BA 302 Business Process Management - Homework: Activity Diagram

BA 302 Business Process Management - Activity Diagram - Homework

Assignment:

In Information Systems Analysis & Design, Ned Kock (2007) presents the following business-process case study on a car-rental company that practices preemptive, predictive car maintenance:

"The business process example starts with a customer filing a complaint online regarding problems with a car that the customer supposedly rented in the past. The details of the complaint filed by the customer are stored in an online file of car rental complaints. The assistant manager of the rental company then downloads the information about the complaint using a Web-based computer system called RentalWizard, which automatically generates a complaint form to be used for internal processing of the complaint. The assistant manager then places that complaint form in a box for later processing, together with other complaint forms.

Once every week, the assistant manager of the rental company reviews each complaint form, using a manual containing several rules for reviewing complaints. Those rules had been devised so that certain complaints could be filtered out (e.g., complaints not related to car maintenance problems) before they progressed any further in the business process. Once the assistant manager is finished reviewing each complaint form, (s)he hand delivers a reviewed complaint form to the rental company's manager, briefly explaining why the complaint should proceed in the process.

The rental manager then hand-delivers the reviewed complaint form to the assistant maintenance manager, again briefly explaining why the complaint should be processed. The assistant maintenance manager is the main point of contact for the rental company's manager in the company's maintenance department, which is the organizational unit that processes reviewed customer complaints.

The assistant maintenance manager then, upon receipt of a reviewed complaint form, places the form in a box for processing by the quality control specialist. The quality control specialist is an employee who formerly worked for a software development company that owns and commercializes a computer system called SmartFleet. The computer system cost the rental company approximately $800,000. It incorporates artificial intelligence algorithms that operate on predictive maintenance rules, which are both used and updated by SmartFleet based on each new complaint processed through the system and on details about previous maintenance activities. The algorithms allow the SmartFleet system to create a schedule of predictive maintenance activities (called 'jobs') that reduces maintenance costs to a minimum while also reducing the likelihood of future car problems occurring while the cars are with the customers of the car rental company.

The schedule of predictive maintenance jobs generated by SmartFleet is a printed set of pages (one page per job), organized according to the order of execution prescribed by the computer system. The quality control specialist then places those pages in a box with other predictive maintenance jobs. The box is located at the entrance of the workshop used by the maintenance department.

A team of mechanics then processes each predictive maintenance job. Upon completion of each job, the team enters the details about each completed job into a fleet maintenance details file, using a data entry screen of the SmartFleet computer system."

Model this process as an activity diagram; i.e., a swimlane diagram in which both actors and information stores (paper, computers, etc.) are represented (see course notes for an example).

Briefly discuss the efficiency of the modeled process. Point out places in the process that are candidates for process improvement and provide your reasoning for why they are candidates for improvement.

Provide an activity diagram that reflects the process after the improvements suggested by you have taken place.

Writing guidelines:

Submit the homework in word-processed hardcopy (printed on paper).

Add a title (cover) page to your work containing:

Title.

Your name.

Course number (BA302), course session, and name of the instructor of record.

Date.

Add your name (format: Last name, First name) to the document header so that it shows on the left upper corner of each page !!!INCLUDING THE TITLE (COVER) PAGE!!!.

Do not use the back side of the title (cover) page; leave it free for the instructor to make notes.

Use one-and-a-half (1.5) line spacing, 11- or 12-point font and reasonable margins.

Separate your text in logical blocks and sections.

Number pages (Title page has no number. First page with content has page number 1).

Integrate figures and tables into the text; do not add them as an appendix in the back of the report.

If you use a figure or a table, properly number and caption it (use your textbook as a guide and your text processor's support for this -- DO NOT HAND-TYPE THE FIGURE AND TABLE NUMBERS).

Use cross-references to refer to figures and tables (again, use your textbook as an example and your text processor's support for this -- DO NOT HAND-TYPE THE FIGURE AND TABLE REFERENCES).

Spell check (both automatically and manually!).

Grammar check!!

Peer review!! Before handing in your work, consider asking one of your colleagues to review it in exchange for you reviewing his/hers. When reviewing, carefully (!!) read what your colleague wrote. Notice ambiguities, note each and every spelling/grammar error, break up long and awkward sentences into shorter, more elegant ones, etc. In other words: show that you care. Peer review is super powerful -- Use it!!!

Suggestion for formatting the activity diagrams:
- The class examples were done with Microsoft Visio.
- If you do not have a copy of Visio installed on your computer, you can:
- Although Visio offers a lot of different diagramming tools, we recommend the following procedure:
- !!! Note: We very much DIScourage(!!) printing out Visio diagrams to then later, somehow, include them into the hardcopy of your report. !!! Instead: save your Visio diagram as an image (Save as... --> JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg) or Portable Network Graphic (*.png) ) and import the image into your homework document at the proper place.