On the Definition and Design-Time Analysis of Process Performance Indicators

Abstract

A key aspect in any process-oriented organisation is the evaluation of process performance for the achievement of its strategic and operational goals. Process Performance Indicators (PPIs) are a key asset to carry out this evaluation, and, therefore, having an appropriate definition of these PPIs is crucial. After a careful review of the literature related and a study of the current picture in different real organisations, we conclude that there not exists any proposal that allows to define PPIs in a way that is unambiguous and highly expressive, understandable by technical and non-technical users and traceable with the business process (BP). In addition, like other activities carried out during the BP lifecycle, the management of PPIs is considered timeconsuming and error-prone. Therefore, providing an automated support for them is very appealing from a practical point of view. In this paper, we propose the PPINOT metamodel, which allows such an advanced definition of PPIs and is independent of the language used to model the business process. Furthermore, we provide an automatic semantic mapping from the metamodel to Description Logics (DLs) that allows the implementation of design-time analysis operations in such a way that DLreasoners’ facilities can be leveraged. These operations provide information that can assist process analysts in the definition and instrumentation of PPIs. Finally, to validate the usefulness of our proposal, we have used the PPINOT metamodel at the core of a software tool called the PPINOT tool suite and we have applied it in several real scenarios.