High Speed for Digitalization:

Process Management and Low-Code

WIEN 13.-14.11.2019 – Pzm Summit der Gesellschaft für Prozessmanagement

14.10.2019 – Dr. Eckhard Herdt

Business process management is considered a critical success factor for digitalization. But only through the seamless transition from process optimization to digitization by means of Low-Code process managers can make the quantum leap.

 

IT-Business-Alignment – The Mediabreak in Digitalization

 

Scientific studies, as well as surveys of IT management boards, underline the importance of IT business alignment for the success of a company (Prof. Tim Weitzel, Uni Bamberg, IT Business Alignment ). The results show among other things that

  • IT business alignment is a critical success factor for effective design and implementation of a service-oriented application architecture.
  • only in some enterprises the central drivers of IT-Business-Alignment, like common work and access to the business process documentation, can be found.
  • a major obstacle to more effective and flexible applications is often the knowledge of business processes and thus a lack of IT’s technical problem-solving competence.

If one looks at the technologies and tools used, one also recognizes an almost insurmountable wall between business process analysis and implementation. IT typically receives the requirements in the form of process documentation, often supplemented by Word, Excel and PowerPoint for defining data and interfaces and for drafting dialogues. This creates a media break that IT usually has to overcome manually, regardless of whether high-code or low-code is used to implement IT applications.

 

One Common Visual Language and seamless Transition to Digitalization via Low-Code

 

The support of IT-Business Alignment was from the beginning one of the most important requirements of the Appollo Digital Innovation Platform. The basis for this is the Appollo One Common Visual Language. With over 20 model types and standards, such as BPMN, CMMN, DMN or ERM, as well as user page and user flow diagrams for application development, the entire business context, from the organizational model to the system architecture, can be graphically represented.

All these models can be used directly and without any media break for Digitalization. Because each graphic element represents a piece of programming code. In this way, business analysts create directly executable prototypes with each model, which can go live immediately, even without IT. This is done simply by drag & drop and without programming. Instead of IT requirements, the IT extends these prototypes, resulting in an efficient and seamless transition to low-code digitalization.

In addition, collaboration takes place via the Collaboration function, which allows discussions to be initiated directly on the model and the elements. Discussion contributions, feedback and the knowledge of all stakeholders, including users and customers, are recorded in this way for the long term. Another special feature regarding collaborative work is the simultaneous modeling on the same model with several users. Every model change is directly visible to other users in real time, just like you know it from Google Docs.

 

User Page Flow Diagram – Prototype via Drag&Drop and No-Code

Process Analysis and Optimization by means of Issue Management and Heat Map

 

 Business Analysis – Heat Map Analysis of Issues

With the integrated Issue Management, findings can be directly assigned to the model and model element. As usual with other issue tracking tools, issues are defined by type and priority. This enables the business analyst to display his requirements, findings, risks and recommendations directly on the model or on the individual element and to store a corresponding priority.

The evaluation of the findings can be carried out in tabular form using filter options or via a graphical dashboard. The starting point for the graphical analysis can be any model, which includes all associated submodels as a superordinate model. The findings contained therein are aggregated in the superordinate model using a configurable algorithm. The analysis is carried out according to type and priority and provides appropriate filters in the dashboard. The analysis results are displayed using typical bar and pie charts as well as heat maps to directly identify critical components. You can navigate from the superordinate model to the sub-models as usual, for example, in order to carry out detailed analyses in the same way heatmap-based.

 

Agile Digitalization per Low-Code – Acceleration through Microservices

 

The technologies used in the Appollo Digital Innovation Platform were consistently selected to accelerate digitization. But it can be done even faster and at high speed, through the consistent use of a Microservices Technologie. This allows components of the application or services to be developed individually and agilely by low-code. This applies equally to operations, in that it is not necessarily the entire application that can be switched live, but rather individual microservices, without interrupting the system.

Another unique selling point in this context is the Service Healthcare function: the specific deactivation of such a microservice in case of a critical issue, whereby the rest of the application remains available to users without restriction, as with a fuse box. In this context, the integrated issue management and Direct Issue Localization are again of importance. At runtime, findings can be assigned directly to the corresponding model element, e.g. on a user page, to make troubleshooting even faster and more efficient.

 DevOps & Microservice – One Click Activation/Deactivation

Continuous Improvement – Business Activity Monitoring

 

 Business Activity Monitoring – Prozessmodell nach BPMN

The Appollo Business Activity Monitoring supports you in the continuous improvement of your processes. The special feature here is the heatmap-based evaluation directly on the processes modelled using BPMN. It offers a path, throughput time or branch analysis. This allows you to see at first glance where the weak points are. In addition, filtering options of any process data can be used, which allows the causes of bottlenecks to be determined. Optimum process monitoring is also provided by data and throughput time specific threshold values, so that you can react individually to events by e-mail or by means of alarm processes.

It is also worth mentioning that any data change in the process including associated process data (time stamp, process instance, element) is continuously written to the process database. From there, the data is transferred to the Appollo Data Warehouse and archived here for as long as required. Thus, for example, KPI can be defined and evaluated at any time according to the company requirements. The Appollo Data Warehouse also offers, as a relational database, the simple connection to BI tools as well as the possibility for Big Data analysis.

 

GO WITH US INTO THE FAST LANE – Just digitalize!

The APPOLLO DIGITAL INNOVATION PLATFORM uses the latest technologies and standards to accelerate digitalization. The seamless transition from process management to digitalization allows you to exploit the full potential:

  • improving collaboration
  • increase of agility
  • shortening the time to market
  • early return-on-invest
  • better customer experience

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