Formal structures for extracting analytically justifiable decisions from a set of ambiguous key performance indicators

Abstract

This paper identifies the benefits of transforming business process models into Decision Support Systems (DSS). However, the literature reveals that a business process model “should have a formal foundation” as a major requirement for transforming it into a DSS. The paper further ascertains that formal structures refer to logical representations of the relationships existing between the dependent and the independent variables in a specific architecture description. In view of these requirements, the paper adopts the business process modelling methodology to analyse the instrumentality of a case study, and establishes a lack of logical correlations in the transitions between the inputs and the output. The paper therefore, provides two analytically plausible standards for these transformations. The first of the models, called the EOP, is a mathematical relationship for obtaining justifiable outcomes from the Key Performance Indicators. The second is the Promotability-Index model, which is a formulation using Decision Tables. The paper further affirms that Decision Tables are useful in the specification, analysis, design, and testing stages of the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) for transforming ideas into complex logic. Eventually, with these models, a practically useful information system can be developed easily, driven by the logic embedded within the tables, coupled with the well planned business decisions. The contribution of the paper is to provide models that describe the internal computation mechanisms driving the DSSs at the background, and this works towards improving accuracy in performance evaluation results.

Keywords: Formal Structure, Mathematical Model, DSS, Decisions Support System, Business Process Model