Systematic approach for the gap analysis of business processes

Abstract

Process benchmarking and business process re-engineering (BPR) have become two main methodologies used to implement business process improvement and have attracted much attention in a current fast-changing environment. Leveraging best practice has become the important factor of process benchmarking and BPR. Accurate knowledge of the gaps between best practice processes and a company's business processes is essential for the redesign of business processes. This paper proposes a systematic enterprise model comparison approach to assist a project team in business process gap analysis (BPGA). A three-phased framework including business process modelling, object semantic analysis phase and process gap analysis phase was developed. An approach of applying the concepts of semantic similarity analysis to find the semantic-related objects in different processes was also proposed. In addition, a set of process path patterns and an alternative process path analysis method was developed to facilitate the processed data and process logic gap analysis between two processes. With the proposed BPGA approach, project teams will understand and redesign their processes more effectively.