Business Modeling and Business Improvement / Automation
頻出~43 min7 terms25 past questions
Goals of this unit
Tell a diagram that shows the structure of data apart from one that shows how data flows.
Distinguish two ways of reshaping business processes: reform that rebuilds everything at once and management that keeps improving.
Distinguish a system that digitizes procedures for routing documents between staff from a technology that automates the computer operations themselves.
An E-R diagram (E-R図) draws the things to be managed as entities and the links between them as relationships, showing the structure of data.
Element
What it shows
Example (course enrollment)
Entity
A thing being managed
Student, course
Relationship
A link between entities
A student enrolls in a course
Attribute
An item an entity holds
Name, course title
Multiplicity
How many correspond
One student takes several courses
Entities are drawn as rectangles and relationships as lines joining them (a diamond in some notations), and symbols at the line ends show counts such as one-to-many, called multiplicity. An item an entity holds, such as a student's name, is called an attribute. It is a typical data model for organizing the data a business handles, and it is the starting point for designing database tables.
AnalogyIt is like a chart that draws lines between a class roster and a course list to show who attends which course: it shows how things are linked, not the order in which events happen.
How to rememberE stands for Entity and R for Relationship.
Exam points
ExamThe E-R diagram (E-R図) is a data model (データモデル) technique that represents the data a business handles and the links between data items.
A DFD (data flow diagram, データフロー図) is a diagram that traces where data in a business comes from, which processes it passes through and where it goes, that is, its flow.
Symbol
What it shows
Example (grade processing)
External entity
A party outside the business that sends or receives data
Teachers, parents
Process
Receives data and transforms it
Total the scores
Data flow
Movement of data (arrow)
Score data, report card
Data store
Where data is kept
Grade file
There are four symbols: the process (drawn as a circle or similar), the data flow arrow showing data moving, the data store that holds data like a file or ledger, and the external entity, a person or organization outside the business that supplies or receives data. The diagram leaves out the order of processing and branching conditions and focuses on how processes change the data and where it goes.
AnalogyIt resembles a map of the route mail takes from the sender through a sorting office to the recipient or a storage shelf. It follows what moves where, not who carries it or when.
How to rememberThe three words Data Flow Diagram spell it out: data, flow, diagram.
Exam points
ExamBusiness processes (業務プロセス) are modeled (モデル化) with tools such as a DFD to make the work visible, gather the information that underpins system design, and align how stakeholders interpret it.
ExamAn arrow from a data store (データストア) to a process means data is read (referenced), and an arrow from a process to a data store means data is written (recorded).
ExamA DFD analyzes a business by focusing on the data exchanged between processes, which makes it suited to finding what to fix in the current flow of work.
BPMN is a standard notation for drawing the flow of business processes with common symbols agreed internationally.
Start event
Activity (check the content)
Gateway (can our department answer?)
End event
Close with an end event where the reply is sent and the work ends.
4 / 4
Arrows connect events, which mark happenings such as the start or end, activities, which are tasks, and gateways, which split or merge the flow, to show the order of work. Dividing the diagram into sections called lanes also shows which department or person does each task. The activity diagram of UML, the standard notation for software design, is another diagram used to draw business flows.
AnalogyJust as road signs keep the same shapes across borders, fixing what each symbol means lets anyone read a diagram the same way, even one drawn by another company or department.
How to rememberThe final N is Notation: an agreement on how to write things down.
Exam points
ExamThe BPMN specification is maintained by the standards body OMG, and the matching international standard is ISO/IEC 19510.
ExamIf a UML activity diagram (アクティビティ図) is divided into sections (swimlanes, スイムレーン) by person or department, it shows the business flow together with people's roles, that is, who handles which task.
Mix-upBPMN centers on the order and branching of tasks while a DFD centers on the movement and storage of data, so the same business yields different content in each diagram.
BPR (business process re-engineering) is a reform approach that redesigns business processes from the ground up without taking current ways of working for granted.
The review covers not only procedures but also how the organization is shaped and how information systems are used. The aim is to raise results such as cost, quality and processing time to levels that partial fixes cannot reach. Tasks that separate departments used to do one after another are sometimes merged into one.
AnalogyRather than adjusting a route map full of transfers one station at a time, it is like laying new track to the destination.
How to rememberRe-engineering is engineering done over again: "re" means again.
Exam points
ExamBPR reviews existing organizations and business rules as if starting from a blank slate, and rebuilds business processes from the ground up.
BPM (business process management) is a management approach that runs business processes through a cycle of design, execution, measurement and revision to keep improving them.
Design
Run
Measure
Revise
Fix the steps to address the problems and feed them into the next design, keeping the cycle going.
4 / 4
The work is analyzed process step by process step, and figures and other data show where effort or delays occur. Tools such as process mining, which makes the actual process visible from the operation logs of business systems, support the measurement stage.
AnalogyIt is like tending a garden: you walk around each season, trim branches that have grown too long, and keep repeating it so the garden stays in good shape.
How to rememberM stands for Management.
Exam points
ExamBPM is the approach of designing the steps of a business process, checking how it runs, finding problems and fixing them, without ever letting that cycle stop.
ExamApplying the PDCA cycle to the work continuously to improve results is an instance of the BPM approach.
Mix-upBPR is a reform that remakes things in one big step, while BPM is management that improves little by little through repeated measurement and revision.
A workflow (ワークフロー) is a system that defines in advance the flow of routine work, such as requests and approvals, that passes documents or cases between staff, and automatically sends each one to the next person in the system.
Applicant requests leave
Manager approves
HR checks
Applicant is notified of the result
When the procedure is done, the applicant receives the result and the history is kept as a record.
4 / 4
Once the route of who enters, who checks and who gives final approval is registered, the next person is notified every time a request arrives. Compared with passing paper documents by hand, procedures move faster, and it is easier to see where a case is stuck and to check its processing history. The route can also include branches that change the approver depending on conditions such as the amount, and returns for correction when something is missing.
AnalogyLike a relay baton passed from runner to runner in a fixed order, the document lands in the next person's hands automatically.
How to rememberWork that flows: the picture of work moving from one person to the next.
Exam points
ExamIntroducing a workflow (ワークフロー) system digitizes the handoffs in internal procedures from request through approval and final sign-off, so they move faster and with less effort.
ExamGroupware (グループウェア) is software that, besides workflow management, helps members share information through features such as schedules and bulletin boards.
RPA (robotic process automation) is technology that automates the routine operations people perform on a PC by having a software robot carry them out instead.
Once the robot is set up with steps such as screen clicks and keystrokes, it repeats them as often as needed through the same screen operations a person would use. It suits work whose steps can be written down as rules, and it is used to make office departments more efficient and to cut input errors. It runs on the screens of existing systems without rebuilding them, which also makes it easy to introduce.
AnalogyIt is like handing the daily morning chore of opening a spreadsheet and pasting in numbers to an invisible clerk who follows the instruction sheet to the letter.
How to rememberIt says Robotic, but there is no mechanical arm: the robot works as software.
Exam points
ExamWhat RPA takes over is routine work on a PC whose steps can be written down as rules.
Mix-upRPA is software that repeats the steps people have defined exactly as given, while machine learning (機械学習) is technology that learns rules for judgment from data.