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MBA K725
Business Process Management
Fall 2014 Course Outline

Information Systems
DeGroote School of Business
McMaster University
COURSE OBJECTIVE
This course enables students to learn about the methodologies used to redesign optimal
business processes and related information technologies in support of process innovation.
Students learn about the state-of-the-art techniques used in support of business process
redesign. These techniques, learned through hands-on practice with SAP system and ARIS
simulation, include: identifying best-practice process, workflow automation, simulation of
the business processes, and design of strategic enterprise management systems for efficient
and effective use of information technology in support of business operations.
Students can use this course towards requirements for eligibility to obtain SAP-Certification
in TERP10 Integration of Business Processes in SAP ERP through McMaster University-
SAP University Alliance program.
INSTRUCTOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Section 1: Thursday 19:00-22:00 Class Location: RJC ???
Instructor: Dr. Ali Reza Montazemi TA: Sepideh Ebrahimi
montazem@mcmaster.ca
Office:???
s.ebrahimi@mcmaster.ca

Office Hours: By Appointment
Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 27434
Course Website: http://avenue.mcmaster.ca
COURSE ELEMENTS
Credit Value: 3 Team skills: Yes IT skills: Yes Global: Yes
Avenue: Yes Verbal skills: Yes Numeracy: No Political: No
Participation: Yes Written skills: Yes Innovation: Yes Social: Yes
Evidence-based: Yes Experiential: No Final Exam: Yes Guest speakers: Yes
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In the face of intense competition and other business pressures on organizations, quality
initiatives and continuous, incremental process improvement, though still essential, will no
longer be sufficient. Radical levels of change require powerful information technology tools to
facilitate the fundamental redesign of business processes. This course is taught through the case-
method, readings, lectures, videos, workshops and a number of hands-on exercises using
different systems, including SAP and ARIS.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to complete the following key tasks:
Assess companies business process requirements and performance
Manage effective innovation and organizational business process renewal
Integrate business strategies with the e-business to create value for the organization.
Manage information and knowledge processes successfully
Manage the process of organizing for value strategically

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS
1. eBOOK 1: Mathias Kirchmer, 2011. High Performance Through Process
Excellence: From Strategy to Execution with Business Process
Management, New York: Springer (Download from McMaster eLibrary:
http://link.springer.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/book/10.1007/978-3-642-
21165-2/page/1).
2. eBOOK 2: Van Grembergen, W., and De Haes, S. 2009. Enterprise
Governance of Information Technology: Achieving Strategic Alignment and
Value, New York: Springer (Download from McMaster eLibrary:
http://link.springer.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/book/10.1007/978-0-387-
84882-2/page/1).

$Free





$Free

OPTIONAL COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS
Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross, 2004. IT Governance: How Top
Performers Manage It Decision Rights for Superior Results, Boston,
Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press (Can be borrowed from
McMaster Library)
IT Governance Using COBIT and Val IT: http://www.isaca.org/Knowledge-
Center/Academia/Pages/IT-Governance-Using-COBIT-and-Val-IT.aspx
Von Brocke, J., and Rosemann, M. 2010. Handbook on Business Process
Management. Berlin, Germany: Springer (Downloadable from McMaster
eLibrary).
Gartner http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/system_soft/gartner.html
ISACA student membership www.isaca.org/students
$27




$Free

$Free



$Free
$25
EVALUATION
Learning in this course results primarily from in-class discussion and participation of
comprehensive business cases and literature surveys. The balance of the learning results from
the lectures on BPM and IT Governance concepts, from related readings, and from researching
your presentations, cases, hands-on assignments, simulation decisions, and projects. All work
will be evaluated on an individual basis except in certain cases where group work is expected. In
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these cases group members will share the same grade adjusted by peer evaluation. Your final
grade will be calculated as follows:
COMPONENTS OF COURSE GRADE:
PARTICIPATION: Class participation is highly encouraged. The primary learning vehicle
for this class is discussions between students. Your discussion must be well grounded
based on the course materials.
MIDTERM EXAM: Closed-book exam of the covered chapters 1-8 of the eBOOK 1 (i.e.,
Mathias Kirchmer, 2011. High Performance Through Process Excellence: From
Strategy to Execution with Business Process Management, New York, USA: Springer).
FINAL EXAM: Closed-book exam of the covered chapters 1-8 of the eBOOK 2 (i.e., Van
Grembergen, W., and De Haes, S. 2009. Enterprise Governance of Information
Technology: Achieving Strategic Alignment and Value, New York, USA: Springer).
CASE STUDY ANALYSES: You are expected to reflect on your course reading materials in
analyzing the case studies. The two case studies are group work. As such, ALL group
members should be involved in preparing the analyses of the cases. To assess such
participation, questions will be asked in class related to the course from individuals for
grading. Submit your case analyses to the pertinent Avenue drop-box 24 hours prior
to class meeting in order to be considered for grading. Otherwise your group receive
no grade. Furthermore, to receive grade, each group member should be present in
class and be able to defend his/her proposed analyses. Your report must be typed
single-spaced. It should be a minimum of 1 page (maximum of 2 pages). The
information for each case is as follows:
Case study 1: Business Process Management Helps Build Best Practices for Port
Logistics
http://www.interfacing.com/uploads/File/EFFORTS2.pdf

