Homework 1 (6 points)
Task 1. [3 points]
Scoro is a business management software designed for companies in the professional and creative services sector. The web site of Scoro provides ample information about the features of the software. Another overview of the functionality can be found in the following Scoro review: https://www.betterbuys.com/erp/reviews/scoro-erp/
You are an analyst at a medium-sized legal services company (around 120 employees across four countries). The company is seeking to modernize its processes and IT systems. The existing IT systems are outdated and cumbersome. The company managers recognize that most business processes are broken. The amount of manual work is high and a lot of unnecessary mistakes are made. The company's CFO recently saw a demonstration of Scoro and found that it could be a fit for the company. He asked you to look into the details and determine if this or a similar solution could help to modernize the processes and IT systems in the company.
Your first task is to determine what business processes are supported by Scoro (in general). With this in hand, you will then be able to assess what processes inside the legal firm could be supported by Scoro (and which ones not). You will also have a basis to determine which existing applications it can replace and which ones not? How would Scoro affect the way the company works? Which alternatives to Scoro should be considered?, etc.
Based on the information available in the Scoro web site and in publicly available reviews of Scoro, your task is to identify the main process groups and processes supported by Scoro and to arrange them into a process architecture including core, support and (if applicable) management processes. You must also identify the main value chain(s) supported by Scoro and capture it/them using the chevron notation.
The deliverable of this task is a process architecture diagram. You can draw this architecture diagram using any tool of your choice (or on paper). We saw a few examples of architecture diagrams in Practice Session #2.
Your solution will be judged on how insightful it is? The main question we will ask ourselves when evaluating your solution is the following: To what extent your process architecture diagram helps the reader to easily understand what processes are supported (or not supported) by Scoro?
Feel free to add a textual explanation of your process architecture, for example, to explain the key terms that you use in your diagram.
Hint: If your process architecture contains more than 25 elements (processes or groups of processes), it's probably too much. If it contains less than 8 elements, it's probably too little.
Task 2. [3 points] Model the following business process using BPMN.
Make sure your process model(s) follow the modeling conventions introduced in the lectures and that they abide to the syntax rules of BPMN, in particular those listed here (only the rules numbered "BPMN XXXX" and not the rules numbered "Style XXXX").
Please also make sure that you start by modeling the value chain of each process. We suggest to create a top-level value chain consisting of a simple sequence of collapsed subprocess activities. Each subprocess in this value chain should be decomposed into a separate BPMN diagram. Use lanes and pools in the subprocesses, where appropriate in the sub-processes (at the lowest level of the decomposition, not in the upper levels). There is no need for data objects, but they can be useful occasionally to represent major objects.
The textual description of the process given to you may contain irrelevant details, like for example the average amount of time it takes to execute a given activity, which is something that cannot be enforced in BPMN, though it can be optionally added as part of the documentation of the activity. It is part of your task to discern what should be put in the BPMN models and what should be left out.
Please package your process architecture and your process diagrams in a single .zip, .tar.gz or .7z file (or a single PDF file) for submission (use the Submit link in the course web page).
If you have completed the homework with another student (teams of two), please write the name of your team-mate in the "Comments" field of the homework submission form.
Please be reminded that plagiarism is any form is not tolerated. You can get an F in the entire course due to a small amount of plagiarism. Whatever you submit, it must be 100% the product of the work of you and your team-mate. For the same reason, do not share your solution or a partial solution with others (except with your team-mate).