BISM2203 Assignment 2
Process Improvement (Team Assignment)
250 marks (25% of final grade)
Due dates
Milestone 1: Friday 22nd September before 2pm
Milestone 2: Friday 6th October before 2pm
Milestone 3: Friday 13th October before 2pm
Final submission: Friday 20th October 2023 before 2pm. All times AEST.
Submission type: Milestones through Excel or Word documents; final submission of a Word or PDF report
including As-is and To-be BPMN model files (including any sub-processes) in PDF and BPMN2.0 XML
format, & improvement analysis, accompanied by a Video Presentation; Peer Assessment via Blackboard.
Submission method: via the Blackboard assignment submission page.
Team size: 4-5 members. If you are not in a group of 4 to 5, we will do that after 6pm AEST, Sunday 17/9.
Task
Your task is to model, analyse and redesign one of the key processes at ABIL. A description of the “as is”
process is provided for you below. You are required to use this description, which is an outcome of some
process discovery activities, as the basis for analysing the process, identifying improvement opportunities
and designing an improved “to-be” process. If you find that the description below leaves some detail
unanswered, you have a limited number of questions you can ask the process owner via the discussion
board (so do check first to see if your question has already been asked!). Beyond that, you can make and
document your own assumptions to fill in the gaps.
In keeping with the Business Process Management lifecycle, your team must prepare a report including
the components listed herewith. Further detail is provided under “Team task: your deliverables” below.
1. As-is model: Your first task is to understand the “as-is” process and complete the Process Discovery
state of the BPM lifecycle. This means you will need to design a detailed BPMN process model
(using Signavio) that reflects the current state of the process. You are not required to visually model
process performance information (e.g., duration of activities).
2. Waste analysis: Continuing through the BPM lifecycle, next, you should identify wastes in the
process. The wastes should be documented in a “Waste Analysis” table in your report, by applying
the 7+1 waste types. The Waste Analysis table should include the following columns: type of waste,
and description of identified waste.
3. Issues register: Once you have identified wastes, you should identify FIVE major issues (as opposed
to all issues) – those issues that ABIL should prioritise addressing. The issues should be assessed
and documented in an Issue Register. The Issue Register should include the following columns:
Issue Number, Issue Name, Short Description, Data/Assumptions, Qualitative Impact and
Quantitative Impact. The issue register should also NOT be an inventory of every possible issue that
you can think of. Instead, of the five issues you identify, you should prioritise the top THREE issues
your analysis indicates impact the members or ABIL the most. You should provide relevant
quantitative evidence where available (otherwise providing qualitative evidence) in support.
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4. To-be model: Based on the identified and analysed issues, you should then model a “to-be” process
in BPMN using Signavio. In doing so, you should explain the changes you propose and how these
changes address the identified issues.
5. Video presentation: Finally, you are asked to prepare a video presentation for the CEO of ABIL. In
your video presentation, you need to explain the issues and their impact and pitch your revised “to-
be” process and their impacts.
Please note that you are not required to simulate your as-is or to-be models and there are no marks
allocated for simulation in this assignment.
Process context
The chamber of commerce provides its members with a limited, free legal advisory service as part of its
membership value proposition. Being an entity that promotes its members’ interests, the chamber of
commerce has recently rebranded and repositioned itself as All Business Is Local (ABIL). This coincided
with the arrival of a new CEO. ABIL’s redefined mission is to enable its members participate in as many
market supply opportunities as possible, and it is now seeing membership growth of 20% per annum.
Part of ABIL’s service offering to members includes a free legal advisory service, provided by a mix of final
year law students and Qualified Lawyers supplied to ABIL by a small local legal firm. ABIL considers these
people as part of its in-house team, and controls how it operates. This service has become a core process
for them, with the service proving to be very popular – identified as one of the big contributors to
membership retention and growth. As ABIL grows, however, it realises that this team (and the service
supplier behind it) is not able to provide enough Qualified Lawyers to keep up with demand. This
weakness – and perhaps others not yet identified - in their service provision are causing a lower level of
member satisfaction with ABIL’s services. Concerned about losing members, ABIL is considering expanding
its free legal service’s capacity by off-shoring the whole service to a nearby island nation, confident that
the near-shoring option might be seen as a positive move by members, and that a change of provider
might create the opportunity to improve it.
