Models and Methodology for Automated Business Continuity Analysis

Business process modelling is an important part of system design. When designing or redesigning a business process, stakeholders specify, negotiate, and agree on business requirements to be satisfied, including non-functional requirements that concern the quality of the business process. This thesis addresses the question of how to specify and compute the quality of a business process, given the model that stakeholders use. The motivation for this thesis is the increasing importance of the quality of business processes. Knowing the quality of specific business processes enables stakeholders to judge if these processes need improvement. Knowing the quality of the constructs of those processes (viz., events, inputs, activities, and outputs) and the way they are structured enables a more detailed analysis of their shortcomings and provides a basis for the design of improvements. The research challenge of this thesis is grounded in the assumption that: “Organisations need an appropriate means to effectively compute achievement of their goals and objectives by their business processes.” Given this challenge, the main research question on which this thesis focuses is: “Can the quality of a business process be computed quantitatively at different levels of granularity?” The research objective is: “To develop frameworks, factors, and metrics for computing non-functional requirements (quality) of business processes quantitatively at different levels of granularity.” The outcomes of this thesis are: 1) BPIMM, a language-independent business process integrating meta-model, based on the concepts of seven mainstream business process modelling languages: BPMN, EPC, RAD, UML AD, SADT, IDEF0, and IDEF3. 2) BPC-QC (Business Process Concept - Quality Computation), an approach to quality computation at the lowest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BPC-QEF (Business Process Concept - Quality Evaluation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of the constructs of a business process: event, input, activity, and output. ii. A set of business process quality dimensions and factors. The following quality dimensions are distinguished: performance, efficiency, reliability, recoverability, permissibility, and availability. Each dimension categorises different quality aspects in terms of factors. A non-exhaustive set of sixteen quantitative factors is provided. iii. Quality metrics for each of the quality factors, to facilitate a quantitative computation of the quality of a specific construct of a business process. 3) BP-QC (Business Process - Quality Computation), an approach to compute the quality at the highest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BP-CQCF (Business Process - Compositional Quality Computation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of a business process as a whole, given the quality of its constructs. ii. A set of generic business process modelling patterns to decompose a business process into more succinct parts, namely: sequential, parallel with synchronisation, exclusive, inclusive, simple loop, and complex loop. iii. A set of over one hundred computational formulae. For each combination of modelling pattern and a quality factor, there is a formula to compute the quality. 4) AAV (Approach to Application and Validation), an evaluation plan to evaluate BPIMM, BPC-QC and BP-QC in practice, together with expert stakeholders. The plan consists of the units of measure, a measurement model, and a case study procedure. To evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis to real world business needs, four case studies have been conducted in different environments: a Dutch educational institution, a global financial institution, an international financial service provider, and a Dutch research project on crisis management. Each of these case studies concerns a different, single business process. This thesis shows that: 1) A quality computation approach can be adopted independent of a business process modelling language. 2) Quantitative quality factors can be introduced specifically for the constructs of a business process. 3) Quantitative metrics and computational formulae can be developed for specific quality factors, allowing the computation of different aspects of the quality of a business process quantitatively at different levels of granularity. 4) An evaluation plan can be developed to evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis (viz., BPIMM, BPC-QC, and BP-QC). The contributions of this thesis are designed to be beneficial to the areas of business and management, requirements engineering, software engineering, and business process modelling. In the areas of requirements engineering and software engineering, these contributions are intended to help practitioners to consider non-functional requirements at the earliest stage. In the area of business process modelling, information systems, service computing, and cloud computing, the contributions can be used for quality-driven modelling, design, and redesign. To conclude, knowing the quality value of a business process at different levels of granularity provides a basis for its improvement.

