What are the systems for modeling business processes. Comparative analysis of business engineering tools

As promised a few months ago, we are returning to the topic of business process modeling, bringing to your attention a series of articles dedicated to the tools with which this type of activity is carried out. In this series, we will consider tools from leading manufacturers that russian companies can be used to solve modeling problems and improve business processes without significant risks. But before proceeding with the first of the tools, I would like to clarify what exactly the phrase “without significant risks” means (and, therefore, what are the criteria for including certain tools in this series of articles).

On the criteria for the success of modeling tools in the global and Russian markets

Globally (primarily for multinational companies and, in some cases, for American companies), one of the most serious criteria for choosing software for a particular type of activity is the high rating of a product by analytical companies such as Gartner Group, Forrester Research, IDC and Meta Group.

For national markets (including Russian), the criteria for choosing corporate software are somewhat different. In this case, when deciding on the use of a product, such factors as the availability on the national market of both the product itself and services for support, technical support, training in the national language, and in the case of products intended for end users (modeling tools business processes belong precisely to this category), - also the presence of a localized version. In the conditions of our country, these factors turn out to be more significant than the recognition of analysts, since, unlike relatively small European countries, we are not so closely connected with the world community as to demand free ownership from users. foreign languages, organize training on the use of the tool for end users abroad and communicate with English-speaking technical support located in Europe or the United States - the costs of all of the above, even for a very successful Russian corporation from the financial, mining or energy industries, may be too high. Therefore on russian market non-world leaders in modeling tools can be very successful. It is with such tools that I would like to start our review.

About QPR

The Finnish company QPR has been on the world market for a long time - it was founded in 1991 with the aim of creating interactive software that significantly improves decision-making at any organizational level. QPR is currently engaged in the research and development of software designed to manage the performance of the organization.

QPR was named by the Gartner Group a few years ago as one of the leading simulation vendors with a vision of the market and its future prospects, thanks in large part to its support for the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept, which is very popular in the field strategic planning... However, we will talk about BSC support in QPR products a little later.

QPR ProcessGuide - business process modeling and documentation

Supported notations

For business process modeling, QPR markets the QPR ProcessGuide solution. This product allows you to create layered models of business processes in a notation similar to Swim Lane notation and workflow diagrams - functions (or, in other terminology, process steps) are located on so-called role lanes. Moreover, each function of the process can be detailed into an independent sub-process described by a separate diagram, and the number of levels of detail is not limited by anything.

On the one hand, the presence of a multi-level system of diagrams (it is a set of diagrams in QPR terminology called a model) allows you to create consistent descriptions of company activities and, of course, is a sign of the maturity of a modeling tool - not every tool used in this area has support for such sets of diagrams on storage layer.

Process Model in QPR ProcessGuide

On the other hand, this simulator is no different big amount different types diagrams like those available to ARIS Business Architect users or Microsoft Visio, - in fact, this tool has a single type of model that supports decomposition of process steps. But in fairness, we note that QPR ProccessGuide allows you to expand the library of symbols - elements of business processes, so you can formally follow any graphical notation, for example, when it is a corporate standard adopted by a company.

Documenting processes

Few people are interested in modeling business processes. This type of work is carried out for a specific purpose, mostly in order to find so-called bottlenecks in the company's processes and, on this basis, optimize the processes, thereby increasing the efficiency of the company's activities, as well as to ensure their documentation and regulation (the latter is often done during certification company for compliance with one of the quality standards).

The possibilities of documenting processes in QPR ProcessGuide are very wide - this product has a programming interface based on COM technology, which allows you to access absolutely any data contained in the models, and the built-in programming language is Visual Basic for Applications. The latter fact greatly simplifies the generation of reports in the formats of Microsoft Office applications - if you have installed office applications, you can use the reporting script created for QPR ProcessGuide directly to the COM interfaces of Word, Excel, PowerPoint. In addition, the presence of a software interface of this class allows you to create various application solutions based on QPR ProcessGuide, such as tools for exchanging models with other modeling tools, tools for integrating with various information systems, etc.

Note that not every modeling tool has such programming interfaces, although, of course, their effective use requires programming skills. However, the product package includes a number of ready-made reporting scripts.

Simulation and process improvement

Improving business processes using QPR ProcessGuide can be carried out by both quantitative analysis of the characteristics of processes and their steps, and simulation modeling of process execution - simulation tools are included in the product.