Before it off-shores the service, ABIL needs to be sure it fully understands how the process is being
delivered today. It expects that, by reviewing the step-by-step detail of how the work is currently done,
and then fine-tuning it to remove waste, non-value adding activities and bottlenecks, it can deliver a
satisfactory level of service while meeting the ever-increasing membership demand, while lowering costs
- which means it can allocate more membership revenue to other important initiatives.
Your team has been brought onboard to analyse the process in use today, to identify issues, and to
propose improvements. Since this service is linked to membership satisfaction – and growth – the CEO is
personally interested, and has requested the team presents its analysis of the current situation, issues,
and the proposed solution direct to her, with a very brief, written synopsis of the approach taken and
recommendations to be provided in advance of that presentation. The section below sets out the process
walkthrough that the in-house BPM team identified in the first stage of the Process Discovery.
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ABIL’s Member Legal Advice Service Process
The process starts when an ABIL member calls the Legal Advice Call Centre or sends a request via the ABIL
app on their phone to request legal advice. If the request is via a phone call, the Call Centre consultant
registers it as a new request into the Legal Advice Support System, an activity which takes 5 minutes on
average. If the request came via the ABIL App, the Legal Advice Support System automatically adds it as a
record in its database. Irrespective of how the request is registered, the system generates a case
reference number and instantaneously marks it as “Open”, and sends an email to the member advising of
the reference number and next steps.
The Call Centre is staffed with 10 final-year law students who are able to respond to frequently asked
questions (FAQs are questions for which a solution had previously been researched and recorded in the
Legal Advice Support System). The Call Centre consultants can also deal directly with standard contractual
law queries.
All standard contractual law queries are immediately responded to, which typically takes 10 minutes via
telephone, and 55% of all queries are addressed in this way. For all other requests, on average there is a
30-minute waiting time before a Call Centre consultant can check them. Reviewing all other requests are
an FAQ takes on average 5 minutes (to ensure the same precedent applies). In 20% of the total number of
requests, these other requests relate to an FAQ, and in such cases, it takes a further 15 minutes on
average for the Call Centre consultant to provide the advice to the member. In all cases, once the
response is provided to the member, it takes the Call Centre consultant 1 minute to mark the request as
Closed, and then sends a confirmation email to the member, advising of the request being closed, and
ending the process for that request. For the remaining requests that are neither a standard contractual
law query nor an FAQ, the Call Centre consultant marks it as “complex” and Legal Advice Support System
adds it to the Qualified Lawyers’ work backlog within Legal Advice Support System.
There are five Qualified Lawyers, and their hourly wage is AU$80. When a Qualified Lawyer receives a
request, s/he evaluates it and assigns it one of three priority levels: Critical, Urgent or Normal. New
requests spend on average 1 hour waiting for a Qualified Lawyer to evaluate them. Qualified lawyers take
on average 20 minutes to evaluate a new request and 3 minutes to prioritise a request. The Legal Advice
Support System will then assign the request to the same or another Qualified Lawyer, depending on the
assigned priority level and the backlog of requests. The time between the moment a request has been
assigned, and the moment the request is picked-up by a Qualified Lawyer is 4 hours.
Once the request is assigned to a Qualified Lawyer, it is researched by that Qualified Lawyer, an activity
which takes on average 30 minutes. The Qualified Lawyer then drafts a legal advice. The time taken to
write the advice is, on average, 45 minutes and, once saved in Legal Advice Support System, it is added to
the Call Centre consultant’s backlog. Once the advice is written, it takes on average 8 hours before a Call
Centre consultant checks this solution from Legal Advice Support System, which then takes 10 minutes on
average. Once checked, the Call Centre consultant spend an average of 20 minutes drafting a cover letter,
and then immediately sends the advice to the member, who will respond with one of two possibilities:
resolved, or not resolved.
It takes on average 10 hours from the moment the complex legal advice is sent by the Call Centre
consultant, to when Legal Advice Support System receives a confirmation from the Member that the
request is now Resolved. Legal Advice Support System then instantaneously marks the request as Closed,
and the process ends. Requests are resolved in 85% of the cases. In 15% of the cases, Legal Advice
Support System receives an update from the member, noting the request is marked as Not resolved.
These responses are received in 3 hours from the provision of complex advice on average, reflecting
members’ desire to finalise the correct advice they need quickly. In those cases, Legal Advice Support
System instantaneously updates the request status to urgent and the request returns to the Qualified
Lawyer who dealt with it for further action, at which point the request repeats those steps of the process.
