Дисертації з теми "Business process structure quality"

Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня доктора філософії за спеціальністю 122 "Комп’ютерні науки". – Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут", Харків, 2020. Об’єктом дослідження є процес синтезу структури та реструктуризації бізнес-процесів складних систем. Предметом дослідження є моделі та інформаційна технологія аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів на основі використання різних нотацій моделювання. Дисертацію присвячено вирішенню науково-практичної задачі – розробці моделей та інформаційної технології аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів складних систем. У вступі обґрунтовано актуальність теми дисертаційної роботи, зазначено зв’язок роботи з науковими темами, сформульовано мету і задачі дослідження, визначено об’єкт, предмет та методи дослідження, показано наукову новизну та практичне значення отриманих результатів, наведено інформацію про практичне використання, особистий внесок здобувача, апробацію результатів дослідження та їх висвітлення у публікаціях. Приводяться відомості щодо структури та обсягу дисертаційної роботи. У першому розділі проведено аналіз процесу синтезу структури та реструктуризації бізнес-процесів складних систем як об’єкта дослідження. Виділені проблеми, які в даний момент ще не вирішені і є актуальними з точки зору аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. Детально розглянуті найбільш популярні та поширені нотації опису структури бізнес- процесів (BPMN, EPC, IDEF0 та DFD); сучасні підходи щодо накопичення та аналізу колекцій моделей бізнес-процесів з метою їх повторного використання; формати представлення структури бізнес-процесів (XPDL, AML, BPMN 2.0). Розглянуто існуючі методи та засоби аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. В результаті здійсненого огляду було визначено, що у розглянутих літературних джерелах не представлені формальні методи, які б дозволили виявити порушення правил побудови структури бізнес-процесів, представлених за допомогою різних нотацій моделювання, та сформувати рекомендації щодо їх усунення. Сформульовано постановку задачі дослідження проблем, які було виявлено під час аналізу процесу синтезу структури та реструктуризації бізнес-процесів складних систем в ролі об’єкта дослідження. Основними з даних проблем є: формалізація правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів на основі різних нотацій моделювання; розробка узагальненого критерію якості моделей бізнес-процесів; формування методу аналізу та вдосконалення структури бізнес-процесів; розробка моделей, призначених для формування рекомендацій щодо усунення виявлених порушень правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів; розробка інформаційної технології аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. У другому розділі сформовано теоретичні основи аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. На основі рекомендацій щодо побудови моделей бізнес-процесів визначено та формалізовано правила побудови моделей бізнес-процесів з використанням різних нотацій моделювання. Сформовано окремі критерії та розроблено узагальнений критерій якості моделей бізнес-процесів на основі методу адитивної згортки критеріїв. На основі виконаних досліджень отримали подальший розвиток: – метод кількісного аналізу структури бізнес-процесів за рахунок формування коефіцієнтів збалансованості, які, на відміну від існуючого, враховують різні елементи структури бізнес-процесу та особливості їх з’єднання, що дозволяє застосувати сформовані коефіцієнти для аналізу моделей бізнес-процесів у різних нотаціях з метою визначення їх відповідності правилам побудови; – метод оцінки якості моделей бізнес-процесів за рахунок формалізації правил побудови та формування узагальненого критерію якості замість окремих метрик якості моделей бізнес-процесів у певних нотаціях, що дозволяє оцінити якість моделі бізнес-процесу на основі єдиного кількісного показника. Третій розділ присвячено розробці моделей аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. Було розглянуто метод аналізу та вдосконалення структури бізнес-процесів, який дозволяє виявити та усунути порушення правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів при використанні різних нотацій моделювання, та відповідні моделі, призначені для формування рекомендацій щодо усунення виявлених порушень правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів (необхідні зміни у кількості відповідних елементів структури бізнес-процесу та зв’язків між ними), що дозволяє підвищити їхню якість. Оптимізаційні задачі вирішуються на основі використання методу градієнтного спуску. Метод аналізу та вдосконалення структури бізнес-процесів базується на людино- машинній процедурі прийняття рішень, тому було запропоновано процедуру формування зрозумілих людині рекомендацій у вигляді текстових вказівок щодо вдосконалення структури бізнес-процесів на основі результатів вирішення оптимізаційних задач. З метою повторного використання досвіду щодо підвищення якості моделей бізнес-процесів було розроблено процедуру їх групування за подібністю щодо відповідності правилам побудови структури бізнес-процесу. В результаті виконаних досліджень було вперше: – розроблено метод аналізу та вдосконалення структури бізнес-процесів, що дозволяє виявити та усунути порушення правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів при використанні різних нотацій моделювання; – розроблено моделі, призначені для формування рекомендацій щодо усунення виявлених порушень правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів, що дозволяє підвищити якість структури бізнес-процесів. У четвертому розділі на основі опису процесу аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів були визначені функціональні можливості та сформульовані вимоги до інформаційної технології. Архітектура інформаційної технології базується на використанні сучасних технологій вилучення, обробки та збереження інформації про структуру бізнес-процесів. Робота користувача з отриманими результатами може здійснюватися як через веб-інтерфейс, так і на основі використання аналітичної приладової панелі, яка демонструє узагальнені результати аналізу та забезпечує підтримку прийняття рішень щодо підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів. Працездатність розробленої інформаційної технології було перевірено на заздалегідь підготовлених моделях бізнес-процесів у різних нотаціях, в яких було навмисно допущено структурні помилки, які порушують правила побудови структури бізнес-процесів у нотаціях BPMN, EPC, IDEF0 та DFD, а також на повнорозмірній вихідній інформації щодо структури бізнес-процесів у різних нотаціях та різної галузевої приналежності. В результаті було удосконалено інформаційну технологію аналізу та підвищення якості структури бізнес-процесів, яка базується на використанні розроблених методу та моделей замість існуючих рішень, що дозволяє автоматизувати виявлення та усунення порушень правил побудови моделей бізнес-процесів при використанні різних нотацій моделювання. Аналіз отриманих результатів дослідження показав, що розроблений метод та моделі, на яких базується інформаційна технологія, на відміну від існуючих формальних методів та засобів, дозволяють не лише більш точно виявити помилки у структурі бізнес-процесів, поданих у нотаціях BPMN, EPC, IDEF0 та DFD, а й оцінити якість структури бізнес-процесу на основі єдиного кількісного показника та отримати рекомендації щодо її підвищення шляхом внесення необхідних змін у кількості відповідних елементів структури бізнес- процесу та зв’язків між ними. Наведено результати впровадження дисертаційного дослідження у ТОВ "Науковий Парк НТУ "ХПІ" (м. Харків), у Інституті монокристалів НАН України (м. Харків), у науково-дослідних роботах та навчальному процесі кафедри програмної інженерії та інформаційних технологій управління Національного технічного університету "ХПІ".
Thesis for obtaining the philosophy doctor scientific degree on the specialty 122 “Computer sciences”. – National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kharkiv, 2020. Object of research is the process of synthesis and redesign of the business process structure of complex systems. Subject of research includes models and information technology of analysis and quality improvement of the business process structure based on the using of various modeling notations. The dissertation is devoted to the solution of the scientific and practical problem – development of the models and information technology of analysis and quality improvement of the business process structure of complex systems. The introduction substantiates the relevance of the topic of the dissertation, indicates the relationship with scientific topics, the purpose and objectives of the study are formulated, the object, subject and methods of research are identified, the scientific novelty and practical significance of the obtained results is shown, the information on practical use, personal contribution of the applicant, validation of the research results and their coverage in publications are provided. Information about the structure and scope of the dissertation is given. The first section analyzes the process of synthesis and redesign of the business processes structure of complex systems as a research object. Issues that have not yet been resolved and are relevant in terms of analysis and improvement of the quality of business processes are denoted. The most popular and widely used notations (BPMN, EPC, IDEF0, and DFD) that serve to describe business process structure, modern approaches to storing and analyzing business process model collections for their further reuse, business process structure representation formats (XPDL, AML, BPMN 2.0) are discussed in detail. Existing methods and tools of analysis and improvement of quality of business process structure are considered. As a result of the review, it was determined that the reviewed literature sources are not present formal methods that would allow to identify violations of the rules of structure of business processes, represented by various notations of modeling, and to generate recommendations in order to their elimination. The research problem related to those issues, which were revealed during the analysis of the process of synthesis and restructuring of the structure of business processes of complex systems as a research object, is formulated. The main of these problems are: formalization of rules of business process model design based on different modeling notations; development of the generalized quality criterion for business process models; formation of the method of analysis and improvement of a business process structure; development of the models, which are intended to form recommendations for elimination of revealed violations of business process model design rules; development of the information technology of analysis and quality improvement of the business process structure. The second section describes the theoretical foundations of the analysis and improvement of the quality of the structure of business processes. Based on the recommendations of business process model design, the rules of business process model design using different modeling notations are defined and formalized. Individual criteria have been formed, as well as the generalized quality criterion for business process models has been developed, which is based on the multi-criteria decision making method. The research presented in the second section has allowed elaborating: – the method of quantitative analysis of the business process structure is elaborated through the formation of balance coefficients, which, unlike the existing one, take into account different elements of the business process structure and features of their interrelations, which allows to apply the formed coefficients for the analysis of business process models in different notations in order to determine their compliance with the design rules; – the method of business process model quality assessment is elaborated by formalizing the design rules and generating a generic quality criterion instead of individual business process model metrics for certain notations, which allows to evaluate the business process model quality using a single quantitative metric. The third section is devoted to the development of models of analysis and improvement of the business process structure. There were considered the method of analysis and improvement of the business process structure, which allows detecting and eliminating violations of business process model design rules when using different modeling notations, and the models used to form recommendations for elimination of detected violations of business process model design rules (necessary changes in the number of certain elements of the business process structure and connections between them), which allows to improve the business process structure quality. The corresponding optimization problems are solved using the gradient descent method. The method of analyzing and improving the business process structure is based on the human-machine decision-making process, so it was proposed the procedure for formulating recommendations in the form of understandable text instructions for improving the business process structure based on the results of optimization problem solutions. In order to reuse the experience of improving the business process model quality, the procedure for grouping them by similarity in the context of fulfillment to the rules of business process structure design was developed. As the result of research, for the first time were obtained: – the method of analysis and improvement of the business process structure, which allows identifying and eliminating violations of the rules of building business models when using different modeling notations; – the models designed to formulate recommendations for eliminating identified violations of business process model design rules, which can improve the quality of the business process structure. In the fourth section on the basis of a detailed description of the process of analysis and improvement of the business process structure quality, functional capabilities and requirements for the information technology were defined. The information technology architecture is based on the use of modern technologies for extracting, processing and storing information about the business process structure. User work with the obtained results can be performed either through the web interface or through the analytical dashboard, which demonstrates generalized analysis results and provides decision support for improving the quality of the business process structure. The information technology was validated using prepared business process models provided in various notations, in which structural errors that violate certain business process structure design rules of BPMN, EPC, IDEF0, and DFD notations were intentionally injected; and using the full scale input information on the business process structure provided in different notations and domains. As the result there were improved the information technology of analysis and improvement of quality of business process structure, which is based on the developed method and models instead of existing solutions, which further allows automating detection and elimination of violations of business process models design in various notations. The analysis of the research results has shown that the formed method and the developed models, on which the information technology is based, unlike the existing formal methods and tools, allow not only to more accurately detect errors in the business process structure described using BPMN, EPC, IDEF0, and DFD notations, but also to evaluate the quality of the business process structure on the basis of a single quantitative indicator and obtain recommendations for its improvement by making necessary changes in the number of certain elements of the business process structure and the relations between them. Thesis research results were implemented at the “Scientific Park of NTU “KhPI” LLC (Kharkiv), state scientific institution “Institute for Single Crystals” of National Academy of Science of Ukraine (Kharkiv), in scientific research works and educational process of the Department of Software Engineering and Management Information Technologies of National Technical University “KhPI”.

