STRUCTURED LITERATURE REVIEW ON BUSINESS PROCESS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

. Knowledge of business process analysis instruments and methods enhance the possibility to quantify process management decisions and to achieve organizations’ goals. While the amount of research on business process analysis and evaluation increases, there is a need to outline the intellectual structure of scientific research as embodied in business process scientific literature in order to define the streams of research. The purpose of this paper is to present actionable knowledge of business process performance analysis and evaluation, based on the framework, integrating business process research domains and levels of analysis. In order to establish a framework, integrating the domains of business process analysis, the research questions were formulated and the analysis of the scientific literature was carried out applying the method of structured literature review. Literature review was based on a research papers that were available through the EBSCO host, Academic search complete databases. References were searched using the keywords that are formed as combinations of words: business process, analysis, performance, evaluation. Research contributions, addressing the business process analysis topic, were selected by the keywords within the papers’ title, abstract and in the keywords specified in the article. After the initial evaluation of 677 papers, 62 articles were selected for in-depth analysis. This paper contributes to the business process management research by proposing the framework to integrate various business process analysis research streams and highlighting exploratory potential areas for future inquiry.


Introduction
Business process capability to deliver the output that fits the requirements of the efficient use of process resources and the needs of the customer is recognized to be the basis for the overall development of business organization and capability to achieve the competitive advantage. Organizations based on horizontal end-to-end processes have been shown to increase the quality of products and services, decrease costs and make business functions more reliable (Khosravi, 2016). Therefore, the issue how the improvement in business process capability should be achieved is discussed in voluminous business process studies and reports. Business process reengineering, business process management and business process improvement approaches provide various models, methods and techniques designed to develop the business process. Most of them involve process analysis as the distinctive point in the execution of process improvement. Davenport and Short (1990), Hammer and Champy (1993), defining the business process reengineering, emphasized the analysis of workflows and processes as the initial step for radical process redesign. Dumas et al. (2013) provided business process management method which is typically designed to explore existing processes and provide the relevant information for process improvement decisions. This method describes the steps of process management by process identification, discovery, analysis, redesign, implementation, monitoring and controlling. Van der Aalst (2004) identified the importance of business process analysis in business process management systems and also noted that process workflow management systems lack the tools for the process analysis and do not support the use of the data, logged by the information system to diagnose the operational processes.
Process analysis provides the tools to understand the sources of the problems of process accomplishment, to discover the possible ways of process improvement and optimization and also the measures of performance assessment (Irani et al., 2002). Much has been discussed on business process analysis in the literature. Vergidis et al. (2006) providesd an overview on business process analysis, underlinesd types of process analysis in relation to the different business process modeling techniques. Li et al. (2004) proposed the framework for the process workflow analysis, which involved the perspectives of logical level, temporal level and performance level. Bisogno et al. (2016) proposed a method for the analysis of business process operational performance. This model is applicable for what-if analysis. Various studies provide different models and frameworks designed to enable process analysis. They describe process' features and properties and explore process domains in relation to the purpose of analysis. As Aguilar-Saven (2004) identified "purpose of business analysis is either to learn about the process, to make decisions about the process or to develop business process". Furthermore, purpose of the analysis is coherent to the perspective of the analysis.
Process level perspective is associated to the knowledge of the processes, whereas process analysis from the operation level perspective generate the knowledge of the process' impact on the operation's and enterprise performance, process is a unit in the enterprise' set of processes. Due to popularity of business process orientation in various business settings, a number of business process analysis methods and techniques to support process building and management were provided in the literature. While the attempts to generalize the process evaluation methods were provided, there is a lack of guide that organizes methods for business process analysis according to perspective of analysis. Generalization of business process analysis' perspectives support systematization of the knowledge in the area of business process analysis and provide insights of the areas of potential enquiry in this field. process model elements by functional, behavior, organizational, informational perspectives. Authors attach activities and flows of artifacts, data and products to the functional activity. Sequencing of activities, feedback loops, activity iteration authors relate to behavior perspective. Process agents, physical media and appliances used for transfer of entities were attached to organizational perspective. Informational entities of data, artifacts, products, objects are represented by informational perspective. Process structure is complex, therefore diagnostic of the process attributes, effects and results require the examination from various perspectives.

