Presentation

Once business processes in an organizations are defined, organizations tend to focus on means of tracking the measurement of the performance of those processes and optimizing them to become more efficient, effective and flexible to change. The concept of Business Process Management (BPM) was created as the discipline of managing processes as the means of accelerating business performance outputs and operational agility. Processes span organizational boundaries, linking together people, information flows, systems and other assets to create and deliver value to customers and constituents. This is correlated to many operational management key disciplines as Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing and Project management, etc.

Business Process Management is focused on the following areas:

Competences

General Competences

• GC1. To control and to integrate the techniques, instruments and methods of management needed in the development of the professional activity.
• GC2. To delve into the business management and into the different administration areas.
• GC4. That the students can communicate their conclusions, present their projects, results, plans, the knowledge and the reasons that support them before a specialized or an ordinary public in a clear and in an ambiguity free manner.
• GC5. That the students are able to integrate their knowledge in the different working areas of the business with information, usually incomplete or limited, in the business environment in order to manage the decision making and troubleshooting processes through complex and multidisciplinary situations.

Specífic Competences

• SC6. To understand the differentiating elements in the business administration, which performance field is continuously changing as consequence of the technological changes. This technological changes alter their market, their products and production or distribution processes, even they can affect some of their functional areas, shorten their products life cycles, generate the necessity to administrate self-generated funds for innovation and to fulfil continuously a technological forecast or to create technological observatories.
• SC7. To know and to use innovation management techniques. To create temporal competitive advantages by innovation.
• SC9. To understand the differences between a functional management and a processes management. Process Management.
• SC10. To know how to define a business process.
• SC11. Learning the existence, the applications and the boundaries of the Information Systems in the processes’ support and control.
• SC12. To understand the functional organization of the business. Areas interrelation. To identify and to understand the factors and dimensions that belongs to the functional part of the business, and the features of its administration system.
• SC13. To understand the impact that telecommunications have on business administration and in the business competitiveness.
• SC14. Learning the existence, the applications and the boundaries of the Information Systems and the impact of they have in decision-making, competitiveness and response promptness.
• SC25. To know how to use the e-commerce tools in the international market and to understand the relationship and the impact of the goods and services international distribution.
  

Transversal Competences

• TC2. Ability to make decisions in a technological changing environment.
• TC3. Being able to use TIC’s Technologies in management and decision-making.
• TC8. To ease the process of transition to the business professional career.
• TC9. To provide the students with learning skills that will allow them to continue their studies in an autonomous manner.

Program

Unit 1. Introduction to Business Process Management
Ethics, features, processes
Introduction of business process management and its relation to key operational management areas
Master Class

Unit 2. Difference in Business Process Management concepts and the evolution of the concept
Introduction
Quality approach
Effectiveness/budgeting approach
Cross organizational approach
Bibliographical References
Master Class

Unit 3. Process Approach
Process Modelling
Process Analysis
Process Design
Process Performance Management
Process Transformation
Master Class

Unit 4. Business Process Management Technology- BPMS
BPMS concepts and architectures
BPMS standards
Future of BPMS
Master Class

Unit 5. BPMS in integrated business and software environment
Relations of BPMS to other enterprise applications and software
BPMS and the Internet of things and cloud
Integrating BPMS with other architectures like SOA, EAI
Trends affecting BPMS
Bibliographical References
Master Class

Unit 6.Introducing BPM and BPMS in organizations
Analysing AS-IS concept
Defining TO-BE needs
GAP Analysis
Market research
Assessing Risk Management and KPIs
Implementing the process
Master Class

Methodology

The different tasks and activities programmed during the semester have been developed with the goal of adapting the learning process to the different capabilities, necessities and interests of the students.

The activities included in the subject are:

• Practical cases: will provide the student with actual business situations that will need to analyse and, after that, make decisions, evaluate the consequences and alternatives. They will allow acquiring intellectual skills to face sudden situations or to plan action programs adapted to a changing environment where there is no math logic.
• Participation in events. During the course you will be participating in different events. Some of those events are attendance to online classes, forums, self-evaluation tests.

In the weekly program you can find the specific tasks you need to complete in this subject.

