Is ARIS the perfect tool for Process modeling?

When the client has a problem with the efficiency  of his administration like a lot of waiting time or long processing time, it is useful to describe the current processes in the administration. Those description can made by himself or better by an experienced business analyst. The description can be done in simple MS Word or MS Visio. The business analyst should use either more sophisticated BPM tools like ARIS (by IDS Scheer) or similar Oracle BPA suite 11gR1.

Complex processes with a lot of sub processes can be described in ARIS on different levels. When a company has some products and services, for each product or service the relating business processes and corresponding business function for each business process can be modeled in ARIS. In this tool there are models for describing the products and services of a business to finally in detail the work instructions. For each level the analyst can choose the right template according to the type of process and level of detail. In the table below the most used diagrams for each level of detail where shown for a normal business administration.

 Not every model or level is needed when the business administration is described. In practice the models on level 4 and 5 are mostly used. When the user wants more to know about the relationships of the processes in different organization parts the Value added chain Diagram at a higher level can be used.

ARIS uses a repository (Oracle database) wherein each object and model is saved once. The occurrences of an object in the models are all related to just this object in the repository. It is recommended to use libraries with models for common used objects like organizations, applications, information carriers and so on.

The advantage of this is a simple maintenance of the models, objects and related attributes. When the analyst change the name of an object in a model, he really change the name in the repository. This implies a direct change of all the occurrences of the changed object in all related models. Choosing the right copy mode makes the modeling of a process quicker. With occurrence copy, each object in the libraries can be copied to the other models. Changes on these objects will be processed in all the models wherein they are used. When a second object looks like the first object for the most filled attributes, object type but not the name the analyst can use a definition copy. The second object is then exactly the same as the first one. The analyst must now first change the name and then the corresponding attributes or object type. This saves a lot of time.

When a model is completed the analyst can let ARIS makes a semantic check to control the model against the business standards and modeling rules. Therefore the quality of the models is always high and the models are always consistent to each other.

A right use of ARIS can only reached after following a training by IDS Scheer (part of Software AG) or after a training by a senior user of ARIS, for example a colleague.  Besides this understanding of BPM is also necessary.  Describing the current processes takes 8 to 10 hours per process, when the analyst is medior or senior. A junior analyst works a little longer. This time is divided in 2 hours of analyses (interviews / workshops), 4 hours of modeling in ARIS and 2 hours of reviewing by the users and probably making changes in the current model. Appending to the seniority of the analyst and the complexity of the process it takes more or less time. For the user is normally 2 hours planned for each process.

Conclusion, for a group of simple processes with less changes the use of MS Visio is easier and takes less time. In the other way  ARIS is an effective tool to be used in a (big) complex  process analyses project. It describes the processes in a simple way and is easy to understand for the process analyst and the user who knows nothing about modeling. Making or changing a description takes less time and gives a high quality of models when it is done by a experienced business analyst. Maintenance is easy. Changing an object has effects for all the related models, which keep the quality of the models at the same level.

It is just important to install ARIS in the right way on the server of the client to prevent complicated changes in the setup and models which takes a lot of time.  More about this topic in a next publication.

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Posted by: Ruud Vermolen (4 post(s)).

Ruud has been active in the ICT sector since 1982 and from 1994 working for Logica Nederland B.V. (Finance, Insurance and HR). He is a senior business consultant and specialised in business process consultancy and architecture. He has knowledge of different BPM-tools like ARIS, Be Informed and Oracle BPA Suite.

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