Simulation Results in QPR ProcessGuide

Simulation is the process of simulating the execution of different instances of the same process. Before performing simulation, the process model is supplied with the data necessary to perform the simulation, for example, the frequencies of occurrence of certain events, the probabilities of one or another outcome in the case of branching of the process execution, the laws of distribution of the execution time of various steps of the process, and other characteristics. In the process of performing simulation modeling, random data is generated for each instance of the simulated process in accordance with the selected probabilities, distribution laws and frequencies. If the data for simulation is selected correctly, the simulation results and statistical data obtained on their basis are the information on the basis of which decisions can be made on making changes to the process in order to increase its efficiency, optimize time sх costs, expenses money and resources.

Publication of models on the corporate intranet portal

QPR ProcessGuide allows models to be published on intranet portals, while the user is given the opportunity to add and view comments and draw up action plans related to business processes. For the sake of fairness, we note that such access is not unlimited - for those portal users who create presentations, a system of tasks and comments in it, it is supposed to purchase licenses (although they differ in cost from licenses for model developers).

Publication of models on the corporate intranet portal

QPR ScoreCard - BSC technology support

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), or Balanced Scorecard (BSC), is a 1992 management tool developed by Harvard professors Robert Kaplan and David Norton to help transform strategic goals company in a clear plan of operational activities of divisions and key employees and evaluate the results of their activities in terms of implementing the company's strategy using key performance indicators. The use of a balanced scorecard makes it possible to carry out targeted monitoring of the enterprise, predict and anticipate the emergence of problems, control the most significant financial and non-financial indicators of the enterprise.

The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe BSC is to formulate achievable and quantifiable strategic goals of the company with their gradual detailing and the distribution of these goals into groups, also called prospects, as well as taking into account the mutual influence of these goals.

The specified management tool is actively used by leading western companies (namely, 402 organizations from the 500 largest in the rating of the Financial Times newspaper), and has recently attracted close attention of top managers in Russia. You can read more about BSC technology in a separate article devoted to this issue, which will be published in one of the next issues of our journal.

Company goals tree in QPR ScoreCard

Company strategic map in QPR ScoreCard

To support BSC technology, QPR produces a separate product, QPR ScoreCard, which allows building strategic maps, comparing planned and actual KPIs and publishing results on the corporate portal.

Note that the QPR ProcessGuide allows you to link business process steps to KPIs generated in the QPR ScoreCard, and thus provides the company's management with the ability to assess the degree of achievement of its strategic goals at the level of individual processes.

Like QPR ProcessGuide, QPR ScoreCard has a convenient programming interface based on COM technology, which allows you to create scripts for generating reports of any complexity, as well as other application solutions based on QPR ScoreCard.

QPR products in Russia

When choosing a business process modeling tool, technical support and localization issues turn out to be one of the most significant. Unlike IT professionals, who for the most part are ready to read English documentation, write letters to European technical support services, and in general are not very moody, business users who describe processes are often extremely unhappy when they see the English interface of the application. who they have to deal with, and technical support for such users assumes the presence of people in it who speak the same language with them.

Russian-language versions of QPR products are available on the Russian market. Their delivery, implementation and support is carried out by Troodos Consulting, the exclusive distributor of QPR Software plc in Russia and the CIS. In addition, the specified company supplies to the Russian market a number of applied solutions created on the basis of these products using data obtained from accounting systems, for example, solutions for automating staffing management, forming a personnel motivation system, budgeting, and planning. At the moment, this company has carried out several dozen successful implementations - both QPR products and our own solutions based on them. This means that companies that decide not only to implement QPR products, but also to integrate them with their existing information systems (and modern business users, as a rule, categorically insist on such integration) will not be left with these tasks one-on-one.

Note also that QPR users can learn how to use the product in Russian lasting from 2 to 5 days, which includes the joint creation of a working prototype of a model of his company's activities with the customer, which is, in essence, a consulting service.

QPR products are profitable to purchase when a large number licenses. Thus, a package of QPR Process Guide licenses for a small number of developers (2-5) and several dozen users (20-100) with annual technical support costs from 12 to 30 thousand euros, while in the case of several dozen developers (20-40) and several hundred users (200-400) the cost of licenses and annual technical support is from 60 to 115 thousand euros. However, the main consumers of products of this class are just quite large companies - after all, they are the ones who first of all need specialized tools to help improve business processes.

