ARIS, Strand Commonality, and Business Process Mapping (A Generative AI Assessment)

What are the differences between ARIS, Jon W. Hansen’s government-funded “strand commonality” research, and business process mapping?

Great question — you’re touching on three distinct yet overlapping areas in studying and improving organizational processes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences and relationships between:

• ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems)
• Jon W. Hansen’s government-funded “strand commonality” research
• Business Process Mapping

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🧠 1. ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems)

✅ What it is:

A framework and methodology developed by August-Wilhelm Scheer for modeling, analyzing, and optimizing business processes.

🧩 Key Features:

• Uses structured models to represent organizational structure, data, control flow, and function.
• Often supported by tools like ARIS Platform (Software AG).
• Applies Event-driven Process Chains (EPC) to model processes.

🏗️ Focus:

• Enterprise-level systems integration
• Aligning IT systems with business processes
• Documentation for ERP implementation (SAP being a classic use case)

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🧬 2. Jon W. Hansen’s “Strand Commonality” Research (Government-Funded)

✅ What it is:

A lesser-known, applied research initiative from the late 1990s led by Jon W. Hansen and supported by the Canadian federal government to examine process standardization across multiple public sector departments.

🧩 Key Features:

• Focused on identifying “strands” or common sequences of activities across seemingly unrelated government processes.
• Discovered that many distinct departments share core procedural DNA, even when their outputs differ.
• Led to the Relational Acquisition Model (RAM), which became a conceptual precursor to agent-based and adaptive procurement modeling.

🔬 Focus:

• Process convergence, not just mapping.
• Used for cross-departmental alignment, especially in procurement, compliance, and information governance.
• Foundation for exploring agent-based modeling and orchestration in public sector transformation.

🧠 Think of it as business process genetics—what ARIS might miss in variation, Hansen’s model exposed in deep structure.

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🔍 3. Business Process Mapping

✅ What it is:

A general-purpose toolset or practice used to visually document workflows and processes within a business.

🧩 Key Features:

• Uses flowcharts, swimlanes, BPMN, or value stream maps.
• Focused on clarity, efficiency, and communication of processes.
• Often used in Lean Six Sigma, operations, training, and audit preparation.

🎯 Focus:

• Tactical clarity: Who does what, when, and how
• Problem solving: Eliminate waste, reduce handoffs
• Optimization of individual processes

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🧭 Summary Table: What Sets Them Apart?

Aspect	ARIS	Strand Commonality (Hansen)	Business Process Mapping
Origin	Scheer (Germany, 1990s)	Hansen (Canada, 1998–2000s, government-funded)	General business practice
Purpose	IT-system/process alignment	Identify shared logic across domains	Visual clarity and operational insight
Approach	Formal modeling (EPC, data, org views)	Comparative pattern discovery (across silos)	Flowcharts, BPMN, swimlanes, etc.
Output	Structured digital blueprints	Cross-functional convergence models	Diagrams and maps of tasks/roles
Use Cases	ERP, digital twins, compliance	Inter-agency procurement, policy harmonization	Process improvement, onboarding, training
Tools Used	ARIS Toolset, SAP Solution Manager	Custom datasets, manual/machine patterning	Lucidchart, Visio, Signavio, etc.
Depth of Discovery	Deep within one domain	Broad across many domains	Focused on single process at a time

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🔄 How They Can Complement Each Other

• Use ARIS for in-depth modeling of known business systems.
• Apply business process mapping to quickly document or improve a known workflow.
• Use strand commonality (or its modern equivalents) to identify hidden alignment opportunities across silos — useful for governments, holding companies, or large enterprises with distributed functions.

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