Analysis of business process improvement and effects
An analysis of business processes covers a variety of approaches to improving business processes. Business process reengineering, business process redesign, business process management, provide the knowledge about the methods, tools and techniques, which enable process transformation, and also address the principles and methods for evaluation of the effects, associated to business process transformation. Business process analysis enables to identify process problems, to develop process changes and to evaluate the effect of process redesign. Business process analysis is equally important due to the consistency of process performance and organizations performance. Existing literature provide a holistic approach to business process analysis, which supports the idea that the goal of development of business performance can be achieved through improved processes. Given this approach, the task of developing optimal business process can't be solved improving and optimizing single process in the system of organizational processes. A broad overview of the literature on the impact of process orientation is provided by Kohlbacher (2010). This author summarizes that positive effect of organizations' process orientation on business performance is predominant finding in the studies. Also the effects of customer satisfaction increase, quality improvement, cost reduction, financial performance improvement are identified (Kohlbacher 2010, p.135).
Due to the importance of process analysis for the process development as well as business development, there is still a need for further research on process analysis methods and concepts. However, Davamanirajan et al. notices, "process level analysis is still in its infancy" (Davamanirajan, 2006, p.66).
In the literature business process analysis is presented by various approaches, methods and techniques, therefore, identification of the types of analysis, based on the purpose of analysis is useful for perceiving processes and selecting the appropriate method. Notable review and typology regarding business process analysis was provided by Vergidis et al. (2008). The authors have highlighted these types of process analysis: observational analysis, validation, verification, performance analysis and evaluation, and simulation. Mostly analytical methods have been proposed for performance analysis and evaluation.

Method
A meta-analysis was carried out to analyze the research questions. Structural literature review has been adapted in accordance with the guidelines for systematic literature reviews provided by Boellt and Cecez-Kecmanovic (2015). Topic of the structural literature review was defined as "business process performance analysis", keywords for the systematic search were derived from the research questions.
Literature review was based on a research papers that were available through the EBSCO host, Academic search complete databases. Initial selection criteria for paper to be included in the review were based on the object of the research provided. Business process was selected as the object for the scientific researches. The keywords for the search were constructed as combination of the words: business process, analysis, performance, evaluation. Scientific papers related with the keywords mentioned above were selected for the literature review. Full text  (15) 230 papers written in English and published in the journals that apply peer review were included for literature analysis.