La problématique scientifique abordée correspond à la modélisation et à l'amélioration des processus métiers. Ce problème est d'un intérêt croissant pour les entreprises qui prennent conscience de l'impact indéniable que peuvent avoir une meilleure compréhension et une meilleure gestion des processus métiers (PM) sur l'efficacité, la cohérence et la transparence de leurs activités. Le travail envisagé dans le cadre de la thèse vise à proposer une méthode et un outil pour mesurer et améliorer la qualité des modèles de processus métier. L’originalité de l’approche est qu’elle vise non seulement la qualité syntaxique mais aussi la qualité sémantique et pragmatique en s’appuyant notamment sur les connaissances du domaine
In recent years the problems related to modeling and improving business processes have been of growing interest. Indeed, companies are realizing the undeniable impact of a better understanding and management of business processes (BP) on the effectiveness, consistency, and transparency of their business operations. BP modeling aims at a better understanding of processes, allowing deciders to achieve strategic goals of the company. However, inexperienced systems analysts often lack domain knowledge leading and this affects the quality of models they produce.Our approach targets the problem related to business process modeling quality by proposing an approach encompassing methods and tools for business process (BP) models quality measurement and improvement. We propose to support this modeling effort with an approach that uses domain knowledge to improve the semantic quality of BP models.The main contribution of this thesis is fourfold:1. Exploiting the IS domain knowledge: A business process metamodel is identified.Semantics are added to the metamodel by the mean of OCL constraints.2. Exploiting the application domain knowledge. It relies on domain ontologies. Alignment between the concepts of both metamodels is defined and illustrated.3. Designing of the guided quality process encompassing methods and techniques to evaluate and improve the business process models. Our process propose many quality constraints and metrics in order to evaluat the quality of the models and finally the process propose relevant recommendations for improvement.4. Development of a software prototype “BPM-Quality”. Our prototype implements all theabove mentioned artifacts and proposes a workflow enabling its users to evaluate andimprove CMs efficiently and effectively.We conducted a survey to validate the selection of the quality constraints through a first experience and also conducted a second experiment to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of our overall approach and proposed improvements

Many relationship-based studies focus on how businesses are maintained and developed. However, little attention focused on individuals as business initiators and the consequent processes. This study will bridge this gap. A theoretical model with two cases will answer two questions    -How individuals initiate business through personal network? -What is the consequent process?   The studies demonstrate that individual do play a very important role when initiating a new business and they set in motion relationship-building processes that change the network structure.   The contribution for research and management is clear. The netentrepruer is a new ‘actor’ and can be useful in future studies of business networks. Management can usefully become conscious of the possibilities they have in studying their network contacts before initiating new businesses. Managers should utilize managing individual’s networks as new competition strategies. This will modify the view of management strategy and also contribute to theory building.

A business process is a defined collection of linked structured tasks, activities, and decisions performed together to produce a desired set of results in order to achieve business goals on behalf of the organization. Companies are increasingly moving their business processes online using Business Process Management (BPM) tools and technologies. With BPM, online business processes are defined by an explicit business process model that flexibly combines and orchestrates forms delivered through a web browser to integrate tasks performed by people, and web services accessible through Internet protocols to integrate tasks performed by software. Often the approach to quality assurance for online business processes is similar to what would be done with any other web application. This is insufficient since it only provides rudimentary verification of single user behavior whereas the orchestration of tasks across many users and software systems can be quite complex. As well, a simple web application testing approach does not leverage the defined model for a business process to ensure consistency, completeness and enable automation. Nor will such an approach validate that a business process is contributing towards the achievement of business goals. A more systematic approach is required. This thesis proposes a quality assurance framework to provide a repeatable, systematic, cost-efficient approach to quality assurance for BPM. A prototype framework was implemented and evaluated using two case studies, including one case study that was developed in collaboration with a local hospital to support a business process for cancer care assessment.

Business process modeling has become a common need for organizations. Therefore process quality is also having an important role for the organizations. The most of the quality studies are based on cost and time which can be analyzed during or after the execution of the business processes. There are also quality measures which help analyzing measures before the execution of the business processes. This type of measures can give early feedback about the processes. There are three frameworks defined in the literature for a more comprehensive measurement. One of the frameworks is adapted from software programs and it aims to enable process design to be less error-prone, understandable and maintainable. The second framework is adapted from object-oriented software designs and it provides object-oriented view to the design of the business process. The last framework is adapted from ISO/IEC Software Product Quality enabling to measure the quality of process itself rather than the design. By conducting a case study, the measures defined in the frameworks are explored in terms of applicability, automation potential and required time and effort on a set of business process model. As a result of this study it is observed that measurement takes time and requires effort and is always error-prone. Therefore, an approach is implemented by automating the measures which have automation potential, in order to decrease the required time and effort and also to increase the accuracy of the measurement. The second case study is then conducted on a set of another business process models in order to validate the approach.

Telework as a swift developing business has attracted great attention from government, company and organisation due to its large benefits for out society. A study was accordingly conducted to investigate its application in the IT industry. Results show that teleworking is widely accepted by and plays an important role in software industry. With the rapid development in computer and telecommunications technology, telework has become increasingly populat and can not be avoided in IT industry. the benefits and problems brought by teleworking in IT industry are then reported in the study. It is found that the big obstruction for telework development in software engineering is still product quality problems. As many researchers have revealed, our society has entered the information society. The demand for more and more software products with better and better quality is increasing. However problems of software quality hinder the development of the IT industry. The recognised reason for this is the inability to manage the software process. Hence, many software process assessment and improvement models have been developed and used successfully in the management of software development in order to acquire improvements in software quality. However, the problem considered here is whether they are suitable for telework software development. To build the necessary ground knowledge for carrying out this project, an extensive analysis of the fundamental methodology and principles of existing software process assessment and improvement models was conducted. The strengths and weaknesses of these models are derived from the analysis. The applicability and adaptability of the models for teleworking environments are also explored. It is found that the existing models are designed for centralised software development. They are not fully suitable but the same functions are applicable for teleworking environments. The results of above discussion lead to the selection and recommendation of SPICE to be used as a baseline for the development of a process approach which meets the need of teleworking software environments. To lay a solid foundation for the development of such approach, two surveys were carried out. Their aims are investigate the current state of telework in IT industry and the applicability of the present models in teleworking environments, and to identify the specific issues which arise in telework. It can be observed from the survey that there are significant differences in software process and management methodologies between telework and conventional single-site work. Special technologies are needed to support telework software development. To provide valuable input in the development of such approach, an in-depth analysis of the specific requirements identified from the survey results in the creation of a set of processes and base practices, which are particularly required by teleworking environments. The SPITE approach, which is a SPICE extension model, is therefore developed as a major contribution to the software industry that fills an important gap in the software process modelling. Good comments have been obtained from a small range of organisations.

