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The paper discusses the problem of business process modelling, various techniques which are used to carry out business process modelling and aims to analyse the use of different techniques to find a better solution.

Business process modelling techniques could be divided into two groups, the diagrammatic and tabular techniques. As a representative of diagrammatic techniques, a flowchart is chosen and discussed in detail. A process model could also be developed using the activity table as a representative of tabular techniques. A comparative analysis of the two techniques is consequently carried out. The pros and cons of both techniques were analysed on the two case‐studies – the problems of Sales_Claim and Credit_Card are used as examples to test both techniques.

Based on the comparative analysis, several useful remarks are given as a result of this work. First, both techniques are simple and useful for business processes modelling. Drawing a flowchart is easier than developing an activity table. Second, it was found that the flowchart technique is too flexible and does not possess any mechanism to control gaps which could exist in the process model. On the other hand, the vertical linkage mechanism imposes a strict order on the development of the activity table, which enable the analyst to discover gaps existing in the table. Third, it was found that the visibility of a flowchart is good when the model is relatively small, but it becomes unclear in large models. The activity table is more visible even when the table contains hundreds of activities. The visibility depends on the analyst and his/her experience; many analysts prefer a diagrammatic presentation of processes, whereas other analysts are more tabular‐oriented. Fourth, concerning user involvement, the structure of the activity table requires an active user involvement, because every user (internal entity) occupies a certain column in the table, where the entity's activities are indicated. For this reason, the user is interested in cooperating in defining his/her activities correctly. On the other hand, the user's role in creating a flowchart does not go beyond observation. Business process modelling is a complex and difficult task. Using one technique may result in a model that does not reflect the original business process. For this reason, using a combination of both techniques could produce a process model which represents a true reflection of reality. Thus, it is suggested that because of the strict role imposed by vertical linkage, the analyst starts process modelling by developing the activity table and then continues by transforming the table into a flowchart. Having such a flowchart, which represents a good transformation of the original business process, is essential for successful continuation of business process simulation or other methods for business process improvement or reengineering.

The paper summarises and suggests several useful remarks as a result of this work, which also recommends the possibility of linking the two techniques to develop better business process models.

Successful commissioning and startup (CSU) is critical to successful capital project completion. Industrial facility production and operations can also be affected by the level of CSU success. Specifically, transitions between construction, commissioning and startup (CCSU) phases, as well as between project organizations, have been identified as an opportunity for improvement across the industry. The purpose of this paper is to establish and clarify CCSU accountabilities and responsibilities for industrial-type capital projects across these transitions.

This research used a panel of industry practitioners to assist with data collection, review research products and provide industry perspective. The authors used the insight of these CCSU experts to craft new CCSU models. A separate set of industry practitioners was used to validate the findings, and an illustrative case study is also provided. Descriptive analyses and statistics aid the interpretation of research findings.

Substantial research findings include: three novel CCSU project delivery models, a comprehensive CCSU activity flowchart applicable across industrial sectors, and an extensive CCSU RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed) matrix detailing responsibility and accountability assignments across 60 project functions for all of the 124 CCSU flowchart activities. Four key leadership functions are found to be accountable for most of the CCSU process. A need for frontloading CCSU activities during construction is clearly demonstrated, and the value of administrative activities as enablers of core CCSU activities should not be underestimated.

The findings contribute to a more accurate model of CCSU execution best practices for industrial applications. Specifically, CCSU project delivery models give insight into high-level transition structures between organizations and across phases.

The extensive listing of CCSU activities along with suggested accountability and responsibility assignments for each activity give CCSU managers a starting point for ensuring that important tasks are not left undone during this critical phase of capital projects.

New CCSU models for industrial capital projects presented in this paper (including CCSU project delivery models, activity flowchart and RACI matrix) constitute substantial contributions to the industrial construction body of knowledge. These models provide more comprehensive coverage of CCSU topics than their predecessors, and specifically address activities and issues pertinent to industrial construction. The establishment and clarification of responsibility and accountability assignments are of particular value during this high-transition stage of capital projects.

