A Modeling Framework for Analyzing Process Architecture Transformations in the Software-enabled Enterprise

Software is becoming a fundamental enabler of all kinds of evolving enterprise capabilities and opportunities. For the enterprise to take advantage of software-based technologies, there will be redesigns of processes that are responsible for the development of software, and the business processes where these software are used. There exists extensive work on business process modeling and analysis however, it is not adequate to study and optimize processes in isolation as enterprise objectives are attained by multiple interrelated processes as a collection. We refer to a collection of processes and their interrelationships as a process architecture. By repositioning decision points within a process architecture, an enterprise can take better advantage of software flexibility and data-driven capabilities. In this thesis research, we model and analyze process architecture reconfigurations and study possible alternative configurations of these process architectures, with emphasis on adaptability and flexibility. Through reconfigurable and flexible process architectures, enterprises can respond to changing situations by selecting suitable process architecture alternatives that best meets enterprise business objectives. We introduce the hiBPM framework to support the study of process architecture reconfigurations. A hiBPM model describes processes, and their relationships and interactions needed to accomplishenterprise objectives. hiBPM emphasizes the existence of various decision-making points and offers expressiveness to allow relevant architectural properties to be analyzed, and to contrast amongst alternative process architecture configuration options. Through hiBPM, enterprise architects can explore alternatives to come up with process architecture that enable enterprise flexibility while factoring in other non-functional criteria, such as the time or cost involved. This thesis research used design science research to determine hiBPM framework design artifacts, and case study research for the evaluation and validation of the developed conceptual modeling framework. The case studies performed contributed to the validation of the hiBPM framework by highlighting the varying degrees of plan and design completeness suitable to different contexts and situations within the enterprise under uncertain conditions, elaborating on the different types of processes in the process architecture and their relationships, and determining additional processes that were necessary for meeting of enterprise functional and non-functional requirements.Ph.D