=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1701/paper19
|storemode=property
|title=Process Innovation as Creative Problem-Solving: An Experimental Study of Textual Descriptions and Diagrams (Extended Abstract)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1701/paper19.pdf
|volume=Vol-1701
|authors=Kathrin Figl,Jan Recker
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/emisa/FiglR16
}}
==Process Innovation as Creative Problem-Solving: An Experimental Study of Textual Descriptions and Diagrams (Extended Abstract)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1701/paper19.pdf
Jan Mendling, Stefanie Rinderle-Ma, eds.: Proceedings of EMISA 2016,
Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn 2016
Process Innovation as Creative Problem-Solving: An
Experimental Study of Textual Descriptions and Diagrams
(extended abstract)
Kathrin Figl 1, Jan Recker 2
Abstract: Supporting business and systems analysts with process models in idea generation tasks
has been a longstanding topic of interest. In the study we summarize in this extended abstract, we
examined how process models support process re-design tasks where analysts attempt to generate
ideas about novel ways in which organizational processes can be executed. Through an experiment
we compared how two types of models about organizational processes – textual and
diagrammatical – assist novice analysts in developing innovative solutions to process redesign
tasks. The results from our study indicate that diagrams are superior to textual process descriptions
regarding the appropriateness of process redesign ideas and tend to produce ideas with higher
originality and impact, while the sheer amount of ideas does not vary significantly. Process
diagrams also change the focus of the redesign ideas - ideas related to information systems
improvements increase, while ideas related to data flow enhancements in a process decrease. The
work summarized in this extended abstract has been published in [FR16].
Keywords: Process Innovation, Business Process Models, Business Process Reengineering,
Creative Problem-Solving, Diagrams
1 Introduction
The complexity of contemporary information systems draws much attention to how their
analysis and design can be supported by appropriate methods and tools. Much of this
attention has traditionally focused on techniques that support the modeling of
requirements of information systems in terms of data or processes [Pa02]. We examine
process models and study how individuals use domain understanding developed through
the use of process models in developing new, improved models for how these business
processes could be enacted. This is an important area of study. Nowadays analysts often
rely on process models to document and analyze current organizational operations, to
help business personnel understand the work domain and identify improvement
opportunities related to the business processes and involved information systems [De01].
The exercise of improving technical or organizational processes typically involves the
development of so-called “as-is” process models that capture the current organizational
reality, which are then provided to analysts in hope that they would stimulate creative
ideas about how the current processes can be changed to yield the desired business
1
WU - Vienna University of Economics and Business, Institute for Information Systems and New Media,
Welthandelsplatz 1, Vienna, Austria, kathrin.figl@wu.ac.at
2
Queensland University of Technology, QUT Business School, Brisbane, Australia, j.recker@qut.edu.au
16 Kathrin Figl and Jan Recker
outcomes. The question that unfolds, however, is whether process models are actually
assisting analysts in finding innovative new solutions for “to-be” processes, or whether
they limit them to narrow current ways of thinking. For example, process modeling has
been argued to focus mainly on the shortcomings of an existing solution, with the
consequence that model-based process innovation concentrates on overcoming existing
problems rather than achieving inspirational new goals [Ro06]. Other studies, however,
suggest that good process models are an important determinant to process improvement
success [Ko09].
2 Research Model
Figure 1 shows the research model that framed our experimental study: We were
interested in the influence of the type of process representation on the creativity and type
of the process-redesign solutions. Based on findings in the literature on how individual
characteristics relate to creative problem-solving processes, the model also
acknowledges the relevance of the individual as a creative person by using creative
competence [Cr05] and creative attitude as control variables.
Process Representation
Process Redesign Ideas
Factor: Representation Type
Operationalization: Factor: Creativity of Ideas
• Textual Description Operationalization:
• Visual Process Diagram • Fluency (Quantity of Ideas)
• Originality
• Appropriateness
• Impact
Individual Creativity
Factor: Creative Competence
Factor: Type of Ideas
Operationalization:
Operationalization:
ATTA (Abbreviated Torrance Test of Creative
Thinking) • Control-Flow Related
• Information System Related
• Fluency
• Data Related
• Originality
• Technological Resources Related
• Elaboration
• Organizational Resources Related
Factor: Creative Attitude
Operationalization:
• Preference for Ideation Scale
• Evaluation of Ideas Scale
• Intrinsic Motivation
Figure 1. Research Model (adapted from [FR16]).
3 Design
We conducted an experiment to investigate the impact of type of process representation
(textual versus diagrammatic) on creative redesign while controlling for other factors.