Results and discussion
After the search the initial sample has reached 677 papers. The papers for the content analysis were selected after more detailed analysis of abstracts and body of the text. 62 full text papers were considered for content analysis. Content analysis of identified articles provided the evidence and support in extracting the knowledge relevant to answer research questions.
The papers were analysed on the basis of the method and purpose of research, main findings and techniques. Considering the research questions, papers were categorized in two groups. Articles in the first group consider issues relevant to business process attributes and elements, whilst papers of the second groupbusiness process analysis (Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3). Six papers cover the both topics (Dervitsiotis, 1999 In regard to first research question, contributions of the authors in exploring the characteristics of business process were examined. Knowledge of business process properties is relevant to increasing the effectiveness of business and process management activities, as well as substantiating business strategic decisions. Categorization of processes (highlighting the most important ones) is relevant for justifying business enterprise management decisions, strategic business decisions and process outsourcing solutions. Research of business process categorization methods in this regard is relevant in solving business administration problems. The identification of key, critical, strategic processes is based on setting process performance criteria and their link with the company's strategic goals and success factors. The authors propose different methods to distinguish the underlying processes. Dervitsiotis (1999) describes critical or core processes in terms of process contribution in achieving strategic goals. An author identified typical process performance criteria and the method to identify critical process by its weighted contribution to strategic goals. Quesada, Gazo (2007) further developed the research on core, key or critical business processes by providing the methodology designed to define critical internal processes in terms of their strength of relationship with the critical success factors. Also Climent et al. The improvement of the business enterprise process system is supported by knowledge of the specific processes that improve the overall performance of the system. Specific processes for specific activities, that enable efficiency of the whole process' system, are explored in the papers. Justification for regulative processes, also value creation activities of the process and activities associated to abuse prevention are provided by Regev et al. Process identification is relevant to the development and improvement of business processes. Process design solutions in a business enterprise are formed by distinguishing the process properties associated with the desired and undesirable process performance results. Also process eligibility criteria are required to formulate business decisions related to enterprise processes. In this regard are actual criteria of correctness of business process, based on formal verification of the process, explored by Corradini et al. (2015). Other authors provide a solution and  (15) method for enabling another important business process feature -the user's compliance with the process. Process tool of directive explanations, designed to enable user's process compliance, was analysed and evaluated by Hadasch et al. (2016). Undesirable process performance results are associated to process uncertainty, complexity, weakness. Literature provide an analysis of these process properties. Cardoso (2008) explores the complexity characteristic of business process, investigating the concept of complexity and providing the metric to assess the control-flow complexity of business process. Uncertainty characteristic of business processes and measure to assess uncertainty in new processes was investigated by Helquist et al. (2012). Bergener et al. (2015) investigate process weakness, identifying pattern-based approach to detect process weakness automatically. Innovative approach of event based concept of process, defining the process as the set of events rather than the set of activities, was introduced by Bekgaard (2009).
The knowledge of impact and application of business process elements are of value in increasing the business process capacity. Process elements such as configuration characteristics, process capital, components of interorganizational and intra-organizational interaction have significant impact on process results. One of the problems in operationalization of the process elements, such as the process capital, is the measurement issue. Considerable contribution in exploring business process capital is provided by Shang, Wu (2013). Authors suggested indicator consisting of measures of value of process capital input and output, and capability to manage process. As the employee motivation is desirable assumption of process management, one of the tasks of the business process administration is to motivate employees by introducing effective motivation tools in the organization. In this regard the findings provided in the survey of Torres, Sidorova (2015) are relevant. Results of their survey confirm the effect of work settings on employee, highlighting the mode how process configuration characteristics impact process participants' motivation. Business process researchers provide measures to address the practical issues in the formation of business decisions related to the business process alignment within business model. Solaimani, Bouwman (2012) identified generic components of inter-organizational and intra-organizational interaction and provided conceptual framework for business process alignment within business model.
It can be summarized that the recent studies of business process features and elements explore the process designed for specific functional purposes rather than the general purpose of achieving organizations goals (collaborative, regulative processes). Deployment of the functional processes creates benefits in terms of the knowledge on functional process design and operation. It is noteworthy also, that a generalized analysis that highlights the trend of research in terms of the characteristics and elements of the process is not possible due to insufficient data compatibility.

Source: developed by authors
In regard to second research question, main contributions of the authors in exploring the business process analysis are examined. Studies on business process analysis are focused on understanding the effects of process performance on the business performance. It responds to the needs of the business enterprise to properly construct and control business processes by applying appropriate tools for process design and appropriate systems for the evaluation of business process' operation and enterprise performance. Taking into account the value of research findings for various activities and functions of the business enterprise, the following areas are distinguished: i) connection between the performance of the process and the performance of the businesssummarizing studies, the results of which are of value for process and business evaluation and control; ii) improvement of process performance impact on business performancesummarizing studies, the results of which are of value for business process modeling and development; iii) business process performance measurementsummarizing studies, the results of which are of value for process evaluation and control; iv) business process as a part of value chainsummarizing studies, the results of which are of value for the development of business systems.
Connection between the performance of the process and the performance of the business.
The authors choose different perspectives for the analysis. Some of them consider exploring the effect by selecting appropriate indicators of process performance and business level performance and evaluating the  (15) relationship between the performance parameters variation. Hachicha et al. (2016) proposes ontological model for the assessment and analysis of collaborative processes by considering the consolidation of business level performance (based on key performance indicators) and process performance (based on technical indicators). That approach reflects two basic assumptions. The first is that the results of the process affect the results of the business, and secondly, the process evaluation and analysis concepts, methods and tools must be determined in such a way as to cover the causal factors, that is, the results and parameters of the operation of the process, and the consequences factors, that is, performance and parameters of business operation.
Different perspectives of the process performance analysis consider a holistic approach to the organization. Based on this point of view, processes are not only an integral part of a business organization, but processes are considered as antecedents of specific way by which the business enterprise operates. This specific business operation mode is characterized by property of business organization's process orientation. Consequently, focus on the effects of process performance on the business performance capture business organization's process orientation parameters instead of process performance parameters. As a whole, this exploratory approach is expressed in the research of Kohlbacher (2010), Kohlbacher and Gruenwald (2011). Kohlbacher (2010) provided an overview of studies that analyze the impact of process orientation on the results of a business enterprise. The author concludes that positive effects are prevalent in all studies. Kohlbacher and Gruenwald (2011) provided a multidimensional construct of process orientation designed to measure process orientation of the business enterprise.