Question for discussion: Describe different aspects of business process management.

Case study 2: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, USA
http://www.interfacing.com/uploads/File/Interfacing-CaseStudy-SFPUC_200911.pdf

Question for discussion: What are the benefits of workflow automation. What it takes
to enact workflow automation.

Question for discussion: What are issues that need to be considered in managing
business processes.

IT-Lab Assignments
Seven IT-Lab sessions are scheduled for you to learn software used in business process
redesign, through hands-on exercises.
Literature survey: You are required to do an in-depth literature survey of a topic
provided below. You should use academic journals and books on the selected topics,
accessible through McMaster libraries and eLibrary, and Gartner only. Every
presentation should include an electronic presentation (e.g., PowerPoint) and a written
report (including all slides displayed) for the professor. The report should be of about 20
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pages long to portray what the group wishes to say in their presentation. Format for the
report is to be double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1 margins all
around. You are required to upload your presentation to the pertinent drop-box on
Avenue at least 24 hours before the scheduled time of your presentation. The final
write-up (report) for your literature survey must be uploaded to the pertinent drop-box
on Avenue BY November 27. Grading will emphasize the quality of analysis, but will
also include professionalism, organization, and clarity of expression. Better grades for
presentations will be given to the groups that involve all members in the oral aspects of
the presentation. Provide a list of references that you have used to prepare for the
presentation. Use MI S Quarterly style of referencing. It is expected that majority of
references used in your literature survey are different from the class reading
materials.

The following topics will be assigned to different groups.
(A) Business Process modeling
(B) IT Strategy in support of business Processes management
(C) Supply Chain Management
(D) Project management for the implementation of enterprise systems.
(E) IT Governance
(F) Organizational change management
(G) Impacts of Big Data Analytics on the Business
(H) Enterprise 2.0 (Web 2.0 Technologies for Business)
Components and Weights
COMPONENT %
Midterm exam
Closed-book exam of the covered chapters 1-8 of the eBOOK 1
(Individual)
19
Final exam
Closed-book exam of the covered chapters 1-8 of the eBOOK 2
(Individual)
20
Class participation (Individual) 10
Case study analyses 3% 2 (Group) 6
Literature survey 3% presentation, 7% content (Group) 10
Assignment 1 SAP Workflow Builder (Individual) 4
Assignment 2 ARIS Business Process Simulator (1) (Individual) 6
Assignment 3 ARIS Business Process Simulator (2) (Individual) 7
Assignment 4 SAP Solution Manager (Individual) 5
Assignment 5 SAP HANA (SAP Operational Process Intelligence) (Individual) 5
Assignment 6 SAP ByDesign (Individual) 4
Assignment 7
SAP Balanced Score Card and Management Cockpit through SAP-
Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) (Individual)
4
Total 100
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Grade Conversion
At the end of the course your overall percentage grade will be converted to your letter grade in
accordance with the following conversion scheme.

LETTER GRADE PERCENT POINTS

A+ 90 - 100 12
A 85 - 89 11
A- 80 - 84 10

B+ 75 - 79 9
B 70 - 74 8
B- 60 69 7

F 00 - 59 0


Communication and Feedback
Students that are uncomfortable in directly approaching an instructor regarding a course concern
may send a confidential and anonymous email to the respective Area Chair or Associate Dean:

http://mbastudent.degroote.mcmaster.ca/contact/anonymous/

Students who wish to correspond with instructors or TAs directly via email must send messages
that originate from their official McMaster University email account. This protects the
confidentiality and sensitivity of information as well as confirms the identity of the student.
Emails regarding course issues should NOT be sent to the Administrative Assistant.

