Identifying the Current State and Improvement Opportunities in the Information Flows Necessary to Manage Professional Athletes: A Case Study in Rugby Union

In sporting environments, the knowledge necessary to manage athletes is built on information flows associated with player management processes. In current literature, there are limited case studies available to illustrate how such information flows are optimized. Hence, as the first step of an optimization project, this study aimed to evaluate the current state and the improvement opportunities in the player management information flow executed within the High-Performance Unit (HPU) at a professional rugby union club in England. Guided by a Business Process Management framework, elicitation of the current process architecture illustrated the existence of 18 process units and two core process value chains relating to player management. From the identified processes, the HPU management team prioritized 7 processes for optimization. In-depth details on the current state (As-Is) of the selected processes were extracted from semi-structured, interview-based process discovery and were modeled using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standards. Results were presented for current issues in the information flow of the daily training load management process, identified through a thematic analysis conducted on the data obtained mainly from focus group discussions with the main stakeholders (physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches, and HPU management team) of the process. Specifically, the current state player management information flow in the HPU had issues relating to knowledge creation and process flexibility. Therefore, the results illustrate that requirements for information flow optimization within the considered environment exist in the transition from data to knowledge during the execution of player management decision-making processes.