Improvement of process performance impact on business performance
Studies on business process performance analysis are focused on exploring the methods and tools that enable to evaluate and enhance the impact of process improvement on the performance of the organization. Consistent with the view that the goal of the process analysis is to improve the process by improving the process's impact on the possibility to attain the goals of the organization, the results of the research highlight the analytical tools designed to enhance the impact of the process on business outcomes.

Business process performance measurement
A lot of researches explore ways to evaluate the process. Various process measurement concepts are based on the notion that process measurement is an instrument for managing the process and has an impact on process outputs and business outcomes (  In some papers processes are analyzed as a part of value chain. Main focuse is on process integration, interorganizational and intra-organization process interaction, process outsourcing issues. Berente et al. (2009) characterize process integration in terms of organizational, data-processing, and application integration and defined principles of process integration. Wu and Park (2009) introduce theoretical framework aimed to facilitate the implementation of process outsourcing decisions. Solaimani and Bouwman (2012) propose a framework aimed to improve the alignment between business model and business process considering the generic, horizontal and vertical inter-organizational and intra-organizational interaction components.

Business process as a part of value chain
The main research questions considered in the research on business analysis are summarized in the table.
Research frameworks, methods and techniques for investigation of process analysis are summarized in Appendix 3.

Framework integrating the domains of business process analysis
Conceptualization of business process, adopted in the business process analysis research enables to capture the streams of research and also to systematize accumulated knowledge of business process into three levels of analysisprocess level, intra-organizational level and intra-organizational level.
Framework integrating the domains and levels of business process analysis summarizes the results of this study (Fig. 1). After the content analysis of selected papers a few research streams were highlighted:  Business process as a set of activities within an enterprise, designed to create value to the customer and generate value to organization  Business process as a system of activities, participants, information, interactions, rules, which is a tool intended to generate performance  Business process performance measurement  Business process as a part of value chain.
Generalized process investigation directions distinguished in relation to the first research question: conceptual approach to the structure and functioning of the processes, business process type according to process purpose, business process properties, business process elements (N=17).
Papers of the process level of analysis group anticipate business process as a tool designed to generate performance providing an output. Business process research is focused on finding the characteristics of a process that enable the achievement of process operational goal in most efficient way. Characteristics of process correctness, process user's compliance are related to the opportunities that enable performance development. However, characteristics of process weakness, complexity, uncertainty are related to threats to fail to achieve the goals of the process. Knowledge of the conditions and assumptions for these features provides opportunities for better management of processes.
Generalized process investigation direction distinguished in relation to the second research question: Improvement of the process as a tool intended to generate performance (N=24). 238 Generalized process investigation directions were distinguished:  Relationship between performance of the process and the performance of the business (N=3)  Improvement of the process performance impact on business performance (N=8)  Business process performance measurement (N=13)  Relationship between performance of the process and the performance of the business Papers of the intra-organizational level of analysis group are based on the view that the preconditions for improving the process relate to the process features enabling to achieve the goals of the organization in the optimal way. Options and prerequisites to improve the process are discovered by linking the characteristics of the process or process design with the measures of organizations' goals. This mode of research postulates the idea that there is direct connection between operation of the process and operation of the business. Therefore, improvement of the process performance leads to business performance improvement.

Improvement of the process performance impact on business performance
The assumptions for improving the process are determined by detailed analysis of the process's structure and performance in relation to the objectives of the process. Process model design and performance is the main focus in these studies. Recent research in this research stream emphasizes the problem of the process as a dynamic system capable of generating changes in the response to environmental factors, as well as enabling automatic operation of the process.

