How Decision Makers Can Enhance Their Business Process Management and Workflow Systems Performance Using Delphi’s Rounds?
An introductory e-lesson about improving organizational performance using the Delphi method
What’s the best way to enhance the quality of our decision-making processes? This is the easy way to begin such a complex organisational performance improvement process.
Assume that you are looking to make high quality decision-making processes to enhance your organisation business process management (BPM) and workflow information systems (WISs) performance in order to achieve business objectives and organisational goals. Sure, there are many ways, but which way would you choose and trust? Most BPM studies confirmed that decision-making business techniques can be used to ensure achieving the expected BPM and WISs performance, and to meet the required business standards.
Indeed, Delphi’s rounds are recognised by many BPM studies to find out about organisational performance matters and to formulate BPM and WISs decision-making processes. These decision-making rounds are based on what’s known as the Delphi method. This method is first known as Delphi study technique (DST), which has been first developed in the early 1950s to collect expert opinion for overall feedback in a project named “Project DELPHI” at the RAND Corporation. This also has been used as a communication control technique for forecasting. Today, the Delphi method is used to resolve many BPM issues, provide decision-making key performance indicators (KPIs) and predictions for decision makers to enhance their workflow systems performance to achieve the required business policies, quality assurance processes, etc.
What’s business process management?
BPM is a business management approach for studying business process systems (workflows). BPM aims to improve organisational performance by evaluating the levels of efficiency and effectiveness. In reality, BPM focus on improving the efficiency of workflow systems by enhancing the role of information systems. Therefore, BPM techniques and systems have been developed to be used as business management strategies to predict business technological and scientific requirements to improve workflow systems performance. Also, BPM techniques and systems are used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of workflow systems using several response collection applications and feedback from expertise along with business practices and professional studies in order to achieve the organisational goals. Indeed, BPM approaches aim to improve an organisation’s operational effectiveness and efficiency using BPM techniques and systems core values rather than an organisation’s functional components. For example, an improvement could be achieved by developing an organisation’s product quality and customer services compliance.
How information systems and business process management are connected to each other?
Information systems (IS) play a key role for business development and innovation to increase revenue and the levels of organisational performance. IS have three key components, which are employees, tasks, and technology. Also, the enterprise’s workflows run using an information system model, which includes BPM techniques and systems in order for the business to operate all the required tasks and achieve business objectives. IS are used to realise an organisation’s information flow and solve company issues using BPM framework. Information systems and BPM frameworks together develop the company’s workflow information systems. WISs are logical solutions, which are used to manage workflow tools for information systems development and management.
Scientifically, WISs allow information systems to achieve the required business performance. WISs need BPM for understanding business processes efficiency and effectiveness by focusing on BPM values, such as responsibility, excellence and teamwork, which are used to execute the workflow of an information system.
Indeed, BPM is expanding as a process-oriented business management subject of study within the information systems area of study. Also, BPM is known as an interdisciplinary business style for managing business processes analysis, plan (strategy development), application and development to sustain workflow information systems in order to achieve business objectives.
How decision makers can apply the Delphi method to enhance workflow system performance?
The Delphi method has three stages known as Delphi’s rounds. The fundamental Delphi’s rounds are Brainstorming, Narrowing down and Weighing (see Delphi method rounds table). These rounds summarise the standard Delphi method rounds and their requirements (inputs) and feedback (outputs). These rounds have been used as a process to provide empirical evidence in order to support decision makers in many business day-to-day situations and organisational issues. For example, a study on BPM job descriptions and required skills to identify the ideal candidates and professionals has applied Delphi’s rounds to fulfil job vacancies. Also, the Delphi method is used to develop BPM project portfolio using feedback from BPM experts based on their specialism in terms of location, industry and sector. It is clear that the Delphi method can be used to evaluate the BPM mechanism to achieve an organisation’s information system effectiveness and efficiency. A study technique such as the Delphi method is essential to enable an evaluation process for decision-making and to enhance organisational performance.
On the other hand, the Delphi method can be used to develop KPIs to evaluate the organisation’s workflow systems using numerical analysis principles and factor analysis techniques such as variance inflation factor (VIF) and critical success factors (CSF). These analysis techniques are able to identify the BPM success to meet business objectives and to guarantee that the application of the organisational workflow system is sustainable.
How the Delphi method three fundamental rounds can be used to enhance workflow system performance?
The Delphi method has been applied in many business studies, because of its iterative aspect for measuring business processes and confirming the validity of the study results. Indeed, Delphi’s rounds focus on expert responses has been recognised as an appropriate decision-making technique for supporting BPM decisions and finding key performance indicators and important factors in many business studies. Therefore, decision makers need the Delphi method to ensure the flow of decisions within their business processes and workflows to achieve the required organisational performance.
Further, Delphi’s rounds made lots of empirical evidence in applications to the management of organisational processes, BPM and WISs. Overall, the Delphi method in combination with BPM or other business techniques can be used to confirm requirements and/or make decisions based on Delphi’s rounds. The following sections provide more details about Delphi’s rounds and how these rounds can be used as a decision-making process and a weighting system.
Round 1 — Brainstorming:
This Delphi’s round is used to discover or choose the initial key performance indicators (e.g. factors) in order to develop the first list of criteria for decision-making. Brainstorming can be applied as an early study (or first stage) to collect a slice of the study dataset in order to suggest the first list of criteria and important KPIs. This round recognises the first decision-making criteria, which can be used in Delphi’s Narrowing down round (round 2). Overall, Brainstorming provides the initial criterion by rating the importance and making open comments, and then rate the overall importance and make open comments again, and finally propose missing criteria to launch the first list of criteria and important KPIs.
Round 2 — Narrowing Down:
This Delphi’s round is used to narrows down the first list of criteria in order to confirm the suggested KPIs, and rate (rank) them using their level of importance. Narrowing down validates the results from Delphi’s round 1 (Brainstorming) and looks to find the full ratio (or ranking) to diagnose KPIs by determining their importance. This round generates a list of KPIs (or factors), which can be used in Delphi’s round 3. Indeed, Narrowing down confirms KPIs of the BPM mechanism and can be used to evaluate a workflow information system. This round pinpoints to key variables from the BPM and measures the level of consensus of each key variable. Overall, Narrowing down round is a consolidate criterion to provide per criterion and rate the overall importance to launch the second list of criteria and important KPIs, which will be used in Delphi’s Weighting round.
Round 3 — Weighing:
This Delphi’s round is used, as a weighing system, to weigh the rated KPIs in order to reach a full agreement and/or confirm the decision and present the study results. Weighing is used to perform the last (final) assessment in order to achieve the study objectives and launch the findings, which can be used to support decision makers and enhance workflow systems performance. Indeed, Delphi’s round 3 establishes the final criteria to support decision-making. For example, a weighting system can be developed to enhance a workflow information system model. Actually, the weighing round obtains the most appropriate variables of BPM, which can be used as KPIs to achieve the required business objectives and/or organisational performance. Also, these KPI variables are information system operating principles to establish BPM structure and behaviour for the workflow information system.
Conclusion
The Delphi method has three rounds, which can be used for decision-making and supporting decision makers by enhancing business process management and workflow systems performance to meet business objectives. The Delphi method is able to develop key performance indicators, as well as provide importance and consensus levels. Also, Delphi’s rounds can be applied as a weighting system for evaluating business practices to facilitate business processes in order to achieve organisational goals. Thus, decision makers can enhance their BPM and workflow systems performance using Delphi’s rounds in order to sustain the organisational performance and achieve the organisational strategic objectives.
