declarative model. These observations enabled Exformatics to enhance its declarative modelling framework to make it more attractive to end-users.

(a)Situation faced: A family-owned manufacturing company recently went through the transfer of management from the older to the younger family generation. A number of problems were uncovered during this process, such as prevalence of tacit knowledge, an inefficient decision-making process, outdated IT system support, and an urgent need for certification of production processes according to quality-assurance standards (ISO 9001). Each of these problems required thorough documentation of the as-is business processes in the organization to guide their improvement.(b)Action taken: To ensure that the created process models serve as a valid communication medium, the company’s process landscape was created during an initial workshop between the executives and external BPM consultants. Then the information on processes in the company’s various departments was gleaned from semi-structured interviews with the department employees. At the same time, process weaknesses and potential improvements were derived and discussed with the functions’ management. The succeeding depiction of the to-be process framework was achieved with the help of the icebricks modeling method and the corresponding software tool, which is a lightweight, standardized approach to ensure high quality of process models.(c)Results achieved: During the modeling phase of the project, external BPM consultants documented the process landscape, thereby explicating the company’s knowledge and good-practice processes. The process landscape served as basis for well-informed decisions regarding the implementation options of a new ERP system, which was introduced on time and on budget in the second phase of the project. The ISO 9001 recertification of production processes was achieved in the third project phase with the help of the process documentation that had been created.(d)Lessons learned: Simply deploying process models on the company’s intranet platform does not necessarily lead to their desired comprehension and use. All employees have to be trained that process models are a means of communication and are never finalized, a notion that also applies to continuous process improvement. Process owners must be defined so they take responsibility for adjustments to the process environment beyond the project’s lifecycle, but such responsibility is not solely that of a project manager. Furthermore, the project demonstrated the appropriateness of the icebricks modeling method for the manufacturing domain, although it was originally designed for the retail industry.

(a)Situation faced: Business process models serve various purposes. As precise documentations of an implemented business processes, they provide inputs with which to configure process monitoring systems, enabling the specification of monitoring points and metrics. However, complex business processes have a quantity of variants that can impede the activation of process monitoring. To mitigate this issue, we seek to reduce the number of process variants by performing behavioral analyses.(b)Action taken: Variants of a business process originate from points in the process model where the control flow might diverge, such as at decision gateways and racing events. We systematically identify the underlying semantics to choose from a set of alternative paths and characterize the resulting variants. This effort offers the opportunity to reduce the variability in business processes that is due to modeling errors, inconsistent labeling, and duplicate or redundant configurations of these points.(c)Results achieved: For a sub-process of an order-to-cash process from the e-commerce industry, we discovered 59,244 variants, of which only 360 variants lead to a successful continuation of the process. The remaining variants cover exception handling and customer interaction. While these variants do not lead to a successful outcome and might not qualify for the “happy path” of this process, they are crucial in terms of customer satisfaction and must be monitored and controlled. Using a set of methods (actions taken), we reduced the number of variants to 11,000. These actions reduced overhead in the process and normalized decision labels, thereby significantly increasing the process model’s quality.(d)Lessons learned: We elaborate on the impact of variants on the configuration of a process monitoring system, and show how the number of model variants can be significantly reduced. Our analysis shows that the semantic quality of the process model increases as a result. This reduction effort involves a structured approach that considers all variants of a business process, rather than focusing only on the most frequent or most important cases.

(a)Situation faced: Adler Modemärkte AG (Adler hereafter) is a fashion retailer that operates mainly in the German-speaking countries. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, first movers in the fashion retail sector began to adopt RFID technology. Adler monitored this new technology and decided to adopt it in 2010, even though it was not sure at that stage whether its use would be profitable. However, Adler hoped to improve process efficiency and effectiveness in the long run to increase customer satisfaction through faster checkout. Moreover, the company expected that RFID technology would help to prevent theft, and to provide better visibility of inventory.(b)Action taken: Careful planning is required if the goals and promises of RFID are to be achieved. With the help of a consultancy, Adler managed the adoption of RFID as a project that spanned 2 years. The overall concept was first sketched and designed, followed by selection of a suitable provider for the required hardware and tag supply. Next, the concept was realized and prepared for rollout before employee training was provided and the new technology was rolled out in more than 170 stores.(c)Results achieved: Most of the project’s goals were achieved. Inventory accuracy and transparency of the flow of items contributed to an increase in sales. RFID also improved the follow-up procurement of items, resulting in additional increase in sales. The efficiency of in-store processes was improved through faster item registration, and the speed of the customer payment process at the point of sale was significantly improved, thanks to parallel scanning by RFID-enabled cash desks. Finally, retail shrinkage was reduced.(d)Lessons learned: Careful planning is required when conducting large improvement projects, including delegating responsibilities, as consultancy companies are specialized and experienced in managing such transition projects; doing an early check on the feasibility of process improvement projects; waiting for the right moment to conduct the project; and considering the project’s critical risks and people’s sensitivities.

