In our online survey, 219 employees from more than 100 enterprises participated. 26% of the participants have been decision makers and 57% knowledge workers. The remaining 17% provided no information about their position. The majority of participants was between 26 and 35 years old (54%). With 23%, participants between 36 and 49 years represent the second largest group of the online survey.
RQ1. In the first part of the online survey, we wanted to know whether or not busi- ness processes are documented. Most processes are fully or partially documented (cf. Figure 3.6). No one from the production industry reported that processes are undocu- mented. Only a small group of participants stated that business processes do only exist in their minds or their work is not oriented towards business processes.
We further wanted to know whether the employees’ daily work is guided by docu- mented business processes (cf. Figure 3.7). More than half of the respondents stated that they follow predefined business processes. 27.4% of them follow at least self-defined processes. Only 13.2% of respondents said that they perform their daily work without considering predefined business processes.
Interesting results were also given by means of individual statements of survey partic- ipants. Several participants confirmed that people are the most important information source since they can deal with difficult questions or explain other people’s tasks. Par- ticipants also pointed out that inexperienced staff will benefit most from the delivery
29,3% 29,4% 38,3% 14,8% 30,1% 51,2% 52,9% 61,7% 74,1% 62,1% 17,1% 11,8% 9,3% 6,4% 2,4% 5,9% 1,9% 1,4% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Education Trading Production Service Overall
Question: Are business processes documented in your enterprise?
Yes, all business processes are documented Yes, business processes are partially documented No, business processes only exist in the mind No, work isn’t oriented towards business processes
Figure 3.6: Documentation of business processes.
46,3% 35,3% 72,0% 51,9% 59,4% 36,6% 52,9% 17,8% 31,5% 27,4% 17,1% 11,8% 10,3% 16,7% 13,2% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Education Trading Production Service Overall
Question: Is your daily work guided by documented business processes?
Yes, I orient myself towards predefined processes Yes, I orient myself towards self-defined processes No, I don’t orient myself towards processes
Figure 3.7: Guidance of business processes.
of relevant process information. Another participant said that if processes are undoc- umented, the identification of a process context will gain importance. Based on these considerations, we can confirm Requirement R1 by our online survey.
RQ2. We asked where needed process information is located. Most participants re- ferred to databases, applications, shared and local drives, and the Internet as the most important sources of process information (cf. Figure 3.8A). When comparing shared and local drives it becomes evident that the majority of process information is stored on shared drives (86%). The most important file formats are PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word (cf. Figure 3.8B). Based on these considerations, we can confirm Requirement R2.
RQ4. We further investigated the relevance of process information. Many participants stated that self-made process information (e.g., own documents, e-mails) have a greater relevance than third-party information. The participants stated that relevance of process information often depends on specific topics and concepts (e.g., a specific disease in the clinical domain). To enable conceptual relationships between process information, business processes, and context information, we derive a fourth requirement.
71% 86% 58% 15% 66% 32% 34% 12% 0% 50% 100% Databases/applications Shared drives Local drives Optical storage media Internet Digital archives In non-electronic form Others
Question: Where is the process
information located? 174 152 137 134 24 0 90 180 PDF XLS PPT DOC Paper form
Question: What are the most three
important file formats/applications during daily work?
A B
Figure 3.8: Location of process information and important file formats/applications.
Requirement 4 (R4). POIL should be able to analyze information, process and context objects on a conceptual level (i.e., based on the topic of the object) in order to identify conceptual relationships (= conceptual relevance) between objects.
The survey results further reveals a direct relationship between the frequency a par- ticular information is accessed and its relevance. The more frequent a particular process information is accessed, the higher will be its relevance. Hence, participants confirmed that standardized process information is more relevant than non-standardized one. In this context, participants confirmed that the relevance of process information is signif- icantly influenced by the reliability of the information source. Additionally mentioned relevance factors include the frequency of information changes, the date of the last access, and the amount of metadata assigned to a process information. Moreover, participants stated that only up-to-date and complete process information can be relevant.
The accessibility to process information is denoted as a prerequisite. Other partici- pants stated that process information, which is similar to other one, is important. For example, when preparing a review for a product specification, existing reviews for sim- ilar products are of great importance. Therefore, we derive the following requirements enabling syntactic and semantic relationships between process information in POIL.
Requirement 5 (R5). POIL should be able to analyze information, process and context objects on a syntactic level (i.e., based on metadata of the object) in order to identify syntactic relationships (= syntactical relevance) between objects.
Requirement 6 (R6). POIL should be able to analyze information, process and context objects on a semantic level (i.e., based on the content of the object) in order to identify semantic relationships (= semantical relevance) between objects.
We further analyzed the amount of process information (cf. Figure 3.9). Obviously, decision makers are confronted with too much process information. 45.1% of the decision makers confirm that they have too much or far too much process information (knowledge workers: 24%). Knowledge workers, by contrast, face the problem of being confronted with insufficient process information. 48.1% of the knowledge workers mentioned that they have too little or far too little process information (decision makers: 27.5%). As a consequence, relevance of process information should be determined taking the process participant’s work context into account.
1,96% 25,49% 4,81% 43,27% 27,45% 27,88% 33,33% 11,76% 20,19% 3,85% 0,0% 25,0% 50,0%
decision makers knowledge workers
Statement: The amount of relevant information for my daily work is ...
far too little too little the right amount too much far too much
Figure 3.9: Amount of process information.