A human-oriented tuning of workflow management systems · substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,

/ department of technology management

A human-oriented tuning ofworkflow management systems

Irene Vanderfeesten and Hajo Reijers

BPM ConferenceThursday September 8, 2005

Eindhoven University of Technology, The NetherlandsContact: [email protected]

BPM 2005, September 8, 2005

/ department of technology management 2

• Outline– Introduction– Theoretical background– Tuning– Validation



“Jobs became more monotonous. The systemforces the employees to work strictly according tothe process definition. Through the use of theworkflow system, we now have some kind of'chain production' in the office”

From: P. Kueng, The effects of workflow systemson organizations: a qualitative study. (2000)



Introduction

• Less self-determination and control over situation due torigidity of WfMS.

• Similar problems as to assembly line work in 19th and20th century: boring work, decreasing performance,unsatisfied and unmotivated employees.

• Proposals for small adaptations to a running WfMS toimprove how the system meets human needs.



Scope of workflow system

adm inistration

and m onitoring

tools

cases

wf-engine /

workflow

enactm ent

service

applications

autom atic

execution

work item

inbox / worklist

(private /

shared)

cases

organizational structure process autom ation layer workflow definitionroles

Hie

rarc

hic

al s

tru

ctu

reB

usi

nes

s u

nits

Ge

ogra

phi

cal

pos

i tio

n



Theoretical background

• Psychology (job design):Job Characteristics Model

(Hackman and Oldham, 1975)

• Workflow management:Assignment and synchronisation policies

(Zur Muehlen, 2004)



Job Characteristics Model (JCM)Skill variety – the degree to which the job requires a variety of

different activities so the worker can use a number of differentskills and talent.

Task identity – the degree to which the job requires completion of awhole and identifiable piece of work.

3

Task significance – the degree to which the the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.

Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the pocedures to be used in carrying it out.

Feedback – the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.



Assignment policies

Property

Decison

hierarchy

Activity execution

Queuing of new

work item s

Tim e ofnotification

Planning of newwork item s

Possible Values

Final Assignm ent

Ind ividual

Queue

Upon availab ility

Net change Re-p lanning

Between availab ilityand la test start tim e

At la test start tim e

Pool Com bination

Collaborative

Delegation possib le



Synchronisation policiesP roperty

A ssignm ent o f

work item s

A ssignm entspecification

P articipant

se lection

A llocationm echanism

Coord ination

P ossible V alues

P ush

S tatic

w /o

s u b s titu tio n

Fu lly autom ated P artia lly autom ated M anual

Role

Dynam ic

Com bination

P articipantautonom y

A ssignm ent is fina lRejection of assignm ent possib le

P ull

D irect Ind irect

w /

s u b s titu tio nO r. P os. O rg. Unit O ther

S ystem

Hierarchy

M anager M arket

G roup negotia tion

A uction FCFS

S chedule

O ther



Idea generation : Example 1

"... while a re-planning strategy would re-allocate all work itemsthat have not yet been started, possibly removing work itemsfrom some performer's worklists and placing them on otherworklists."

=>

"Do not replan work items by workflow enactment service "



Idea generation: Example 2"The queuing of work items can be performed either using

– a queue, ensuring that work items are selected in theorder in which they become available;

– a pool, where resources can choose freely betweenavailable work items;

– or a combination of the two, where resources select acollection of work items."

=>

1. "Offer employees 'batches' of work items"2. "Use a shared work list from which an employee can

choose himself/herself"



Validation

• 32 ideas: 11 eliminated• example: Do not 'over-specify' the content of an activity

• Expert validation• 3 experts from practice, 3 from research• ranking of best ideas

• System evaluation of 6 best ideas



6 tuning measures1. Use a shared worklist, from which an employee can choose work items himself: pull

manner.

2. Show an employee if he or she works hard enough, if he or she is satisfying the targets.

3. When a work item has to be performed again after a (negative result of a) check, return it

to the same employee to execute it again.

4. Create ‘team batches’ of work items. A team of employees (having the same

competences/role) can divide the work according to their own preferences.

5. Give employees the opportunity to adjust the appearance of work items in their worklists

to their own preferences: FCFS, earliest due date, random, etc.

6. Case management: let an employee work on the same case as much as possible.



6 tuning measures

roles

adm inistration

and m onitoring

tools

cases

wf-engine /

workflow

enactm entservice

applications

autom atic

execution

work item

inbox / worklist

(private /

shared)

cases

process autom ation layer process m odel

6

5

3

2

1

4

organizational structure

Hie

rarc

hic

al s

truc

ture

Bu s

ine

ss u

nits

Geo

gra

phic

al p

osi

tion



System evaluation

+/-+/-+/-6+-+5---4++-3

+/---2+-+1

TransflowCOSA

PallasAthena

FLOWer

TibcoStaffware

• Differencesbetween workflowmanagementsystems

• Not all measurescan be realized incurrent technology



Further research

• Extension of system evaluation• implementation (Master's student)• more systems, more measures

• Validation with different groups (end users,professionals, developers, etc.)



Conclusion

• Important to meet human needs in the design of aWfMS.

• Future: these proposals for tuning measures maylead to general guidelines in design

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Questions?

Documents

A human-oriented tuning of workflow management systems · substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,