Improving ALM Process through Business Process Re-engineering

This thesis aims to improve the management processes of a case company through business process re-engineering and process advancement and design methodologies. The report includes a literature review, methodology, discussion/analysis, and findings on the re-engineering and business process design. The interview for ALM was carried out by two people in the management of the company. The order for which the interview was conducted reflects a crucial level of interviews because it was planned according to the available time and according to the key persons.

Running head: Emerging Technologies and Innovation 1
University
(Name)
Emerging Technologies and Innovations
(Professor’s Name)
(Date)

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1.0 Executive Summary
The purpose of the thesis is to improve, re-engineer and develop a case company’s
management processes though business process re-engineering and process advancement and
design methodologies.
The data of the report theoretical analysis was unruffled from pertinent literature for this
topic. The main aim of the analysis was to re-engineer the management processes and
improve business processes. The pragmatic study was based on the ALM process. The
important part of collecting data was interviewing the personnel that are involved in the
management processes.
The consequences of the thesis outlines reasons behind the development of ALM process
case company, reengineering and improvement for the case company to realise constancy,
accountability and efficiency in the organization. Results of the designing process was to
utilize in creating the organization’s WTR system as a tool and also a product to enhance
ALM processes. Furthermore the results outlines how improvement can be done regularly on
the business.

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Table of Contents
2.0 Introduction to research domain..................................................................................................4
2.1 Research question......................................................................................................................4
3.0 Literature Review..........................................................................................................................4
4.0 Methodology...................................................................................................................................6
4.1 semi-structural interviews............................................................................................................6
4 Discussion/Analysis...................................................................................................................6
4.3 Analysis for the system requirements..........................................................................................6
5.0 Re-engineering and Business Process Design..............................................................................8
5.1 Business process Re-engineering.................................................................................................8
5.2 modelling of business process.....................................................................................................8
5.3 performance/important matrix.....................................................................................................9
6.0 Findings........................................................................................................................................11
6.1 Description of improving business process............................................................................11
6.3 Process improvements visualization.......................................................................................13
6.2 Re-engineering and of the ALM process................................................................................14
6.2 Re-engineering of ALM process and Business process improvement..................................19
6.21 Identification of critical process............................................................................................20
6.22 Testing of redesigned ALM process......................................................................................22
6.23 performance/importance matrix...........................................................................................23
6.24 Establishment of the Redesigned ALM process..................................................................23
7.0 conclusion.....................................................................................................................................24
8.0 References.....................................................................................................................................25

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2.0 Introduction to research domain
Due to the fact that there is no regulated and standardise business process and organizational
processes, many challenges has been reported concerning the administrational tasks. The
primary objective of implementing this thesis was to improve the existing organizational
processes and also to improve and develop the process through theories applications (Lin,
Chen, & Ye, 2018).
2.1 Research question
1. What are the current problems that are faced by the ALM process?
2. How can ALM process be improve and developed in the company?
3. Which are the needs of a system or a software that may support redesign of ALM
process?
3.0 Literature Review
In4mo is an information technology company located in Finland, the main offices are located
in Espoo, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded in the year 2007 and has
experience a significant growth because of having a good and close relationship with its
customers, it has a constant optimum level of services and a great contract concentration to
comprehensive simplicity of products and innovation. The company branch located in
Sweden has about 40 employees and the organization official language is English.
In4mo emphasise on the necessities of NIC Company and they have partnered with
construction and drying companies. In4mo mainly provides Mobile Multimedia Reporting
solutions and many other products. Insurance holders are the greatest beneficiary of the
company.

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The company contain a working organization structure which consist of Board of Directors
with 5 executive members, the chief executive officer and the managers who are the heads of
various departments. The company focuses on a good working environment and it emphasis
very much on team work.
I4mo emphasis on security in its designation step because the company is ISO 27001:2005
certified. The company has worn various competition and it has been referred as one of the
fast growing company in Finland.
3.0 Needs for development in ALM process
The business process for the administration of ALM is to be created in the thesis for the
company to approve, monitor and report on the days they are out of work, these are usually
the vacation days, overtime working hours and other kind of leave that are granted by the
laws of Finland and the agreements of the company.
Two personnel working for the company was interviewed and out of this interview the
development needs of the company were defined. The following are some of the
requirements.
3.1Software needs
3.11 Better overview of the structure for the executive the management team and the
employees.
3.2 Need to make the managers and the employees accountable for their actions.

