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BPM: What is it?

Business process management (BPM) is a discipline in operations management in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company’s business processes is BPM. Processes can be structured and repeatable or unstructured and variable. Though not required, enabling technologies are often used with BPM.

It can be differentiated from program management in that program management is concerned with managing a group of inter-dependent projects. From another viewpoint, process management includes program management. In project management, process management is the use of a repeatable process to improve the outcome of the project.

Key distinctions between process management and project management are repeatability and predictability. If the structure and sequence of work is unique, then it is a project. In business process management, a sequence of work can vary from instance to instance: there are gateways, conditions; business rules etc. The key is predictability: no matter how many forks in the road, we know all of them in advance, and we understand the conditions for the process to take one route or another. If this condition is met, we are dealing with a process.

As an approach, BPM sees processes as important assets of an organization that must be understood, managed, and developed to announce and deliver value-added products and services to clients or customers. This approach closely resembles other total quality management or continual improvement process methodologies.

ISO 9000 promotes the process approach to managing an organization.

…promotes the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of a quality management system, to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements.

BPM proponents also claim that this approach can be supported, or enabled, through technology.  As such, many BPM articles and scholars frequently discuss BPM from one of two viewpoints: people and/or technology.

BPM streamlines business processing by automating workflows; while RPA automates tasks by recording a set of repetitive activities implemented by human. Organizations maximize their business automation leveraging both technologies to achieve better results.

Definitions

BPM Institute defined Business process management as:…the definition, improvement, and management of a firm’s end-to-end enterprise business processes in order to achieve three outcomes crucial to a performance-based, customer-driven firm: 1) clarity on strategic direction, 2) alignment of the firm’s resources, and 3) increased discipline in daily operations.

The Workflow Management Coalition, BPM.com and several other sources use the following definition:Business process management (BPM) is a discipline involving any combination of modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement and optimization of business activity flows, in support of enterprise goals, spanning systems, employees, customers and partners within and beyond the enterprise boundaries.

The Association of Business Process Management Professionals defines BPM as:Business process management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor, and control both automated and non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted results aligned with an organization’s strategic goals. BPM involves the deliberate, collaborative and increasingly technology-aided definition, improvement, innovation, and management of end-to-end business processes that drive business results, create value, and enable an organization to meet its business objectives with more agility. BPM enables an enterprise to align its business processes to its business strategy, leading to effective overall company performance through improvements of specific work activities either within a specific department, across the enterprise, or between organizations.

Gartner defines business process management as:”the discipline of managing processes (rather than tasks) as the means for improving business performance outcomes and operational agility. Processes span organizational boundaries, linking together people, information flows, systems, and other assets to create and deliver value to customers and constituents.”

It is common to confuse BPM with a BPM suite (BPMS). BPM is a professional discipline done by people, whereas a BPMS is a technological suite of tools designed to help the BPM professionals accomplish their goals. BPM should also not be confused with an application or solution developed to support a particular process. Suites and solutions represent ways of automating business processes, but automation is only one aspect of BPM.

Changes

The concept of business process may be as traditional as concepts of tasks, department, production, and outputs, arising from job shop scheduling problems in the early 20th century. The management and improvement approach as of 2010, with formal definitions and technical modeling, has been around since the early 1990s (see business process modeling). Note that the term “business process” is sometimes used by IT practitioners as synonymous with the management of middleware processes or with integrating application software tasks.

Although BPM initially focused on the automation of business processes with the use of information technology, it has since been extended to integrate human-driven processes in which human interaction takes place in series or parallel with the use of technology. For example, workflow management systems can assign individual steps requiring deploying human intuition or judgment to relevant humans and other tasks in a workflow to a relevant automated system.

More recent variations such as “human interaction management” are concerned with the interaction between human workers performing a task.

As of 2010, technology has allowed the coupling of BPM with other methodologies, such as Six Sigma. Some BPM tools such as SIPOCs, process flows, RACIs, CTQs and histograms allow users to:

• visualize – functions and processes
• measure – determine the appropriate measure to determine success
• analyze – compare the various simulations to determine an optimal improvement
• improve – select and implement the improvement
• control – deploy this implementation and by use of user-defined dashboards monitor the improvement in real time and feed the performance information back into the simulation model in preparation for the next improvement iteration
• re-engineer – revamp the processes from scratch for better results

This brings with it the benefit of being able to simulate changes to business processes based on real-world data (not just on assumed knowledge). Also, the coupling of BPM to industry methodologies allows users to continually streamline and optimize the process to ensure that it is tuned to its market need.

As of 2012 research on BPM has paid increasing attention to the compliance of business processes. Although a key aspect of business processes is flexibility, as business processes continuously need to adapt to changes in the environment, compliance with business strategy, policies, and government regulations should also be ensured. The compliance aspect in BPM is highly important for governmental organizations. As of 2010 BPM approaches in a governmental context largely focus on operational processes and knowledge representation. There have been many technical studies on operational business processes in the public and private sectors, but researchers rarely take legal compliance activities into account—for instance, the legal implementation processes in public-administration bodies.

Life-cycle

Business process management activities can be arbitrarily grouped into categories such as design, modeling, execution, monitoring, and optimization.