Instructors are encouraged to conduct an informal course review with students by Week #4 to
allow time for modifications in curriculum delivery. Instructors should provide evaluation
feedback for at least 10% of the final grade to students prior to Week #8 in the term.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
It is the students responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Please refer
to the University Senate Academic Integrity Policy at the following URL:

http://www.mcmaster.ca/policy/Students-AcademicStudies/AcademicIntegrity.pdf

This policy describes the responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines for students and faculty
should a case of academic dishonesty arise. Academic dishonesty is defined as to knowingly act
or fail to act in a way that results or could result in unearned academic credit or advantage.
Please refer to the policy for a list of examples. The policy also provides faculty with procedures
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to follow in cases of academic dishonesty as well as general guidelines for penalties. For further
information related to the policy, please refer to the Office of Academic Integrity at:

http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity
In this course we will be using Turnitin.com which is a plagiarism detection service. Students
will be expected to submit their work electronically to Turnitin.com so that it can be checked
against the internet, published works and Turnitins database for similar or identical work. If a
student refuses to submit his or her work to Turnitin.com, he or she cannot be compelled to do so
and should not be penalized. Instructors are advised to accept a hard copy of the assignment and
grade it as per normal methods. The assignment can be subjected to a Google search or some
other kind of search engine if the instructor wishes. To see guidelines for the use of
Turnitin.com, please go to:

http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity/turnitin/students/index.html
MISSED ACADEMIC WORK
Missed Mid-Term Examinations / Tests / Class Participation

Where students miss a regularly scheduled mid-term or class participation for legitimate reasons
as determined by the MBA Academic Services Office, the weight for that test/participation will
be distributed across other evaluative components of the course at the discretion of the
instructor. Documentation explaining such an absence must be provided to the MBA Academic
Services Office within five (5) working days upon returning to school.

To document absences for health related reasons, please provide the Petition for Relief for MBA
Missed Term Work and the McMaster University Student Health Certificate which can be found
on the DeGroote website at http://mbastudent.degroote.mcmaster.ca/forms-and-
applications/. Please do not use the online McMaster Student Absence Form as this is for
Undergraduate students only. University policy states that a student may submit a maximum of
three (3) medical certificates per year after which the student must meet with the Director of the
program.

To document absences for reasons other than health related, please provide the Petition for Relief
for MBA Missed Term Work and documentation supporting the reason for the absence.

Students unable to write a mid-term at the posted exam time due to the following reasons:
religious; work-related (for part-time students only); representing university at an academic or
varsity athletic event; conflicts between two overlapping scheduled mid-term exams; or other
extenuating circumstances, have the option of applying for special exam arrangements. Such
requests must be made to the MBA Academic Services Office at least ten (10) working days
before the scheduled exam along with acceptable documentation. Instructors cannot themselves
allow students to unofficially write make-up exams/tests. Adjudication of the request must be
handled by the MBA Academic Services Office.

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If a mid-term exam is missed without a valid reason, students will receive a grade of zero (0) for
that component.



Missed Final Examinations
A student who misses a final examination without good reason will receive a mark of 0 on the
examination.

All applications for deferred and special examination arrangements must be made to the MBA
Academic Services Office. Failure to meet the stated deadlines may result in the denial of these
arrangements. Deferred examination privileges, if granted, must be satisfied during the
examination period at the end of the following term. There will be one common sitting for all
deferred exams.

Failure to write an approved deferred examination at the pre-scheduled time will result in a
failure for that examination, except in the case of exceptional circumstances where
documentation has been provided and approved. Upon approval, no credit will be given for the
course, and the notation N.C. (no credit) will be placed on the students transcript. Students
receiving no credit for a required course must repeat the course. Optional or elective courses for
which no credit is given may be repeated or replaced with another course of equal credit value.

Requests for a second deferral or rescheduling of a deferred examination will not be considered.

Any student who is unable to write a final examination because of illness is required to submit
the Application for Deferred MBA Final Examination and a statement from a doctor certifying
illness on the date of the examination. The Application for Deferred MBA Final Examination
and the McMaster University Student Health Certificate can be found on the DeGroote website
at http://mbastudent.degroote.mcmaster.ca/forms-and-applications/ Please do not use the online
McMaster Student Absence Form as this is for Undergraduate students only. Students who write
examinations while ill will not be given special consideration after the fact.

In such cases, the request for a deferred examination privilege must be made in writing to the
MBA Academic Services Office within five business days of the missed examination.

Special examination arrangements may be made for students unable to write at the posted exam
time due to compelling reasons (for example religious, or for part-time students only, work-
related reasons):

Students who have religious obligations which make it impossible to write examinations
at the times posted are required to produce a letter from their religious leader stating that
they are unable to be present owing to a religious obligation.
Part-time students who have business commitments which make it impossible to write
examinations at the times posted are required to produce a letter on company letterhead
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from the students immediate supervisor stating that they are unable to be present owing
to a specific job commitment.

