The role of business processes in interface design
Designing interfaces in creating software for organizations, quite an interesting activity, you face different tasks. But, where to start in order to develop a high-quality interface of a software product? With a conversation with the customer? Yes, but full information when communicating with the head of the organization is not always possible to obtain.
Designing interfaces in software products that are developed for business automation, you need to start with an analysis of activities, and even deeper with an analysis of business processes and only an accurate understanding of the business process makes it possible to see the goals that the software product must fulfill. Understanding goals leads to a clear and logical interface design.
To automate a business, it is necessary to have its description, the description of the business is not carried out by automatists, programmers or designers, business analysts and managers are engaged in the description of business processes, you can only automate activities that have been logically monitored by them. Implementing computer technology on top of improperly organized business processes only hurts if you automate the mess as a result you get an automated mess.
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And how do business processes relate to interfaces? An interface is a mechanism of user interaction with a software product. In order to display an interface on the screen, it is necessary to carry out a pre-project analysis that highlights the essence and objectives of the software product, based on the goals and business processes obtained in the pre-project analysis, you can design the interface.
So, when developing a project, the following chain is obtained:
To reveal the topic, let's consider one of its parts - analysis and research; it is in this part of the development of a software product that it is necessary to find out why this product is needed.
Automation of business processes implies the development of software for the already described business processes, but how to proceed if the business processes in the organization are not described, in this case one should not guess how the company works and engage in independent activities without being properly prepared, otherwise will fly into the delay of development, not set costs and clarify the relationship with the customer.
You can do it in two ways, if the volume of business processes is rather complicated, the organization is a large customer, it makes sense to turn to an outside organization for help in describing business processes. They will describe the structure of the organization, business processes, make their correction, create a job description package for company employees, as well as the organization’s vision and strategy for the future. After you need to understand what activity will be automated? To answer this question you need to understand what exactly does not suit the current work of the organization. Such parameters can be: process execution time, process execution cost, quality (number of errors and failures). Dedicated business processes should be described in detail, focusing on the information (used documents, reports) that is necessary for the implementation of any process action or is the result of its implementation.
If the system of business processes is not so complicated or you automate one of the processes, you can describe it yourself.
How can this be done? Initially, participants are interviewed and notes are made on paper. It is necessary to find out all the participants in the process, the implementers, the information transmitted, the inputs and outputs of the process and those responsible. If there are a lot of processes, it is recommended to use special software for business modeling, this will greatly facilitate the storage of processes and the calculation of the data intersection between them, will allow to analyze the results of business processes. Examples of these systems are: Business Studio, Aris, AllFusion Process Modeler, ELMA.
If the business process is not complicated, you can get by just a graphical display, for this you can use specialized software, such as: BizAgi Process Modeler, Bonita Open Solution, ActiveBPEL Engine, etc., or a graphical editor to create flowcharts: Microsoft Visio , OpenOffice.org Draw, yEd Graph Editor. Whatever tool is used the main thing is to achieve the goal in this case the described business process.
When creating a graphic flowchart for yourself, you can develop it in a free form, the main thing is that the process is self-explanatory, but if there is more than one person working with the scheme and there are many schemes, sometimes there is a need to use a whole methodology.
Methodologies for describing business processes have already appeared a long time ago, and if you pursue the goal of fully describing business processes in an organization, you can refer to one of them.
I will list the main methodologies used now: ARIS, DFD, IDEF0, IDEF3, BPMN, EPC, FlowChart, etc. The methodology (notation) for creating a model (description) of a business process is understood as a set of ways in which real world objects and the connections between them are represented as a model. For each object and connections, a number of parameters, or attributes, reflecting certain characteristics of a real object (object number, name, description, execution duration (for functions), cost, etc.) are characteristic.
To describe complex business processes with different levels of nesting it is recommended to use several notations: IDEF0 notation should be used to describe top-level processes (it displays the structure and functions of the system, uses information flows and material objects), and FlowChart, EPC notations for modeling lower operating procedures. level
An example of using IDEF0 notation:
An example of using EPC notation:
An example of using the Cross Functional Flowchart notation:
Whatever methodologies you use in the description, the main thing is to achieve a complete understanding of the business process, so you will proceed to the next step - the formation of requirements for a software product and the identification of tasks performed by software.
The further design process will consist of creating rough interfaces and software prototypes, based on data obtained from the business process. Development of draft prototypes of the program will allow you to better see the functionality of the projected interface.
Understanding the goals and objectives of the software being developed is the initial stage of work for the interface designer, and the description of business processes will serve as a good tool for achieving positive results in design.