Business processes and information systems mutually affect each other in non-trivial ways. Frequently, the business process design and the information system design are not well aligned. This means that business processes are designed without taking the information system impact into account, and vice versa. Missing alignment at design time often results in quality problems at runtime, such as large response times of information systems, large process execution times, overloaded information systems or interrupted processes. Aligning business process quality and information system quality at design time requires to
\nsolve the following problems (P). Business process quality and information system quality have to be characterized. P1: In contrast to information system quality, which is specified in the ISO/IEC 9126 standard, for example, there is no common and comprehensive understanding of business process quality. P2: Beyond that, current business process
\nmodeling notations do not aim to represent quality aspects. The impact of a business process on the quality of an information system, and vice versa, is unknown at design
\ntime. P3: The mutual impact between business processes and information systems must be predicted at design time.
\nIn this thesis, the Business Process Quality Reference-Model (BPQRM), a quality model for business processes, is introduced. The model allows for a comprehensive characterization of business process quality (P1). The BPQRM is applied successfully in a case study to
\nidentify potential for process quality improvement in practice. Based on the BPQRM an existing process modeling notation is extended by model elements to represent quality
\naspects (P2). Simulation is a powerful means to predict the impact of a business process on the quality of an information system, and vice versa, at design time. This thesis proposes two simulation approaches to predict the mutual impact between business processes and information systems, in terms of performance (P3). The approach Business
\nIT Impact Simulation (BIIS) defines interfaces between the business process simulation and the information system simulation. Performance-relevant information is exchanged
\nvia the interfaces between both simulations. Using business process simulation and information system simulation in isolation, workload burstiness is not adequately reflected.
\nThis is especially true for occasional, volatile peak loads. Workload burstiness can significantly affect the performance of business processes and information systems. The approach Integrated Business IT Impact Simulation (IntBIIS) for the integration of business processes and information systems in a single simulation allows for reflecting workload burstiness correctly. The simulation approaches support the comparison of design alternatives and the verification of a certain design against requirements. A case study confirms the feasibility in practice and the acceptance from practitioners’ point of
\nview.

Nowadays businesses and business processes depend on Information Technology (IT) more than ever. Disruptions in an organisations' IT infrastructure causes disruptions in business processes which lead to financial losses, legal consequences, losses in reputation and may cause bankruptcies. Business Continuity Management (BCM) addresses these problems. In order to conduct a sound Business Impact Analysis BCM manager require an integrated and coherent view of all involved business processes and IT related resources. However, this integrated and coherent view is hard to establish using conventional analysis methods, such as questionnaires and Visio diagrams. Hence, BCM managers struggle to create current and thorough BCM analyses. In this paper we present a novel model-driven framework for BCM which integrates business process modelling and IT management. Our approach permits automatic consolidation of information from various stakeholders and multiple data sources. Furthermore, different kinds of analysis tools, such as simulation tools and analytical tools, can be utilised in an automatic fashion.

Today many business processes are based on IT systems. These systems are exposed to different threats, which may lead to failures of critical business processes. Thus, enterprises prepare themselves against threats and failures of critical IT systems by means of Business Continuity Management (BCM). The phenomenon of outsourcing introduces a new dimension to BCM. In an outsourcing relationship the client organization is still responsible for the continuity of its processes but does not have full control over the implemented business continuity measures. In this paper we build a research model based on institutional and assimilation theories to describe and explain how and why BCM is assimilated in outsourcing relationships. In our case studies we found evidence that primarily coercive and normative pressures influence the assimilation of BCM in outsourcing relationships and support the explanation of variation across enterprises. Mimetic pressures seem to influence the assimilation but do not explain variations.

