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Analyzing Loosely Structured Business Processes Using a Minimal Software Prototype

Analyzing Loosely Structured Business Processes Using a Minimal Software Prototype
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Author(s): Birger Andersson (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden), Erik Perjons (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)and Ilia Bider (IbisSoft, Sweden)
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 3
Source title: Managing Modern Organizations Through Information Technology
Source Editor(s): Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A. (Information Resources Management Association, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59140-822-2.ch149
ISBN13: 9781616921293
EISBN13: 9781466665354

Abstract

To analyze business processes in an organization by interviewing or observing human participants are time-consuming and problematic; it is difficult for participants in the processes to describe how they really work, especially if the processes investigated are so called loosely structured. In this paper, we suggest an alternative approach to business process analysis (BPA) in which a minimal software prototype of a business process support system (BPSS) is introduced before the processes models in the BPSS are defined in a more structured way. The analysis of the prototype’s event log is the basis for BPA and the definition of the more structured processes. Our approach is part of an emerging research area within business process management, called process mining. However, in contrast to other research in this area, we are applying process mining on loosely structured processes using the state-flow view of processes.

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