BPM Opportunities & Services

Our research interests

Our BPM group members carry out research in many different aspects of BPM and expressions of interest for collaborations are sought in the following general areas of research. Please have a look at recent publications of the group to learn more about the topics.

• Process modelling
• Process automation
• Process verification
• Process monitoring
• Process simulation
• Process configuration
• Reference process modeling
• Process choreography
• Context-Awareness
• Applications of BPM technology
• Workflow patterns
• Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL)
• Goal specification
• Interlanguage process mappings
• BPM governance
• BPM maturity models
• Risk analysis

If you want to partner in projects and professional services:

The BPM group is involved in a variety of research projects and professional services for major companies:

• Collaborative long-term research, e.g. ARC-linkage or industry-funded
• Contract Research
• Consultancy and certification
• Community of practice (see BPM Collaboration website)
• Teaching and training (see BPM Training website)
• Joint systems development, e.g. related to the YAWL system

If you are looking for an academic staff position:

The BPM group regularly offers positions on all career levels. Positions are advertised on the QUT recruitment website. You can keep track of open positions in our group by checking the QUT recruitment website regularly, or by subscribing to the one of the major mailing lists DBWorld, ISWorld, or SEWorld where we post our position advertisements. On the QUT recruitment website you find also information about how you can apply for a position. Once your interview was successful and your application is accepted, you receive an offer to fill the position. If you are not an Australian citizen and you do not have an Australian work permit, QUT will lodge a visa sponsorship. As soon as this sponsorship is accepted, you will be notified to lodge a visa application online (visa subclass 457]). More information on this particular visa subclass is available online at the Subclass 457 website.

If you are a student interested in a PhD, Masters by Research, or Honours degree:

We encourage QUT students with an excellent track record to contact us. Please see below for how to contact us. If you do not study at QUT, there may be the option to join us as a visitor. International students should consult the QUT fees and scholarships website.

If you want to join as a visitor:

We welcome visiting researchers, students, and people from industry.

• Visiting Researchers:
  If you are planning to visit us, please contact us as much in advance as possible. In the typical case, you will need a specific visa for a visiting academic (Subclass 419). To lodge your visa application you need to be invited by QUT. More information on this particular visa subclass is available online at the Subclass 419 website. Furthermore, we have to make sure in advance that we can provide you with a desk at our group, and that you get a user account for accessing the computer network. Please see below for how to contact us.
• Students (Occupational Trainees):
  We encourage students with an excellent track record to join our group as a so-called occupational trainee. In case you are studying overseas, you need nomination letter from QUT and an occupational trainee visa (Subclass 442). More information on this particular visa subclass is available online at the Subclass 442 website.
  If you want to study at QUT, please refer to the university website to find out about admission and enrolment. There are also several scholarship programs.
• Visiting People from Industry:
  We encourage industry to get involved and benefit from our research. As part of a cooperation, you might have a stay at our group.
  Intellectual Property Management:
  While undertaking research at QUT, you should familiarize yourself with QUT rules on IP. You will also be expected to sign a YAWL Contributor Agreement while working on YAWL projects.

Funding opportunities

Some scholarship opportunities are mentioned on the QUT scholarship website. In particular applications for IPRS scholarships are now evaluated as they arrive and scholarships are awarded to applicants who meet the cut-off date (November). Commencement can proceed at any time after the offer of the scholarship.

There are also many international, national, and non-profit organizations that provide funding for exchange of students and academic staff. We have gathered links to some organizations in some countries.

1. Austria: OeAD
2. Australia: There are some funding opportunities for incoming senior researchers provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Please also consult the QUT scholarship website
3. China: China Scholarship Council
4. France: The French embassy in Australia provides some information on funding opportunities. See Ambafrance
5. Germany: DAAD
6. Italy: In Italy most of the universities provide individual schemes. The Association of Research between Italy and Australasia might help find funding. If you are an Italian student, check the translation of this page, including specific information for Italians here.

Please note that there are many other funding options in these countries and countries that we have not listed here.

Open Positions

Positions under the ARC Discovery project “Risk-aware Business Process Management

There are up to 5 new positions (1 Research Fellow and up to 4 PhD students) available under this recently approved research grant.

Project Background

This project will increase risk awareness in corporate process management and, in so doing, will lead to increased process awareness within corporate risk management.  It will investigate, evaluate and enhance current approaches for the identification, analysis, evaluation, treatment, and overall management of risk as it relates to business processes. Informed by relevant mathematical foundations, conceptual-analytical research, and empirical evidence from a range of case studies, the project will extend established process management approaches by explicitly including the concept of ‘risk’ as an integral part of process definition and enactment.

Research Fellow

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 142Kb).

PhD 1/2

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 106Kb).

PhD 3/4

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 106Kb).

Positions under the ARC Linkage project “Facilitating Business Process Standardization and Reuse”

Up to 3 new positions (1 Research Fellow and up to 2 PhD students) are available under this recently approved research grant.

Project background
One of the most pressing management challenges of today's organisations lies in the reuse and standardisation of best practices across different sectors, products or units. This project aims to design and develop an innovative process model repository and appropriate governance structures to efficiently and effectively support the standardisation and reuse of best practices. The project is co-founded by Suncorp, one of Australia’s top 25 listed companies and Queensland's largest listed corporation. Suncorp provides a range of banking and insurance products directly to customers through an extensive branch and agency network, call centre operations, on-line facilities, and through intermediaries and corporate partners. The collaboration with Suncorp will offer the successful applicants an opportunity to work with real-life business process models, and the possibility to conduct case studies to validate the outcomes of their research.

Research Fellow
The role of this research fellow is to work on algorithms and techniques to facilitate standardization of proven practices in large collections of business process models. Moreover, the fellow is expected to take a key role in the management of the research project. S(he) will assist in the supervision of research students where required, and participate in the development of the project by preparing and collating publications, reports and articles, as appropriate. Furthermore, s(he) will develop, and oversee the development of, prototypical software.

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 117Kb).

PhD 1
The role of this PhD student is to work on algorithms to reuse best practices within large process model collections. Within this work, the PhD student will be required to conduct requirements analysis, formal algorithm specification, implementation and testing.

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 105Kb).

PhD 2
The role of this PhD student is to examine theoretically and empirically the use, appropriation, governance and impact of the process model repository to be built within this project, in contexts of process standardization and reuse. To that end, the PhD student will be required to examine managerial aspects of process modelling, the use of process modelling in actual organisational task settings, as well as important organisational decision-making structures.

More information on this position can be found here (PDF, 106Kb).

Contact us!

For further information on available BPM opportunities for collaboration, please contact one of the staff members below. Please include the following information, so that we can easily answer to your request:

1. What type of collaboration are you interested in (position, student, academic visitor, occupational trainee, industry visitor)?
2. Please attach your Curriculum Vitae (including publication list if applicable)
3. Do you seek a scholarship or a funding?
4. Do you aim to engage on a full-time or part-time basis (if applicable)?
5. When is your expected start date?
6. Do you aim to reside in Brisbane during the engagement?
7. What topics of our research interests are you interested in?

Dr. Chun Ouyang
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Science and Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Ph: +61 7 3138 9835
c.ouyang_AT_qut.edu.au

Dr. Moe Thandar Wynn
Lecturer, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Science and Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Ph: +61 7 3138 9835
m.wynn_AT_qut.edu.au

Dr. Marcello La Rosa (Italian liaison)
Senior Lecturer, Senior Research Fellow
BPM cluster, Faculty of Science and Technology
University of Technology
Ph: +61 7 3138 9482
m.larosa_AT_qut.edu.au