So, today we reviewed two products for modeling business processes and supporting strategic planning, which, in our opinion, have good positions and support in the Russian market. Note, however, that QPR is far from the only company with such support. Therefore, in subsequent articles this cycle we'll talk about third-party modeling tools.

The material was prepared by the specialists of the Abis Soft company

How to make a choice

Before you start choosing a software product, you need to answer three basic questions:

1. What needs to be described?

2. To what extent do you need to describe?

3. How will performance be monitored?

When answering the first question, you should determine which areas of the control system you are going to describe, whether a comprehensive description of the entire system is necessary.

The answer to the second question should give an idea of \u200b\u200bwhether the management system will be described for a particular business, department, or for the entire organization as a whole.

The third question will determine the restrictions that can be imposed on the software product so that its integration with the executive system can be carried out in the future.

Having answers to these questions, you can significantly narrow the range of possible software products.

• The possibility of multi-user work,
• Methods for presenting results
• Interface and ergonomics,
• Availability of documentation and technical support,
• Hardware and software requirements,
• Cost.

Without pretending to be the ultimate truth, the review authors offer some options for evaluating the reviewed products.

1. If the company has already developed a strategy and it needs to be controlled, then from the foreign products discussed in the article, for this the best way the solution fits Hyperion Performance Scorecardpresented by Oracle.

2. If the main focus is on the business processes in the company, then the company's product is optimal IBM - IBM WebSphere Business Modeler.

(It is necessary to clarify that the choice of software from manufacturers such as IBM, Oracle, SAP, determined by the choice ERP-systems of the respective manufacturer. Their business modeling software is subsystems of complex products.)

3. Of Russian products, the most appropriate INTALEV: Corporate Navigatorif you want to make a description of the entire company (holding) as a whole, and not just a single business unit (division or branch).

The information was obtained from representatives of manufacturers in the Russian Federation or from the official websites of manufacturers.

ARIS Business Performance Edition.

Implemented by means of the system IBM Rational ClearCase

Now, after a general clarification of the general functional tasks solved by the tools under consideration, it is necessary to compare the capabilities that these tools provide.

In the further analysis, only the characteristics of the ARIS ToolSet (hereinafter, ARIS), BP-Win - Erwin (hereinafter, BP-Win) and ORG-Master (hereinafter, ORG-Master) programs will be considered. The Rational Rose program - as being most focused on building purely software, not organizational systems, in order to simplify the presentation, we will exclude it from consideration, especially since the underlying UML methodology is now implemented in ARIS).

Functionality of business systems modeling tools

When comparing various tools for modeling business systems, it is advisable to consider their features in the following groups of functional capabilities:

• tools for building models of business systems;
• tools for analyzing models;
• means of optimization of simulated systems according to their models;
• support for libraries of typical models;
• registration of regulations and documentation;
• support for the development of database models and software;
• integration with others software products (CASE-tools, ERP-systems, application programs).

• general organization of business processes and the order of interaction of organizational units (performers),
• distribution of responsibility for the implementation of individual functions and the use of system resources,
• loading of organizational links, performers and instrumental resources in the system,
• the main time and cost parameters of the simulated system,
• resource requirements for the processes occurring in the system.

Analysis the general organization of business processes and the order of interaction of organizational unitsin the system it is carried out directly when studying the constructed models of business processes. Qualitative analysis also makes it possible to identify those role, which, for certain conditionscan be excluded from the process. Wherein visibility of the model and the ability to trace the relationships existing in the system takes on paramount importance.

Notes regarding the clarity of the models are given below. But it should also be noted here that an important requirement for the model is the possibility of its analysis before its complete construction. Indeed, if it is possible to identify the relationships (as well as their absence) in the system only after building its complete model, then this turns out to be very inconvenient at the initial stages of work, when information about the features of the processes occurring in the system may still be partially absent or be inaccurate.

Here, ORG-Master is in an advantageous position, since the model of business processes in it is not built directly in the form of an IDEF diagram. This diagram can be automatically generated after creating and filling in the classifiers that form the model (business functions, organizational units, resources, etc.) and setting all the necessary projections (relationships for resources, performers, tools, regulations and the actual links between business operations). Thus, even before the complete (or partial) model of the business process is obtained, the main relationships that determine the modeled process are already identified and can be analyzed.

In contrast to this approach, the business process models in ARIS and BP-Win are built directly, and the existing relationships between the process components must be prepared for analysis as a result of the appropriate procedures.