We asked participants to analyze and redesign a business process for a pizza-delivery
service business process in three different improvement tasks [Ob13]. We employed two
Creative Process Innovation 17
categories of dependent variables. First, we measured the solutions’ creativity in terms of
fluency (number of ideas), appropriateness, and originality, as is common in the
creativity literature, and in terms of their impact [Pi12]. We added the impact dimension
in order to relate creative problem-solving solutions back to the original business
objective of changing a process (thus to differentiate process redesign solutions that are
truly relevant to the business from other creative solutions). Second, we used a measure
we developed for the type of solutions in terms of the locus of change, that is, as
affecting the control flow, information systems, or the organizational, technological, or
the data component of a business process. Three research assistants coded the creativity
of process redesign ideas. The answer “Webcam in the kitchen with livestream. Pizzas
get name cards and can be observed while baking.” was for instance rated high, the
answer “Tell them to set an alarm clock.” was rated low in originality for the task “The
pizza-delivery service wants to improve its processes, so that customers know at all
times when their pizza will arrive. How can the process be changed to implement this
improvement?” Additionally we measured creative competence with a standardized
instrument, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults [GT02].
For the experiment, we recruited 120 university students from a business school as
proxies for future end-users of process representations who have at least some
knowledge about business domains and business-process management.
4 Results
To identify differences between the main experimental groups, we performed analysis of
covariance for repeated measures tests, with the treatment (text or diagram) as the
independent variable for each dependent variable (fluency, appropriateness, originality,
and impact of a future process; number of control flow-/ information system-/ data-/
technological resources-related ideas) in all three creativity tasks. We used creative
competence as a covariate.
In summary, we found three major results: First, the “diagram” group generated ideas
that were more appropriate than those of the “text” group. They also produced ideas of
greater originality and impact, although these results were not significant at the p=0.05
level. Most of the results were in line with our expectations, but the number of ideas
produced was similar between the two groups. The findings confirm a commonly held
notion that diagrammatic process models are a useful aid to process analysts in designing
future processes. While these results demonstrate that diagrammatic models do not make
analysts more creative per se or lead to a higher number of ideas, the redesign solutions
offered appear to be beneficial in terms of dimensions like appropriateness and type of
idea. Our findings do not support the argument that process models evoke fixation and
hinder the generation of creative, appropriate ideas.
Second, the individual creative competence factor affected the number of ideas
produced, confirming the widely held assumption that participants with higher creativity
18 Kathrin Figl and Jan Recker
produce more ideas.
Third, participants in the diagram group produced more ideas related to information
systems and fewer ideas related to data than the text group did. Diagram users also
produced more control flow ideas but fewer organizational resource ideas, but neither
difference was significant. In sum, the type of process representation influenced some
but not all types of process-redesign ideas. One useful interpretation of our findings is
that managers can, at least to some extent, guide the development of future processes by
selecting a process representation format that is more or less conducive to producing
changes to the control flow, data, resource, or technology components of a business
process.
References
[Cr05] Cramond, B., Matthews-Morgan, J., Bandalos, D., Zuo, L.: A Report on the 40-Year
Follow-Up of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Alive and Well in the New
Millennium. Gifted Child Quarterly 49, pp. 283-291, 2005.
[De01] Dean, D.L., Lee, J.D., Orwig, R.E., Vogel, D.R.: Technological Support for Group
Process Modeling. Journal of Management Information Systems 11, pp. 43-63, 2001.
[FR16] Figl, K., Recker, J.: Process innovation as creative problem solving: An experimental
study of textual descriptions and diagrams. Information & Management, 2016, in press.
[GT02] Goff, K., Torrance, E.P.: Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). Manual.
Scholastic Testing Service, Bensenville, Illinois (2002)
[Ko09] Kock, N., Verville, J., Danesh-pajou, A., Deluca, D.: Communication flow orientation in
business process modeling and its effect on redesign success : Results from a field study.
Decision Support Systems 46, pp. 562-575, 2009.
[Ob13] Object Management Group: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) Version
2.0.2., 2013.
[Pa02] Parsons, J.: Effects of Local Versus Global Schema Diagrams on Verification and
Communication in Conceptual Data Modeling. Journal of Management Information
Systems 19, pp. 155-184, 2002.
[Pi12] Piffer, D.: Can creativity be measured? An attempt to clarify the notion of creativity and
general directions for future research. Thinking Skills and Creativity 2012.
[Ro06] Rosemann, M.: Potential pitfalls of process modeling: part B. Business Process
Management Journal 12, pp. 377-384, 2006.