Experience, knowledge and skills are required in many different areas for a Business Process Management initiative to achieve the anticipated goals. Ultimus provides these capabilities to customers in full or part, and constantly improves its technology, service and guidance to ensure BPM success.

As part of this effort, Ultimus has been collaborating with the University of Colorado in order to identify factors affecting BPM technology satisfaction, which have been determined instrumental in driving process management success. Without surprise, candidates that were satisfied with their training also found it easy to drive value out of BPM technology and accomplish their tasks successfully.

Background

At the University of Colorado Denver, a Business Process Management course is taught to Graduate students using a textbook written by Rashid Khan, the founder of Ultimus. Every year, students use Ultimus technology for an assignment where they have to model and run processes, as well as identify bottlenecks in order to improve the simulated processes. Students modeled processes that mimicked “what if” scenarios based on a set of assumptions with varying data.

Ultimus Process Designer is a BPM tool that can help:

• document current processes
• identify areas of improvement
• capture requirements
• create specifications

Because Ultimus is continuously looking for new ways to improve BPM success, a pedagogical study was conducted from 2006 to 2012. This study involved collaboration between the University of Colorado and Ultimus in order to analyze the factors that affected user satisfaction with the BPM tool. This research is significant given that students’ satisfaction with BPM software can lead to the promotion of BPM in the workplace, and understanding the factors that cause said satisfaction can benefit organizations adopting business process management.

The Assignment

Before starting the assignment, which included process modeling, design, analysis, and process performance management, students participated in Ultimus Online Training. Ultimus provides training in the forms of eLearning, on-site training, and instructor led online training. This training allowed students to learn the fundamentals and become familiar with Process Designer features and functions. Ultimus then set up servers loaded with Process Designer to allow for it to be accessed remotely. 

Measurement

Perceived user satisfaction was measured on the basis of the Technology Acceptance Model. This illustrates that user satisfaction is determined by enjoyment, graphical design, information conveyed by the process models, and ease of use and usefulness, which are consequently affected by training and support. Therefore, after completion of the project, students submitted written commentary about their experiences based on ease of use, Ultimus Online Training, documentation and module features.

Findings

After analysis of the comments, the following was confirmed:

1. Satisfaction with training courses and documentation in the help section directly correlated with ease of use.
2. Ease of use with Process Designer features, such as Ultimus Reports, correlated with user satisfaction; the reports identified bottlenecks which allowed students to optimize and improve their processes, which lead to a positive user experience.

Overall, even though business process management is a difficult concept to understand for some, it can be concluded that BPM tools with strong training tutorials, documentation, and easy-to-use features, can still serve functional and painless, regardless of skill and BPM knowledge level.  Ultimus Process Designer offers as a simple yet efficient solution to business process modeling. It has proven to be a successful learning tool at the University of Colorado and has given students a positive view towards Business Process Management and BPM software as a whole.  

Ultimus is pleased to be a continuous part of the BPM course’s curriculum and would like to thank the University of Colorado and Professor Judy Scott for this research opportunity.

Laura Storjohann
Marketing and Communications Specialist
Ultimus Inc.

Study conducted by Judy Scott
Associate Professor of Information Systems Management
University of Colorado Denver