The list of goals and objectives, as well as connecting marketers to interface development, will prioritize between the information elements offered to the user, simplify the work with the software, and increase the efficiency of the final ergonomics of the software product.
Designing interfaces in software products that are developed for business automation, you need to start with an analysis of activities, and even deeper with an analysis of business processes and only an accurate understanding of the business process makes it possible to see the goals that the software product must fulfill. Understanding goals leads to a clear and logical interface design.
To automate a business, it is necessary to have its description, the description of the business is not carried out by automatists, programmers or designers, business analysts and managers are engaged in the description of business processes, you can only automate activities that have been logically monitored by them. Implementing computer technology on top of improperly organized business processes only hurts if you automate the mess as a result you get an automated mess.
')
And how do business processes relate to interfaces? An interface is a mechanism of user interaction with a software product. In order to display an interface on the screen, it is necessary to carry out a pre-project analysis that highlights the essence and objectives of the software product, based on the goals and business processes obtained in the pre-project analysis, you can design the interface.
So, when developing a project, the following chain is obtained:
To reveal the topic, let's consider one of its parts - analysis and research; it is in this part of the development of a software product that it is necessary to find out why this product is needed.
Automation of business processes implies the development of software for the already described business processes, but how to proceed if the business processes in the organization are not described, in this case one should not guess how the company works and engage in independent activities without being properly prepared, otherwise will fly into the delay of development, not set costs and clarify the relationship with the customer.
You can do it in two ways, if the volume of business processes is rather complicated, the organization is a large customer, it makes sense to turn to an outside organization for help in describing business processes. They will describe the structure of the organization, business processes, make their correction, create a job description package for company employees, as well as the organization’s vision and strategy for the future. After you need to understand what activity will be automated? To answer this question you need to understand what exactly does not suit the current work of the organization. Such parameters can be: process execution time, process execution cost, quality (number of errors and failures). Dedicated business processes should be described in detail, focusing on the information (used documents, reports) that is necessary for the implementation of any process action or is the result of its implementation.
If the system of business processes is not so complicated or you automate one of the processes, you can describe it yourself.
How can this be done? Initially, participants are interviewed and notes are made on paper. It is necessary to find out all the participants in the process, the implementers, the information transmitted, the inputs and outputs of the process and those responsible. If there are a lot of processes, it is recommended to use special software for business modeling, this will greatly facilitate the storage of processes and the calculation of the data intersection between them, will allow to analyze the results of business processes. Examples of these systems are: Business Studio, Aris, AllFusion Process Modeler, ELMA.
If the business process is not complicated, you can get by just a graphical display, for this you can use specialized software, such as: BizAgi Process Modeler, Bonita Open Solution, ActiveBPEL Engine, etc., or a graphical editor to create flowcharts: Microsoft Visio , OpenOffice.org Draw, yEd Graph Editor. Whatever tool is used the main thing is to achieve the goal in this case the described business process.
When creating a graphic flowchart for yourself, you can develop it in a free form, the main thing is that the process is self-explanatory, but if there is more than one person working with the scheme and there are many schemes, sometimes there is a need to use a whole methodology.
Methodologies for describing business processes have already appeared a long time ago, and if you pursue the goal of fully describing business processes in an organization, you can refer to one of them.
I will list the main methodologies used now: ARIS, DFD, IDEF0, IDEF3, BPMN, EPC, FlowChart, etc. The methodology (notation) for creating a model (description) of a business process is understood as a set of ways in which real world objects and the connections between them are represented as a model. For each object and connections, a number of parameters, or attributes, reflecting certain characteristics of a real object (object number, name, description, execution duration (for functions), cost, etc.) are characteristic.
To describe complex business processes with different levels of nesting it is recommended to use several notations: IDEF0 notation should be used to describe top-level processes (it displays the structure and functions of the system, uses information flows and material objects), and FlowChart, EPC notations for modeling lower operating procedures. level
An example of using IDEF0 notation:
An example of using EPC notation:
An example of using the Cross Functional Flowchart notation:
Whatever methodologies you use in the description, the main thing is to achieve a complete understanding of the business process, so you will proceed to the next step - the formation of requirements for a software product and the identification of tasks performed by software.
The further design process will consist of creating rough interfaces and software prototypes, based on data obtained from the business process. Development of draft prototypes of the program will allow you to better see the functionality of the projected interface.
Understanding the goals and objectives of the software being developed is the initial stage of work for the interface designer, and the description of business processes will serve as a good tool for achieving positive results in design.
The list of goals and objectives, as well as connecting marketers to interface development, will prioritize between the information elements offered to the user, simplify the work with the software, and increase the efficiency of the final ergonomics of the software product.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/131115/
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