The performance of the product development process has a critical influence on the efficiency and duration of building projects, as well as on the quality of the final product. Despite its importance, relatively little attention has been given to the management of this process, if compared with production. The main objective of this paper is to present some results of a research project which aimed to devise a general model for managing the product development process in small sized companies involved in the development and construction of residential and commercial buildings. This model consists of a template for the product development process, which can be used by different companies as a basis to devise their own models for managing individual projects. The development of the model was based on case studies carried out in two companies from the south of Brazil and also on a benchmarking study.

Quality cost systems have evolved from a purely manufacturing defect related cost reporting system that reflected the limited quality thinking of the 1940s to a poor‐quality cost system that reflects the total process quality orientation of the 1990s. The new poor‐quality cost system includes both the direct and indirect quality cost. It addresses key concepts like customer encore cost, lost opportunity cost and non‐value added cost. The focus of the poor‐quality cost system has drifted away from the manufacturing process and now focuses on the total business systems that represent today’s biggest opportunity for improvement. Poor‐quality cost in functions like marketing and sales can exceed 100 percent of the organization’s total budget. This paper explains how quality costs hav evolved to keep up with the quality systems’ evolution over the past 50 years.

The goal of this work is to clarify seven useful DMAIC Analyze phase options for developing process improvement opportunities required for successful projects.

Using a scientific method problem solving structure, IO possibilities are shown to be predicted by rejecting a conceptual testable hypothesis.

Seven analysis paths are identified that enable learners to develop multiple IO discovery strategies and to narrow tool selection options. Four benefit areas for identifying analysis paths are given: improved training, continuous improvement foundation, leadership support and framework clarification.

Any starting list of analysis paths for developing IOs would be incomplete. The diversity of application experiences and tools will add to the current list.

Learners participating in LSS activities are aware of management's expectation that they will develop IOs to justify the LSS investment. Tool-focused training may leave some learners unclear about the multiple possible sources for IOs. Identifying useful analysis paths with associated tools for IO discovery will address any learner's Analyze phase uncertainty and facilitate expanded opportunities.

Any successful LSS project must discover IOs to develop improvement actions. Clarifying IO discovery alternatives will encourage team brainstorming on Analyze phase investigative options. This framework identifying LSS improvement paths will assist practitioners in training and communicating with leadership and learners the range of approaches for developing improvement actions.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effect of different representations while teaching basic algorithmic concepts to novice programmers.

A learning activity was designed and mediated with two conceptually different learning environments, each one used by a different group. The first group used the learning environment “Visual Flowchart”, which enables the students to construct and examine an algorithm using visual representation based on actual flowchart objects. The second group used the software “Language Interpreter”, which allows the students to express an algorithms using pseudocode.

Analysis of results among the two groups showed no statistically significant differences in the students’ performance with respect to the tool they used to solve the activity, the school stream they followed in high school and their gender.

The lack of difference among the two groups could be attributed to the non‐complicated nature of the given activity. In addition, longitudinal studies of the effect of the different representation in the frame of an introductory first semester academic course in computer science could further validate the results.

Two alternative learning environments aimed to support learning of basic programming skills.

Two alternative learning environments were presented and discussed in detail, aimed to support learning of basic programming skills. The conclusions of the present study are in contrast to the research that has taken place in the past which compared usage of flowcharts and pseudocode to educate novice programmers, and wider adoption of “flowcharts” was depicted.

This paper aims to focus on time-constrained interactions involving industry and public actors, mainly universities, conducting research. This kind of interaction has become increasingly important to develop new pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics. The proposed theoretical frame relies on industrial marketing and purchasing’s interactive perspective on inter-organizational relationships and especially the activities, resource, actors model, combined with key concepts on temporary organizing and project management. This study identifies the temporality and time constraints imposed by this project on public–private interactions, specific coordination tools used to create such temporality and time constraints and their consequences, including positive and negative effects for the interacting parties.

