Five guidelines to improve context-aware process selection: an Australian banking perspective

As the first phase in the Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle, process identification addresses the problem of identifying which processes to prioritize for improvement. Process selection plays a critical role in this phase, but it is a step with known pitfalls. Decision makers rely frequently on subjective criteria, and their knowledge of the alternative processes put forward for selection is often inconsistent. This leads to poor quality decision-making and wastes resources. In recent years, a rejection of a one-size-fits-all approach to BPM in favor of a more context-aware approach has gained significant academic attention. In this study, the role of context in the process selection step is considered. The context is qualitative, subjective, sensitive to decision-making bias and politically charged. We applied a design-science approach and engaged industry decision makers through a combination of research methods to assess how different configurations of process inputs influence and ultimately improve the quality of the process selection step. The study highlights the impact of framing effects on context and provides five guidelines to improve effectiveness.