In such cases, applications must be made in writing to the MBA Academic Services Office at
least ten business days before the scheduled examination date and acceptable documentation
must be supplied.

If a student is representing the University at an academic or athletic event and is available at an
overlapping scheduled time of the test/examination, the student may write the test/examination at
an approved location with an approved invigilator, as determined by the MBA Academic
Services Office.

In such cases, the request for a deferred examination privilege must be made in writing to the
MBA Academic Services Office within ten business days of the end of the examination period.

Note: A fee of $50 will be charged for a deferred exam written on campus and a fee of $100 for
deferred exams written elsewhere. In cases where the students standing is in doubt, the Graduate
Admissions and Study Committee may require that the student with one or more deferred
examination privileges refrain from re-registering until the examination(s) have been cleared.
STUDENT ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) offers various support services for students with
disabilities. Students are required to inform SAS of accommodation needs for course work at the
outset of term. Students must forward a copy of such SAS accommodation to the instructor
normally, within the first three (3) weeks of classes by setting up an appointment with the
instructor. If a student with a disability chooses NOT to take advantage of an SAS
accommodation and chooses to sit for a regular exam, a petition for relief may not be filed after
the examination is complete. The SAS website is:

http://sas.mcmaster.ca
POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS TO THE COURSE
The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term.
The university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme
circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and
communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment
on changes. It is the responsibility of the student to check their McMaster email and course
websites weekly during the term and to note any changes.

LITERATURE SURVEY GUIDELINE
Objective:
To write and present a literature survey paper that addresses the issues related to Business
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Process Management.

Topic Selection:
The instructor will assign the topic of your literature survey paper to you.

Guidelines:
1. The objective of your literature survey is to find out how the assigned topic is discussed
in scholarly publications and publication by major consulting firms (e.g., Gartner,
McKinsey, Deloitte, and KPMG). The University library has many books and journals
that you can use. You can also access Gartner publication through McMaster
(http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/system_soft/gartner.html).

2. Since the purpose of this literature survey paper is to show that you have studied a
particular area well, do not simply repeat information you find in your literature
review. In particular, beware of the unbridled enthusiasm on many topics often appearing
in the popular press. This may be a mask to cover a lack of facts. You should not
consider yourself as a reporter, but as an analyst. Present your own views on the
material gathered, since this develops your ability to think logically and creatively.
Remember, marks are given for originality.
3. Your final paper must be typed. It should be a minimum of 20 (maximum of 35) double-
spaced 8 11 typewritten pages, (not including references, figures, and appendices).
However, you will not be penalized if you can put forward a good presentation in
less than 20 pages.
4. Your paper should be written in a concise, crisp, academic style. Try to use diagrams and
tables to get your point of view across and to "dress up" your paper's appearance.
5. Your paper should include the following sections:
a. A cover page that includes the title, the course name and number, the date, and the
Authors name.
b. Abstract: The abstract should cover the most important points presented in your
paper as well as any conclusions that should be derived from the report.
c. Introduction: This section includes background material to bring the reader "up to
speed" before launching into the main thrust of your report. It should also briefly
discuss a general outline of the report, which follows.
d. Report body: The body of the report should be broken into reasonably sized
sections on various aspects of the topic under consideration. Each section should
be numbered and given an appropriate heading.
e. Major findings and conclusions: This section should reflect the important results
that the reader should have learned from the paper.
f. References: You must show several references from more advanced literature
(you may also reference the popular press, but it may tend towards uncritical
enthusiasm). Guidelines for reference format are provided below.
g. Appendices: If appropriate, appendices should be included after your reference
section.
6. Jargon should not be used unless the words are carefully defined when they are first used
in your report. In general, make sure you carefully define your topic, assuming that
potential readers may have little or no background knowledge within the area.
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7. Sources for your material must be referenced. If you develop original material in your
report, be sure to substantiate the grounds upon which you build your arguments, through
references to other published material or personal communications. All of your reference
material should be referred to by authors and year in square brackets, corresponding to
the paper used in your reference list at the end of your paper. In your reference section,
references should be listed in alphabetic order of the first author's last name (see MIS
Quarterly journal for reference citation).
8. Short footnotes may be used, provided that they are referenced on the same page with a
special symbol such as a dagger or an asterisk. Longer footnotes should be included as
appendices, to avoid breaking the continuity of the presentation.
9. Figures or tables should be numbered and should appear as soon as possible after they are
referenced in the paper. However, if a large number of tables or figures are referenced in
one place, it is best to move all the tables and/or figures to the end of the report.
10. Appendices should have titles and be numbered using Roman numerals.
11. All pages of the report, except the title page, should be numbered.
12. Equations should be numbered if they are referred to elsewhere in the report.
13. Grammar, spelling, sentence and paragraph structure are important. A good general
reference that may be useful is the Harbrace College Handbook published by Longman
Canada Limited. Other references that contain helpful sections on business report writing
style are:
Ewing, E.W., Writing For Results, New York: Wiley (1979).
Himstreet, W.C., and W.M. Baty, Business Communications, Belmont,
California:Wadsworth (1977).
Smith, R.S., Written Communications for Data Processing, New York: Van Nostrand
(1976)
Weiss, A., Write What You Mean, New York: Amacom (1977).
14. PowerPoint presentation: you should prepare and submit (upload to the pertinent drop
box on the Avenue for the course) your PowerPoint presentation document one day
before the scheduled presentation time. You have 25 minutes presentation followed by
5 minutes discussion.

