Conclusions

The C++ library BPSIM provides a set of classes that enable the simulation of administrative business processes, modelled using Logistics Based Business Modelling . Because there is almost an one-to-one match between the concepts used in LBBM and the classes provided by BPSIM, it is fairly easy to write simulation programs for business processes that are modelled with LBBM. Furthermore, the fact that the library is programmed in C++ gives the user all the advantages of object oriented programming .

Developing a library to simulate LBBM models showed some shortcomings of LBBM:

• Although we can allocate operations to a function, we cannot specify which and how many employees can perform that function, except by specifying such in an additional note.
• It is not possible to specify more sophisticated task allocations. An example would be when a series of operations has to be executed by a specific function, but the last operation must be executed by a different employee than the rest of the operations. This could be the case when a employee has to check the work done by a colleague.

  If some operation is allocated to some function and another operation in a different part of the model is allocated to that same function, we cannot specify that both operations have to be performed by the same employee. This is often the case with case oriented work .

BPSIM is not a finished application. To build a more complete business process simulation application a lot of functionality needs to be added. Examples are:

• A graphical user interface that enables the drawing and simulation of LBBM process models, without the need of programming the models in C++, i.e. visualization .
• Animation  would give the possibility to see the simulation run being executed. One could think of arrows flashing when objects are passed between operations, or more sophisticated, documents flying from operation to operation.

SIM  is already part of Hush , a C++ API for Tcl/Tk (Eliëns [3]), which supports the development of graphical user interfaces. Work is currently being done on a graphical user interface for SIM. Maybe in the future these building blocks, SIM, BPSIM and Hush, could be used to develop a business process simulation application.