So, for example, after building a business process model in BP-Win, a separate data model is built using ERwin, in which links are established between system components (data model entities according to the methodology). Then these models are linked by means of a mechanism that is essentially similar to the projection construction mechanism used in ORG-Master (see Appendix 1. Model components of the ORG-Master software and methodological complex).

With this in mind, the second of the considered possibilities of model analysis: analysis of the distribution of responsibility for the implementation of individual functions and the use of system resources, turns out to be automatically implemented in the process of building a business process model in the ORG-Master system. Indeed, the projections of the Organizational link - Functions and Functions - Resources, specified when building models of business processes in ORG-Master, directly show those responsible for a particular work area or resource (and allow any combination of them to be analyzed). In addition, ORG-Master allows you to export matrix projections to MS Excel, where organizational analysis diagrams are formed on their basis.

In ARIS and BP-Win, for this purpose, it is necessary either to manually trace all connections in business process diagrams (and data models in BP-Win), or to construct the corresponding lists or reports specially.

Question about loading performers and instrumental resources in the system, as well as obtaining estimates for the main time parameters of the modeled system,can be decided on the basis of quantitative data on the complexity (or simply duration) of the functions they implement. To solve this problem, it is necessary to enter such data into the system in one way or another, as well as provide means for obtaining summary estimates. Support for IDEF3 methodology (in BP-Win), ABC methods in ARIS and BP-Win, and simulation tools in ARIS (and, partially, in BP-Win) provides for some processing of these estimates. As for the actual initial data, they are set by the user, who, therefore, is responsible for the final result.

However, obtaining sufficiently representative estimates using statistical (simulation / event) modeling (and, even more so, using ABC methods when considering time as a resource) for loading system components is hampered by the following factors.

Modern approaches to the analysis of any process ( workflow)proceed from dividing the time of its implementation by, in fact, the period of execution of operations and the time of transmission of their results. At the same time, in office processes or the processes of providing a service, the actual work takes on average about 10% of the time, and the rest of the time is spent either on physically moving the result of the task (requiring the signature of the text of the contract that needs to be washed again) and waiting in line until the next the executor will find time to continue the process. Therefore, methods based on a simple summation of the time of operations at present, as a rule, do not give an accurate representation of the time parameters of the process.

You can try to get more adequate results by simulating the behavior of the system. However, for the times of service delays, one has to either make very rough assumptions about the law of their distribution in time, or carry out rather expensive and laborious timing procedures and the subsequent statistical processing... In this case, the reliability of the results obtained will not be too high, or will require significant additional costs. Therefore, it seems reasonable approach that: “the cost of modeling costs to obtain any information should not exceed the value (cost) of the results of its use. In addition, one should always remember about the Pareto law, from which, in relation to the problem under consideration, it follows that 20% of modeling efforts provide 80% of the effect.

Therefore, from our point of view, before the transition to complex and time-consuming and resource-intensive modeling methods associated with quantitative estimates of time and cost parameters, it is worth focusing on getting an effect from the implementation of more obvious results of business modeling. Quantitative optimization is advisable to carry out taking into account measurements and analysis of real-life processes.

ORG-Master has a functional analogue of ABC analysis tools - Budgeting Wizard, which generates simple system budgeting. One of the results of the work of this system is a quantitative assessment of the costs of implementing business processes (operating budgets), which is at least comparable in value to the data obtained using the ABC-costing support tools.

In addition, the ORG-Master family also includes the Time-Master software package, one of the components of which, which ensures the management of processes (workflow), allows the accumulation of statistics in the course of their execution, which provides estimates for the time parameters of the processes necessary for the analysis.

• Business systems optimization tools (business processes) in addition to the analysis capabilities of models provide: a management tool.
• generating a range of alternatives;
• planning;
• choosing the best course of action;
• resource allocation;
• setting priorities.

As a rule, the implementation of the listed functions is associated with the use of special rather complex or cumbersome algorithms for solving optimization problems. A number of possibilities of this kind are incorporated in the ARIS system. However, their implementation, in general, does not seem appropriate until the stage of fine-tuning the business process after achieving the results of its restructuring using simpler methods.

Support for generic model libraries allows you to use previously created developments in the process of building new models. This capability is provided in all three considered tools. In particular, ORG-Master supports both full reference business models of enterprises, obtained as a result of real projects carried out at Russian enterprises, and "library" classifiers describing the typical organization of individual aspects of activities.

