VBP: An approach to modelling process variety and best practice

The concept of best practice is both attractive and highly problematic. Whilst organisations can learn from the practices of others there is also a danger that local variety may be squeezed out and that “one size fits all” solutions may stifle local context-specific innovations. This paper outlines an approach to modelling process specialisation hierarchies and best practice patterns with the Unified Modelling Language (UML). The process Variety and Best Practice approach, VBP, is applied to a recent e-government project that explored variety and best practice in citizens’ access portals for four UK local authorities.