These activities are combined with the following aspects:

• Personal Study
• Tutoring. The tutoring class can be implemented through different tools and means. During the course of the subject, the teacher-tutor plans the individual tutoring on specific days for the resolution of academic-oriented doubts through “Consultation sessions”. Supplementing these sessions, students have also available the “Ask your teacher” forum through which they can formulate questions and check the corresponding answers on general aspects of the subject.  Due to the very nature of the media used, there are no fixed schedules for the students.
• Mandatory on-site final exam

The hours dedicated to each activity are detailed as follows:

Bibliography

Basic bibliography

The necessary texts for the study of this subject have been elaborated by UNIR and are available in a digital format to consult, download or print inthe virtual classroom.

Evaluation and Assessment

The evaluation system is based on the following numerical chart:

The grade is made up of two components:

On-site final exam (60%). At the end of the semester, you need to assist a mandatory on-site final exam. You need to pass the final exam so the grade obtained from the assignments (continuous assessment) is summed up to the final grade of the subject. 

Continuous assessment (40%): this type of assessment will be measured through the different assignments you need to complete during the course:

• Active participation and involvement in forums, online classes.
• Tasks. The completion of the different activities the students need to send through our virtual classroom such as research, critical thinking, practice cases.
• Self-evaluation tests. At the end of each unit, students will find a short quiz which will help the students to check the knowledge acquired during the course.

Remember that you can check the points (value) of each assignment in the weekly program.

Professor

Usamah Afifi

Education: Mr Afifi has studied an Executive Management Program at London Business School (2009). He has previously achieved an International Master in Business Administration (1998) at Warsaw University of Technology School of Business and a Master in Science (Aerospace Engineering) (1997) at Warsaw University of Technology.

Professional experience: Usamah Afifi has over 19 years of experience in general management/ sales (P&L), deal making, value added management consulting, services business transformation and complex systems integration. Mr. Afifi has directly contributed to over 40 mln $ of sales signings/ revenue, while keeping healthy Net Profit & cost bottom-lines. Responsibilities on these assignments have included full cycle from executive sales to project delivery program management (PMP certified), in areas combining Business Transformation and Technology. He has experience working in countries like Germany, France, Russia, Portugal, Romania, Czech, Poland, Netherlands, UAE etc. He also has experience as lecturing professor at the Warsaw University of Technology School of Business at the International and Executive MBA Program.

Lines of research: Pending research as part of certification in psychology about modelling best beliefs and behaviours of leaders to accelerate business results. Executive sales and deal making and value added negotiation processes. Practical engagement in research with IBM Watson Lab and IBM centres of competences developing new business solutions for customers that allow them to transform their business. Scientific articles in Aerospace industrial research publication.

Tips

Studying online means you can organize your study as you wish, as long as you meet the due dates of the different assignments (activities, tasks and tests). In order to help you, we propose the following steps:

1. From our online platform you will have access to each of the subjects you are enrolled. Apart from this, t you can access to the virtual classroom of the master. In this section, you have available all the documents on how to use the different tools included in the virtual classroom, how a subject is organized and you will also have the possibility to organize your study plan with the tutor.
2. Do not forget to check the weekly program. You will see which part of the content of the course you have to work on every week.
3. After knowing your work for the week, go to Units in your virtual classroom. There, you will have access to the study material (theory and practice) from the unit you need to study throughout the week.
4. Start by reading thethe Basic Knowledge of the unit, this section is the basic study material of the unit. Always read the first part of the same, Introduction, as we will show you here all the material you need to study. Visit, as well, the Resources section, you will find here the complementary readings, videos, experiences, etc.
5. Devote some time when doing the Practical Cases and Test. In the subject Program we will detail which are the corresponding activities for each week and the max. grade you can achieve in each one.
6. We strongly recommend to take part in the events of the course (On-site virtual classes, debate forums, etc.). To know the exact date for each one of these events you must visit the communication media on the Virtual Classroom. Your teacher and your tutor will inform of the subjects news.

Remember that in the virtual classroom of the master you can check how the different tools of the virtual classroom work: email, forum, online classes, sending the tasks, etc.