Registration, in accordance with the constructed models, company regulations seems to be a very important opportunity to ensure the integrity and consistency of the documentary description of the business system. The importance of this component to business modeling tools can be understood by looking at regulations as a company management tool. Indeed, if a company is operating stably, it means that its business processes are well-established and lend themselves to almost formal regulation. The internal culture that must be present in such a company will allow, if necessary, to quickly rebuild the system or parameters of business processes by changing the work regulations of the relevant departments and performers.

The presence of documents-regulations on all aspects of the company's activities is one of the basic provisions of the concept of regular, systemic management. According to her, in a well-organized business, about 80% management decisions is accepted according to predetermined procedures, and only the rest, associated with non-standard situations and various innovations, rely on the creativity and heroism of employees.

The organization of an enterprise (company) aimed at achieving certain goals is regulated at the modern level by the following standard set of basic organizational documents:

• provision on the organizational and functional structure, reflecting the composition of businesses and functions supported in the company, and their distribution within the company;
• provisions on company policies (accounting, investment, etc.);
• provisions on the organization of the main business and management subsystems of the company, containing a detailed description of functions by line of business;
• documented procedures - descriptions of business processes in a form that allows both to present the process to an outside observer and to be guided by this document to the executors of the process operations;
• and finally, the traditional "divisional clauses" and " job descriptions»Personnel with lists of functional duties, types of responsibilities, rights and powers of employees.

In addition, it should be possible to create special reporting forms for creating documents in various functional areas: Terms of Reference for an enterprise management information system, Quality Manual (see, for example, Appendix 3) and other special documents in accordance with ISO9000, etc.

All information that allows you to generate these documents must be contained in the form of a coherent and consistent system in the complete business model of the enterprise (company). Moreover, many of the documents created must comply with generally accepted Russian standards as much as possible (Obviously, ARIS and BP-Win systems meet the latter requirement to the least extent).

In the ORG-Master environment, such statements and instructions are generated automatically as textual forms of descriptions of procedures presented by the corresponding classifiers and relations-projections of links between them. Graphical forms (various digraphs and process diagrams) are a good complement to these documents.

In ARIS, job descriptions and process descriptions are based on event process diagrams and, in principle, various text documents can be attempted to be constructed by analyzing process models and organizational structures. Although, to a greater extent, the picture is the opposite - the system is focused mainly on the creation of graphics, and the function of creating regulations documents is clearly auxiliary and, as a result, not developed.

In BP-Win, the direct possibility of obtaining various regulations is not specified.

In a relationship project documentation two sides can be considered: a description of business processes and a description of an information system for supporting business processes for its subsequent development. The first of them is practically equally provided in each of the considered environments by the possibility of constructing various reporting forms according to the constructed models of business processes.

In terms of documentation for the development of an information system, the most traditional opportunities are provided by the BP-Win / ERwin environment, which, in fact, was created for this.

ARIS capabilities are roughly similar: in the first versions of the data model, the entity-relationship scheme was described, in later versions, in the UML language. However, ARISToolset provides more advanced development features information systems.

ORG-Master's capabilities allow you to fully represent the data structures required for an organization information support modeled business processes using our own universal tools - classifiers and projections. There are no formalisms like ER diagrams, although in the latest versions visualization in the DFD standard is possible. In addition, it became possible to reflect the interaction between functional blocks on IDEF0 diagrams, not only using the direct transfer of documents and files, but also through shared databases!

Support for the development of database models and software tools usually refers to the capabilities of tools such as CASE or similar tools for configuring enterprise management information systems (for example, ERP class systems). Such support can provide the following functionality:

• analysis and design of the architecture of information management systems,
• design of databases and files,
• programming (generation of program codes),
• support and reengineering,
• project management.

Questions analysis and design of information systems architectureare usually completed by defining system requirements and related specifications. This stage, at systematic approach to design, should directly rely on business systems models and, in fact, detail them. Therefore, all the above considerations covering the construction, analysis and optimization of system models, as well as the design of regulations and documentation, are valid here.

Database and file design (conceptual and internal levels), transformation of data models, description of file formats are most fully supported in the tools under consideration only in BP-Win (ERwin), since this environment is specifically designed to solve such problems.

In the ARIS environment, this possibility is provided in the ARIS Toolset package at the level of the project specification and the definition of database parameters.

