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14.2 The Challenge
A critical challenge for organizations of all types is being able to design business processes that can respond effectively when ''exceptions''(i.e., process failures) occur (Strong 1992; Suchman 1983; Grudin 1994; Mi and Scacchi 1991; Karbe and Rams-berger 1990; Kreifelts and Woetzel 1987; Chiu et al. 1997). Exceptions can be defined, in general, as any deviation from a process that achieves its goals completely and with maximum effciency. They include such problems as infrastructure failures (e.g., a manufacturing station breaks down), commitment violations (e.g., a subcon-tractor is late with a delivery), and ''emergent''dysfunctions (e.g., the load on a web server handling orders exceeds its capacity).Traditionally managers have relied on their experience and understanding of a process in order to handle such exceptions as they occur, but this approach is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory. Modern business processes are becoming more complex, and the pace at which they operate and change is accelerating. These processes are more apt to cross organizational and geographic boundaries, driven by globalization and the ubiquity of telecommunications technology. This effect, along with increasing process automation, is making many details of their operation less accessible to the managers involved. It is thus becoming more diffcult to anticipate and avoid, or detect and resolve, exceptions in business processes.Current business process design methodologies and tools (Davenport 1993; Grover and Kettinger 1995; Hammer and Champy 1993), however, do not address this problem. Process designers are welcome, of course, to include steps designed to handle exceptions within their process models. But they are given no assistance in determining what kinds of exceptions can occur, or what the best practices are for dealing with them. Some more systematic approach is needed. The remainder of this chapter describes a novel approach for designing robust business processes that utilizes a knowledge base of widely reusable exception handling expertise to help designers quickly and systematically anticipate possible exceptions and select the appropriate process modifications needed to deal with them.
