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information characterizing its relevance. The
decision makers may decide to monitor or not the
external variables that were not relevant after
applying BPECREL. In cases that a variable is
related to many BPs (as with External VarX in
table1 and table 2), it may be worthy monitoring it
even if its relevance was not detected. Moreover, the
number of impacted BP by an external variable may
increase its relevance. For example, even though
VarZ is not considered the most relevant, it impacts
the greatest number of BPs.
We can also observe that BPECREL is
associated with some other activities of MEA03. It is
possible to assess the impacts of variations on
external variables such as legal aspects that biased
the process even positively or negatively and thus
helping to make previsions while tendencies to new
deviations occur.
However, the discovered knowledge depends on
the amount of detailed information available in the
processes logs. Thus, it is essential to collect the
appropriate information about the execution of
activities within the enterprise.
5.2 Final Considerations and Future
Work
The application of BPECREL processes, such as
illustrated in this paper, highlights opportunities for
integration with other COBIT 5 processes. For
example, knowledge management initiatives may
store all knowledge gained in applying BPECREL to
facilitate their subsequent reuse in decision making;
moreover, innovation management initiatives may
adopt BPECREL to come up with opportunities for
process improvements.
Supporting the identification and prioritization of
variables to be considered in the context of the
external environment allows that changes in those
variables might trigger decision making, by adapting
the process (new requirements) or implementing
new business rules. Those are typical issues that IT
processes should also understand and provide fast
answers. Therefore, the knowledge gained on
business are reflected and aligned with actions in IT
processes.
As future work we suggest conducting case
studies to validate the proposal of improving COBIT
by applying the BPECREL method in the MEA03
process and in other COBIT 5 processes, such as
innovation management and risk management;
improving COBIT by creating a new COBIT 5
process or adapting a exiting one to centralize all
competitive intelligence activities used by COBIT 5,
such as defining external variables in the innovation
management and in MEA03 process. This could be
done by adapting the knowledge management
process. We also suggest applying the BPECREL
method in other COBIT 5 processes using all
surveillance areas proposed in the BPECREL
method and not the surveillance areas indicated in
some COBIT processes.
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