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4.0 Methodology
4.1 semi-structural interviews
In the thesis I found this kind of interview to be suitable because there was need to list down
the questions, but questions itself is required to be open-ended because of the need to look for
the current information about ALM process and also comprehending the needs for customers.
The interviews was limited by this technique to only two primary persons to be interviewed
(Chang, 2016).
4 Discussion/Analysis.
Data collected in the interview throughout the writing of the thesis is going to be analysed
by discussing method of analysis that referred to be the communal texts. The method of
data collection was suitable because of the re-engineering and the developments of the
ALM Process which is based mainly to management wishes and also wishes of the
customers.
4.3 Analysis for the system requirements
This type of is mostly used in software developments and Information Technology in order to
comprehend the targets and the needs solution design. The system requirements is a way of
meeting the needs of the esteemed customers and are also crucial in defining the system
attributes for its development (Yours, 2014).
The development of the system should must start by defining the needs of customers, this is
achieved by discussing with the customers about their needs.
The analysis requirements in the thesis was done by analysing data that was collected at the
discussion that was performed in the meeting and interviews which took place in the process
of preparing the thesis. Analysis of the system requirements ware required to enable the
company to utilize the gathered information to improve the ALM WTR systems.

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5.0 Re-engineering and Business Process Design
5.1 Business process Re-engineering
It is define as “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to
achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as
cost, quality, service and speed” (Tonnossen, 2014).
5.2 modelling of business process
The biggest section of BPD is modelling which contain the evaluation tools. When
developing a business process, it is important to know owners goals. The owner should
outline a certain number of goals that the new system should meet. Various stakeholders
should be consulted to give out the goals of the organization (Luka, 2018).
After building a BPM an Information Technology System or a software is set up to aid the
BPM and its implementation.
The following table illustrate steps of Business Process Modelling that assist an organization
to realise the objective.

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Fig 1 business process goal round Trip
A system that aids a business process model does not exist in It systems, nevertheless after
utilizing the IT system for aiding business process, the owner of the process would be able to
determine whether the business objectives has been realised or not and he/ she would be able
to determine if further changes are to be put in place. If any modification is to be amended in
the business process then the cycle needs to be commence again (Hammer, 2015).
5.3 performance/important matrix
This is the most powerful tool in analysing most sections that exist in most of the business
processes. This tool can be applied in various levels within an organization.

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Performance/matrix outlines both the business process and its aftermaths, it also examines
how the organization is able to handle its business processes and the importance of having a
business process in the organization (Madane & Joshi, 2018) there are 2 scales that exist in a
matrix, the performance and importance. The scales are categorized from 1-5 source that is
I. Concentrate here
II. Maintain performance/ keep up the good work
III. Lowe priority/ not important
IV. Possible overkill
Fig 2 performance/important matrix
This method was applied in the thesis different stages of business process re-engineering.

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6.0 Findings
6.1 Description of improving business process
Business process improvement description this a systematic methodology of realigning the
critical processes of the organization to achieve excellent improvements (Bhaskar, 2018).
6.2 process improvement phases
Fig: 3 process improvement phases
Phase 1 – the aim of this phase is to connect critical processes and the pains of the
organization that are articulated by the CEO of a said company, the critical processes are set
after the definition of business process. It is important to create a work plan before initiating
this phase and should contain the period that would be taken for the process (Ray, 2018).
Phase 2- the existing business process is evaluated and assessed. The main objective is to
evaluate the business process needs as compared to the needs of the customers. When

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initiating this phase data of the existing process is gathered. Business process may be
restricted by certain policies in this phase (Gil & Velazco, 2017).
Phase 3- this phase consist of 3 parts, the analysis part, the deal state part and the to-be state.
The main goal of the phase is to analyse data that was collected from interviews among the
customers who are within. The idea here is to analyse data and establish the goal of the
process to yield the intended purpose. Processes are re-engineered to achieve the
requirements of the business processes (King, 2018). A work plan testing for the business
process is created during this phase prior to forwarding the proposal to the management
(Sarker & lee, 2015).
The first three phases this business improvements covers around 90 percent of the total work
load (Iranov, 2018).
Phase 4- After redesigning of the process, the redesign procedure are tested. Testing can be
done by using various tools such as Pareto charts and Fishbone diagram. Testing success is
measured in terms of capability yield and throughput and the effectiveness of the equipment.
The satisfaction of customers is also measured to determine whether the business voice is
achieved (Alrabiah & Drew, 2018).
Basing on the test results some modification should be made to the process redesigned, the
final step of this phase is to introduce the plan for the redesign process (Serban, 2015).
Phase 5- this is to make sure that the redesign process is achieving success. Five lessons plan
should be documented in this phase. This phase is the implementation of process that took
place in the phase three. (Jeston, 2014) This phase may also involve data collection to ensure
that the customer requirements are realized. To implement the redesign process it needs an
organization to have proper planning. There is also a need to train employees in order to