The research focuses on the emerging domain of Big Data and the Internet of Things in the context of architectural design and operation. The profession of architecture relies on the use of data in almost all stages of the building cycle. However, this data is often utilised in a trivial manner, without clearly addressing how the data is utilised, when it is utilised, the value of such utilisation and the impact the data has on the design operations and the overall building. Data in architecture mainly serves as a medium of communication to generate a design. Data can only be as good as the technology available at the time it is gathered. Nevertheless, the role of data has changed with the advancement of digital data technologies such as Big Data and the Internet of Things. Digital data is now a driver for businesses and operations in other industries. The investigation of contemporary data utilisation in architecture design reveals that data is not utilised as a driver for the design in most cases and, when it is utilised as a driver, it is not exploited and is not explicitly addressed as part of the business. A knowledge gap in architecture in addressing the utilisation of data and addressing digital data as a driver in design operations is identified. This identification is supplemented by observing that data-driven operations provide the potential for better and more efficient design and business. To fill this knowledge gap and to build a foundation for data utilisation in architecture, this thesis proposes a Data-Driven Operational Framework for architecture, which is the main output of this research and its main contribution to knowledge. The Data-Driven Operational Framework reveals and explains the required components and operations for employing a data-driven design approach in architectural processes and business. In order to develop such a framework, an investigation of current architectural cases that utilise digital data was completed, which is a crucial part of the research. However, it was not possible to investigate these cases without having a thorough understanding of the state-of-the-art data technologies and an understanding of the existing taxonomy of data and the existing taxonomy of value in architectural operations. To build this taxonomy of data, a literature review investigating the terms data, digital data operations, Big Data and the Internet of Things was conducted. To build the taxonomy of value, a literature review of values, value creation and valuation methods in architecture was performed. Also, this value investigation led to the development of a Digital Value Equaliser, which is a conceptual representation that supports the analysis of values in architectural design cases. The case studies were analysed following the coding techniques of Grounded Theory Methodology. The coding procedures were followed systematically and continuously until data saturation was reached. Reaching data saturation led to the development of the Data-Driven Operational Framework for architecture. The Data-Driven Operational Framework has two theoretical applications, the Data-Driven Levels in architectural operations framework and the Data-Driven Impact on the AEC framework. These two theoretical frameworks are the findings of the second part of the research and add to the research contribution. The Data-Driven Levels framework reveals the different automation levels in utilising data in architectural operations. This framework classifies data operations in architecture into six levels according to how automated they are and the degree of human involvement in each operation. The Data-Driven Impact framework shows the anticipated impact of employing data-driven operations on the existing business and cultural models in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). This shows the required business and cultural changes in operating an architecture business. The Impact framework supports architects to identify what measures and changes are needed to benefit from the use of data-driven operations in their practices and business.

Process and data are equally important for business process management. Data is especially relevant in the context of automated business processes, and process controlling. In the context of knowledge-intensive domain, data modified by engineers and used by a fully automatic manufacturing system can lead to unpredictable errors. In this paper, a method permitting the discovery of truly enforced business rules used by the process is proposed. These rules will be highlighted using data from the model of the studied process. The proposed methodology is mainly based on a data mining approach. The proposed method has been tested on data from semiconductor industry, in which processes are known to be complex, and the number of business rules is known to be important. The results show that the method is efficient in assisting engineers in process errors detection and practical process improvement.

Implementation of IT in the enterprise raises the possibility of various risks arising from threats and disturbances. Companies need to have business continuity planning (BCP), so that the company's business processes can be sustain in normal or critical situations. BCP is a methodology used to create and validate plan to sustain business operations continuously before, during, and after disasters or disturbing events. BCP is an important part of Business Continuity Management (BCM) and is a step that can be taken to reduce the negative impact of business interruptions caused by internal and external. The current condition of the Business Continuity Plan is the lack of understanding of the key elements of the business continuity plan design that leads companies to realize what business continuity plan are or do not know what is needed to make BCP and BCP owned by the company still lack in completeness of the business continuity strategy. Based on the present condition, this research aims to explore the elements of BCP based on business continuity standard that is COBIT 5 Domain: Manage Continuity, ISO 22301: 2012 Business Continuity Management System, ITIL IT Service Continuity Management and related business continuity plan research. The results of the research are BCP has 8 main elements, determining the need of business continuity management, business continuity review, risk analysis, business impact analysis, business continuity strategy, disaster recovery plan, employee training, BCP testing, where the eight elements can be categorized into two are managerial and technical.