Introduction: with the expanded application of ERP system, business process model-ing, as an essential part of the ERP system implementation, has already attracted in-creasingly attention from the organizations. However, even though with the great signif-icance, there is no specific guideline to indicate the key factors of a business process modeling within the ERP system implementation context, especially from the supplier, customer and consultancy point of view. Accordingly, the authors are interested in the following two research questions:1. What are the factors that ERP customer. Supplier and consultancy focused on when they do business process modeling for an ERP implementation?2. How these factors are ranked and viewed by ERP customers, suppliers and con-sultants?Purpose: This study is an exploratory study aiming at identifying improvement factors for business process modeling within the context of ERP system implementation. addi-tionally, the authors seek to identify the diverse attitudes from the parties involved in the process of ERP implantation, that are supplier, customer and consultancy, towards the significance level of the improvement factors.Method: This research has adopted an inductive approach due to the nature of its re-search questions. Besides, data has been collected through six interviews in in total. And each supplier, consultancy, customer party has been conducted two interviews respec-tively. The six interview companies are with different cultural background. Additionally, secondary data from books, magazines are obtained through documentation as well.Conclusion: The thesis main results show that there are five improvement factors con-cerning the business process modeling within ERP system implementation, involving correctness, clarity, resource efficiency, cultural specification and relevance. Based upon the suppliers, consultancies and customers points of view, correctness, clarity and cul-tural specification can be categorized into basic factors and resource efficiency, rele-vance are grouped as optional factors. Furthermore, from the customers perspective, correctness and clarity ranks at the top two places among those five factors, while con-sultants focus on correctness and resource efficiency first. Besides, suppliers regard cor-rectness as the most fundamental improvement factors for business process modeling.

The majority of organizations make their business processes explicit to improve them. Defining business processes manually and modeling them are two alternatives utilized for this purpose. Meanwhile, organizations have quality management systems which are frequently shaped by frameworks. The most commonly used process improvement frameworks in the IT sector are ITIL, Cobit, CMMI and ISO 9001. These frameworks indicate the necessity of process documentation and ISO 9001 addresses the name &ldquo
Quality Manual&rdquo
for this purpose. In this thesis, an automated tool is developed for quality manual generation from predetermined business process models. In addition, a case study is performed by means of a systematic approach and its results were discussed with the findings of structured interviews. The aim of the study is to reduce the effort and time required for quality manual preparation and merge quality management activities with process modeling by means of process documentation.

Business process improvement for increased product quality is of continuous importance in the software industry. Quality managers in this sector need effective, hands-on tools for decision-making in engineering projects and for rapidly spotting key improvement areas. Measurement programs are a widespread approach for introducing quality improvement in software processes, yet employing all-embracing state-of-the art quality assurance models is labor intensive. Unfortunately, these do not primarily focus on measures, revealing a need for an instant and straightforward technique for identifying and defining measures in projects without resources or need for entire measurement programs. This thesis explores and compares prevailing quality assurance models using measures, rendering the Measurement Discovery Process constructed from selected parts of the PSM and GQM techniques. The composed process is applied to an industrial project with the given prerequisites, providing a set of measures that are subsequently evaluated. In addition, the application gives foundation for analysis of the Measurement Discovery Process. The application and analysis of the process show its general applicability to projects with similar constraints as well as the importance of formal target processes and exhaustive project domain knowledge among measurement implementers. Even though the Measurement Discovery Process is subject to future refinement, it is clearly a step towards rapid delivery of tangible business performance indicators for process improvement.
Vikten av förbättringar i affärsprocesser i syfte att öka produktkvaliteten i mjukvaruindustrin ökar stadigt. Kvalitetsansvariga i industrin behöver effektiva och påtagliga verktyg för beslutsfattande i utvecklingsprojekt och för lokalisering av förbättringsområden. Mätningsprogram är en utbredd ansats för kvalitetsförbättring i mjukvaruprocesser men användning av heltäckande kvalitetsmodeller är resurskrävande. Dessa fokuserar inte primärt på mätpunkter vilket blottar behovet av en snabb och direkt teknik för identifiering och definiering av mätpunkter i projekt som saknar resurser eller behov av heltäckande mätningsprogram. Denna uppsats undersöker och jämför rådande kvalitetssäkringsmodeller med mätpunkter, vilket resulterar i Measurement Discovery Process utifrån valda delar av PSM- och GQM-modellerna. Processen appliceras på ett industriellt projekt med nämnda förutsättningar, vilket skapar en uppsättning mätpunkter som sedan utvärderas. Detta ligger även till grund för utvärdering av Measurement Discovery Process. Appliceringen och utvärderingen av processen synliggör dess generella applicerbarhet på projekt med liknande begränsningar såväl som vikten av formella processer i målprojektet och omfattande domänkunskap hos de som implementerar mätningarna. Measurement Discovery Process är föremål för framtida förbättringar men samtidigt ett tydligt steg mot snabbt framtagande av konkreta prestandamått för kvalitetsförbättring i affärsprocesser.
Mattias Axelsson: +46 708 67 53 81 Johan Sonesson: +46 709 72 74 30 / +46 40 12 48 03

Context. The quality of business process models is important in the area of model-based software development. The overall goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a model for assessing the quality of models (Process Diagrams) in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). The model was an instantiation of the developed metamodel that adopt ISO/IEC 1926. Objectives. The objectives of the thesis were to propose, implement and evaluate a model for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN. The model was intended to help practitioners to check the quality of their BPMN models and provide meaningful feedback on whether the business process models are of good or bad quality. First objective was to develop a metamodel of models for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN, and later the model that in an instantiation of the metamodel. Within the model, the objectives were to propose the relevant quality characteristics, quality metrics, quality criteria and quality functions. Finally, usefulness of model for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN was to be evaluated. Methods. The methodology was driven by essential elements of the model for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN. This is: quality characteristics, quality metrics, quality criteria and quality functions. In the beginning the metamodel of the model was developed based on the ISO/IEC 1926 standard. Later, in order to identify quality characteristics of models existing in the literature, a systematic literature review was conducted. Quality characteristics explicitly relevant to BPMN were compared against each other and selected. Overlapping quality characteristics relevant to BPMN were merged. Next, in order to obtain quality metrics that measure aspects of models of business processes, a literature review was carried out. The literature review was restricted by a proposed set of selection criteria. The criteria were questions that every relevant literature describing quality metrics must affirmatively answer in order to identify only metrics that were able to be assigned to identify quality characteristics. If the chosen quality metrics needed to be changed or adjusted for the sake of better results, the author added changes or adjustments and provided rationale for them. Next, in order to obtain quality criteria, values of the quality metrics were gathered through measuring a repository of BPMN models. The repository was gathered as a preparatory work for the thesis and it consisted of models of varying quality. Manual measurement of quality metrics for each BPMN model from the repository could not be done within a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, a tool to automatically calculate metrics for BPMN models was implemented. The quality criteria were proposed based on the results from interpretation of the values using statistical analysis. Later, quality functions that aggregate values of the metrics were proposed. The complete model was next integrated into the tool so that it could assess a quality of real BPMN models. Finally, the model for assessing the quality of business process models in BPMN was evaluated for usefulness through a survey and survey-based experiment. Results. A metamodel of models for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN was proposed. A model for the quality assessment of models in BPMN was proposed and evaluated for usefulness. Initial sets of quality characteristics of models were found in the literature and quality characteristics that were relevant to BPMN were extracted. Quality metrics that measure aspects of models were found and adjusted to the BPMN notation. Quality criteria that state how values of quality metrics can be classified as good or bad were provided. Quality functions that state if quality characteristics are good or bad for a chosen BPMN model were provided. Finally, a tool that implements the model for quality assessment of models in BPMN was created. Conclusions. The results of the survey and survey-based experiment showed that the proposed model for quality assessment of models in BPMN works in most cases and is needed in general. Additionally, the elements of the model which should be corrected were identified. Contacted users of BPMN expressed a will to use the suggested tool associated with the model for quality assessment of business process models in BPMN.

