Business Process Modeling: Challenges, Security, and Governance

This report provides a comprehensive literature review on modern business process modeling (BPM). It begins with an introduction to BPM and its graphical representations, highlighting the use of techniques like data-flow diagrams and flowcharts to analyze and improve business workflows. The report then delves into the challenges faced in modern BPM, such as aligning IT goals with overall business objectives, and the difficulties in adapting to a constantly changing business environment. Security issues in BPM are also examined, including the limitations of models like BPMN in verifying critical properties and the need for more robust security integration. The report further discusses process governance issues, emphasizing elements like measurement, process ownership, accountability, control, and support processes. The literature review synthesizes these aspects, offering insights into how businesses can overcome challenges, address security concerns, and implement effective governance for improved performance. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of careful BPM selection and the inclusion of all organizational members to ensure business success. The report is well-researched and includes references to academic sources.

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Modern Business Process Modeling
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Introduction
Business process modeling usually is a representation of workflows or processes in a
business in a graphical manner. Graphical methods of representation are such as data-flow
representation diagrams, flowcharts among others. They are used to compare the business
process the way it is at this time and its state in the future after implementing changes. It is
usually used side by side with business process mapping (Štemberger, 2018 p.738). They can
both be used to identify potential weak points of a business and give potential improvements
suggestions. The process mapping deals with either low-level mapping or high-level mapping
meaning it can either get too deep into details or the opposite.
The purpose of the research review was to identify problems or challenges faced in
modeling the business process, in this case, the modern processes. The review also focused on
security issues in the models and issues of process governance in managing the process models.
The review focused on many techniques in general (Lunn, 2013 p.1015). The methods that the
review used to acquire information included reading articles, questioning some of the big
business owners, reading books and journals among others. The report of the literature review
will cover challenges, limitations, security issues and government issues on managing and
controlling business processes. It also gives possible solutions to the challenges and
recommendations that will help improve business performance (Zairi, 2017 p.64). The review
used publications such as the International Journal of production economics. Internet was also a
source of information for the review.
Literature Review

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The review focused on many process techniques and involved advantages of using
modern business process models. The main objective of the process models in business is to
analyze how a business is doing right now and predict how it will be in the future. This
information helps to make necessary adjustments to the business to increase efficiency and
productivity (Polyvyanyy, 2015 p.147) The objective of each business is to provide the best
goods and or services. The review found out that the benefits of using a processing model in
business are such as controls and give consistency to the process. The process also point out and
remove inefficiencies and redundancies. Process modeling also helps business group processes
that are the same together and suggest how they should work.
Fi
gure 1: Business process modeling
Source:https://d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net/uploads/2014/05/BPMN-II%E2%80%93-
Expense-Claim-Process.jpg

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Techniques of Process Modeling in a Business
Business process modeling can use programs, flowcharts, scripts or hypertext to represent
information (Smirnov, 2015 P.149). One of the techniques used in modeling includes Business
Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). It is mainly used by process analyst modeling tools
creators. It uses simple arrows, lines, geometric shapes that show the flow of the process. The
other type of technique is the Universal Process Notation (UPN). This is simple to use as it gives
a box for which each assigned task is to be done. The box tells who is to do the task, what the
task involves and also when to do it. It is very useful for Information Technology design
processes and also to analyze them for end-users in a business to understand them as meant for.
Figure 2: flow chart
Source:https://d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/Flow-chart-
technique.jpg
Flowchart Technique is used to explain the complex process and makes them seem simple
and effective. They usually use sequential order, starting from inputs to the processes and then to
outputs, to illustrate the steps in a process. The technique provides the framework for BPMN to

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use in displaying other process flows. Grantt Charts can show the whole process using the time
that was taken as the main arc. It does not show the steps in a sequential order. It is the only
option that shows the total time that was taken to complete a task or project. Petri-Nets are some
of the traditional techniques. They color-code complicated workflow steps, routes and users
using different colors.
Problems faced when modeling modern business process
Like many other processes in a business, Business PM faces some challenges. The review
found one of the challenges to be difficulty in deriving the goals of IT from those of the common
business goals (Hammer, 2015 P.5). It is difficult for an analyst in IT to understand business
processes. The current literature does not capture the business environment in reality. There
should be created a process model of business that will involve both the IT and other members of
a business in one group.
The other challenge is the security issue of Business PM. The current methods of
Information System development do not integrate security at all stages of development and focus
only on one type of security requirements, constraints, and goals. When making a Business PM
we should ensure it is inclusive and combines all elements of business for efficiency. Also, the
business set up and environment keeps on changing and therefore the model being used has to be
abandoned for a new one that will involve the changes. This is a problem as a lot of time is spent
forming a new process model and also the members of the business organization take time to
adjust. A business PM must be carefully chosen to ensure it lasts the longest and also it is easily
adjustable.
Security issues in business process models

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Models such as BPMN are effective for expressing interaction among components in a
system that is complex (Prause 2015 P.65). However, it does not provide the possibility to check
and verify if some important properties can hold. Its visual analysis works for few scenarios but
becomes ineffective once there are a lot of models. When security and safety properties are
focused on, one cannot rely on analysis that is informal because of the harmful aftermaths of
using a model that violates them (March, 2012 p.662). BPMN-Q overcomes this challenge by
using graphical queries in which one can check against a process model.
Process governance issues in managing control for business process models
The outcome of an effective Business PM is the good management, proactive and
continuous improvements of processes used by an organization in delivering value to the
customers(Greenberg, 2015 P.595). Some of the elements for governance in a Business PM are
such as measurement. The measurement process is important as we have to do the measurements
to know the progress of a business. The other element is a process owner.. Every process in an
organization must have an owner. Other processes include accountability, control and support
processes. The support processes support the owner(Greenberg, 2015 P.600).
Conclusion
A BPM is important in every business organization as it monitors how the business is
doing and provides information for prediction of the future of the business and also helps make
changes towards better output. However, if the models are not chosen wisely and well secured
they might lead to the downfall of a business. Careful consideration must be done when choosing
the BPMs as they are the key to running a good business. One should make sure the model will
include everyone in an organization including the IT people.

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References
Greenberg,. 2015. The role of trust in the governance of business process outsourcing
relationships: a transaction cost economics approach. Business Process Management
Journal, 14(5), pp.593-603
Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?.In Handbook on business process
management 1 (pp. 3-16).Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Lunn, K., 2013. Business processes—attempts to find a definition. Information and software
technology, 45(15), pp.1015-1019.
March, J.G., 2012. The business firm as a political coalition. The Journal of politics, 24(4),
pp.662-678.
Polyvyanyy, A., 2015. Business process model abstraction. In Handbook on Business Process
Management 1 (2), pp. 147-165
Prause, G., 2015. Sustainable business models and structures for Industry 4.0. Journal of
Security & Sustainability Issues, 5(2),pp.62-85
Štemberger, M., 2018. The impact of business process orientation on financial and non-financial
performance. Business Process Management Journal, 14(5), pp.738-754.
Zairi, M., 2017. Business process management: a boundaryless approach to modern
competitiveness. Business process management journal, 3(1), pp.64-80.

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