Implementation of business process automation methodology and technology

Abstract

Building the perfect product, timely taking it to market, providing the best value for money to your customers and keeping them always happy and excited, one would say is a combination of innovative R&D and great marketing. That may be the case, however in the ever-changing and competitive business environment, organizations need strong foundations on how they do what they do best, on their processes and their continuous improvement. One of the first methodologies that emerged in the 70s’, the Business Process Management, (BPM) was used by organizations to systematically create, access and alter business processes. With the technology advancement in the computer and network sector, Business Process Automation (BPA) emerged as a methodology to manage information, data, and processes to reduce costs, optimize resources and capital investments. Nowadays, due to the increasing use of no-code/ Low-Code tools, which allow for drag and drop application development, automation technologies like workflow automation, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI (Artificial Intelligence), organizations are empowered to objectively define and implement any BPA project, either independently or with external parties. By initially modelling a standard purchase order (PO) process and using it as an example to identify areas of BPA opportunities, we have used a process automation Low-Code platform to build and automate it. The outcome of this thesis underlines the main pain points in today’s BPA projects, that although the technologies themselves offer rich functionality and intelligent automation, these services do not exist independently from the software development lifecycle school of thought and implementation methodologies and aligning them is the “holy grail” in business. That is why in this thesis, we will utilize a system development lifecycle methodology in our implementation and propose our project execution approach by the end of it.