Untangling the Dynamic Structure of an Enterprise by Applying a Fractal Approach to Business Processes

Abstract

Abstract.A promising approach for analyzing and designing an enterprise is to consider it as a complex adaptive system (CAS) able to self-adjust to the changes in the environment. An important part of designing a CAS model is to untangle the dynamic structure of an enterprise. This paper presents a procedure for identifying all processes that exist in an enterprise as well as their interconnections. The procedure makes use of a number of process-assets and asset-processes archetypes. The first ones help to find out what assets are needed for a particular process, the second ones help to find out supporting processes that are needed to have each type of assets ready available for deployment. The procedure is based on the ideas of fractal organization where the same pattern is repeated on different levels. The uncovered dynamic structure of an enterprise can support strategic planning, change management, as well as discovering and preventing misbalances between its business processes. The paper also presents an example of applying the procedure to research activities of a university.

A fractal enterprise model and its application for business development

“…Therefore, the current paper could also be considered as a substantial extension and revision of Bider et al [14] based on the experience reported in [22]. In the current paper, the fractal model, first suggested in [14], has been improved by adding more details to the archetypes. Besides the model improvement, this paper includes a review of related literature, and an extended discussion on the usability of FEM.…”

“…The current paper has a more theoretical nature than the experience report, the latter being used in the paper to validate and illustrate our line of thought and findings. The experience report [22], in turn, has been built on ideas presented at the conference on Practice of Enterprise Modeling in 2012 (PoEM 2012), see [14]. Therefore, the current paper could also be considered as a substantial extension and revision of Bider et al [14] based on the experience reported in [22].…”

“…The experience report [22], in turn, has been built on ideas presented at the conference on Practice of Enterprise Modeling in 2012 (PoEM 2012), see [14]. Therefore, the current paper could also be considered as a substantial extension and revision of Bider et al [14] based on the experience reported in [22]. In the current paper, the fractal model, first suggested in [14], has been improved by adding more details to the archetypes.…”

“…4 to build a model for education was relatively easy and straightforward compared to conducting interviews. This took approximately 40 h. The work was guided by archetypes previously developed in [14]. The major complications at this stage were when we needed to adapt the archetypes from [14].…”

“…This took approximately 40 h. The work was guided by archetypes previously developed in [14]. The major complications at this stage were when we needed to adapt the archetypes from [14]. Using Insightmaker as a modeling tool greatly facilitated our work.…”