(a)Situation faced: Dynamic growth of digitized information creates space for the systematic collection of data related to business processes. Extraction of this data is an enormous challenge because of the existence of many systems, which store data in many formats. The logistics company examined here has fully automated its Purchase Order and Invoice Approval processes, driven by a BPM system. Logistics always deals with optimization and cost reduction, and the company asked us whether it was possible to optimize its processes further.(b)Action taken: In our work, we focus on the extraction, pre-processing, and analysis of data that is stored in BPM systems. We presented the methodology with which to extract business-related events from processes of the logistics company, analyzed the BPM system, deployed processes to develop a connector for extracting event data, and used process mining techniques to reconstruct processes from event logs. Advanced analytics techniques make it possible to present collected data in an “as-is” view of processes and to find bottlenecks, loops, delays, and deadlocks.(c)Results achieved: We identified the structure for stored data and the attributes attached to the metadata of the processes. Then we imported newly created process logs into a process mining tool. Next, we introduced a process model and its statistics based on the extracted processes. Finally, we pointed out characteristics and points for improvement in individual human activity. As a result, we identified bottlenecks, loops, suppliers’ characteristics, and found in the Purchase Order process over-allocated employees to dedicated tasks via the social network.(d)Lessons learned: Today’s businesses are process-driven; everything done in a business is a process. A process-driven application is a software that provides automatic execution of business processes and logs the executed activities. Most systems have design-time data that defines the processes and runtime data that includes information on executed activities. One can use connectors to extract the data in the desired process log structure. Process mining techniques allow us to reconstruct the process from logs, analyze it, and find optimization points. Processes can be analyzed from several perspectives: as human to human processes, human to system processes, and system to system processes.

Situation faced: The automotive industry company HEYCO-WERK Heynen GmbH & Co. KG (HEYCO) wanted to improve how it handled purchase order confirmations. Its purchase department spent a lot of time entering incoming purchase order confirmations from its vendors into its SAP system. This process had to be automated with the most suitable technology to make it more time- and cost-efficient.(a)Action taken: Before doing anything else, we had to choose the technology to support the process. Based on an empirical study, we developed a comparison scheme for business-to-business (B2B) technologies. We considered three types of technology, electronic data interchange (EDI), online portals, and interactive forms. Unlike the first two categories, interactive forms are seldom considered in the literature as an alternative B2B technology, but they turned out to be the best technology to support the purchase order confirmation process. Therefore, we chose them to support the process.(b)Results achieved: With the implementation of interactive forms as a B2B solution to process purchase order confirmations, we achieved essential efficiency gains in time and quality. Working with interactive forms is well accepted by the process owners in the purchase department, who were able to automate the recording of purchase order confirmations with more than 100 vendors within 6 months.(c)Lessons learned: Interactive forms turned to be a highly flexible and powerful tool in avoiding media breaks in document-driven processes. We present the results of a feedback round with HEYCO’s process owners, which was carried out 9 months after the introduction of the new procedure. Based on the input from those interviews, we discuss useful enhancements for the application to meet changed requirements and to accelerate technology adoption.

(a)Situation faced: Structured documentation of an aviation company’s processes is a prerequisite to gaining an authority’s approval for aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul. Processes had been documented in a continuously growing number of PDF-based text documents, but the growing complexity of processes meant that this approach to process documentation no longer provided easy-to-understand work instructions for employees that fulfilled the authorities’ requirements.(b)Action taken: Lufthansa Technik Group implemented a process-oriented management system called IQ MOVE, the goal of which is to provide concise, easy-to-read documentation of processes in the form of process maps and swim-lane-based process descriptions. The system is designed to ensure seamless integration of normative and legislative requirements into the processes to avoid cross-references and to separate process documentation into multiple points of view. Moreover, IQ MOVE applies the “Framework for Assignment of Responsibilities” (FAR+) to strengthen process-management roles and increase employees’ acceptance of the system.(c)Results achieved: 20,000+ employees at Lufthansa Technik use IQ MOVE in their daily work. A periodically performed employee survey shows a high level of acceptance by the employees and increased awareness of the process-management roles (e.g., Process Owner, Process Architect, and Process Manager) based on the implementation of FAR+ and the integrated BPM Lifecycle approach.(d)Lessons learned: Key success factors of the system are the easy-to-understand process-modeling notation, the seamless integration of normative and legislative requirements into processes, the clearly defined process-management roles, the holistic process-modeling team, and the comprehensive process operations concept that Lufthansa Technik Group applied.