The importance of building a robust oil and gas company is currently more relevant than ever. Volatile oil prices, challenging governmental relations and uncertain outcomes of exploration activities are all elements affecting operating companies in the global oil and gas industry. Another important element is the cost of upstream services, which has increased dramatically since the beginning of the new millennium. There are no reason to believe that future challenges will be any easier to overcome. Simultaneously, the global community is in need of more energy to meet the predicted increase in demand. It is therefore important for operating companies to focus on increased recovery and secure safe and effective operations. By emphasizing quality in the well delivery process (WDP) operating companies can reduce time spent on planning wells, accelerate pro- ject development and increase focus on safety. A high quality WDP can secure proper technology assessment, process ownership, staff accountability, improve allocation of key resources and secure continuos improvement. With a properly functioning WDP future well projects can be delivered in an improved manner, thus helping operating companies build a robust organization able to meet an uncertain future. This study has analyzed the WDP of an operating company located in the Middle East with emphasis on revealing existing challenges. The findings have been compared to a base case WDP of an operating company located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Based on analysis and lessons learned from the NCS improvements have been suggested. The WDP defines the set of activities in place to plan, execute and deliver a well. The process is important as it secure the presence of several critical elements during well planning and drilling operations. It must be able to secure participation of experienced employees, cooperation between important departments, use of technical solutions and documentation of lessons learned. The difference between a well functioning and poorly functioning WDP can be severe. A poor process will reduce HSE focus, fail to secure use of new drilling technology, increase costs and lead to an inecient allocation of resources. Several challenges reducing the quality of the WDP of the OME were revealed during the analysis. A high number of change orders combined with a lack of processes to deal with change reduce the quality of the WDP significantly. Other important challenges discovered include lacking interdisciplinary communication, insucient focus on conti- nuos improvement and absence of process ownership among employees in the drilling and well department. In addition, a lack of formal decision points to support the WDP was revealed. The study also found similar challenges between the WDP’s of the two companies. It was revealed that both operating companies use deviating targets and performance indicators that compromise cooperation. Companies also experience difficulties in com- municating lessons learned, challenges with an insucient supply of drilling rigs and a scarcity of qualified personnel. This reduceS quality of the WDP and increase risk. A greater number of challenges in the WDP were discovered for the operating company in the Middle East. As oppose to the operating company on the NCS, the operator in the Middle East has little or no focus on implementing lessons learned and lack process ownership among employees. The OME also lack a dynamic planning regime and has an insucient focus on HSE. Several opportunities for improving the WDP of the operator in the Middle East were discovered during the study. Suggested improvements include establishment of cooperation forums to enhance flow of information and increase collaboration between the field development and drilling and well department. It is also suggested to implement rigid processes and revise the use of targets and performance indicators. KPI’s that favor cooperation across departments should also be established. Based on lessons learned from the NCS it is suggested to implement decision gates to support existing processes. It is also recommended to establish post activities and implement dedicated change management process steps. This will support lessons learned and increase the focus on managing risk and uncertainty in the WDP. The suggested improvements will increase the quality of the WDP. They will help secure process ownership and staff accountability, reduce time spent on planning the well and accelerate project development, increase safety aspects, improve allocation of key resources and secure continuos improvement. The study also analyzed future opportunities and challenges in the two regions using a PESTEL-analysis. Future opportunities in the Middle East include elevated political influence as an increasing part of remaining global oil and gas resources will be located in the region. Future challenges include an increase in resource complexity, volatility in the political environment and diculties in attracting the necessary expertise and technology. Common opportunities for the two regions include future predictions of high oil prices, technological progress making previous unavailable resources available, improved carbon capture and storage (CCS) methods to mitigate the environmental impact of the industry and opportunities as a result of an increased focus of the importance of providing energy to the global community. Common challenges include the chance of oil and gas becoming redundant and a strong dependency on prices of hydrocarbons. This makes regions vulnerable for a decline in oil and gas prices. Suggested future work includes analysis of the WDP in an increased number of operating companies to confirm or invalidate the presented findings. It would also be interesting to investigate the use of incentives and performance indicators and analyze their effect the WDP. Studies investigating methods to improve eciency in drilling and well operations are also interesting. It is also suggested to compare average recovery rates in oil and gas regions and investigate reasons for any existing differences.

Large corporations increasingly utilize business process models for documenting and redesigning their operations. The extent of such modeling initiatives with several hundred models and dozens of often hardly trained modelers calls for automated quality assurance. While formal properties of control flow can easily be checked by existing tools, there is a notable gap for checking the quality of the textual content of models, in particular, its activity labels. In this paper, we address the problem of activity label quality in business process models. We designed a technique for the recognition of labeling styles, and the automatic refactoring of labels with quality issues. More specifically, we developed a parsing algorithm that is able to deal with the shortness of activity labels, which integrates natural language tools like WordNet and the Stanford Parser. Using three business process model collections from practice with differing labeling style distributions, we demonstrate the applicability of our technique. In comparison to a straightforward application of standard natural language tools, our technique provides much more stable results. As an outcome, the technique shifts the boundary of process model quality issues that can be checked automatically from syntactic to semantic aspects.

This thesis investigates the possibility to adapt Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), tothe development process in the shipbuilding industry.More specifically the development process wasdelimited to the phases; design, work preparation, production and verification.Ordinarily, OEE is a performance measurement for mass production. Itincludes aquality parameter which has been the focus of this thesis. Both literature review and case study investigation show that process quality is of critical importance in the shipbuilding industry because of the needs for dimensional accuracy and high-quality assemblage.The three main factors affecting process quality are;the flow of information between engineering phaseand productionphase, and the amount of rework and delays. The factors wereevaluated along an optimization method with a specific attention to process quality. Acase studywas conductedto confirm the relevance of the literature review on factors affecting process qualityand allowedto gather factors in process quality that are relevant to the industry.In light of those results, I re-developed a model providingnew measurement of what I call OPQE (Overall Process Quality Efficiency).This study contributes to a betterunderstanding of process quality in ETO(Engineering-To-Order)industries. Notably it shows how deviations that require rework and causesdelays are impacting process quality. It also shows that detecting errors early in the process of production is essential for insuring quality control. An error detected late affects negatively process quality and increases cost.

A review of the developments within the field of structural reliability theory shows that some gaps still exist in the reliability prediction process and hence there is an urgent desire for improvements such that the estimated structural reliability will be capable of expressing a physical property of the given structure. The current reliability prediction process involves the continuous estimation and use of reliability index as a way of estimating the safety of any given structure. The reliability index β depends on the Probability Density Function (PDF) distribution for the wave force and the corresponding PDF of resistance from respective structural members of the given structure. The PDF for the applied wave force will depend on the PDF of water depth, wave angular velocity and wave direction hence the reliability index as currently practiced is a statistical way of managing uncertainties based on a general probabilistic model. This research on Smart Offshore Structure for Reliability Prediction has proposed the design of a measurement based reliability prediction process as a way of closing the gap on structural reliability prediction process. Structural deflection and damping are some of the measurable properties of an offshore structure and this study aims at suggesting the use of these measurable properties for improvements in structural reliability prediction process. A design case study has shown that a typical offshore structure can deflect to a range of only a few fractions of a millimetre. This implies that if we have a way of monitoring this level of deflection, we could use the results from such measurement for the detection of a structural member failure. This advocated concept is based on the hypothesis that if the original dynamic characteristics of a structure is known, that measurement based modified dynamic properties can be used to determine the onset of failure or failure propagation of the given structure. This technology could reveal the location and magnitude of internal cracks or corrosion effects on any given structure which currently is outside the current probability based approach. A simple economic analysis shows that the recommended process shows a positive net present value and that some $74mln is the Value of Information for any life extension technology that could reveal the possibility of extending the life of a given 10,000bopd production platform from 2025 to 2028.

In this paper we propose a method for quality assessment of business process models using computer vision and fuzzy logic. OpenCV library usage as well as bypassing of its drawbacks of template matching is considered. Membership functions of metrics of the business process model quality are outlined. Obtained results and future research are discussed.
В даній роботі пропонується метод оцінки якості моделей бізнес-процесів на основі комп'ютерного бачення та нечіткої логіки. Розглянуто використання бібліотеки OpenCV та обхід її недоліків щодо пошуку за шаблоном. Наведено функції належності метрик якості моделей бізнес-процесів. Описано отримані результати та напрямки подальших досліджень.

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Informática
Context: The BPMN 2.0 specification contains the rules regarding the correct usage of the language’s constructs. Practitioners have also proposed best-practices for producing better BPMN models. However, those rules are expressed in natural language, yielding sometimes ambiguous interpretation, and therefore, flaws in produced BPMN models. Objective: Ensuring the correctness of BPMN models is critical for the automation of processes. Hence, errors in the BPMN models specification should be detected and corrected at design time, since faults detected at latter stages of processes’ development can be more costly and hard to correct. So, we need to assess the quality of BPMN models in a rigorous and systematic way. Method: We follow a model-driven approach for formalization and empirical validation of BPMN well-formedness rules and BPMN measures for enhancing the quality of BPMN models. Results: The rule mining of BPMN specification, as well as recently published BPMN works, allowed the gathering of more than a hundred of BPMN well-formedness and best-practices rules. Furthermore, we derived a set of BPMN measures aiming to provide information to process modelers regarding the correctness of BPMN models. Both BPMN rules, as well as BPMN measures were empirically validated through samples of BPMN models. Limitations: This work does not cover control-flow formal properties in BPMN models, since they were extensively discussed in other process modeling research works. Conclusion: We intend to contribute for improving BPMN modeling tools, through the formalization of well-formedness rules and BPMN measures to be incorporated in those tools, in order to enhance the quality of process modeling outcomes.

