Levykin V.M., Dr.Sci., Prof., Chala O.V. Cand. Sci., Assoc. Prof.

Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics

SUPPORTING A LIFE-CYCLE OF THE KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE BUSINESS PROCESSES

The knowledge-intensive business processes are characterized by the direct use of performer’s knowledge [1]. The knowledge influences on the sequence of process execution. Performers of the business process use their formalized personal knowledge to correct the workflow. This is the reason to formalize the performer’s knowledge and include it in the process model. Then the formalized personal knowledge of workers can be used to increase the management effectiveness of knowledge-intensive business processes.

The problem of managing a life cycle of the knowledge-intensive business process reflects divergence between traditional formal techniques of process description and practical needs to improve process model using personal experience of knowledge workers. The lifecycle of a business process consist of the sequence of stages from considering of initial design to using process model for management tasks [2]. The lifecycle steps needs to be adjusted every time the requirements changes as a result of the evolution of goods or services properties. Knowledge workers change knowledge-intensive business process at runtime according to new requirements using their personal knowledge. Therefore it is necessary to adapt the model of such a process at runtime.

The purpose of this presentation is to develop the approach to support of the lifecycle of the knowledge-intensive business process. The proposed approach would provide an opportunity to improve the process after the completion of the currently executing instance, and while it is running. This will give a possibility to improve the efficiency of process management for the current instance of the process.

An evolutionary approach to support the lifecycle of a knowledge-intensive business process is proposed. It is based on a combination of waterfall and evolutionary development strategies (pic.1).

Pic.1 – An evolutionary approach to support the lifecycle of a knowledge-intensive business process

The waterfall strategy provides a model of the process after satisfaction all of the a priori known requirements to the process. Evolutionary strategy focuses on iterative empowerment of the model by incorporating new dependencies that was identified during the implementation of the business process.

The dependencies reflect the previously unknown relationships between the elements of the knowledge-intensive business process. It includes the relationships between artifacts of the process context, between artifacts and the activities of the business process.

Relationship between the context elements and process actions is externalized based on the analysis of business processes logs. Context elements are displayed in the log using the event attribute values, and that leads to the ability to highlight the links between the context and process.

The proposed approach support management of the process life-cycle in relation to the knowledge-intensive business processes.

The life-cycle includes phases of analysis, re-engineering, deployment and use of the business process. The sequence of the lifecycle phases implements the waterfall strategy. Evolutionary strategy is implemented in the use phase.

The proposed life-cycle support differs from used ones. The adaptation and improvement of the business process is executed in parallel with its implementation. That improvement is based on the externalization of new relationships between actions and the context objects used by the process. The combination of data and process mining techniques can be used to identify such dependencies. The approach result is a more adequacy process model, that can improve process management efficiency.

References:

1. Gronau, N. (2012). Modeling and Analyzing knowledge intensive business processes with KMDL: Comprehensive insights into theory and practice (English). Gito, 522.

2. Mathias Weske (2012). Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures 2nd ed., 403.