Sustainability in Business Process Models— A taxonomy-driven approach to synthesize knowledge and structure the field Thorsten Schoormann Dennis Behrens Ralf Knackstedt University of Hildesheim, Germany
Motivation, problem awareness and research goals Heterogeneous consideration of sustainability in Green IS/BPM—often ecological aspects. Approaches that support fundamental changes in behavior to act ecologically, economically and socially are required. Synthesis of current modelling notations and the considered dimensions of sustainability.
Extract of notations
B
Pages Production 0.3 kWh 100 g CO2e
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V
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V
A
5
Cover Production 0.06 kWh 24 g CO2e
Gräuler and Teuteberg (2013)
Recker (2012)
CO2 Sensed
V
Pool 1
Post invoice
Transport
CO2 Level Sent
12.2 kg CO2
EP1: Green Compensation
0.05 kWh
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GHG 15
85 l fuel
Order Arrives
Sales process completed
Yousfi et al. (2016)
Houy et al. (2012)
Consolidate existing approaches for integrating sustainability in business process modelling (synthesis). Outline directions for the (re-)development of business process modelling notations (research agenda).
Contribution Taxonomy of sustainability in business process models. Verification of current business process modelling gaps (e.g., social sustainability) and potential solutions concepts.
Nowak, A. 2014. “Green Business Process Management,” Stuttgart: Stuttgart.
Two research goals
Houy, C., Reiter, M., Fettke, P., Loos, P., Hoesch-Klohe, K., and Ghose, A. 2012. “Advancing Business Process Technology for Humanity,” in Green Business Process Management, J. vom Brocke, S. Seidel, and J. Recker (eds.), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 75–92.
Gräuler, M., and Teuteberg, F. 2013. “Experimental Evaluation of a Process Benchmarking Tool in a Green Business Process Management Context.” in Proceedings of the Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI), Leipzig, Germany, p. 68.
Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Hjalmarsson, A., and Lind, M. 2012. “Modeling and Analyzing the Carbon Footprint of Business Processes,” in Green Business Process Management, J. vom Brocke, S. Seidel, and J. Recker (eds.), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 93–109.
Problem awareness
Nowak et al. (2014)
Two-stage research design Stage 2: Taxonomy development
Method by Webster and Watson (2002)
Method by Nickerson et al. (2013) START
(A) Keywords
("(Green OR Social OR Sustainable) Business Process*") AND (Language OR Notation OR Modelling OR Modeling OR Technique OR BPM OR CPN OR BPMN OR EPC OR UML OR Pattern)
Database search
(C) Evaluation
(B) Sources
C.1
Database search
1,461 articles
C.2
Title-abstract-based
161 articles
C.3
Full-text-based
50 articles
C.4
IS conferences, Senior Scholars´Basket of Journals, Google Scholar, Web Of Science
Consolidation
48 articles 48 articles
48 articles
(1) Determine metacharacteristic
(2) Determine ending conditions
Sustainability in process modelling
Subjective and objective ending condition
Four iterations ‘empirical-to-conceptual’
(3) Select an approach
(4) Identify subsets of objects
Empirical-toconceptual
Identification of approaches (48 articles)
No
(5) Identify common characteristics
(6) Group characteristics; create taxonomy
Consolidation of approaches
Creation and revision of taxonomy Caption:
(7) Check ending conditions Yes
END Step
Outcome
Synthesis of results and research agenda Synthesis of sustainable process modelling
Developing patterns for social sustainability…
Five approaches of how sustainability can be considered in business process modelling.
Social compensation—compensate negative effects like ‘hard physical work’ by providing health preventions or job rotation/enlargement/enrichment. Social variant—introduce process-variants, e.g. customers could decide whether they prefer a “typical” product or a fair-trade labeled one that is more expensive.
Summary of approaches
n=48
Principles for enforcing sustainability in process models (I). ‘Common’ principles should provide useful information about cause-and-effect relations of a certain process (e.g., 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle). 62.5% Adapting existing modelling notations (II). Reusing and adapting existing notation elements (e.g., from BPMN or EPC) for representing sustainability in business process modelling.
Visualizing social aspects by adapting theories… 25.0%
Extending existing modelling notations (III). Extending existing modelling notations (e.g., adding new elements such as graphics, icons and indicators for documenting sustainability). 29.2% Adding patterns (IV). Adding patterns to apply existing knowledge for enhancing process models from a certain point of view (e.g., on the entire process model, single tasks or both). 12.5% Calculating sustainability (V). Describing indicators and their (mathematical) relations in a formal way to enable calculation. This could be the basis for the simulation of business process models. Full taxonomy with references, please see paper.
IS UM
Attribution theory (Kelley 1967)—determine causes for a certain event/situation by assigning attributions to process models (e.g., fear, conflicts, acceptance, frustration etc.). Representation in/with process models—use process models to visualize attributions, acceptance or beliefs of the actors involved; determine the status quo to identify improvements.
Evaluating current approaches… 29.2%
Correlation between approaches. Extensibility and reusability of existing modelling notations.
Thorsten Schoormann, University of Hildesheim email:
[email protected]
# ID ICIS-0522-2017
Nickerson, R. C., Varshney, U., and Muntermann, J. 2013. “A Method for Taxonomy Development and Its Application in Information Systems,” European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) (22:3), pp. 336–359.
Webster, J., and Watson, R. T. 2002. “Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future,” MIS Quarterly, Xiii–Xxiii.
Yousfi, A., Bauer, C., Saidi, R., and Dey, A. K. 2016. “uBPMN,” Information and Software Technology (74), pp. 55–68.
Stage 1: Literature review
