Dear All,
We are currently mapping our existing processes onto ARIS. We are all having fun doing the mapping and this exercise is really interesting. However we have come across a process whereby each of the 'Functions' of an EPC is being performed by a number of 'Person Type', actually 21 'Person Type'. You can imagine how the EPC is looking like:). I'm thinking that we are not the first ones to have come across such issue.
I would be grateful if somebody could please advise me about any other ways of designing this type of model.
Thank you beforehand for your comments.
Cheers
Shameem
We use the EPC (row display) format (horizontal swimlane view) for mapping our business and system processes. Within each row of the EPC, we put the human actor (Organizational Unit/Position) or system actor (Application System).
During our pilot implementation phase, we discovered the the standard EPC was not useful for our environment.
Hope this helps.
To expand on what Mr. Konstantin Seleznev has stated above, I think it's best to think in terms of "Roles" using the "carries out" relationship with a function object. For example, in a transportation environment you may have a role defined as "Truck Driver." It is possible that there are 21 different "postions/people" who can step up to drive the truck if the regular truck driver is not available. (For example, if the Truck Driver wins the lottery :-)
It's not necessary to show all the possible "positions/people" who might fill this role, we only need to depict the "Truck Driver" role. In fact, if you show 21 organization objects connected to a single function object, the process could be interpreted such that, when it's time to execute this particular step, then 21 people rush in to do it!
Best Regards,
Bob
Dear Dr Jackie, Mr. Konstantin and Mr. Robert,
Many thanks for your valuable advices.
In fact we are newbies to ARIS and modelling:). I'm very grateful to you for those tips.
Actually only one person out of the 21 will be performing the task, depending in which section of the organisation the process is being used. To give you an idea of what it looks like I've added a section of the EPC (this one contains less Actors:)).
As you can see each of the 'Person Type' are from different sections, what we call Business Units.
Moreover we are thinking that by adding all the 'Actors' this will eventually provide us a way to know exactly which tasks are being performed by a particular Actor. I mean when for example we make a search through the database about all Actors who perform say task 'ABC', then the result will list all the relative Actors.
Thank you again for your reply.
Best regards
Shameem
You could assign a 'function allocation diagram' (FAD) to the 'forward request ...' function and show the relationships between the function and the business units there, thus making your process flow less cluttered. From an analysis point of view, it doesn't matter if the relationship between a function and a person type occurs in a FAD or EPC, only that it does exist.
This enable you to answer your question of finding out the "... actors who perform say task 'ABC'..." by selecting the properties of task 'ABC' and viewing all the relationships it has to person type objects (as it will list all the relationship task 'ABC' has irrespective of the models they were defined in).
Hope this helps,
Ben
Shameem,
you can also reconsider your understanding of the function you describe. As an exmple, all organizational members might perform the function "Send email" (serveral times a day). However, if we restrict this function to sending a "special" mail, e.g. to inform a group of people about e.g. the results of an audit, we might end up with the QM responsible as the only role to send this email.
hth,
Stefan