Many management system engineering ideas and theories have evolved to help businesses grow and achieve their goals. Applying these ideas and theories to a business system is a strategic planning issue and results in a bewildering array of strategic alternatives for business system improvement. Choosing the appropriate alternatives is a complex and difficult decision. The most appropriate strategic alternative must be executable. To be executable the strategic alternative must not only be technically feasible, but must also overcome social and cultural obstructions. This research presents a planning approach to select the most appropriate strategic alternative and to plan its implementation. The planning approach is built on a planning framework synthesized from previous research. This framework involves the following planning functions: 1. Determine business strategic alternatives 2. Acquire business knowledge 3. Shape business for strategic advantage 4. Implement plan - operational engagement The planning approach uses Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Project Management Tools (PMT) and Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to implement these functions and plan business improvements. This research demonstrates that rational hierarchies appropriate for strategic alternatives analysis using AHP can be constructed. Business scenarios are used to show that AHP method prioritizes alternative strategies differently under different business circumstances. In addition, the data generated by the AHP can be aggregated into statements of work and input into DSM to generate a project plan to implement organizational design changes and achieve strategic intent.

As information systems leaders tap into the global market of cloud computing-based services, they struggle to maintain consistent application performance due to lack of a process framework for managing quality of service (QoS) in the cloud. Guided by the disruptive innovation theory, the purpose of this case study was to identify a process framework for meeting the QoS requirements of private cloud service users. Private cloud implementation was explored by selecting an organization in California through purposeful sampling. Information was gathered by interviewing 23 information technology (IT) professionals, a mix of frontline engineers, managers, and leaders involved in the implementation of private cloud. Another source of data was documents such as standard operating procedures, policies, and guidelines related to private cloud implementation. Interview transcripts and documents were coded and sequentially analyzed. Three prominent themes emerged from the analysis of data: (a) end user expectations, (b) application architecture, and (c) trending analysis. The findings of this study may help IT leaders in effectively managing QoS in cloud infrastructure and deliver reliable application performance that may help in increasing customer population and profitability of organizations. This study may contribute to positive social change as information systems managers and workers can learn and apply the process framework for delivering stable and reliable cloud-hosted computer applications.

The ‘Hierarchical structure for airport service quality expectations’ model originally comes from theory of service quality assessment and was created by Fodness and Murray in 2007 after a study at six U.S. airports. It reveals the most important factors that comprise service quality. This thesis tested the model in a Swedish context with an empirical study among passengers at two Swedish airports; Arlanda and Umeå. With the help of literature, the empirical study, and reasoning, the original model has been modified by the authors of this thesis. There are minor modifications but the three main factors remain as they were in the original model, namely function, interaction, and diversion.

Les poudres laitières enrichies en matière grasse (MG) suscitent un intérêt croissant d'un point de vue économique et scientifique. Elle représentent une large gamme de produits, qui donnent lieu à de nombreues applications alimentaires parmi lesquelles les laits infantiles, les ingrédients laitiers, l'alimentation animale et les arômes encapsulés. La structure supramoléculaire de la MG dans les poudres enrichies en MG est souvent très complexe et mal connue. Elle confère à la MG des propriétés fonctionnelles de la matrice environnante. Malgré son intérêt, cette thématique n'a que peu été étudiée. De plus, le contrôle des propriétés physico-chimiques des poudres reste empirique dans le domaine industriel. Ainsi, il apparaissait primordial d'étudier les questions scientifiques en lien avec la structure supramoléculaire de la MG dans les poudres laitières, tant pour les communautés académiques qu'industrielles
Fat-filleddairy powders have acquired a growing interest from both an economical and a scientific point of view. They include a large variety of products for numerous food applications such as infant formulae, dairy ingredients, cattle feeding, and ecapsulated flavors. Fat supramolecular structure in fat-filled dairy powders can be very complex and is often poorly understood. It gives specific physicochemical properties to fat, which in turn gives specific functional properties to the surrounding matrix. Despite its interest, there was no exhaustive academic study of the topic at the beginning of this Ph. D. Program. Furthermore, controlling the physicochemical propoerties of these powders was still rather empirical in the industry. Hence, investigating the scientific issues related to fat supramolecular structure in fat-filled dairy powders appearead to be of primary importance for both the academic and industrial communities worldwide. The aims of this Ph. D. Research program were to investigate fat supramolecular structure and properties in fat-filled dairy powders in order (1) to determine adapted chemical compositions and process parameters to orientate fat supramolecular structure in fat-filled dairy powders, (2) to reach a better understanding of the mechanisms of the formation and evolution of fat supramolecular structure and fat physicochemical properties, and finally (3) to control powder physicochemical properties. The strategy was original as the study considered powders manufactured at the laboratory in controlled and industrial-like conditions and as specific methods for lipids were adapted to fat-filled dairy powders

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008.
Degree granted by Missouri University of Science and Technology, formerly known as the University of Missouri-Rolla. Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed April 29, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-111).

This thesis examines two complex, dynamic problems by employing the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Chapters 2 and 3 consider assemble-to-order (ATO) inventory systems. An ATO system consists of several components and several products, and assembles products as demand is realized; it is becoming increasingly popular since it provides greater flexibility in manufacturing at a reasonable cost. This work contributes to the ATO research stream by characterizing optimal inventory replenishment and allocation policies. Chapter 4 examines the new product development (NPD) process with scarce resources and many projects in parallel, each lasting several periods, in the face of uncertainty. This study advances the NPD literature by revealing that optimal project selection and resource allocation decisions are congestion-dependent. Below, I elaborate on the novel optimal policies and structural results I obtain using MDP formulations, which is the overarching theme of the thesis. In Chapter 2, I consider generalized ATO “M-systems" with multiple components and multiple products. These systems involve a single “master" product which uses multiple units from each component, and multiple individual products each of which consumes multiple units from a different component. Such systems are common for manufacturers selling an assembled product as well as individual spare parts. I model these systems as infinite-horizon MDPs under the discounted cost criterion. Each component is produced in batches of fixe size in a make-to stock fashion; batch sizes are determined by individual product sizes. Production times are independent and exponentially distributed. Demand for each product arrives as an independent Poisson process. If not satisfied immediately upon arrival, these demands are lost. Therefore the state of the system can be described by component inventory levels. A control policy specifies when a batch of components should be produced (i.e., inventory replenishment), and whether an arriving demand for each product should be satisfied (i.e.,inventory allocation). The convexity property that has been largely used to characterize optimal policies in the MDP literature may fail to hold in our case. Therefore I introduce new functional characterizations for submodularity and supermodularity restricted to certain lattices of the state space. The optimal cost function satisfies these new characterizations: The state space of the problem can be partitioned into disjoint lattices such that, on each lattice, (a) it is optimal to produce a batch of a particular component if and only if the state vectors less than a certain threshold associated with that component, and (b) it is optimal to fulfill a demand of a particular product if and only if the state vector is greater than or equal to a certain threshold associated with that product. I refer to this policy as a lattice-dependent base-stock and lattice-dependent rationing (LBLR) policy. I also show that if the optimization criterion is modified to the average cost rate, LBLR remains optimal. Chapter 2 makes three important contributions. First, this is the first study that establishes the optimal inventory replenishment and allocation policies for M-systems. Second, this study is the first to characterize the optimal policies for any ATO problem when different products may use the same component in different quantities. Third, I introduce new functional characterizations restricted to certain lattices of the state space, giving rise to an LBLR policy. In Chapter 3, I evaluate the use of an LBLR policy for general ATO systems as a heuristic. I numerically compare the globally optimal policy to LBLR and two other heuristics from the literature: a state-dependent base-stock and state-dependent rationing (SBSR) policy, and a fixed base-stock and fixed rationing (FBFR) policy. Taking the average cost rate as the performance criterion, I develop a linear program to find the globally optimal cost, and Mixed Integer Programming formulations to find the optimal cost within each heuristic class. I generate more than 1800 instances for the general ATO problem, not restricted to the assumptions of Chapter 2, such as the M-system product structure. Interestingly, LBLR yields the globally optimal cost in all instances, while SBSR and FBFR provide solutions within 2.7% and 4.8% of the globally optimal cost, respectively. These numerical results also provide several insights into the performance of LBLR relative to other heuristics: LBLR and SBSR perform significantly better than FBFR when replenishment batch sizes imperfectly match the component requirements of the most valuable or most highly demanded product. In addition, LBLR substantially outperforms SBSR if it is crucial to hold a significant amount of inventory that must be rationed. Based on the numerical findings in Chapter 3, future research could investigate the optimality of LBLR for ATO systems with general product structures. However, as I construct counter-examples showing that submodularity and supermodularity { which are used to prove the optimality of LBLR in Chapter 2 { need not hold for general ATO systems, showing the optimality of LBLR for general ATO systems will likely require alternate proof techniques. In Chapter 4, I study the problem of project selection and resource allocation in a multistage new product development (NPD) process with stage-dependent resource constraints. As in Chapters 2 and 3, I model the problem as an infinite-horizon MDP, specifically under the discounted cost criterion. Each NPD project undergoes a different experiment at each stage of the NPD process; these experiments generate signals about the true nature of the project. Experimentation times are independent and exponentially distributed. Beliefs about the ultimate outcome of each project are updated after each experiment according to a Bayesian rule. Projects thus become differentiated through their signals, and all available signals for a project determine its category. The state of the system is described by the numbers of projects in each category. A control policy specifies, given the system state, how to utilize the resources at each stage, i.e., the projects (i) to experiment at each stage, and (ii) to terminate. I characterize the optimal control policy as following a new type of strategy, state-dependent on-congestive promotion (SDNCP), for two different special cases of the general problem: (a)when there is a single informative experiment and projects are not terminated, or (b) when there are multiple uninformative experiments. An SDNCP policy implies that, at each stage, it is optimal to advance a project with the highest expected reward to the next stage if and only if the number of projects in each successor category is less than a state-dependent threshold. In addition, I show that threshold values decrease in a non-strict sense as a later stage becomes more congested or as an earlier stage becomes less congested. (A stage becomes “more congested" with an increase in the number of projects at this stage or with an increase in the expected reward of any project at this stage.) An SDNCP policy can be used as a heuristic for the general problem. I support the outstanding performance of an SDNCP policy in the general case through a numerical study. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account congestion in optimal portfolio strategies.

