Process-based Business Management module

<< Background >>Efficient management of ever-growing data flow can be a key to successful business, optimising material and cash flows while increasing profitability and environmental friendliness of a company. The huge amounts of data needed fast processing requires business digitalisation. Business digitalisation can increase the competitveness of companies, and whole national economies on a wider scale. This is especially true for the less-digitalised EU member countries.The prerequisite of successful digitalisation is the understanding of the business processes. This requires a sufficient understanding of Business Process Management (BPM): thus, BPM-related knowledge and its practical application are the basis of successful business digitalisation.This brings about the need for a concise and practical study module to provide current students and future specialists with BPM knowledge, while simultaneously applicable for training courses for the field practitioners. There must be a good balance between theory and practice in such study materials: new learners must be acquainted with theory and see its applications, while the advanced learners see the underlying theory and use it to better manage the processes that they are applying. << Objectives >>The goal of this project was the creation of a concise practice-based and practice-oriented Business Process Management (BPM) study module. In order to attract maximal amounts of potential learners, the module was planned to be digitalised, so that web-based or hybrid learning processes could be carried out with the same level of convenience as the on-site learning activities. Besides being concise and maintaining a good balance between the theory, practical examples and independent work, the study module in question was from the start meant to meet the needs of learners at different levels, being able to both provide new practical knowledge and fill in the missing information gaps whenever necessary. The implementation of the module as a compulsory or optional course in cooperation with partners from other countries certainly represents a deeper approach to its development.<< Implementation >>The implementation of the project consisted of the current activities:- The creation of a questionnaire for partner enterprises in order to map the current level of Business Process Management (BPM) skills and their application in a wide range of economic sectors. Besides providing data on the current BPM levels, it also served as one of the starting points for the creation of the study materials, highlighting the expertise areas where knowledge and skills are currently insufficient.- The creation of a questionnaire for students, partner companies and members of the economic council with the aim of defining the needs for the module and obtaining opinions on the structure of the module itself- Obtaining data either through the questionnaire or through formal and informal personal contacts and interviews to collect the data.- Analysis of the current amount and level of teaching BPM-related aspects in the partner Universities’ curricula- Joint and comparative analysis of the input data obtained from both the Universities’ curricula and commercial enterprises allowed outlining the data scope which needed inclusion into the study materials to be created.- The division of the outlined data into logical blocks, resulting in the eventual formation of the six Learning Outcomes (LOs), which were equally distributed for composition among the project Partners.- Collection of study-related data, including BPM case studies, from partner enterprises; this was necessary in order to supply all the LOs with sufficient amounts of practical examples for case-solving tasks.- Creation of the materials and adjusting the case study for the learning process (e.g. omitting sensitive data).- Choice and creation of the electronic platform for the module materials; Moodle-based platform was chosen due to its universal availability, simplicity of use and the familiarity with it of the vast majority of both learners and teachers.- Digitalisation of the learning materials.- Comparison and several proof-readings of the study materials in order to ensure the continuity of the presented information, its quality, uniformity, and to detect and address any information gaps found.- Throughout the project, three Multiplier Events were used to share information on the project, disseminate the obtained results, and collect feedback from the groups of interest (students, representatives of business companies, teachers, public sector, etc.). The obtained feedback was used to further focus the study materials and address additional issues arising from the discussion.<< Results >>The project resulted in the creation of a concise and digitalised practice-based and practice-oriented Business Process Management (BPM) study module which is meant to meet the needs of learners at different levels. In its initial shape, the module is meant for on-site or online teaching, either at the partner Universities, or as an international cooperation project with student exchange. Later on, upon accumulation of sufficient amounts of video lectures, webcasts, etc. the materials can be also used for independent learning. Besides teaching activities connected to the partner Universities, the created module can additionally be used for in-service training of partner company employees.