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For 40% of all requests, at any point after receiving their reference and next steps email, and before they
get a response, the member calls the Call Centre consultant to remind them that they are still awaiting an
answer to their request. On average, each of these impatient phone calls takes 5 minutes to resolve, and
when the Member asks for the status of their request, the Call Centre consultant often gives an incorrect
answer before realising their error (or that of the system). This comes down to the Call Centre consultant
being unable to accurately determine the status of every request.
Assumptions and further information:
The helpdesk receives approximately 160 new requests per working day.
All Legal Advice Support System activities, including the automatic ones, are processed in 30 seconds
unless specified otherwise (e.g., as instantaneous = 0 seconds).
There are 10 Call Centre consultants, and their hourly wage is AU$30.
There are 5 Qualified Lawyers, and their hourly wage is AU$80.
All requests, and updates to requests, irrespective of whether they come via the App or via phone call, are
registered in Legal Advice Support System. Legal Advice Support System allows the Call Centre consultants
to record the details of the request, the name of the member who generated the request and the nature
of the request. The system also allows Qualified Lawyers to set the priority level as well as record
solutions, and undertakes process steps in its own right, for example, when a request is registered, it
marks it as Open or when a request is resolved, it marks it as Closed. Somehow, however, when the Call
Centre consultants check, they often find many requests marked as Open – even though many of these
requests are in fact already resolved, and should be showing status of Closed. Something seems amiss.
**************************** END OF PROCESS WALKTHROUGH ****************************
Team information
A team space will be set up for you on Blackboard. Your team space will give you access to team emails,
file sharing, etc., and will also enable you to submit the assignment and the peer review. You will not be
able to submit this assignment unless you join a team that has been set up for you on Blackboard.
The team space is currently available through the ‘Process Improvement Groups-join your group here’ link
in Project 2 under Assessment in Blackboard, and you and your team members can self-enrol in your
groups. You should aim to create or join a group on Blackboard (in the sign-up link in Project 2) by 6pm on
Sunday 17th September to allow you to start working with your team members.
If you do not have a group by that time, or your group has less than 4 people, do not worry! We will
randomly assign you to a team (or have some additional people assigned to your team) by the start of
the following week, with your Assignment 2 group information available via Blackboard. Anybody on
the course, whether internal or external mode, in any tutorial, can form a team together. You get to
choose your style of collaboration when you choose your group!
We strongly encourage you to meet early and identify how you will work, confirm roles and
responsibilities, confirming expectations around reviews of each other’s work while also ensuring you give
enough time to allow that person to revise an item of work before the submission deadlines!
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Team task: your deliverables
Milestone 1 (total 20 marks)
a. please submit your understanding of all the active actors in the As-Is process (i.e., lanes
and pools). Please include one illustrative activity done by each of those actors.
b. please submit a list of the trigger(s) and activities in this As-Is process, using the same
language as the customer in BPMN format. Use the same verbs and nouns, because if you
don’t use the customer’s language, they will not understand what you’re referring to, and
give you zero marks.
c. Please follow the format as will be set out in the Excel document that will be made
available for you on Blackboard. Other file formats are not permitted, and will not be
marked.
Milestone 2 (total 20 marks)
Please list the top 5 issues in the as-is model, by completing a table in Microsoft Word to include the
following columns: Issue Number, Issue Name, Short Description, Data/Assumptions, Qualitative
Impact and Quantitative Impact.
Milestone 3 (total 20 marks)
Please describe the top changes you propose to address the top 5 issues we advise in the solution to
Milestone 1, based on the Pareto rule and potentially PICK analysis, and using the redesign heuristics
taught on the course.
You should use a 4-column table in Microsoft Word including the as-is construct, the type of redesign
heuristic, the proposed to-be state, and why (described in less than 20 words per change).
Final submission + Peer Review
Your team should submit via Blackboard, by the deadline, the following deliverables:
1. All files must be named following the StudentTeamNumber_FileDescription format.
2. Your PDF and BPMN2.0 XML files of your “as-is” process - including any linked sub-processes
 Screenshot of the diagram’s compliance with BPMN modelling conventions.
3. Your PDF and BPMN2.0 XML files of your “to-be” process - including any linked sub-processes
 Screenshot of the diagram’s compliance with BPMN modelling conventions.
