The ARIS methodology focuses on the stages of analysis and determination of requirements in the design of information management systems. This is a multi-level, multi-view approach that focuses on business related issues. Each view is further detailed with reference to the stages of the software life cycle in determining level requirements, project specifications and implementation descriptions. Process chain diagrams support an integrated description of business processes at a relatively aggregated level.
ARIS Framework Model
The concept of ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems) by August-Wilhelm Scheer is aimed at creating an enterprise information system that is fully consistent with its business interests and modern economic requirements.
The structure is based on creating a presentation model and description levels, which allows you to describe individual elements using specially designed methods. The ARIS methodology is a promising area of system development for business optimization. They are displayed for each presentation of the description at the data processing level, starting with the issue of business management and ending with the sale of goods and services.
ARIS relies mainly on its own architecture with five views - "ARIS House". These five views are:
- organizational model;
- managerial model;
- data model;
- functional model;
- output (service) model.
The classification is performed in such a way as to break down the complexity of the model into five aspects and thereby simplify the modeling. Each representation of the concept of ARIS (architecture of integrated information) systems demonstrates a business process model in a certain aspect:
- Functional - the actions, groupings, and hierarchical relationships that exist between them are described in the representation of the function, for example, in the tree of functions.
- Organizational - provides an overview of the organizational structure of the company, including human resources, machinery, equipment and their relationships.
- Information (data models) - all events that generate environmental data, such as correspondence, documents and others.
- Service - provides an overview of the entire portfolio of products and services, including services, products, finance.
- Managerial - a type of process that connects all other representations into a temporary-logical chart, for example, in controlled events of a technological chain or BPMN.
Business Process Reengineering
Business process reorganization is a key issue for companies to restore competitiveness and profitability in increasingly volatile markets. Customer-oriented enterprises must be structured in accordance with their core processes and strictly value-oriented.
Workflow management is increasingly based on collaborative, distributed applications that, on the one hand, need reengineering to be effective, and on the other hand, use models as specifications for monitoring its implementation.
The lack of powerful tools, as well as methodological shortcomings, especially with regard to capturing the logic and dynamics of complex processes, are the main obstacles to the successful reorganization of business processes.
The ARIS approach provides not only a general and well-documented methodological basis, but also a powerful modeling tool that supports the reengineering process during the life cycle stages. In a research project, it is integrated with a prototype workflow management system to improve the reuse of models for implementing applications.
Life cycle concept
Structures of the business process modeling methodology and life cycle concepts have appeared in various application areas, such as Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), office automation and information systems design.
Methodologies and structures are often based on implicit assumptions regarding their scope, purpose, and level of detail. But there is another aspect that leads to a wide variety of approaches. It is the fact that the ability of the ARIS methodology is very dependent on the goal.
Some efforts on it may be descriptive in nature, while in other cases an optimized solution for implementation is required. In the latter case, process analysis should be supported by formal assessment tools such as modeling. This requires an unambiguous description of the process and the collection of information about the business process.
Dynamic behavior
Currently, there is a need to coordinate different approaches, identify common features and combine different methodologies and structures.
Dynamic modeling of business processes will become increasingly important in the future. The transition from mass production to mass customization of IS design and a growing interest in low-level system specifications require well-defined models.
For this, it is necessary to have an idea of the nature of the processes in order to modify and reconfigure them. They help to identify and eliminate deficiencies in logic and can also serve as a specification of a software process for designing information systems.
The dynamic behavior of business processes clearly shows "organizational bias." Models are superimposed on human behavior. This behavioral distortion can only partially be represented by formal modeling approaches originating from the IS domain. The ARIS methodology should include aspects such as human roles, responsibilities and informal communication.
Reference model
Another aspect of business process modeling that requires further research is the theme of reference models - a block of partial modeling. This is an incomplete representation of the system with this point of view, serving a specific purpose for specific users. Reference models are the organization’s information resource and form the know-how base. Advantages of models: accelerated modeling processes, saving costs and time, improving quality - emphasize the need for application.
Process models are the foundation for developing enterprise applications. While they describe structure and logic at the type level, the workflow application supports the execution of individual processes at the instance level. The definition of the structure in database management systems (DBMS) leads to a specific database, and the model to the application of the workflow. In contrast to the generation of program code from models, as provided for in the classic CASE approaches, application development is based on the configuration of existing building blocks of software and, therefore, supports its reuse.
Workflow development
The ARIS hardware platform supports the development of workflow applications. Defining requirements follows core business-oriented, rather than technical, goals. When defining requirements, aspects such as time, cost, frequency, redundancy, and others are considered.
After analyzing the current state, various alternatives are developed that describe how improvements can be made. Depending on what decisions are considered to achieve the chosen alternative, one can distinguish between organizational, personal or technical approaches or their composition.
From a technical point of view, one can investigate models with respect to which information system is needed. Based on the models, you can specify the type necessary to support the process: document management, integration of database applications and others. Therefore, all representations should be integrated into the process model: data, organization, and functions.
Since exception handling is a central issue in applications at the definition level of requirements, exceptions can be addressed through the definition of a special diagram. If process models are defined and approved as input to the development of workflow applications, they can be clarified at the next level.
Project Specification
The functions that will be automated by the application must be specified at a detailed level. If functions are performed by the program, there is no need to specify them in great detail. Manual functions should be listed as task lists. Therefore, they use function trees, which should be shown as reference information in the application.
The data flow is described at the level of definition of requirements, mainly in the form of clusters and functions. During project development, these clusters must be defined in more detail with respect to entities. For a detailed description of the data flow, you must define a data flow diagram.
