Identification and analysis of handovers in organisations using process model repositories

Purpose
Identifying handovers is an important but difficult to achieve goal for companies as handovers have advantages allowing for specialisation in processes as well as disadvantages by creating erroneous interfaces.

Design/methodology/approach
Conceptualisation of a method based on theory and evaluation with company data using a process model repository.

Findings
The method allows to evaluate handovers from the perspective of roles in processes and grouping of employees in organisational units. It uses existing process model repositories connected with organisational chart information in companies to determine the density of handovers. The method is successfully evaluated using the example of a major telecommunications company with 1,010 process models in its repository.

Practical implications
Companies can determine on various levels, up to the overall organisational level, in which parts of the company efforts are best spent to manage handovers in an optimal way.

Originality/value
This paper is first in showing how handovers can be conceptualised and identified with a large-scale method.