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Business Process Implementation : Building Workflow Systems

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Michael Jackson, Graham Twaddle

July 1997, Addison-Wesley Pub Co, Hardcover, 256 pages, ISBN 0201177684


How to Model, Analyze, and Improve Business Processes
How to Model, Analyze, and Improve Business Data
How to Build Business Process Models
How to Build Business Data Models
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Business Process Implementation describes a new method for designing and implementing office workflow systems. It will provide the reader with a way of clearly documenting the processes and process-related knowledge that are the end-result of a business-process re-engineering study. It also provides an approach to implementing the re-engineered processes that have been tried and tested successfully in large systems for critical business applications.

Preface

1 Introduction
Purposes, Systems and Methods
The System Context
The Users
The Business of the Office
Trivial Interactions
Interaction Sequences
Business Requirements
Workflow Requirements
A More Realistic Context
Why People Matter
The Focus of This Book
Chapter Summary
Questions

2 Overview of the Method
Four Phases and a Database
Project Flexibility
The Method Phase Chapters
The Method Phases
The Entity Model Phase
The Business Interaction Model Phase
The Business Tasks Definition Phase
The Office Workflow Definition Phase
Database Implementation
Chapter Summary
Questions

3 The Basic Entity Model
Entities
Further Modelling
Some Basic Ideas
Representing the Model
Associations and Pointers
Attributes and Values
Choosing Entity Classes and Attributes
Entity Keys
The Limitations of a Data Model
Chapter Summary
Questions

4 Initial Lifecycle Definitions
Lifecycle Stages
Flexible Sequencing
Office Tasks
Starting a Lifecycle
Lifecycles and Entities
Lifecycles and Stages
Lifecycles and Tasks
Subtask Structures
Interacting Lifecycles
Chapter Summary
Questions

5 Further Entity Modelling
Further Topics
Entities and Classes
Classification Entities
Entity Classes and Roles
Datasets
Null and Special Values
Chapter Summary
Questions

6 Tasks, Lifecycles and Programs
Progress Through a Lifecycle
Programs for Tasks
The Context and Content of a Task
Tasks and Lifecycles
Backtracking
Dataset Context of a Task
Data Interactions
Rules and Functions
Decision Tables
Chapter Summary
Questions

7 Office Workflow
Scheduling Users' Work
The Workflow Problem
System Action and Reaction
A Data Model For Tasks
Task Coordination
Menu Structure
Supporting the Menu Structure
Templates
Workflow Reporting
Chapter Summary
Questions

8 A Database Implementation
Aspects of Database Design
Data and Programs
Classes and Individual Instances
The Large Structure of the Database
A View of Lifecycles and Tasks
Advantages for Workflow and Lifecycles
Effective Dates
Implementing Roles
Special Pointer Values
Chapter Summary
Questions

9 Project Structure
A Larger View
Goals and Risks
Technical Constraints and Freedoms
User Commitment and Discovery
Total User Ownership
Speed of Development
Documentation
Incompleteness Risks
Chapter Summary
Questions

Appendix 1 Glossary
Appendix 2 Diagrammatic Notations
Appendix 3 The LogicWare Environment
Index

The speed with which today's businesses have to adapt to ever-changing circumstances and the complexity required to remain ahead in a competitive environment have forced the development of automated business process systems. Business Process Implementation describes a new method for designing and implementing office workflow systems.

This method was developed by Graham Twaddle and his colleagues and has been analyzed and described by Michael Jackson, one of the pre-eminent contributors to current software development practices. It has been tried and tested by Sherwood International UK who have incorporated it into their award-winning Amarta software support system.

The method consists of a carefully crafted combination of data and process modelling that permits highly parallel, and therefore highly efficient and flexible, workflow. Moreover, it embodies a novel approach to database design and implementation that gives many of the benefits usually ascribed to object-orientation but requires only a conventional relational database environment.

Key Features

A clear and insightful description of the method, its range of applicability and its use.
Innovative diagram and textual notations for data and process modelling.
A thorough description of the Amarta software suport system which provides insight into the implementation issues and shows how to mechanize and simplify developement.
Questions at the end of each chapter, providing readers with an opportunity to check their understanding of the concepts involved.

This book will be invaluable for anyone who has to develop and use business systems for information and administration and especially to those working in an environment where office workflow is an important concern. It will provide the reader with a way of clearly documenting the processes and process-related knowledge that are the end-result of a business-process re-engineering study. It also provides an approach to implementing the re-engineered processes that have been tried and tested successfully in large systems for critical business applications.

Michael Jackson has worked in software for over thirty years, during which time he has been involved in all aspects of program and system development. In 1971 he started his own company offering courses, project support and tools for software developers. He now works as an independent consultant in London, and works part time in software development at AT&T Research in New Jersey. He played the leading role in developing the JSP and JSD methods of program and system develpment.

The author, Graham Twaddle graham_twaddle@compuserve.com , August 22, 1999
I hope this helps model complex business processes
It is often hard to see how to implement a complex business process. This is because although there are many ways to implement data driven or object driven designs there are few approaches to implementing process driven workflows. While many systems implement workflow as a separate item from the application one of our goals was to implement the two together so that they could never get out of step, and so that the whole business process could be considered regardless of the part the computer systems played in it. I hope this approach helps and leads to an easier life for those implementing such systems.