Organizações modernas apresentam demandas relacionadas à automação dos seus processos de negócio devido à alta complexidade dos mesmos e à necessidade de maior eficácia na execução. Neste contexto, a tecnologia de workflow tem se mostrado bastante eficiente, principalmente para a automatização dos processos de negócio. No entanto, por ser uma tecnologia emergente e em evolução, workflow apresenta algumas limitações. Ainda que diversos (meta) modelos de workflow tenham sido propostos nos últimos, anos, seus sub-modelos para representação dos aspectos estruturais da organização apresentam baixo poder de expressão. Além disso, a maioria das ferramentas para modelagem de workflow não provêm funcionalidades para definição, consulta e reuso de padrões. Um dos principais problemas é falta de um mapeamento consolidado entre padrões de funções recorrentes em processos de negócio (ex: solicitação de execução de atividade, aprovação de documentos) e (meta) modelos e/ou ferramentas para modelagem de processos de negócio e workflow. Além disso, a maioria das abordagens em padrões de workflow não exploram a completude e necessidade dos seus padrões para modelagem de workflow. A primeira contribuição desta tese é um Modelo Transacional de Processos de Negócio (MTPN) com suporte aos aspectos estruturais da organização. O metamodelo possibilita a criação de (sub-)processos de negócio a partir do reuso de padrões, principalmente com base nestes aspectos. Adicionalmente, o metamodelo sugere a geração automática de padrões através da Linguagem de Execução para Web Services (BPEL4WS). Outra importante contribuição da tese é um conjunto de padrões de workflow representados como atividades de bloco. Cada padrão descreve uma função recorrente em processos de negócio. A mineração de 190 processos de workflow de mais de 10 organizações diferentes provou a existência dos padrões com alto suporte nos processos de workflow analisados. Além disso, o estudo mostrou que o conjunto de padrões é suficiente e necessário para modelar todos os 190 processos investigados. O estudo também resultou em um conjunto de regras de associação. As regras não apenas contribuem para uma melhor definição dos padrões de atividade de bloco, mas também para a combinação destes com padrões de controle de fluxo.
Modern organizations have demands related to the automation of their business processes since such processes are highly complex and need to be efficiently executed. Within this context, the workflow technology has shown to be very effective, mainly in the business process automation. However, as it is an emergent technology and in constant evolution, workflow presents some limitations. Though several workflow (meta) models have been proposed in recent years, their sub-models for organizational structure aspects representation show limited power of expression. On the other hand, most of the current workflow modeling tools do not provide functionalities that enable users to define, query, and reuse workflow patterns properly. One of the main problems is the non-availability of a consolidated mapping between patterns based on recurrent functions found in business processes (e.g., request for activity execution, notification, decision, or approval) and workflow (meta) models or workflow modeling tools. Relying on these problems, the first contribution of this thesis is a Transactional Metamodel of Business Process (TMBP) with support to organizational structure aspects. The metamodel makes feasible to create business (sub-)processes from the reuse of organizational –based workflow patterns. An additional feature of TMBP supports the generation of business (sub-)processes through the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). Other important contribution of this thesis is a set of workflow patterns represented as block activity patterns. Each pattern refers to a recurrent business function frequently found in business processes. The mining of 190 workflow processes of more than 10 different organizations has evidenced the existence of the set of workflow patterns with high support in the workflow processes analyzed. Moreover, it became clear through this study that the set of patterns is both necessary and enough to design all 190 processes that were investigated. As a consequence of the mining process, a set of association rules was identified too. The rules not only help to better define specific workflow patterns, but also combine them with existent control flow patterns. These rules can be useful for building more complex workflows.

Background: Mergers have been increasing during the latter part of the 1990s. In the Nordic region many previously national companies have joined their forces to create a new Nordic company. This will lead to many challenges when the companies are integrated.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the integration phase. Our goal is to study the integration of Cloetta Fazer and learn how the company can handle the two types of integration.

Procedure: To be able to prove our assumptions, that were made on the basis of literature, we have collected empirical material by interviewing eight managers at Cloetta Fazer.

Summary: We have identified a conflict between structural and cultural integration that occur because one type of integration may proceed faster than the other. That is why our statement is that the two types of integration are dependent on each other.

Bakgrund: Fusioner har ökat under senare delen av 1990-talet. I Norden har många tidigare nationella företag gått samman för att bilda ett nytt nordiskt företag. Detta leder till utmaningar när företagen skall integreras.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka integrationsprocessen. Vårt mål är att studera integrationen av Cloetta Fazer och lära hur ett företag kan hantera de två olika typerna av integration.

Genomförande: För att kunna bevisa våra frågeställningar, som gjordes på basen av litteratur, har vi samlat in empiriskt material genom att intervjua åtta stycken chefer på Cloetta Fazer.

Sammandrag: Vi har identifierat en konflikt mellan strukturell och kulturell integration som beror på att den ena typen fortgår snabbare än den andra. Därmed är vår slutsats att dessa två typer av integration är beroende av varandra.

Background: Medical mission trips that go to developing countries are becoming more popular worldwide and there is need for rigorous quality assessment of the care that these trips provide. Current scrutiny of these trips stems from the lack of established metrics to assess these programs’ quality and from the dearth of literature that attempts to evaluate these trips’ care quality. In developed countries, however, the structure, process, and outcomes paradigm is commonly used to comprehensively assess care quality and many tools exist to evaluate each of these respective quality categories. In this study, we apply these assessment tools to evaluate the structure, processes, and outcomes of Operation Walk (Op-Walk) Boston’s medical mission joint replacement trips to the Dominican Republic (D.R.). Methods: For Op-Walk Boston’s medical mission trip to the D.R., the structure and process elements of care quality were assessed using the Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s (BCBS) Blue Distinction criteria. Full points were given for criteria that the program replicates entirely and zero points were given for criteria that are not replicated entirely. For non-replicated criteria, Op-Walk Boston’s clinical and administrative teams were asked if they compensate for failure to meet the criterion, and they were also asked to identify barriers that prevent them from meeting the criterion. To assess the outcomes quality category, Op-Walk Boston’s patients completed Western Ontario and McMaster Universities’ Arthritis Indexes (WOMAC) and Short Form (36) Health Surveys (SF-36) preoperatively and at 12-month follow-up. Patients were stratified into low, medium, and high scoring preoperative groups based on their preoperative WOMAC function scores. We then examined the associations between these groups’ baseline functional status and two outcomes—improvement in functional status over 12 months and absolute functional status at 12 months—using ANOVA with multivariable linear regression. Results: The structure and process assessment revealed that Op-Walk Boston’s program scored 71 out of 100 possible points, exceeding the 60-point threshold needed to qualify for Blue Distinction. The program met five out of eight “required” criteria and 11 out of 19 “informational” criteria. It scored 14/27 in the “general” category, 30/36 in the “structure” category, 17/20 in the “process” category, and 10/17 in the “outcomes and volume” category. The outcomes assessment revealed that patients’ functional status and pain levels improved greatly after surgery and that those with the lowest WOMAC functional scores preoperatively made the greatest gains in function and pain relief following their joint replacement. Conclusion: Our analysis shows that Op-Walk Boston’s medical mission trip provides high quality care across all care quality categories. An analysis of the program’s structure and processes reveals that Op-Walk Boston scores well on the Blue Distinction criteria’s structure and process categories. In addition to demonstrating high quality structure and processes, the Blue Distinction analysis identifies areas of programmatic improvement and identifies targets for future quality improvement initiatives. Furthermore, the analysis shows that many Blue Distinction criteria can only be met by hospitals operating in the United States (U.S.), so future work should focus on creating criteria that are applicable to total joint replacement (TJR) mission trips in the context of developing countries. Our analysis of the program’s outcomes shows that all tertiles in the Dominican cohort exhibited substantial improvements and high absolute scores at one-year follow-up, demonstrating that the program achieves high quality outcomes. Similar to cohorts from developed countries, Op-Walk patients with poorer preoperative functional statuses improve more than patients who had a higher preoperative level of function. Contrasting developed country cohorts, however, all Dominican tertiles had similar one-year follow-up outcomes regardless of their baseline WOMAC function status, suggesting that poor preoperative function may not limit absolute scores at one-year follow-up. Additional research is needed to confirm these findings in other developing countries and to understand why these associations vary between patients in the D.R. and patients from developed countries.