The approach developed in the ORG-Master environment assumes (although not necessarily) that information systems that already have databases can be used in modeled business systems. In this case, they do not need to be redesigned unless the system is to be replaced. However, in the absence of information systems, ORG-Master creates the basis for the conceptual data model and data file structures. This framework is represented by descriptions of the composition and relationship of information objects and documents used in business process models.

Generation of program codes for application or system tools ARIS and ORG-Master systems are not provided, since they are tools for designing business systems, not software. To a certain extent, this feature is only implemented in BP-Win.

Maintenance and reengineering... These functions are usually implemented by means of documentation, program analysis, program restructuring, and reengineering. The remarks made above regarding the documentation tools are fully applicable in this discussion.

Functions project management creation of databases and software tools are specific specifically for the development of software products. They are implemented in this form in BP-Win. Project management in the ORG-Master family fully supports the Time-Master software package. (Although, strictly speaking, these functions are not required for the class of tools in question).

Integration with other software products implies the expansion of the scope of the tool under consideration and can be carried out both within the framework of the development of a family of compatible software tools (like Platinum Technologies) or with software from other developers (third party software).

Integration with third party software products is performed for one of the following purposes:

• using the functionality of the integrated product to expand the scope of your product,
• enabling your product to be incorporated into a third party product,
• providing a universal, to one degree or another, interface for your product, if a specific third party is not known in advance.

From the point of view of the functional focus, integration with:

• CASE means,
• ERP systems,
• application programs.

ARIS has interfaces with some CASE tools, and is also a model creation tool for direct customization of such enterprise management systems, primarily SAP R / 3. As noted above, the system relies on its own notation for representing business processes, therefore it uses built-in simulation tools and a cost analysis tool, the results of which, however, can be exported to MS Excel formats.

The ORG-Master and BP-Win systems support the IDEF0 notation system to describe the business processes represented. In principle, this is some kind of link between these tools and for communication with other software products using this methodology. However, without considering here the issues of the "age" of the IDEF0 notation, it should be pointed out that the internal representation of data in each system is different, and the standard interface like "sockets" or classes for the IDEF0 system is not specified. However, there is a standardized file format for representing IDEF diagrams. Therefore, although the descriptions made with its help are not very convenient for both humans and computers, it is possible to use them as a means of exchanging models if there are appropriate converters of this format. Such a converter is provided in the following versions of ORG-Master.

BP-Win supports methodologies IDEF0, DFD and IDEF3 and integrates with the following software products (mostly from the same manufacturer):

• eRwin data modeling tool (Platinum Technology),
• project management and storage system ModelMart (Platinum Technology),
• a specialized report generator for the RPTwin model (Platinum Technology),
• simulation system BPSimulator (System Modeling Corporation),
• tool of cost analysis EasyABC (ABC Technologies).

(* Platinum Technology - since 1999 entered Computer Associates)

ORG-Master is initially positioned as an organizational class system focused on solving problems of modeling and designing business processes and structures and supporting organizational decisions. It provides the ability to integrate with its own development packages ("BIG-SPB Software"), focused on solving various functional tasks. In the ORG-Master system, if necessary, simple executive information systems are automatically created in the MS Office environment:

• Budgeting system (which is a simple system of management accounting, profitability and solvency management of the enterprise).
• Marketing system (accumulating operational quantitative information about the company's market, as well as integrating with its own CRM-system for supporting customer relations).

The introduction of these applications into the activities of the enterprise allows you to quickly master modern techniques management, which greatly facilitates the transition to more complex executive systems.

It is possible (and has been tested in projects) data interfacing through exchange files within the framework of building integrated information systems with executive and analytical programs of partner firms: 1C, A&T: Soft, Intalev, Comtech +, INEK, etc., as well as with complex control systems enterprise resources (for example, IPS production).

The new version also provides mechanisms for exporting descriptions of business processes to the Time-Master software package, which combines the properties of systems such as Project Management, WorkFlow and Personal Information System and built on Internet / Intranet technologies.

Section summary:

The main functional capabilities of the compared instruments are presented in Table 2, where the assessment of the degree of implementation of functions or properties is indicated on a five-point scale.

As can be seen from Table 2, direct summation of the estimates gives a scatter of about ± 4%. Such a spread lies within the error of the estimates themselves. Moreover, the means themselves, differing in their functional orientation, received similar estimates due to the fact that the differing strengths and weak sides different means, when calculated directly, compensate each other.