PT. Electrical MBS address at the Rukan City Garden Maisonete A 1/5 East Cengkareng, West Jakarta is a PT engaged in the sale of electrical equipment that is being developed in the field of buying and selling daily necessities. The author conducted research based on the company's business processes. Managed business process is ordering, purchasing and sales. Research conducted covering all business processes that originally done manually later on Automated via a web-based application system. The author also help the company to see the reports generated by the existing business processes. Moreover, the author also assist the company in determining the supplier for each item that is using the Decision Support System with Analytical Hierarchy Process method. Aplication made is expected to help the company to run its business and simplify the control of the company in general .

Companies increasingly adopt process management systems (PrMS), which offer promising perspectives for a more flexible and efficient process execution. However, for many process-aware application systems (e.g., ERP or CRM systems), the underlying process logic is still hard-coded. As a consequence, these business applications are both complex to design and costly to maintain; i.e., they require long development cycles, and even simple process changes might result in costly code adaptions and high efforts for testing. One reason for this situation stems from the fact that contemporary PrMS were primarily designed for the support of highly structured, repetitive business processes. By contrast, many processes found in practice are rather unstructured or semi-structured, i.e., they are knowledge-intensive and driven by user decisions. In addition, the business functions to be integrated with these processes usually cannot be straight-jacketed into activities. For all these reasons, the activity-centered paradigm of contemporary PrMS is by far too inflexible for realizing more advanced business applications. This deficiency mainly stems from the unsatisfactory integration of processes and data in existing PrMS. Despite emerging approaches, which target at a tighter integration of process and data, a unified and comprehensive understanding of the relationships between them is still missing. This thesis first analyzes real processes not adequately supported by existing PrMS and elaborates their characteristic properties. As a major insight it became clear that in many application scenarios comprehensive process support requires both object- and process-awareness. This means, business processes and business data must not be treated independently from each other. Instead, business processes must comply with the underlying data structure. In particular, in accordance to the given data model comprising object types and object relations, the modeling, execution and monitoring of processes must be based on two levels of granularity: object behavior and object interactions. Further, the individual processes, coordinating the behavior of single object instances, must be coordinated with the ones of related object instances. Opposed to these well-defined process support granularity levels, activities must be executable at different levels of granularity. In particular, while a particular user may only want to work on a particular object instance, another one may want to process a number of related object instances in one go. Furthermore, process execution must be accomplished in a data-driven manner; i.e., the progress of a process instance mainly depends on available business objects and on value changes of their attributes. Finally, authorized users must be able to access and manage process-related objects at any point in time. Based on the properties identified, this thesis elaborates major requirements for enabling object-awareness in processes management systems. The major contribution of the thesis is the PHILharmonicFlows framework, which addresses these requirements and enables object-aware process management in a comprehensive manner. In particular, the framework not only provides a new process modeling approach, but also establishes a well-defined operational semantics enabling the automatic and dynamic generation of end-user components for object- and process-aware business applications at run-time (e.g., overview tables and user forms). Overall, a holistic framework integrating data, processes and users offers promising perspectives in order to overcome the numerous limitations of contemporary PrMS. This thesis considers research in this area as fundamental maturation of process management technology.

The use of information technology in an organization's business processes does not guarantee that the organization has been able to provide good IT services. This service needs to be measured from the level of maturity. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a framework that can be used to measure the maturity level or intended maturity level. Accurate measurements certainly depend on a valid and reliable measuring instrument. The ITSM matrix is a measuring tool that has been internationally recognized in the ITSM and ITIL concepts. This research makes XYZ Higher Education the object of research. The basis of taking XYZ Higher Education is because these universities have used information technology in their business processes. However, problems are still found in the provision of IT services that have not met the expectations of IT Division and users. This can be seen from the percentage of reports on disruption that can be completed on time, only around 60% of the total reports submitted, and there is also a handling of reports of improper disturbances ranging from 19 - 29%. This is certainly a big concern that needs to be resolved by measuring the current level of IT services. After the measurement results using the ITSM matrix and guided by CMMI, it was found that the maturity level of the current IT service is still at level 1 (initial) where the??? service process runs ad-hoc and chaotic, and the success of the organization still comes from individual competence. This shows that XYZ universities, especially IT Division, need to improve IT services at a higher level in order to continue to improve IT services to users.

