1 Masking flexibility behind rigidity: Notes on how much flexibility people are willing to cope with Prepared for BPMDS ’ 05 by Ilia Bider, IbisSoft,Stockholm, Sweden

2 Do we need flexibility A bit of provocation

3 Flexibility - Hypothesis The issue was brought about as soon as Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) appeared First WFMS were considered as rigid as they did not cover all situations the user could get into  Flexibility is required

4 Flexibility – reality by example Reaction on flexibility of associative search Search through association – unusual, difficult to accept VS Directed search – normal – easy to accept

5 Why complaints on rigidity - hypothesis Preliminary business process mapping/modeling/analysis cannot be exact. This results in “wrong” rigidity rather than in lack of flexibility

6 Solutions Start with “wrong” rigidity and quickly transform it to the right one. Risks – before the transformation is completed – users can give up Start with real flexibility and quickly transform it into the “right” rigidity. Risks – users may not be able or willing to cope with flexibility

7 Starting with flexibility - a catch In the beginning of BPMS introduction flexibility is required due to insufficiency of the underlying BP model In the beginning of BMPS introduction flexibility constitute an extra burden on the users while they learn how to use the system Solution – limit flexibility as soon as possible

8 Starting with flexibility Workflow approach does not permit to start with full flexibility (Meccano model) Different approach is required (Meccano model)

9 Starting with total flexibility State flow: Background Modeling and control of physical processes - Mathematical system theory Continuous-time physical process trajectory: x – vector of state variables (reals) – derivatives of state variables w – vector of environment variables Goal – a point or a surface in the state space

10 State flow: what is needed Find a way for representing states of business processes. Understand how to represent speed and direction of movement. Find out how to connect speed and direction of movement to the position in the state space.

11 State flow: state and goal For each item Ordered = Delivered To pay = Total + Freight + Tax Invoiced = To pay Paid = Invoiced

12 State flow: state and activities Ordered > Delivered shipment To pay > Invoiced invoicing

13 Integrated state = state + operative plan

14 State flow: acquiring rigidity via policies and dynamical planning Obligations Prohibitions Recommendations Two step planning

15 Totally flexible BPS system ProBis includes Most common business objects –People (contacts and users) –Organizations (groups of people) –Documents (piece of information having a physical form) 3 generalized business processes –iTeam – suitable for internal information exchange, etc –xTeam – suitable for sale, purchase, CRM –Project – suitable for administration of projects

16 Test site Making experiment on living creatures SRAT – a medium size Union for academics ( members), about 10 employees

17 Going rigid – first steps Terminology and screen layouts – even quite educated people prefer their own terminology (even if it will limit the usability) Registering external events, particularly when starting a new process. Require special dialog (even if it will limit the usability)

18 Going rigid – next steps Splitting general processes to specialized ones Introducing automated planning

19 Questions and discussion

20 Acknowledgement Our work is currently supported by Swedish Agency for Innovation System (VINNOVA) The author would like to thanks all people participating in the projects that gave raise to the current discussion

21 Thank You! Ilia Bider,IbisSoft, Sweden