Business process performance measurement
Papers of the intra-organizational level of analysis group also focus on the issues of business process performance measurement. This mode of research postulate the ideas that the proper measurement system can influence the operation of the process; the framework for the measurement of process performance must be consistent with the objectives of the process and organization and in that way it will generate the impact on business outcomes, suitable indicators and metrics to measure business process performance should be consistent with process and business goals.
Generalized process investigation direction was distinguished in relation to the second research question: Business process as part of value chain (N=3).
Papers of the inter-organizational level of analysis group of process studies explore the concept of business process alignment within the product value chain, emphasizing the business process interactions in the interorganizational mode. Also outsourcing is the object of research that analyzes methods to facilitate process outsourcing decision-making.

Exploratory potential areas for future inquiry
Process analysis is continuous activity of process management as business enterprise continuously adapt to dynamic environment in which it operates. Measures, metrics for business process performance and techniques for business process data gathering and monitoring are known ( operations's context or environment, such as customer needs and satisfaction, organization competitiveness, data of resource markets, environmental implications on process performance. Business operation's environment data are supplied by the means of transactions and communication with customers, suppliers, stakeholders, competitors. From the point of view of process analysis these channels of information usually are not created in consistent mannier (data, data requirements lack of consistency), therefore, it is limited availability of data integration, tracking, monitoring and forecast the effects of various factors of environment on business operations. Future research on business process analysis should be directed towards the search of systems, procedures and techniques designed to ensure and manage the flow of external information and to integrate this information in the business process management systems. As the potential area of future enquiry, the integration of external and internal information is significant due to its support to the improvement of the process and business performance, based on more comprehensive knowledge of the consumers' and other stakeholders' needs.
Business process design and reengineering projects' implementation do not always successfully provide the projected results and always it is a risk that the project will fail or that sufficient performance will not be achieved. Analysis of the literature provides some insight of the limitation in deeper analysis for the risk management processes (1 table). Due to the complexity of the process systems and diversity of the risk effects and risk factors, the risk management process modeling should ensure the integration of activities for the management of a-priori risk and emergent risk factors.
Development of complex production processes, innovative business practices and the growing experience of the participants of the process create prerequisites for the implementation of intensive knowledge-based operating processes. These intensive knowledge-based processes are different from the production processes. The most significant difference is in the nature of the interaction between the participants involved in the process and the process systems. Knowledge-based processes require implementing flexible interactions and high variability workflow design; however, this type of interaction is not profoundly studied.
An approach to integrate the customer into the product lifecycle processes is considered relevant. Although, customer involvement in product design and development processes is related to the problem of user engagement and manufacturer control uncertainty. The modes of customer involvement in the process, effective control of customer actions and efficient management of overall process with the customer are of interest for future research. Customer participation in business processes is also relevant in service settings. Although, business process development in service industries provided some knowledge on the enablers of high customer value, development of efficiently operating models of the process of interaction between enterprise and its customers is not deeply investigated.

Conclusions
Structured analysis of scientific literature revealed the levels of research of business processes and the main directions of research. Conceptualization of research on business process analysis issues enable to capture three levels of analysisprocess level, intra-organizational level and intra-organizational level. The main trends of business process analysis research at the process level is related to the search for knowledge that enables business theorists and practitioners to know the process properties, elements and types, as well as to improve the process as a tool intended to generate performance. The main streams of research at the intra-organizational level capture the issues of the relationship between performance of the process and performance of the business, business process performance measurement and improvement of the process performance impact on business performance. Studies emphasizing process analysis at the inter-organizational level focus on process alignment within the product value chain and process interactions in the inter-organizational mode. Structured literature review has enabled to distinguish the relevant but less investigated issues of business process performance and to identify exploratory potential areas for future inquiry. The importance of these studies is emphasized: external information management processes and the integration of external information into process management, development and management of specific processes such as risk, knowledge creation and knowledge based processes, user involvement in business processes.  Dervitsiotis, 1999 Method for selecting critical processes with the greatest impact on organizations goals Assessment of weighted process contribution score and ranking of the processes in terms of total weighted contribution Weighted performance level calculation method to assess the weighted process contribution reflecting the impact of the process to strategic goal, Riggs matrix applied for transformation of process performance measures to common numerical performance scale Improvement of the process performance impact on business performance Espino-Rodriguez, Rodriguez-Diaz, 2014