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assist in the implementation of the redesign process. Training of the employees should be
according to the rollout plan created on phase 4.
Phase 6- this phase is the sixth and also the final step, this step is assuring that the
improvements of business processes always endure (Mohammed & Hammad, 2018).
6.3 Process improvements visualization
An operation or the process step
Attribute checker
A Process step where documents and materials are waiting
An employee or an operator
A step where materials are relocated

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Valueless materials
6.2 Re-engineering and of the ALM process
The interview for ALM was carried out by two people in the management of the company.
This played an important role for the thesis because it assisted in providing the valuable
information (Nassar, & Moawad, 2018).
Everything was conducted accordingly to so as to give the company exact portrait. The order
for which the interview was conducted reflects a crucial level of interviews because it was
planned according to the available time and according to the key persons. Observations and
conclusions that was made was made by utilizing an open-ended question and it is focused on
analysing verbal description and words somewhat than the data. The fig 4 below shows the
interview questions (Bruccoleri, Riccobono & Größler, 2018).
No
Interview question interviewee
1.0 What is you role in this company? Both interviewees
2
What is the total number of employee currently working
in this company?
Interviewee 1
Both interviewees

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3 According to your judgment, how well is the overall
administrational processes are strategize and organized?
4 What type of process is currently used by In4mo? Both interviewees
5. What are the major challenges or problems that are
faced by In4mo present system or process?
Both interviewees
6 Would these organization benefit from implementing
new system?
Both interviewees
7
Which system software features are suitable for the new
system software you would like to have?
Both interviewees
8 Any deadline for implementing the system software?
Both interviewees
9 Would training of employees about the new system be
appropriate?
Both interviewees
10 How would the system software be documented? Interviewee 1
11 What would be the main target of implementing
system software
Both interviewees
12 Any certain anticipation of improving the system
software

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The first person to be interviewed was the Administration Manager for Finance. The
interview took place on 16th October 2017 on Wednesday at 10:00 at the admin office
(interviewee1)
The Managing Director of the company was the second person to be interviewed. The
interview on 23rd October 2017 at 9:30 am in the CEOs office (interviewee).
6.21 Question 1
The interview question was “What is you role in this company?”
The interview summarise his duties as the Managing director of Finance (interviewee 1).
Interviewee 2 answered that he is Board of Directors Chairman and also the CEO of the
company (interviewee 2).
6.22 Question 2
This question was ‘’ what is the total number of employee currently working in this
company?’’ this question was only posted to the interviewee1. Interviewee mention that they
have around 40 employees but he said that he is anticipating to increase more workers in the
coming days (interviewee 1)
6.23 Question 3
The third question was ‘’ According to your judgment, how well is the overall
administrational processes are strategize and organized? ’’ This question was asked both of
the interviewees.
The interviewee 1 the organizational processes is better, but some of the paths to trail on at
that time. (Interviewee 1). The interviewee 2 said that the company lacks a clear admin
processes at that time (the interviewee 2).

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6.24 Question 4
The question was ‘’ what type of process is currently used by In4mo ‘’ the two interviewee
was asked this question.
Interviewer 1 replied that the current ALM process is done through face-face communication
and the employees are being updated by the use of emails. (Interviewee 1).
The interviewer 2 touched on the comments mentioned by the by the interviewee 1 but he
only added on that the current data is being track by the use of the excel file documents.
(Interviewee 2)
6.25 Question 5
This question was ‘’ what are the major challenges or problems that are faced by In4mo
present system or process? ‘’
The interviewee 1 said that the most challenging part of the current process is the use of
simple excel to store the companies records which he term as less secure for the organization
data, the second problem was that the employees of the company lacks knowledge about the
principles concerning the ALM process, the third problem is that the employees are not
informing the records keepers about the underlying tasks which makes the records not be out
date (Interviewee 1).
The interviewee 2 express a lot of concern about data various mistakes that occurs in the
record keeping. The interviewee 2 feels that the process is not working to the required
standards (interviewee).
6.26 Question 6
This question gores like this ‘’ Would these organization benefit from implementing new
system? ‘’

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The interviewee 1 said that employees of the company would benefit so much with the new
system because it would be possible for to view their yearly vacation days. The managers
would also be able to track the attendance of the employees. (Interviewee 1).
The interviewee 2 viewed that he himself is going to benefit very much because the system
would be able to update him on various events (interviewee 2).
6.27 Question 7
The question was ‘’ which system software features are suitable for the new system software
you would like to have? ‘’
Interviewee 1 said that he anticipate to have a system which is automated and has real-time
feature (interviewee 1).
The interviewee 2 claimed that the new system should nob expensive for the company to
afford because of low significance level of the system software. Interviewee did not said that
he would be ready to implement the new system provided that reasonable price is offered
(Jamel, Saidani, & Nurcan, 2018) (Interviewee 2).
6.28 Question 8
The question was ‘’ any deadline for implementing the system software? ’’ This question was
asked to both of the interviewees.
Both the interviewee gave out the same answer for this they said it would very appropriate
for them if they could implement the new system at the beginning of year 2018 (interviewee
1 and interviewee 2).
6.29 Question 9
The question was ‘’ would training of employees about the new system be appropriate? ‘’
Interviewee 1 felt that was need to train the employees for the system to be very clear to each
and every employee. (Interviewee 1).

