Exploring the Ambidextrous Analysis of Business Processes: A Design Science Research

摘要

Traditionally, business processes are analyzed in a qualitative or quantitative form with the purpose to exploit, reduce or eliminate existing problems in the processes, such as bottlenecks, financial or resources waste, cycle time and handworks. Business process analysis is an important phase of the Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle because it provides a critical examination of problems and potential improvements of business processes. However, few studies have been conducted to provide novel analysis techniques and methods to explore external and future opportunities, in addition to satisfying clients' expectations, needs and experience. In this context, we used the Design Science Research approach to build the Ambidextrous Analysis of Business Process (A2BP) method, which enables process analysts to balance exploration and exploitation thinking. We defined the problem and the research questions through a systematic literature mapping. Then, we empirically evaluate the proposed method through an expert opinion survey and an observational case study to assess the usefulness and ease-of-use of the method. Overall, the participants of the empirical study evaluated the method positively and suggested feedbacks to refine it.