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The BPM Way of Thinking
The BPM Way of Thinking Mark von Rosing, Henrik von Scheel, August-Wilhelm Scheer
INTRODUCTION In Part II, we introduce the “way of thinking” around business process concepts. We focus on the value of an ontology and the business process management (BPM) ontology, which is the essential starting point that creates the guiding principles. We also provide structural concepts around strategic definitions, such as wants, needs, direction, issues, and problems. Here, we exploring how BPM ontology can be applied within the areas of process modelling, process engineering, and process architecture. It provides the fundamental process concepts that can be used to document corporate knowledge and structure process knowledge by defining relation process concepts (e.g., the order of process steps). We feel this way of thinking enables the right abstraction level and allows an understanding of the underlying thoughts, views, visions, and perspectives. Today, many BPM and or process frameworks, methods and or approaches, such as LEAN, Six Sigma, BPR, TQM, Zero Defect, BPMN, and BPMS, have their own vocabularies. Each of these vocabularies has its own definition of terms, such as business process, process step, process activity, events, process role, process owner, process measure, and process rule. Ontology is an essential discipline that can support understanding and structuring of BPM knowledge, create and define the fundamental concepts, and provide semantic relations and correlations between these concepts. Such definitions are not incorporated in contemporary BPM practice in an integrated and standardized way. Therefore, we present an ontology for BPM. Our focus will be on the value of an ontology and the BPM ontology itself. This discussion builds the foundation for the rest of the book, as the BPM ontology includes our shared vocabulary (i.e., folksonomy) that structures knowledge in two ways. First, it allows practitioners to structure their business knowledge by adding meaningful relationships between the vocabulary terms. Second, it organizes concepts in hierarchic “is-a” relationships, which allow for a polymorphic inheritance of properties.
The Complete Business Process Handbook. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-799959-3.00005-7 Copyright © 2015 LEADing Practice ApS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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INTRODUCTION In Part II, we introduce the “way of thinking” around business process concepts. We focus on the value of an ontology and the business process management (BPM) ontology, which is the essential starting point that creates the guiding principles. We also provide structural concepts around strategic definitions, such as wants, needs, direction, issues, and problems. Here, we exploring how BPM ontology can be applied within the areas of process modelling, process engineering, and process architecture. It provides the fundamental process concepts that can be used to document corporate knowledge and structure process knowledge by defining relation process concepts (e.g., the order of process steps). We feel this way of thinking enables the right abstraction level and allows an understanding of the underlying thoughts, views, visions, and perspectives. Today, many BPM and or process frameworks, methods and or approaches, such as LEAN, Six Sigma, BPR, TQM, Zero Defect, BPMN, and BPMS, have their own vocabularies. Each of these vocabularies has its own definition of terms, such as business process, process step, process activity, events, process role, process owner, process measure, and process rule. Ontology is an essential discipline that can support understanding and structuring of BPM knowledge, create and define the fundamental concepts, and provide semantic relations and correlations between these concepts. Such definitions are not incorporated in contemporary BPM practice in an integrated and standardized way. Therefore, we present an ontology for BPM. Our focus will be on the value of an ontology and the BPM ontology itself. This discussion builds the foundation for the rest of the book, as the BPM ontology includes our shared vocabulary (i.e., folksonomy) that structures knowledge in two ways. First, it allows practitioners to structure their business knowledge by adding meaningful relationships between the vocabulary terms. Second, it organizes concepts in hierarchic “is-a” relationships, which allow for a polymorphic inheritance of properties.
The Complete Business Process Handbook. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-799959-3.00005-7 Copyright © 2015 LEADing Practice ApS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
89