IT Governance is a branch of the corporate governance system focused on information technology (IT) as well as performance and risk management. IT Governance is defined as the processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goal. There are many different frameworks that can be used for managing the delivery of cost-effective IT services. IT managing the delivery of cost-effective IT services does not always give the advantage to the company. There are times when the IT managing the delivery of cost-effective IT services does not provide any benefit, it can cause IT Productivity Paradox. IT Productivity Paradox can be prevented, one is to analyze the processes undertaken with IT. From this analysis we will get the significance of the relationship processes with the IT Goal. The significance will be seen which one significant process and which one are not significant to the IT Goal. If the IT process there are not significant to the IT Goal, the process does not need to be repaired because it has no effect on IT Goal. Existing IT governance frameworks are COBIT, ITIL, ISO 20000, 17799/27001, Six Sigma, etc. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), initially developed in the UK by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), is gaining traction in the global IT community as a framework for IT governance. ISO 20000-focusing upon IT service management. ISO 17799 / ISO 27001 - focusing upon information. Six Sigma-focusing upon operational performance and defect identification. COBIT - framework for information IT management risks. Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) provides good practices across a domain and process framework and presents activities in a manageable and logical structure. COBIT’s good practices represent the consensus of experts. They are strongly focused more on control, less on execution. These practices will help optimise IT-enabled investments, ensure service delivery and provide a measure against which to judge when things do go wrong. This research is intend to find out whether Cobit mapping Business Goal to IT Goal appropriate with case study. The result The results using SEM approach shows that the mapping of COBIT is not significant in the case studies of academic administration.

Organizations are concerned in building resilience to mitigate the challenges that result from unpredictable and constant threat scenarios. Therefore, designing, implementing and operating solutions to increase the resilience is nowadays a key concern that must be addressed properly. The most usual resilience mechanism to deal with the unpredictable within the business ecosystem and correspondingly IT is to produce business continuity (BC) plans. On the one hand, a BC plan is usually established with the data collected from the operation and from the as-is holistic design of business processes (BP). However, BC plans are usually challenged by the insufficient, fragmented, inconsistent and incomplete information when capturing the enterprise’ BP. On the other hand, the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) must be properly prepared to support all business activities and build good recovery strategies, demanding precise, concise, complete, coherent and consistent enterprise’ business processes. This paper integrates and evaluates the DEMO holistic design of business processes with BIA. This solution contributes to the identification and enrichment of existing weaknesses in BC plans and thus improve resilience in case of threat. The validation of the solution is performed using an insurance company case study.

A control chart is a tool for statistical process control (SPC) used to determine variations in manufacturing processes resulting from common or assignable causes. The presence of unnatural patterns in control charts is an indication that the process has been influenced by assignable causes, and corrective actions must be taken. However, the assumption of uncorrelated or independent observations is not suitable for all of the characteristics pertaining to a product. This study presents a method with which to improve the accuracy of pattern recognition in control charts, through the autocorrelation of product characteristics. Particularly, we developed an artificial algorithm-based machine learning model to recognize unnatural patterns and processes in AR(1) simultaneously. The proposed method integrates an artificial immune system and support vector machine within a recognition system. This study evaluated the accuracy with which four patterns could be recognized. The four patterns include trends, sudden shifts, cyclic patterns, and normal patterns. Identifying unnatural patterns can greatly narrow the range of possible causes that must be investigated, thereby speeding up the diagnostic processes. Key words: Pattern recognition, artificial immune algorithm, support vector machine, autocorrelation.