However, during the discussion of functional capabilities, it was emphasized that directly for solving business engineering problems, individual groups of functional capabilities have different meanings. This fact is reflected by the coefficients recorded in the “Weight” column, Table 2. Taking this factor into account, it can be seen that the overall score of the ORG-Master complex slightly exceeds ARIS.

But again, this may be due to different preferences and priorities in the intended use of the product. For example, due to a lower assessment of the significance of the existing tools for quantitative analysis of models (simulation and event modeling), as well as optimization tools, which, however, are poorly represented in all considered systems. At the same time, the properties of self-documenting models or the versatility of representing various aspects of modeling are highly appreciated.

In general, when evaluating and choosing a modeling tool, it is recommended to independently decide which of the system tools are most important in solving a specific problem of its application and, accordingly, put down "weights".

Additionally, reference Appendix 2 provides an overview of formalization standards and tools for constructing and / or analyzing certain models that are used in the systems under consideration.

In this article we will post a brief overview of programs for describing and modeling business processes.
As we receive information, we will add short descriptions of programs to the article.
If you know a convenient program for modeling business processes that is not included in our list, let us know in the comments or through the feedback form.

1. ARIS Express is a tool for modeling business processes that is simple enough to install and use, so that it can be used by both novice users and university students. This product belongs to the ARIS (ARchitecture of Integrated Information Systems) family of modeling tools by IDS Scheer (currently part of Software AG), widely represented in the Russian market, localized a few years ago and even provided with Russian-language technical support. The ARIS product family (ARchitecture of Integrated Information Systems), which is manufactured by IDS Scheer, includes not only tools for modeling business processes and publishing models, but also integrating tools for developing a balanced scorecard, assessing and optimizing the cost of business processes, and their simulation. modeling, tools that simplify the implementation of ERP systems, the design of distributed applications and IT infrastructure, as well as tools for monitoring the implementation of business processes. Leading analytical companies Gartner Group and Forrester Research rank IDS Scheer among the leaders in the global market for modeling and analyzing business processes.

2. Bizagi Process Modeler - free software to create process diagrams and documentation in BPMN standard notation.

3. Business Studio is a business modeling system from a domestic manufacturer that allows companies to accelerate and simplify the development of their management system, the implementation of a quality management system. there is free version... The main tasks to be solved:

• Formalization of the strategy and control of its achievement
• Design and optimization of business processes
• Design organizational structure and staffing table
• Formation and distribution of regulatory documentation among employees
• Implementation of a quality management system in accordance with iSO standards
• Formation of Terms of Reference and support for the implementation of information systems

4. AllFusion Process Modeler - Allows for the description, analysis and modeling of the data model - the builder of meta-data models. It occupies one of the leading positions in its market segment.
Includes three standard methodologies: IDEF0 (functional modeling), DFD (data flow modeling) and IDEF3 (workflow modeling).

5. is a complex tool with a convenient user interface designed for modeling and organizing joint work of both production and IT personnel.

• Quickly and seamlessly integrate modeling, workflow building, and simulation.
• Warehouse-driven simulation, change reporting, and real-time performance evaluators.
• Monitor workflows over the Internet using a standard browser.

6. ELMA - Russian development. The business process management system is based on a simple idea: you are building a model of your company's business processes using visual diagrams (BPMN notation), load these descriptions into the ELMA computer system, and the program allows you to track the execution of processes in the real practice of the enterprise. There is a free version.
In addition to managing sequential tasks that are profitable to automate, there is a project management module. The existing control system (including through the KPI management module) and reports creates optimal conditions for teamwork, including remotely (especially valuable for branches).
Electronic document management is connected with all modules of the system and provides storage and classification of documents. This saves a lot of time and keeps the “irreplaceable worker” concept to a minimum.
Accounting for customers and access rights is solved in the CRM module: the function of integration with call centers has appeared. For an ordinary user, ELMA can be useful as an alternative to corporate mail and a task management tool.

7. Fox Manager Business Processes Free. A program for building and analyzing business processes, as well as generating reports on the process model of an enterprise. The program allows you to build a single integral process model of the enterprise. The notation used is close to Basic Flow Chart, which is well known to many for its simplicity of building business processes. The program automatically builds top-level processes, displaying the interactions of categories and business processes in the form of a visual diagram. The analytical functions of the program allow you to notice and eliminate in time the mistakes made when building the constructed process model, namely, to highlight the processes for which no one is responsible, to find links to non-existent documents, positions, suppliers or business processes.