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Introduction of Government Process Modeling With Rockwell Arena SoftwareWhen agencies and nonprofits become players in networks of strategicalliances, the same principle applies. What ultimately matters to citizens isthroughput — not how the outputs were produced. Service-orientedarchitecture (SOA) is the art and science of designing automated processes thatcross organizational boundaries within strategic alliances. The purpose of thisarticle is to report the experiences of an instructor and MPA students whileusing Rockwell Arena software to create models and simulations of “business”processes for individual organizations, and the larger potential networks ofstrategic partners. The key assertion of this article is that MPA students shouldbe made aware of the importance of designing and automating the “businessprocesses” of agencies and nonprofit organizations, and that using RockwellArena software to do this is both valuable and feasible. Arena is a majormodeling and simulation software application with an intuitive visual interface,and is used in industries, businesses, and government agencies. The followingsections of this article include a background, explanations of Arena software andof the assignments, a discussion, and conclusions.BACKGROUNDAs Public Affairs scholars and teachers we tend to emphasize organizationalstructure and departmental functions rather than business processes. Scholars inBusiness Administration programs tend to place more teaching emphasis on theimportance of business processes, partly because of a strong interest inoperations research, logistics, and supply chains. “Functions” are specializedactivities that usually are performed within single departments. Processes aresequences of activities that usually span multiple departments and perhapsmultiple organizations (Harmon, 2007). This distinction is important becausethe optimization of functions at the expense of the design of processes canconstrain the throughputs of an organization (Dettmer, 2007). Spencer (1999)observed that reengineering rejects the paradigm of separating tasks by function,by using technology to join tasks into connected, coherent processes. Hence,process orientation is a major challenge to the paradigm grounded in AdamSmith (2003), Max Weber (Andreski, 2008), and others. Our students need tosee beyond bureaucracy and its functional subdivisions of work, to the inherentpossibilities of process orientation, and beyond that, to service orientation.J. F. Forrester and J. W. Forrester (1969) anticipated the preparation of a newkind of manager with skills in modeling and organizational design. Theycompared the design of organizations to the design of aircraft, noting that it isunlikely for an airplane designed without modeling to be flown successfully.Herbert Simon (1969) advocated the development of design sciences within thesocial sciences. Shangraw, Crow, and Overman (1989) made the tie between theNew Public Administration and the design (and redesign) of organizations.More recently, Anderson et al. (1994) noted that public managers need to384 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Introduction of Government Process Modeling With Rockwell Arena Softwareappreciate the strategic possibilities that technology presents for creating orimproving government processes. Dawes (2004) emphasized that MPAgraduates need information technology (IT) savvy to help assure futurealignment of public IT projects with agency objectives. She listed five majorcompetencies for effective strategy and management of government information,including analytical skills. Within analytical skills, she included business-processanalysis, information and work-flow analysis, and modeling techniques.NASPAA has affirmed that information is an important organizational resourcein its own right, and that information management should be included in theMPA curriculum (White, 2007). Brewer, Neubauer, and Geiselhart (2006)maintained that it is important for public managers to know enough about ITsystems so they can assure that technical professionals do not make the decisionsthat managers should make regarding the design of e-government applications.Hammer and Champy (1993) championed business process reengineering(BPR) efforts as the key to efficiency, effectiveness, and successful automation ofprocesses. Economist Ronald Coase (1937) recognized that new informationtechnologies can reduce external transaction costs (Downes & Mui, 2000), andanticipated the implications of reduced external transaction costs fromoutsourcing, as well as the downsizing of organizations. These insights serve toanticipate the observations by O’Toole (1997) and others — that networks ofstrategic alliances among organizations are becoming increasingly important inthe performance and delivery of public services. Traditionally, we have placedmore emphasis on the implications of bureaucratic structures than we have onthe dynamics of processes and networks of associations. We generally placedmore emphasis on relationships involving authority than we did on the meansby which work is completed through cooperation, coordination, and emergence.Modeling and computer simulations can be a way to approach the challengeof helping students understand processes and networks as complex dynamicsystems. A model of a business process is a static representation of activitiesthat reflects how work is performed. A computer simulation of a modelprovides a dynamic visual representation of an “alternative future” that can leadto virtual, vicarious learning experiences. The initial creation of a model is alearning activity. Multiple observations of simulations using the model can leadstudents into iterative learning experiences as they identify problems in thesimulations that would not have been recognized in the static model. Koliba(2004) writes of the importance of MPA students being engaged in reflectivewriting assignments regarding their studies and their relevant employmentexperiences. Computer simulations can become a context for learning aboutwhich students have the ability to reflect and write. Simulations can produceunexpected outcomes, and they do not always produce the same outcomeswhen run repeatedly.Journal of Public Affairs Education 385
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