Infogroup (2017). Infogroup - Business USA: All Companies - Company Count | Country: USA | State: Florida | ID: 42 | Industry: Wholesale Trade | Company: REDBULL DISTRIBUTING (5454 W CRENSHAW ST, TAMPA, FL), 2015. Data-Planet™ Statistical Ready Reference by Conquest Systems, Inc. [Data-file]. Dataset-ID: 081-002-014. Dataset: Presents a count of companies by industry. The dataset provides establishment-level data on businesses in the United States, at national and subnational geographic units. Data on businesses in US territories are also included. Data are collected from multiple sources, including direct calls to businesses. For information on Infogroup methodology, please see the Help Guide for Infogroup - Business USA: http://data-planet.libguides.com/Infogroup/Methods Category: Industry, Business, and Commerce Source: Infogroup Infogroup is a big data, analytics and marketing services provider. Infogroup provides both digital and traditional marketing channel expertise drawing on proprietary data collected on 25 million businesses. http://www.infogroup.com/ Subject: Industry, Businesses

Research on firm internationalisation has tended to focus on Large Enterprises(LEs), with relatively less focus on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), despite the importance of SMEs in generating national employment and economic development. In many countries the government has acknowledged SMEs as a key source of domestic income growth and employment creation, most particularly from export activities. Studies on internationalisation of SMEs, however, have been predominantly focused on developed countries. This study therefore is focused on the internationalisation of SMEs from Indonesia, which represents developing countries. Most studies of exporting SMEs focus on macroeconomic factors such as regulation, infrastructure and programs which assist SME development. On the other hand, management literature has recognised the important roles of senior managers in terms of their management know‐how and international business skills as human capital which can influence the export activity of the firm. At the same time, social capital is also recognised a further resource needed for SME internationalisation. Therefore this research will address this gap in order to examine the role of entrepreneur’s human and social capital in internationalisation of the firm. Further to this, findings on the relationship between firm internationalisation and firm performance are mixed. More specifically, the effect of internationalisation of SMEs on business performance has not been seriously investigated. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by examining the unique effect of different dimensions of internationalisation on business performance. Overall, this study has three purposes: the first is to measure company resources (Human and Social Capital) influencing Indonesia’s manufacturing exporting SMEs in their internationalisation process; the second is to examine the effect of human and social capital in relation to three dimensions of internationalisation (international performance, number of markets and time to internationalise); and the third is to assess the effect of the aforementioned internationalisation dimensions on firm financial performance. This study used a mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative data was drawn from 241 SMEs’ managers and/or owners who have exporting activities from a total of approximately 3 million SMEs based on the Indonesian government database. The qualitative data was collected through interviews with ten SMEs owner‐managers who were participating in the survey. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique, the findings suggest that Management Know‐How have no positive relationship with any dimension of internationalisation, but, interestingly, it has a negative relationship with time for internationalisation; suggesting that it delays the internationalisation of the firms. The findings also show that both International Business Skills and Social Capital skills have a positive relationship with international performance and number of exporting markets, but not with time for internationalisation. With regard to the effect of internationalisation on business performance, the findings show that international performance has no effect on business performance, but the number of export market has a positive relationship with business performance. On the other hand, the time for internalisation has a negative effect on business performance, meaning that the later the SMEs internationalise, the better their performance. Qualitative findings indicate that good networks with competitors, suppliers and government will help a firm to serve the international market successfully. From theoretical perspectives, the findings support the Resource‐Based View theory as international business skills have positive relationships with two dimensions of internationalisation. The findings of this study also support the traditional view of incremental internationalisation advanced by Stage Theory. Consequently, the findings imply that International New Venture Theory, which supports born‐global or leap‐frog approach in internationalising SMEs, is not appropriate for Indonesian context. Finally, this study also supports the Network Perspective which suggests that the relationships built by firms with other businesses, community leaders, and government have significant effect on internationalisation of SMEs. Overall, this study demonstrates the unique effect of different organisational capitals (i.e. human and social) as key resources for facilitating internationalisation.