Business Process Modelling Procedures Applied - Case Study Example

1. Business process modelling procedures applied A. Present the textual description of the chosen scenario. Provide evidence such as references to provide background to your textual description. Opening an account with paypal Introduction E business process modelling is done in a bid to capture the underlying business processes of organisations. The processes enable analysis of the organizational structure and the automation of the business processes using software to achieve higher profit margins. New processing languages are emerging with the realization of the necessity of process modelling for business success. The definition of a business process according to Bill Curtis is an ordered set of tasks done in order to achieve a specific goal. Other definitions are; an assortment of connected activities that produce a service for a particular customer or customers. In essence, these definitions generally concur that business process are made of several different parts or activities. Secondly, there exists a correlation of the parts that creates a coordinating mechanism or structure to achieve a specific goal (Dijkman, Dumas, van Dongen, Karik and Mendling, 2010) Business modelling therefore is a means of capturing the business processes and related activities, the connections that relate them, the coordination mechanism and the underlying business process. This enables documentation of the process for continual improvement of business process. The emergence of business process and e business has now become closely interrelated. The choice of the structure for conducting business in an organisation is what determines the definitive structure of the information system that is required to support the organisation. This notwithstanding, the advancements in information technology has created even more opportunities for businesses and thereby influencing the design of the business process that is used (Van der Aalst and ter Hofstede2005).The business process will therefore incorporate all the business properties relating to transformation of knowledge about information systems into models that simulate the structure of the organisation. Business processes help in making the organisation structure understandable for different categories of audiences (Larkin and Simon1987). It may also be used for analysis of the organisation properties to facilitate identification of problems such as redundancy, with this it contributes to reengineering and optimisation of the business structure (Bandara,Gable, and Rosemann, 2005.) However easy it is for organisations to model their operational processes, deriving textual meaning from the models becomes complicated and is only done by the IT experts in the organisation. The graphical models only complement the textual processes to create enhancement in understand ability and facilitate communication and knowledge about the process (Kim, Hahn, and Hahn, 2000). Extracting this knowledge from the graphical models becomes a painstaking effort (Dix, Finlay, Abowd, and Beale2004). Several technologies have been put forward to aid in precise extraction of the information such as the natural language processing NLP. The business process models are characterised by a sequential order of elements which evolve with time. The process is an ordered chain of interconnected activities. The relation of the activities is the sequential advancement in meaning of the activities that take part in every step. Complex relations exist where there are parallel execution which creates deviance from the main sequence. The sequence can take a story telling approach in the process is conveyed in the traditional manner by convention of facts. This uses sentences and words as the elements and adds a structure or an order of the paragraphs to imply the sequential progression of the process. Purpose and scope This document describes the process of opening an account with paypal which is an online banking service and will include a process model designed in signavio of the same. It is intended that the process enlightens users on the procedure by which accounts are opened and activated. The Process overview In designing a business process or opening an account for paypal the steps for opening the account are sequential followed. 1. The customer first launches the computer browser and types the address www.paypal.com into the address box. This will lead to opening a paypal home page with links that will link to the sign up. The link is on the right corner of the screen with another located in the middle of the screen page. 2. After clicking on the sign up, select your country from the drop down list. Click on the get started button under the preferred account type. Any other type of account can be chosen but the personal account will be used for this case). 3. This opens a profile page where the customer can create a profile by filling information required in the fields shown on the sign up page. This information will include: The customers’ names, full address with inclusion of the city, state zip code and country. The zip code is only necessary for residents of the US. The telephone number is required for the verification and it is important that the customer gives a number through which they can be reached. There is also an option for inputting the work number. The email is also required and is entered twice to guarantee precision. Enters a password for use with the paypal account; this must be a minimum of eight characters and is case sensitive. It may include number for enhancing its strength. The password is entered twice just like the email. The user then accepts the paypal user agreement policy without which the account opening will have failed. By clicking the yes button after carefully reading through the agreement, the user will have indicated agreement to the policy. 4. The final step before account opening is the verification that you are human and not an automated program by typing in a set of characters in a box. The characters must be entered just as they are shown. This system works that an automated program can fill in the characters but cannot read the characters therefore will never be able to fill them in as shown. 5. Click on the “continue” button to submit the information for registration. A confirmation email is sent to your email. This will have a link with which you can activate the account; the link can be clicked on or be copied to the address bar. This will lead to the login page where the user is prompted to enter password and username and press the “log in” button. On the choose mode of payment you select the preferred means of payment to the paypal account, either credit card or direct withdrawal from the bank account. You can also choose to go straight to your paypal account and configure the payment preferences later. Process description Step 1: the request for a new account is placed by clicking the signup button Step 2: details about location are entered. This is important in determining currency and phone codes Step 3: personal details are entered on the profile page. This describes the customer as well as provides contact information. The details include the username and password. The user has to agree to the paypal user policies to continue registration. Step 4: the customer verifies that the account opening is not by an automated program by entering the correct verification characters. Step 5: Paypal server responds to correctly entered details by sending an account activation link to the user’s account. The user has to click on the emailed link to activate the account after which they can log in to the new account. Conclusion The process of opening a new account with paypal is quite easy and direct. The steps are sequential and information needed basic. The user launches the browser and opens the paypal home page. To create a new account you click on the sign up button and then specify your location and language preferences. After this, you enter information about yourself, inclusive of which is the password and email. An activation link is sent to the email address and is used to verify the email as being accessible and belonging to the user. The user can log in to the new account after successful activation, if unsuccessful however, a set of instruction is provided which can be used to solve login failure issues or alternatively the user can contact the support staff. The process models show the sequential progression of the process with the flow of activities mainly on the user’s part. Through this model analysis can be done to check the redundant activities and ease the whole signup process. A lower level process model shows the flow of information between the user and the paypal server. Present the process model detailing the chosen scenarioThe high-level overview process modelThe low-level detailed process model(s) References BandaraW., GableG.G., andRosemann M. (2005.). Factors and measuresof business process modelling: model building through amultiple case study. European Journal of Information Systems,14(4):347 Dijkman, R., Dumas, M., van Dongen, B., Karik, R., Mendling, J.(2010): Similarity of business process models: Metrics and evaluation. Inf. Sys. 36(4)98 Dix,A. FinlayL., AbowdG., and BealeR. (2004). Human ComputerInteraction. New York: Pearson Education. KimJ., HahnJ., and HahnH. (2000). How do we understand asystem with (so) many diagrams? Cognitive integration processes in diagrammatic reasoning. Information Systems Research,11 (3):284. LarkinJ. H. and SimonH. A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes)worth ten thousand words. Cognitive Science, 11(1):65. Van der AalstW. M. P. and ter HofstedeA. H. M. (2005.). Yawl: yet another workow language. Information Systems, 30(4):245 Read More