(a)Situation faced: 1&1 is a German Internet service provider that embraced business process management (BPM) in 2010 as a way to optimize its processes. The company expected BPM to increase corporate performance by realizing such customer-centric goals as high quality standards, reduced set-up times, shortened time-to-market cycles, and increased adaptability to changing customer requirements. 1&1 decided to use the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for its business process models, but the specification offers no pragmatic advice on how to introduce and adapt the modeling method in a company. 1&1 started with a conceptual process architecture—a lightweight process modeling infrastructure—and invested in a BPM initiative using a bottom-up approach. The resulting viral spread of BPM led to a “success disaster” with a high adoption rate and a high number of models but low model quality.(b)Action taken: 1&1 turned around the proliferating trend of low quality and barely usable process models by means of carefully targeted decisions. An initial analysis showed that the key factors in the disastrous situation were insufficient training and the lack of modeling conventions. While no changes were made to the process architecture, the company increased the integration of system architecture components, resulting in improved knowledge management as increasing amounts of information became retrievable through the enterprise information portal. Quality assurance was mandated through a few selected modeling conventions to guide and constrain but not restrict the modelers. Finally, the BPM initiative grew larger with more volunteer trainers and more differentiated courses that helped to ensure an appropriate level of process modeling competence for each employee’s tasks.(c)Results Achieved: Because of its lightweight implementation, BPM at 1&1 can enable continuous process adjustments triggered by any employee at any time and on every level, so it can achieve short time-to-market for core business products and services, as well as rapid changes in business processes. Business knowledge and expertise is extracted from all of the company’s corporate levels and is merged and presented in the process models. The company currently uses as its production environment the Signavio Process Editor, which relies on a repository of more than 12,000 process models and more than 1800 active process modelers.(d)Lessons learned: The BPMN specification provides no guidance on how to introduce and use BPMN in the individual corporate context. While it is often useful to follow a reference approach for the adaptation and use of a modeling method and the associated IT infrastructure, there is none available for BPMN. Based on the 1&1 case, we present recommendations that can be considered best practices for setting up and steering a large-scale BPM initiative based on process modeling that emphasize process modeling technology, user training, modeling regulations, employee management, and time management.

(a)Situation faced: Companies invest considerable resources in the elaborate design of computer-based process models. Because of these models’ inherent complexity, they are not necessarily suitable for communicating with and training the employees who are supposed to apply them, but their understanding the processes is essential for efficient and effective work. Hence, creative, innovative methods are needed to bring these abstract models to life and increase their adoption by employees who typically have a low affinity for IT-related tools. Therefore, the methods that are developed should require little previous knowledge, (ideally) should not be IT-based, and should stimulate creativity, collaboration, and discussion. They should also create a playful experience while still offering guidance and overview of existing processes.(b)Action taken: The company considered in this case searched for new, playful ways of communicating existing processes to employees who have little knowledge about process operations or process management. Two methods, a process card game and a process board game, were chosen and implemented. The card game conveys the most important process steps and process characteristics in a playful manner, providing a positive experience for the training participants and, thus, being memorable. The process board game complements the card game by conveying deeper knowledge about, for example, incidents that had in the past had positive or critical influences on the process. Both methods were developed in theory, both have been implemented as prototypes, and both have been tested in training new employees and during simulations, after which they were evaluated based on predefined requirements.(c)Results achieved: The participants in the training were interviewed orally and in written form to evaluate the methods’ benefits. Feedback from the trainers was included as well. These participants evaluated the methods positively, as both the participants and the trainers attested to the methods’ ability to provoke discussions and stimulate creativity. Both methods are applicable to a variety of processes with reasonable effort.(d)Lessons learned: Creative models demand the ability to abstract from business processes that are normally filled with details, so a clear business outcome and target group must be in mind when the new methods are first set up. However, since they do not provide a complete presentation of a process, additional methods should be used as complements. It is advisable to focus on one process that matters most to the target group at the beginning and to concentrate on the basic process features while designing the creative methods. Moreover, the degree of creativity should fit the company and its corporate culture.

