# Process Automation and Blockchain in Intelligence and Investigation Units: An Approach
## 5 Evaluation, Results, and Discussions
### Experience of Use  
In order to obtain evidence of the applicability of the approach in real case scenarios, an experience of use was carried out in a Brazilian public institution that, among its attributions, also acts in the fight against crime (as mentioned in Section 4.1). For this experience, a technology laboratory against money laundering was selected as the specialized unit among the units that perform or support intelligence or investigation activities (decision of the institution's senior management). After identifying the experts involved in the processes and identifying the requests and expected results, the classification (understanding), simplification, and automation stages started. While carrying out of the experiment, the following actions were performed:  
* For each existing process, interviews and information collection that was inherent to the process's activities were performed with specialists, aiming at modeling and simplification of the processes. * In order to validate if the process perspectives (Table 6) can be extracted and defined, as well as check if the operational procedures are executed in the same way, the \"walking the process\" ([22]) method was adopted. That is, an individual went through a whole process observing each activity, technique, or methodology performed, information used and participation of the specialists involved. With that, it was possible to identify opportunities for improvement, unnecessary uses of resources or poor organization of time, among other problems that were being exposed. * After storing the generated digital assets (e.g., documentation, models, operating procedures, methodologies adopted, etc. ), activity performed during all stages of the approach when necessary, and selecting the processes identified as \"suitable for automation\", the stages of potential evaluation and calculation of the prioritization index were initiated. * In the potential evaluation step, specialists were asked to answer the questions presented in Table 5. With the result obtained, the calculation of the potential weights was performed as proposed in the approach presented in this paper. * To calculate the prioritization index, experts who were responsible for executing the process reported, based on a history of executed works, the average number of transactions executed per month (the reported values were divided by 30 as recommended by the proposed approach). The specialists also informed the time it usually takes to complete the process. * After the priority index calculation and analysis using the scale for assigning a relevance weight (SARW) model (as illustrated in Figure 6), the classification of the identified processes was performed using the quadrant as illustrated in Figure 7.  
* Of the processes categorized as highest likely for automation (quadrant A of Figure 7), two processes were selected by the managers of the team of specialists to start the development procedure of information systems implemented to automate the selected processes. The adopted selection criteria were a process with one of the highest volume of requests, and another with one of the longest execution time in relation to the others in the category. * Before the selected processes' automation, the information obtained in the process validation step for verification is suitable for automation (obtained through the \"walking the process\" method) if used in the simplification step. With the information, it was possible not only to reorganize some steps performed in the processes, such as the execution of efforts identified as unnecessary, but also eliminate unnecessary steps or procedures. The first selected process involves procedures of collecting, crossing, and analyzing information, as well as applying operational procedures based on investigative techniques and methodologies. Finally, in involved generating reports that resulted from individual analysis (e.g., natural and legal persons) within criminal investigative contexts.