Digital Business Process Management

Business processes are at the core of high-tech organizations and consist of a large number of activities aimed at creating value for customers. These processes can be supported or executed by humans or by digital technology. In the digital age, business processes are supported by, enabled, and changed by technologies like the Internet ofial Intelligence, Blockchain, Robotics, Things, Artific and so on. Business processes are situated at the point where the business side meets the IT side and where technology should fulfill customer needs. If business processes fail or do not adapt to the needs of customers, the whole business might fail. Business Process Management (BPM) is necessary for ensuring that processes are operating in concert and that these processes are adaptable to changes in the overall environment of an organization.

In this course, the relationship between strategy, technology, and business processes will be illustrated, explained, and discussed. Methods and tools for business process analysis, design, improvement and evaluation will be presented, including a number of statistical and architecture design methods. New solutions will be architected for high-tech organizations. The extent to which the nature of business processes is affected by contemporary technology constitutes the core of this course. In particular, to analyze technologies and their impact on business process management and to architect new solutions in the organizational context of the firm. AI plays a huge role in supporting the automatic design, updating, and evaluation of business processes.

Topics

• Aligning strategy and processes, value perspective, and supply chains

• Workflow, resources, BPM elements and control

• Business process modeling (concepts, BPMN) + practical work

• Business process evaluation and measurement, Balanced Scorecard,(BSC) Activity-based Costing (ABC) + practical work

• Business process improvement strategies and approaches, path dependencies, capabilities, resource-based view, business process maturity

• Improvement methodologies (LSS, lean, six sigma, theory of constraints, BPR, technology ..)

• Statistical analyses and improvement + practical work

• Compliance by design, built-in controls in processes and technology

• Business process automation and technology (BPM, ERP, workflow, SOA,..)

• Business processes automation (case-based, process-based, use-based)

• Agility and adaptability of BPM systems and the users, business processes, and agile enterprises

• AI for generating, using, and controlling business processes; AI, Business, and knowledge rules

• Internet of Things, data-driven organizations

Students will collaborate in groups of 4-7 students to make an assignment which should contain 1) the analysis 2) improvement and digitalization of a business process and 3) implementation aspects. Students are free to select a process that is critical or a company and can be improved by ICT. The assignment consists of three parts

1. Analysis: Students select a company, analyze their strategy, and select a critical business process. The existing process should be modeled (in BPMN), and the resulting product(s), stakeholders' roles, customer needs, market developments and technology used should be analyzed.

2. Improvement: Based on the use of systematic and structured improvement methods and instruments, a proposal for business process improvements should be made ;

3. Realization: Evaluation of the value and risks of the business process improvement and implementation of how the proposed business process should be realized by means of digital technology.

The assignment should be handed in as a report. The report should adhere to the APA reference standards. The report cannot be updated for a higher grade after having handed in the report.

The students are expected to prepare a proposal and a presentation. Some of the groups will be asked to present these during the lectures. Based on these presentations, feedback will be given, which is relevant for all groups. Presentations will be assessed using a pass or fail. The report will be graded; this grade will reflect the final grade.