4. A Word or PDF document (“Report”) containing:
 A cover page with your group name, and the names and student numbers of all your team
members
 A legible screenshot of your “as-is” model, appropriately titled in the document
 A waste analysis table, followed by an Issue Register, including all relevant calculations
and qualitative assessments
 Bullet-point list of improvements (with short explanations) you have incorporated into
the to-be process to address issues. Please link these solutions to the relevant issue you
have identified.
 A legible screenshot of your “to-be” model, appropriately titled in the document,
highlighting the changes between your “as-is” and the “to-be”.
 Any assumptions you have made.
 Please note that there is no requirement for an executive summary, any further
discussion, or any references in your report. You may include them if you wish, but there
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are no marks allocated for these components. Your report needs to include the elements
described above; the titles of the sections are up to you.
 The report must include all the key analysis and information you provide.
5. Your 10-minute (maximum) video presentation will comprise a slideshow with voiceover on process
issues and improvements (submitted via Kaltura – see Blackboard for instructions). Instructions on
capturing such a video, and submitting it, are available on Blackboard. You need to submit your
video to the BISM2203 gallery.
NB: submissions of longer than 10:00 minutes will attract a penalty.
6. A Peer Review must be submitted by each team member by the assignment deadline. This
submission is done through a separate link on Blackboard and is not visible to the rest of your team
members. [Failure to submit the peer review will result in late penalties for the late individual only
and apply to the whole assignment.
Please note that you are not required to simulate your As-is or To-be models, and there are no marks
allocated for process simulation in this assignment.
How to submit
Your submission is done through the standard Blackboard assignment submission tool, which will become
available to you once you are added to a team space on Blackboard. The submission also involves
uploading of your video presentation. Full instructions are provided on Blackboard. Only one submission
per team is required. An assignment is considered submitted once all required files, and video, are
submitted by the deadline. Please check your submissions carefully.
A Peer Review submission is required from each team member, by the assignment due date. If one is not
submitted, that individual’s assignment will be considered late and late penalties will apply to that person.
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Marking rubric (total marks: 250)
Criteria
High Level Competency
80% - 100%
Adequate Competency
50% - 80%
Developing Competency
0% - 50%
As-is model
40 marks
All process elements have
been correctly modelled,
including sub-processes,
using appropriate
modelling conventions.
Some process elements
are inconsistent or
missing, or are
incorrectly modelled.
Most process elements are
missing or incorrectly
modelled.
Analysis of
problems &
bottlenecks
80 marks
All wastes and 5 main
issues have been
identified using
appropriate analysis
methods and adequately
described and quantified
(where possible).
Some wastes and main
process issues have
been identified. The
analysis is mostly
correct but requires
further justification.
Most main as-is process
problems (wastes & issues)
have not been identified
and/or incorrect analysis
methods have been
applied.
Solutions
50 marks
All recommendations to
address identified
problems have been
outlined and explained,
and are appropriate.
Most
recommendations to
address identified
problems have been
outlined and explained,
and are appropriate.
Some recommendations to
address identified
problems have been
outlined and explained,
and are appropriate.
To-be model
30 marks
All process elements have
been correctly modelled
& the
to-be process is
consistent with the
outlined solutions.
Some process elements
are missing, are
incorrectly modelled or
are not consistent with
the outlined solutions.
Most process elements are
missing or incorrectly
modelled, with respect to
the outlined solutions.
Video
Presentation
50 marks
The presentation is clear,
well-motivated, and well
targeted for its audience.
It is based on a
professional set of slides.
All important aspects of
the project are well
communicated.
Most of the important
aspects of the project
are well explained and
presented. Some issues
with quality of
presentation are
present.
The presentation requires
improvement – the
motivation is unclear,
important argumentation is
missing and presentation
skills require further
improvement.
Reminders on the quality of your submissions
The overall marking rubric is outlined on page 5. As always, marks are allocated not just for correct
modelling of the scenario, but also for the pragmatic quality of the model (i.e., use of modelling
guidelines, aesthetics, general ease of interpretation for the model audience).
As such, please ensure your BPMN models are easy to read when printed at A3 size (consider your
audience). To achieve this, you need to choose the appropriate level of detail (abstraction), and avoid
leaving excessive blank spaces in your model so that your model is not longer or wider than otherwise
necessary. Please refer to the solution to Assignment 1 for inspiration, or the model on our lecture notes.