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Interviewee 2 said that training of the employee would help them improve skills on how the
system would be used, the teachers of the system would be able to discuss in details how the
system would be used (interviewee 2).
6.290 Question 10
The questions was for only interviewee 1.
The question asked ‘’ how would the system software be documented? ’’
Interviewee 1 suggested that the system documentation should be very brief and simple
6.291 Question 11
The question posted was ‘’ what would be the main target of implementing system software ‘
Interviewee 1 suggested that the ALM Process should be made to be simple and very reliable.
(Interviewee 1).
Interviewee 2 suggested that the system main goal is which is correct and free of errors.
(Interviewee 2)
6.291 Question number 12
The question was ‘’ any certain anticipation of improving the system software ‘’ the question
was asked to both of the interviewees.
Interviewee 1 suggested that the re-engineering of the ALM process must be carried out in
process that proves high level professionalism (interviewee 1).
Interviewee 2 expectation was numbers to must be removed for the new system that is going
to be to ALM process (Dumas, La, Mendling, & Reijers, 2018).
6.2 Re-engineering of ALM process and Business process improvement
To begin business process within three months a work plan should be generated. This thesis
allows a company a grace period. A work plan should be fished within this period because
the managers may lose moral after the end of this period. The plan should include the main

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task, the commencing and the finishing dates, people who would be the charge of the task and
the task deposition. The work plan purpose is to enhance team dynamics with the link
objectives, deliverables and time schedule (Ray 2018).
The following work plan was created for this thesis
6.21 Identification of critical process
Data collected during the interview may be used to identify the ALM critical processes, the
re-engineering team would be required to draw a chart of the existing process. In some cases
no data collection is needed in order to identify this it may actually be based only through the
customer’s demand (Abrabia & Drew, 2018).

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The figure below show the current ALM management process
The line manager’s shares feedback from the organization employees. The company’s
management decided to improve this system after a discussion. The first meeting of the
managers was held on 20 may 2018. At this meeting they reach a conclusion to create an
automatic time reporting tool that can further be improved by ALM reporting. The designer

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was granted access to work on the WTR ‘’work time report’’ the following chart was made to
initiate this (Bennis & Mische, 2017).
Suggestion for improving the ALM process and work plan testing was presented to the
management for approval. After the mangers approved the plan the induction plan was
initiated (Hillon & Melle, 2017).
6.22 Testing of redesigned ALM process
The test was carried out with the help of WTR portal for about thirty days in order to know
capability of the proposed system. According to the results it shows that WTR portal only

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work at certain levels of absence reporting device to the organization and its workers (Borić,
Stanisavljev & Zakin, 2016).
6.23 performance/importance matrix
It is importance to understand the importance matrix, this is done by analysing the structure
of the system in order to determine the process structure, awareness of the employees about
the systems, the storage records, accountability of all workers (Alles, Brennan, Kogan, &
Vasarhelyi, 2018).
6.24 Establishment of the Redesigned ALM process
This is where the managers and various teams of departments enforces the amendments and
improving the project team. The CTO of the company requested all the employees through an
internal memo concerning the implementation of the new system (Hornung, 2017).
6.35 WTR system development requirements
Some of the requirements that was outline in this case was, the possibility of the system to
mark time of absence accordingly, create various types of leaves for the employees, amend
absence visibility for various authority levels and the system should also have a good
interface that would enable the management monitor absence of employees (Rinaldi,
Montanari, & Bottani, 2015).

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7.0 conclusion
Among other goals of improvements is to have a successful innovative improvements, it is a
pleasure to see this thesis achieve this goal. The ALM reporting is now very structural with
flawless steps to follow right from the beginning to the termination of the process. Another
section which was very successful was seeing the meet the requirements for the designation
of WTR systems which was defined in regards to the outcome of data that was collected in
the process of developing this thesis (Razalli, Hasnan & Noordin, 2017).
In regards to the thesis the theoretical framework the improvement team was useful through
the design, the employees and the management team contributed in making the project to be
efficacious (Park, Chung, Khan, & Park, 2017).

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