The study builds on a single in-depth qualitative case study of a major antibiotics R&D collaboration project called ENABLE.

For negative consequences, this model includes the need for constantly rebuilding trust due to fast turnover of actors, difficulties in combining resources as efficiently as possible, resource constraints, bottlenecks and neglect of some activities, such as publishing, which are normally pivotal for universities. Despite these problematic consequences of temporality, resources are rapidly made available and new competencies learned quickly. Another positive effect is the possibility to achieve complex adaptations of resources and activities even in short time frames. Importantly, projects can act as a springboard for the parties to continue collaboration and in the long term develop a continuous business relationship.

Based on the findings the authors develop a model of time-constrained inter-organizational interaction between public and private organizations.

Many tools are in use for representing and analyzing business processes, but little information is available on how these tools are used in practice by process design teams. This paper analyzes one process mapping workshop in detail. Over three days, two facilitators and five representatives of the organization and business functions redesigned the core auto insurance business at a mid‐size Swiss insurance company. The mapping tool used during the session was IDEF0. The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences in using IDEF0 in the workshop setting. In addition to a narrative description of the workshop, we offer our observations on how such workshops can be conducted effectively and on the strengths and weaknesses of IDEF0 in this context. The final business process map did not emerge from a logical, linear development process. Rather, the workshop was characterized by constant refinement and development of an existing structure, punctuated by an occasional radical idea that forced the group to throw out the current process and start over. The hierarchical approach of IDEF0 proved critical in keeping the group focused on its task of abstracting the essence of the process itself from the details of current practice. The mapping tool proved to be less convenient for representing a sequence of events in time, multiple cases, and conditional flows of work.

Describes the introduction of a quality costing system, using the process model, within a division of GEC Alsthom Engineering Systems Ltd. The system was introduced to identify and prioritize improvement areas within the context of a continuous improvement programme. Includes a critical review of a former quality costing system within the division based on the prevention, appraisal and failure model. Initial work focused on the use of the IDEF methodology, recommended in BS 6143: Part 1: 1992, to model major business processes. However, this approach was found to be inappropriate as the models created were complex and failed to gain widespread acceptance within the division. A hybrid model, using integrated flowcharts, was developed; this proved successful in securing understanding and ownership of major processes. Indicates a cost of non‐conformance of approximately 10 per cent and identifies four main areas for improvement activities.

Internet marketing underground industry users refer to people who use technology means to simulate a large number of real consumer behaviors to obtain marketing activities rewards illegally, which leads to increased cost of enterprises and reduced effect of marketing. Therefore, this paper aims to construct a user risk assessment model to identify potential underground industry users to protect the interests of real consumers and reduce the marketing costs of enterprises.

Method feature extraction is based on two aspects. The first aspect is based on traditional statistical characteristics, using density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise clustering method to obtain user-dense regions. According to the total number of users in the region, the corresponding risk level of the receiving address is assigned. So that high-quality address information can be extracted. The second aspect is based on the time period during which users participate in activities, using frequent item set mining to find multiple users with similar operations within the same time period. Extract the behavior flow chart according to the user participation, so that the model can mine the deep relationship between the participating behavior and the underground industry users.

Based on the real underground industry user data set, the features of the data set are extracted by the proposed method. The features are experimentally verified by different models such as random forest, fully-connected layer network, SVM and XGBOST, and the proposed method is comprehensively evaluated. Experimental results show that in the best case, our method can improve the F1-score of traditional models by 55.37%.

This paper investigates the relative importance of static information and dynamic behavior characteristics of users in predicting underground industry users, and whether the absence of features of these categories affects the prediction results. This investigation can go a long way in aiding further research on this subject and found the features which improved the accuracy of predicting underground industry users.