To stay competitive and sustain long-term profitability, Business Process Improvement (BPI) methodologies have become strategically important for financial institutions in recent years. These include well-known approaches such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Six Sigma and Lean. The customer-focused themes of BPI should be of particular interest to service practitioners, in order to achieve both process excellence and superlative customer service. The adoption of BPI in the financial services sector, however, still appears to be at an early stage. There is limited empirical research reported in the academic literature. This research therefore explored the existing phenomena of BPI adoption through case studies, carried out in leading Thai financial institutions. The study was carried out in three main phases, following a literature review of BPI and service quality issues, which provided the initial theory context. First, three case companies were investigated to find out how the financial institutions introduced BPI, and conducted BPI projects. The resulting insights helped to develop a theory model that aimed to provide understanding of the outcomes of BPI initiatives, in this context. The second research phase refined and validated the proposed theory model, aiming to elevate the conceptual level of the findings. The empirical data was analysed, by iterating between observed evidence and the literature, also using experts’ comments and suggestions. In the final phase, the key relationships in the evolving theory model were established and verified, employing further empirical evidence from revisiting the case studies, specifically focusing on four important areas of financial services. A final theory model was proposed, and in a further development aimed at practitioners, this model was used as the basis for a proposed BPI evaluation framework, taking account of current performance measurement approaches. This research contributes to knowledge in the area of quality management, in particular to BPI methodology and service quality for the financial services sector, but potentially also in a broader context. The main contribution is the development of a theory model to explain how financial institutions adopt BPI methodology for improving service quality, providing a better understanding for managers in accurate targeting of the operations process to be improved, through BPI adoption. The model also provides a constructive foundation for further development of a practical BPI evaluation framework, at the project level. The proposed theory model is, therefore, considered a basis for further empirical work, both qualitative and quantitative, relating to the BPI in the services context.

Continuous improvement of processes is one important aspect of quality management and the way towards excellence. Companies are at different stages of business excellence, but the way is long, and the improvement process is never ending. For a company to start its journey towards business excellence, there are many means, guidelines and models to use but no single way that guarantees the success and no generic mean that can be extended to all types of companies. That’s why this paper tries to initiate process improvement journey at Golvet Göteborg by applying excellence models for process optimization and making a process map of warehousing to recognize improvement areas and act upon that. To do this, a literature review in areas of quality management and business excellence is conducted with focus on process management. By interviewing key persons at the company, a map of warehouse process is illustrated and based on that possible improvements are suggested to leadership.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalls of medical devices are at historically high levels despite efforts by manufacturers to meet stringent agency requirements to ensure quality and patient safety. A factor in the release of potentially dangerous devices might be the interpretations of nonnormal test data by statistically unsophisticated engineers. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that testing by lot provides a better indicator of true process behavior than process capability indices (PCIs) calculated from the mixed lots that often occur in a typical production situation. The foundations of this research were in the prior work of Bertalanffy, Kane, Shewhart, and Taylor. The research questions examined whether lot traceability allows the decomposition of the combination distribution to allow more accurate calculations of PCIs used to monitor medical device production. The study was semiexperimental, using simulated data. While the simulated data were random, the study was a quasiexperimental design because of the control of the simulated data through parameter selection. The results of this study indicate that decomposition does not increase the accuracy of the PCI. The conclusion is that a systems approach using the PCI, additional statistical tools, and expert knowledge could yield more accurate results than could decomposition alone. More accurate results could ensure the production of safer medical devices by correctly identifying noncapable processes (i.e., processes that may not produce required results), while also preventing needless waste of resources and delays in potentially life-savings technology, reaching patients in cases where processes evaluate as noncapable when they are actually capable.

Både som land och som fenomen är Kina ett synnerligen aktuellt ämne, inte bara för Sverige utan för hela världen. Sedan början av 2003 har mer än 154 svenska företag etablerat verksamhet i Kina, inom antingen tillverkning, inköp eller försäljning. De små och medelstora företagen följer nu efter de stora multinationella till Kina.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera och analysera vilka kriterier företagen använder i sitt val av leverantörer eller samarbetspartners i Kina. Syftet är vidare att studera interaktionsprocessen mellan köparen och leverantören gällande kvalitetsproblem relaterade till såväl produktionsprocessen som produkten och leveransen av densamma. Att definiera kvalitet är inte enkelt då kvalitet inte längre bara handlar om objektiv statistik. Kvalitet bör vara en naturlig del av både företagets affärsprocesser och deras relationer med leverantörer och kunder. Idag är därför mer subjektiva och mjuka värden relaterade till kundens uppfattning, deras behov och deras förväntningar naturliga delar av det kvalitativa arbetet. Det kan vara svårt att överföra kundens uppfattningar, behov och förväntningar till leverantörerna. Interaktionsprocessen mellan kund och leverantör är därför långt ifrån enkel och rak, utan beror till stor del på de människor som är involverade i processen.

Sammanlagt beskrivs och analyseras fem olika fall i studien. I samband med dessa har ett antal företag valts ut och nyckelpersoner inblandade i interaktionsprocessen med de kinesiska leverantörerna har intervjuats. Företagen har medvetet selekterats så att de representerar heterogena förhållanden gällande produkt, erfarenhet med affärer av Kina och företagsstorlek.

Utifrån analysen av de empiriska data som samlats in står det klart att merparten av de kvalitetsproblem som existerar härrör till kommunikationen mellan kunden och leverantören. Det finns inga egentliga bevis vare sig för dålig eller låg kvalitet i något av fallen. Kvalitet är viktigt för dem alla, men kunden får oftast levererat det han har frågat efter. De kulturella skillnaderna gör att specifikationer, krav och behov hela tiden måste upprepas för att upprätthålla en hög kvalitativ nivå. För att utveckla goda relationer med de kinesiska leverantörerna är det viktigt att vara närvarande. Det som är taget för givet i Sverige är inte taget för givet i Kina och vice versa och det är därför viktigt att vara tydlig och att upprepa allt om och om igen. Det är viktigt att undvika att de kinesiska leverantörerna förlorar ansiktet och det är därför viktigt att de svenska företagen utvecklar en förmåga att läsa mellan raderna, framförallt som kinesiska leverantörer inte är lika uppriktiga och raka i sin kommunikation.

China as country and phenomenon is a topic of great impact to the entire world society. As many as 154 Swedish companies have established business activities either within manufacturing, sourcing or sales in China since the beginning of 2003. The small and mediumsized companies are now following the larger MNEs to China.

The purpose of this thesis is to study and analyse which criteria are used in the selection of suppliers or partners in China. The purpose is further to study the interaction process in between the Swedish buyer and the Chinese supplier regarding quality issues and -problems related to the manufacturing process and product as well as the delivery of the products. Defining quality is not easy as quality no longer relies only on objective and functional statistics, but should be incorporated into the business processes. More subjective parameters related to the perceptions of the customers and their needs and expectations are involved and of importance. Such perceptions and needs can be difficult to transfer in between the buyer and the supplier. The interaction in between is far from a straightforward process and as such it depends and relies a lot on the people involved in the process.

Representing a total of five different cases a number of companies and respondents directly involved in the interaction process with the Chinese suppliers were purposefully selected and interviewed. The sampling aimed at companies repre-senting heterogeneity regarding the three factors of products, experience of deal-ing with China and size of the company.

From the analysis of the empirical findings it is clear that it is all a question about communication. There is no evidence of any low or bad quality in any of the cases. The buyer will be delivered what he asks the supplier to deliver. The cul-tural web including communication and language differs between Sweden and China. In order to develop good relations with the suppliers the presence is of great importance. It is important for the Swedish company to continuously repeat their specifications, demands and needs over and over again in order to maintain a high level of quality on their products. What is taken for granted by Swedish buyers is not taken for granted by the Chinese suppliers and it is important for the buyer to be very clear in both communication and specification, though without risking the Chinese supplier to loose face. Adapting an ability to read between the lines is necessary for the buyer as Chinese suppliers are referred to as not being as outspoken as Swedish suppliers.

Business Intelligence Systems are becoming more and more popular in recent years. It is caused by the need of reusing data in order to gain some potentially useful business information about. Those systems are advanced set of tools, which causes high prices of purchase and licensing. Therefore, it is important to choose the system which fits the best particular business needs. The aim of this thesis is to elaborate a method for comparison of existing Business Intelligence Systems that are supporting data mining. The method consist of a quality model, build according to existing standards, and set of steps which should be taken to choose a Business Intelligence System according to particular requirements of its future user. The first part of the thesis focuses on the analysis of existing works providing a way for comparison of those software products. It is shown here that there is no existing systematic approach resolving this problem. However, criteria presented in those works along with the description of quality model standards were used for creating the quality model and proposing a set of basic measures. Also the phrases for the evaluation process were identified. The next part of the research is a case study which purpose is to show the usefulness of proposed evaluation method. The example is simple, but has proven that the method can be easily modified for specific needs and used for comparison of real Business Intelligence Systems. The quality level measured in the case study turned out to be very similar for each system. The evaluation method may be extended in future work with more advanced measures or additional characteristic which were not taken into account in this research.

