Model-based support for business re-engineering

Abstract

What do we need to know about the business in order to understand and, eventually, to improve business operations? Many business modelling methods have been described in the literature and applied in business re-engineering projects. We feel that current business modelling methods do not have a precise enough model of the underlying business knowledge. A model should be comprehensive enough to allow for a systematic study and precise formulation of re-engineering methods. It should also provide a framework for designing tools to support business re-engineering projects. We identify information requirements for business re-engineering based on the commonly used business re-engineering methods and case studies published in the literature. We formalized these requirements within the conceptual business model that is described in this paper. Business models vary from a company to company and from one business re-engineering project to another. Therefore, we build a generic model first and then we customize the generic model to the needs of a given company and a re-engineering project in hand. We build the core of a tool environment for business re-engineering around the generic business model. We achieve a required level of tool flexibility by applying meta-CASE techniques. We derive the physical schema for tool repository and generate customized tools from the customized business model specifications. Tools built around our model can support business knowledge acquisition, business process modelling, performance/quality analysis and analysis of alternative business process re-engineering solutions. In the paper, we describe our business model and an integrated computer-aided business understanding and re-engineering tool environment that we build around the business model. We illustrate benefits of building tools on a rich business model, focusing on tools and analysis methods that have not been extensively described in other sources.