In organizational units, the processes described in the model are often at an abstract level. Workflow applications use the role concept. Roles describe the capabilities that a person must have in order to perform a specific job function. According to such roles, during the execution of the application, people can perform certain steps. This concept should be considered.
In addition to the described aspects, it is important to accurately determine events and decision-making nodes, as well as specify parameters for program integration.
Description of implementation
At the level of the description of the implementation, it is necessary to adapt this information infrastructure to a distributed integrated concept of a workflow application based on a model that is the result of the project specification.
Models are used to customize the application. They can be understood as a graphic program. Thanks to this reuse, manual programming of the program code is reduced.
Not every model supports graphical definition of applications. The implementations coming out of the description can be used as the basis for the “normal” work performed by programmers. Instrumental support of modeling requires computer tools for the presentation and processing of reference models. The main functions of the model control system are:
- Model of construction and storage.
- Selection / search and analysis of models.
- Model configuration.
- Integration of models.
- Adaptation and modification of the model.
- Evolution and model change.
- Model of execution and interpretation.
Basic rules of the ARIS methodology
Typically, a developer starts with an event if he builds an EPC. A number of events can follow an event. In the past it was said that events and activities should alternate. This leads to very long process models with a lot of little things, so today it is proposed to add an event only if it is necessary to document important state changes.
Recommendations for using events:
- At the beginning of the process or after the start interface.
- At the end of the process or until the end of the interface.
- Decision events on XOR or OR connectors.
- For important events, for example, milestones in the project.
- Actions or events must not have more than one outgoing or incoming connection.
- The process control flow is modeled using Rules (gateways).
Rules can be used as follows:
- From one incoming connection, several outgoing connections (SPLIT) follow.
- Out of several inbound connections, exactly one outbound connection (JOIN) follows.
- A sequence of rules is possible.
- The Er model usually closes with the same statement as it was opened, and ends with an "EPC Event".
- Logical operators
The following rules can be used in EPC:
- Separation - processing steps that follow the rule occur in parallel and must be performed.
- Connection - all processing steps for inbound connections must be completed so that the processing steps that follow the rule can be completed.
- SPLIT - exactly one of the following rule processing steps must be completed.
- Separator - at least one of the following processing steps of the rule must be performed, or several or all of the processing steps.
- There are special rules for logical operations between events and actions, which are shown in the ARIS Express model.
ARIS: tool kit
The ARIS-Tool Kit provides comprehensive computer simulation support. Four modules provide tools for automated analysis, planning and implementation of management information systems. This approach covers the entire simulation life cycle. Let's consider in more detail:
- ARIS-Modeler specializes in system modeling. Based on the meta-structure of the ARIS platform for PCs, methods for specific types are presented, including advanced modeling of entity relationships, as well as diagrams of process chains and stimulus-response, as well as diagrams of functional and organizational hierarchies.
- ARIS-Analyzer provides tools for examining and evaluating an existing system in terms of key performance indicators. Weakness analysis can be performed for each type of simulation. In addition, an idealized integration concept can be obtained that includes the objective function and data models. Standards are an integral part of the ARIS-Analyzer.
- ARIS-Project Manager is used to manage projects. It is designed to plan, control and monitor the entire project at all its stages. ARIS-Project Manager defines all the tasks that will be solved in the process of modeling business processes.
- The goal of ARIS-Navigator is to provide computerized documentation for the corporate model developed during the simulation stages.
Express Official software
"ARIS Express 2", er model - a program released for operating systems based on Microsoft Windows. It also works on other operating systems, such as Mac OS X or Linux.
To download the program:
- Go to the profile site.
- Choose a boot method for the OS.
- They are members of the ARIS community, accept the Software AG License Agreement and Export Rules to be able to download software.
- Become familiar with the installation instructions, regardless of which download is selected.
- Get acquainted with the system requirements to be sure that the user PC will be able to work with the program.
The program has a very advanced free ARIS Cloud feature. This is a full-fledged product for the analysis of business processes, which as a service is provided completely free of charge for research and educational purposes. It supports collaborative process improvement projects and is available to 1000 users simultaneously around the world. With the free trial version of software ag ARIS Cloud, a free subscription lasts 30 days. With AERIS Cloud for students, a free subscription lasts 3 months.
EPC offers many ways to model processes, analyze them, and identify improvement potentials. The EPC model is directly integrated into the interactive model viewer. You can download it and edit free models in ARIS Express 2 er. You can also use the provided video tutorials to find an easy way into the ARIS world.
Modeling process:
- Download ARIS Express.
- Browse examples of models or video tutorials.
- Begin modeling.
- Join the ARIS community.
- Get a free copy of the cheat sheet. To do this, click on the picture on the profile site to enlarge it and download the document in PDF format.
Conversion Processes in XPDL
To simulate processes that need to be converted to XPDL, use ARIS version 6.2.
When installing and configuring ARIS, launch the ARIS Toolset program:
- In the menu bar, select File-> New, and then the model in the next dialog box.
- Another dialog box will appear in which you select the location where the ARIS model will be stored. You can select, for example, LOCAL-> Demo62-> Main group.
- After clicking the “Next” button, another dialog box appears. You must select the Processes check box and select an eEPC model type.
- A dialog box appears in which you need to assign a name for the new ARIS model.
- Enter a name and click the "Finish" button. The window will show the editing area for the new model.
- When modeling ARIS, only toolbar items marked with a red circle are used.
- The element placed in the upper right corner in the toolbox is called a function in ARIS, it will be displayed in Activity / Task in XPDL, therefore they are used to define tasks in the process.
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