(a)Situation faced: The petroleum industry is characterized by increased focus on safety and compliance with regulations, in addition to efficient operations. Earlier quality systems were represented in large binders of textual documents, which made important governing documentation difficult to access and unusable for operational personnel who wished to gain an overview.(b)Action taken: Based on the existing quality system, a new way of structuring and accessing the material was developed as a collection of 2000 process models with navigational support through an intranet solution whose use was mandatory in the workplace.(c)Results achieved: Improved compliance with regulations and reduction in the number of accidents were observed. This improvement is not attributable only to the restructuring and presentation of the quality system through process models, but the process models are a visible sign of the organization’s focus on safety and compliance, and it has made it easier for workers to find relevant regulations and requirements when dangerous work is to be undertaken.(d)Lessons learned: Although good results have been achieved, there is room for improvement in this large-scale example of the use of process models to structure a company’s quality system. Ensuring that all employees can find all the models they need and that the models are kept up to date based on practice are important challenges. In addition, handling the trade-offs among goals for safety, efficiency, and compliance is a challenge. Modeling practices that were regarded favorably at an earlier stage might come to be seen as insufficient for the future needs. Therefore, professional long-term use of models must be conscientiously pursued over time.

(a)Situation faced: Faced with challenges like heterogeneous processes across three campuses, a campus management system that was not up to date, and loss of knowledge because of demographic changes and undocumented, inconsistent processes, Jade University of Applied Science implemented a campus-management system developed by HIS. This system includes an integrated reference model for processes that are related to campus management. The university wanted to use common standards and needed a guide based on best practices. Implementing business process management (BPM) provides an opportunity to document, standardize, and centralize processes across their campus locations.(b)Action taken: Implementation of the campus management system and reference processes was structured in steps that can be described using a BPM lifecycle model: (I) initialization, (II) process identification, (III) process discovery, (IV) process analysis, (V) process redesign, (VI) process implementation, and (VII) process monitoring. Each of these steps is directly related to using the HISinOne reference model to obtain recommendations based on best practices.(c)Results achieved: Both expected and unexpected results were obtained from implementing the campus management system: (I) the standardization of processes across three campus locations was improved by (II) adopting best practices, and internal workshops to standardize processes (III) strengthened Jade University’s overall team spirit. In general, (IV) individual barriers to using process models and process documentation were reduced, and a BPM-supportive culture was developed such that some departments have begun to document other processes and to consider the implementation of a broader BPM department.(d)Lessons learned: Five primary lessons were learned during the project: (I) orienting to existing solutions like process reference models supports the initialization of new projects, and (II) standardization limits the involved stakeholders’ creativity. In addition, (III) guidelines for consistently documenting the implementation’s progress are important to easily provide relevant information to all stakeholders at all times, (IV) integrating relevant stakeholders into the process enables the standards across different locations to be determined, and (V) limited project resources must be taken into account in order to plan suitable and feasible actions.

(a)Situation faced: This chapter presents a cultural analysis of the BPM initiative conducted by a public organization, the Pernambuco Court of Accounts (TCE-PE). In particular, we look at how organizational culture influences the evolution of our BPM initiative.(b)Action taken: We conducted in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation analyses in order to understand each interviewee’s organizational culture. Then we analyzed the extent to which the TCE-PE culture is aligned with a BPM-supportive culture, as represented by the CERT values (Customer orientation, Excellence, Responsibility, Teamwork).(c)Results achieved: We identified a set of cultural values, practices, and organizational characteristics at TCE-PE that may influence the BPM culture—that is, the aspects of the organizational culture that would act as facilitators of or barriers to our BPM initiative. We present a set of strategies that nurture the cultural values that are supportive of BPM and hinder those that are obstacles of BPM.(d)Lessons learned: During our journey toward establishing a BPM-supportive culture at TCE-PE, we learned that key success factors include investing heavily in communication, understanding who the stakeholders are and what they want, and creating a long-term vision of BPM goals and articulating them with future sponsors. We believe the experience presented in this chapter has value for public organizations that face challenges in aligning their organizational culture with BPM principles.