DOWNLOAD OF SAP GUI AND ARIS
SAP GUI 7.30: Download SAP GUI 7.30 for Windows and/or MacOSX from along
with the pertinent installation instructions from the course Avenue site. You need SAP
GUI 7.30 installed on your computer to access SAP system for your hands-on
assignments.
ARIS Educational Package Process Design & Analysis: Register at
http://www.ariscommunity.com/university/students to access the download area and
the free student license key for ARIS Business Architect 9.0, which you will need for
ARIS assignments. The installation instructions are available on Avenue and ARIS
community website (http://www.ariscommunity.com/university/students).


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COURSE SCHEDULE
MBA K725
Information Systems
Fall 2014 Course Schedule

WEEK DATE TOPIC STUDY EVENT
1 Sept. 11 Business Processes &
Enterprise Systems

2 Sept. 18 Business Process
Excellence
eBOOK 1: Chapters
1&2
Assignment 1: Hands-on with SAP Workflow-
builder.
3 Sep. 25 Business Process
Analysis
Assignment 2: Hands-on with ARIS Business
Simulator (1)
4 Oct. 2 IT enabling process
execution & change
management
eBOOK 1: Chapters
3&4
1. Case study 1: Business Process Management
Helps Build Best Practices for Port Logistics
2. Invited Guest Speaker: Mr. Omid Safavi
(Partner at KPMG)
5 Oct. 9 Business process
governance and
reference models
eBOOK 1: Chapters
5&6
1. Assignment 3: Hands-on with ARIS Business
Simulator (2)
6 Oct. 16 Inter-enterprise &
emergent business
process
eBOOK 1: Chapters
7&8
1. Case study 2: San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission, USA
2. Literature Survey Group A
7 Oct. 23 MI DTERM EXAM
8 Oct. 30 Enterprise Governance
of IT: Concepts
eBOOK 2: Chapter 1 1. Assignment 4: Hands-on with SAP ByDesign
2. Literature Survey Group B
9 Nov. 6 Enterprise Governance
of IT in Practice
eBOOK 2: Chapter 2 1. Assignment 5: Hands-on with SAP HANA
2. Literature Survey Group C
10 Nov. 13 Enterprise Governance
of IT: Business/IT
Alignment
eBOOK 2: Chapter 3 1.Invited Guest Speaker: Mr. Blair Kenneth
Adamache (Project Executive, IBM Canada)

2. Literature Survey Group D
11 Nov. 20 Enterprise Governance
of IT: IT Balanced
ScoreCard
eBOOK 2: Chapter 4 1. Assignment 6: Hands-on with SAP Solution
Manager
2. Literature Survey Group E
12 Nov. 27 Enterprise Governance
of IT: COBIT
eBOOK 2: Chapters
5&6
1. Deadline for submission of Literature survey
write up FROM ALL Groups
2. Literature Survey Group F
3. Literature Survey Group G
13 Dec. 4 Enterprise Governance
of IT: Val IT and
Implementation
eBOOK 2: Chapters
7&8
1. Assignment 7: Hands-on with SAP Strategic
Enterprise Management (SEM)

2. Literature Survey Group H
Note:
eBOOK 1: Mathias Kirchmer, 2011. High Performance Through Process Excellence: From Strategy to
Execution with Business Process Management, New York, USA: Springer (Download from Mac eLibrary).
eBOOK 2: Van Grembergen, W., and De Haes, S. 2009. Enterprise Governance of Information Technology:
Achieving Strategic Alignment and Value, New York, USA: Springer (Download from Mac eLibrary).