Automating form-based processes through annotation

Abstract

Business process is a collection of tasks performed to achieve a certain business objective within an organisation. Due to the complexity and variability of business processes, organisations use information technology to support their business processes. Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) are widely accepted software systems that enable organisations to automate and continuously improve business processes. Although the benefits of BPMS have been widely recognised, there is still a large portion of business processes that are not adequately addressed by these systems. These types of processes make up the so-called the Long Tail of processes, i.e., highly customised processes that are unique to individual organisations or a small number of workers. Many organisations do not see significant Return On Investment on customising BPMS, or implementing solutions to automate Long Tail processes. So they often rely on using paper-based forms for running their processes due to its low cost, flexibility, and easy-of-use. However, using paper-based forms puts a burden of doing tedious manual work to the end users, restraining them from focusing on more important tasks.

In this thesis, we propose a pragmatic approach for automating form-based processes, in which annotation is used to help collect necessary information from the users to ascertain basic data flows and process execution paths. We have implemented the approach in the system called EzyForms, a framework for supporting form-based processes. The architecture supports an end-to-end life-cycle of forms, starting from its creation, annotation, and ultimately to its execution in a process.

The proposed approach and framework can help administration officers with little or no technical background to automate the Long Tail of the processes which in turn helps the end users to execute the process in a more efficient manner.