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais
O presente trabalho tem como tema central a Qualidade nos Serviços. São abordadas as metodologias de qualidade e factores críticos de sucesso à sua implementação numa empresa do sector terciário, cuja actividade é a prestação de serviços de auditoria e consultoria financeira, a Deloitte. O estudo foca, sobretudo, uma das principais áreas de negócio da empresa - o outsourcing de serviços de contabilidade e gestão financeira -denominada BPS (Business Process Solutions), para a qual se analisa o impacto das metodologias de qualidade no seu desempenho de mercado a médio e longo prazo. A qualidade é actualmente encarada como uma forma de sobrevivência das empresas no mercado. O cliente tornou-se mais exigente fazendo as suas escolhas em função da qualidade percepcionada. Acresce ainda em alguns sectores, como é o caso em estudo, que a implementação de um Sistema de Qualidade e sua certificação, mais do que um factor de diferenciação, é um passo estratégico determinante para que a empresa possa actuar em mercados específicos. Procura-se ainda, pela interpretação de todos os procedimentos, detectar eventuais lacunas e sugerir possíveis melhorias.
The present work is dedicated to the theme: Service Quality. Through the case study of Deloitte, the quality methods implemented on its core business - auditing and consulting services - are analysed. It will also focus on the critical success factors to implement a quality management system on a global sized company. The study is focused on one of the main business units - accounting and finance outsourcing services - known as BPS (Business Process Solutions), for which the impact of quality methods on long term performance evaluated. Quality is nowadays a survival tool for a company. The customer makes choices based on perceived quality assessments. It can be demonstrated that the implementation of a quality system and its certification, represents more than a differentiation tool, it is a strategic step which determines whether a company can operate on a given market. Improvements to the existing models and processes are presented based on observation of current procedures and its evaluation.

Purpose

The purpose of the thesis is to identify problems cooperating departments suffer from, create solutions and discover ways to successfully implement the changes. A case study of Ekmans AB has been conducted to accomplish this.

Background

In today’s business world competition is fiercer than ever. New companies enter the market and new technologies and working methods are introduced which requires the companies to work proactivelyto foresee opportunities. But even if the companies are aware of all these external factors, they also need to look internally to see what they can improve and make more efficient in order to stay competitive. Therefore, it is important for companies to be ready to change both structure and culture to be more efficient.

Method

The method is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structuredi nterviews. A total of 20 interviews were conducted. The interviewees possess different positions within the company, ranging from the top management down through the organizational hierarchy.

Conclusion

The study shows that problems can arise from miscommunication, outdated ways of handling order receiving and a poorly chosen organizational structure. To solve these problems companies has to realize the importance of change. When modification the organizationa company has to take the organizational culture into consideration. It is important that the employees feel that they are a part of the change instead of just seeing it from sideline. Moreover, the management has to make sure they are thoroughly in their work regarding change; they have to follow up each alteration to make sure that it is actually implemented. Moreover, standardization is the key for organizations wishing improve and become more efficient. The result of the study showed that it is first when these criterions are fulfilled that the company can expect to successfully implement changes.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019
Over the last decade, business process outsourcing (BPO) has become increasingly important in the South African context. For economic and strategic reasons, organisations have embraced an outsourcing strategy as one of their core activities in order to be competitive in the business arena. On this matter, the standard of services delivered by BPOs is crucial to achieve customer satisfaction. However, the lack of effective quality management practices, which impact on service delivery negatively, ultimately paves the way for customer dissatisfaction with service quality in BPOs. This issue needs to be considered carefully by BPOs. Thus, this study has investigated employee perceptions in relation to the key measurements for service quality, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles through the SERVQUAL model to measure the quality of service delivery at a BPO in Cape Town, South Africa. A quantitative research method was applied and data were collected through a semi-structured survey questionnaire from the group of employees (n=188) at the selected BPO in Cape Town. The statistical software program SPSS Version 25 and Microsoft Excel were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistical results were generated as well as the validity and reliability of the dataset determined. The research findings revealed that the key factors to which particular attention needs to be given are reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. It is revealed that it is imperative for the BPO to intensify continual training and skills development for their employees. Given the findings of these key factors as focus areas for good practice, this study has drawn special attention to the selected BPO and other BPOs in the South African context to advance their service quality to maintain their services up to standard and to remain competitive. The research could benefit BPOs in South Africa and Africa in general as more and more companies are outsourcing their services on the continent.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado.
In this study, we propose a basic quality management model that was designed based on good agricultural practices for micro-enterprises of pecan farmers in Ica el Valle, Peru. The research study was developed based on in-depth interviews with 18 farmers within the agricultural sector under study. The study focused on identifying and analyzing the current situation of farmers to design a basic quality management model that can be implemented. The results led to the identification of critical aspects for each of the activities related to the production of nuts. We thus designed a basic quality management model based previous scientific studies. This management system is composed of the following subprocesses: quality adjustment; documentation; parameters definition; monitoring and control; and continuous improvement and analysis of results.

Inom flera svenska statliga myndigheter har det processbaserade arbetssättet blivit en metod för att öka effektiviteten inom organisationer. Migrationsverket, en myndighet som under mitten av 2010-talet tog emot ett rekordstort antal skyddssökande under den stora flyktingkrisen, har på senare tid börjat att implementera ett nytt processbaserat arbetssätt inom asylprövningen kallat ”Asyl 360”. Denna fallstudie undersöker hur medarbetarna på en av de asylprövningsenheter som implementerat Asyl 360 upplever att det nya processbaserade arbetssättet påverkat dem. Den ämnar också att, med hjälp av en egenutvecklad kontextanpassad processmognadsmodell, undersöka vilken processmognadsnivå den undersökta asylprövningsenheten befinner sig på. Den metodologiska inriktningen av studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie där den insamlade datan har inhämtats genom intervjuer med medarbetare på den undersökta organisationen. Resultatet och analysen av studien visar dels vilken processmognadsnivå organisationen befinner sig på, men även en utvärdering av den egenutvecklade kontextanpassade processmognadsmodellens funktionalitet
Within several Swedish government agencies, the process-based approach has become a method for increasing efficiency within the organizations. The Swedish Migration Agency, an agency that received a record number of refugee applicants during the great refugee crisis in the mid-2010s, has recently begun to implement a new process-based approach in the asylum field called "Asyl 360". This case study examines how the employees at one of the units that implemented Asylum 360 feels that the new process-based working method has affected them. It also intends to investigate what process maturity level the investigated asylum review unit is at, with the help of a self-developed, context-adapted process maturity model. The methodological focus of the study is a qualitative case study where the collected data has been collected through interviews with employees of the researched organization. The result and analysis of the study shows what level of process maturity the studied organization is currently on. It also evaluates the functionality of the self-developed, context-adapted process maturity model

2020-06-26

Introduction: Prior research, mainly based in USA and Asia, has shown a relationship between ownership structure and earnings quality. Low earnings quality might result in inefficient resource allocation, lower economic growth and unintended wealth transfers. Following these issues, and due to the fact that the Swedish institutional setting differs from other countries, there is a need to explain the relationship in a Swedish context. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how different ownership structures affect earnings quality. Method: This study is based on a deductive approach where the hypotheses have been deducted from agency theory, alignment effect, entrenchment effect and active monitoring hypothesis. The quantitative data consists of secondary data, namely annual reports. The study has been conducted with a cross-sectional design. Conclusion: The results show a positive relationship between foreign ownership and earnings quality. The result can be explained with agency theory’s type I-problem. Other ownership structures show no significant relationship.
Introduktion: Tidigare forskning, främst i USA och Asien, har hittat samband mellan företags ägarstruktur och earnings quality. Låg earnings quality kan resultera i ineffektiv resursallokering, lägre samhällsekonomisk tillväxt samt omotiverade förmögenhetsöverföringar. Till följd av dessa problem, samt att Sveriges institutionella miljö skiljer sig åt från andra länder, finns behovet att förklara sambandet i en svensk kontext. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förklara hur olika ägarstrukturer påverkar earnings quality. Metod: Studien utgår från en deduktiv ansats där hypoteser deducerats utifrån agentteori, alignment effect, entrenchment effect, samt active monitoring hypothesis. Kvantitativ data består av sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar. Studien har genomförts med en tvärsnittsdesign. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att företag med högre andel utländskt ägande tenderar att redovisa högre earnings quality. Resultatet kan förklaras av agentteorins typ I-problem. Övriga ägarstrukturer uppvisar inga signifikanta samband.

In decades, the tremendous development of integrated circuits industry could be mostly attributed to SiO2, since its satisfactory properties as a gate dielectric candidate. The effectivity of SiO2 has been challenged since dielectric layer was scaled down below 3nm, when the gate leakage current of SiO2 became unacceptable. Institution to silicon-based CMOS techniques were proposed, but they have their own limitations. Nowadays, materials with high dielectric constants are mainstream gate dielectric materials in industry, but a SiO2 interfacial layer is still necessary to avoid gap between gate dielectric layer and Si substrate, and to minimize interface trap charges. In this thesis work, by applying lateral heating process on Si wafer with thermally grown ultrathin SiO2, the gate leakage current density could be reduced by 3-5 order of magnitude. MOS capacitors were fabricated, and electrical properties were tested with semiconductor parameter analyzer and LCR meter. The underlying mechanism of this appealing phenomenon was explored. Since unacceptable gate leakage current is one of the main reasons which prevent the scaling trend in semiconductor industry, this technology brings a possibility to post-pone the end of scaling trend, and pave a way for extensive application in industry. A new method for fabrication of MOS capacitors metal gate has been developed, and lift-off process has been replaced by wet etching process. This method provides better contact between dielectric layer and metal gate, meanwhile much easier operation.