Design

Process design encompasses both the identification of existing processes and the design of “to-be” processes. Areas of focus include representation of the process flow, the factors within it, alerts and notifications, escalations, standard operating procedures, service level agreements, and task hand-over mechanisms. Whether or not existing processes are considered, the aim of this step is to ensure a correct and efficient new design.

The proposed improvement could be in human-to-human, human-to-system or system-to-system workflows, and might target regulatory, market, or competitive challenges faced by the businesses. Existing processes and design of a new process for various applications must synchronize and not cause a major outage or process interruption.

Modeling

Modeling takes the theoretical design and introduces combinations of variables (e.g., changes in rent or materials costs, which determine how the process might operate under different circumstances).

It may also involve running “what-if analysis”(Conditions-when, if, else) on the processes: “What if I have 75% of resources to do the same task?” “What if I want to do the same job for 80% of the current cost?”.

Execution

This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (February 2015)

Business process execution is broadly about enacting a discovered and modeled business process. Enacting a business process is done manually or automatically or with a combination of manual and automated business tasks. Manual business processes are human-driven. Automated business processes are software-driven. Business process automation encompasses methods and software deployed for automating business processes.

Business process automation is performed and orchestrated at the business process layer  or the consumer presentation layer  of SOA Reference Architecture. BPM software suites such as BPMS or iBPMS or low-code platforms are positioned at the business process layer. While the emerging robotic process automation software performs business process automation at the presentation layer, therefore is considered non-invasive to and de-coupled from existing application systems.

One of the ways to automate processes is to develop or purchase an application that executes the required steps of the process; however, in practice, these applications rarely execute all the steps of the process accurately or completely. Another approach is to use a combination of software and human intervention; however this approach is more complex, making the documentation process difficult.

In response to these problems, companies have developed software that defines the full business process (as developed in the process design activity) in a computer language that a computer can directly execute. Process models can be run through execution engines that automate the processes directly from the model (e.g., calculating a repayment plan for a loan) or, when a step is too complex to automate, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) provides front-end capability for human input. Compared to either of the previous approaches, directly executing a process definition can be more straightforward and therefore easier to improve. However, automating a process definition requires flexible and comprehensive infrastructure, which typically rules out implementing these systems in a legacy IT environment.

Business rules have been used by systems to provide definitions for governing behavior, and a business rule engine can be used to drive process execution and resolution.

Monitoring

Monitoring encompasses the tracking of individual processes, so that information on their state can be easily seen, and statistics on the performance of one or more processes can be provided. An example of this tracking is being able to determine the state of a customer order (e.g. order arrived, awaiting delivery, invoice paid) so that problems in its operation can be identified and corrected.

In addition, this information can be used to work with customers and suppliers to improve their connected processes. Examples are the generation of measures on how quickly a customer order is processed or how many orders were processed in the last month. These measures tend to fit into three categories: cycle time, defect rate and productivity.

The degree of monitoring depends on what information the business wants to evaluate and analyze and how the business wants it monitored, in real-time, near real-time or ad hoc. Here, business activity monitoring (BAM) extends and expands the monitoring tools generally provided by BPMS.

Process mining is a collection of methods and tools related to process monitoring. The aim of process mining is to analyze event logs extracted through process monitoring and to compare them with an a priori process model. Process mining allows process analysts to detect discrepancies between the actual process execution and the a priori model as well as to analyze bottlenecks.

Predictive Business Process Monitoring concerns the application of data mining, machine learning, and other forecasting techniques to predict what is going to happen with running instances of a business process, allowing to make forecasts of future cycle time, compliance issues, etc. Techniques for predictive business process monitoring include Support Vector Machines, Deep Learning approaches, and Random Forest.

Optimization

Process optimization includes retrieving process performance information from modeling or monitoring phase; identifying the potential or actual bottlenecks and the potential opportunities for cost savings or other improvements; and then, applying those enhancements in the design of the process. Process mining tools are able to discover critical activities and bottlenecks, creating greater business value.

Re-engineering

When the process becomes too complex or inefficient, and optimization is not fetching the desired output, it is usually recommended by a company steering committee chaired by the president / CEO to re-engineer the entire process cycle. Business process reengineering (BPR) has been used by organizations to attempt to achieve efficiency and productivity at work.

Suites

A market has developed for enterprise software leveraging the business process management concepts to organize and automate processes. The recent convergence of this software from distinct pieces such as business rules engine, business process modelling, business activity monitoring and Human Workflow has given birth to integrated Business Process Management Suites. Forrester Research, Inc recognize the BPM suite space through three different lenses:

• human-centric BPM
• integration-centric BPM (Enterprise Service Bus)
• document-centric BPM (Dynamic Case Management)

However, standalone integration-centric and document-centric offerings have matured into separate, standalone markets.

Rapid application development using no-code/low-code principles is becoming an ever prevalent feature of BPMS platforms. RAD enables businesses to deploy applications more quickly and more cost effectively, while also offering improved change and version management. Gartner notes that as businesses embrace these systems, their budgets rely less on the maintenance of existing systems and show more investment in growing and transforming them.

Practice

Example of Business Process Management (BPM) Service Pattern: This pattern shows how business process management (BPM) tools can be used to implement business processes through the orchestration of activities between people and systems.

While the steps can be viewed as a cycle, economic or time constraints are likely to limit the process to only a few iterations. This is often the case when an organization uses the approach for short to medium term objectives rather than trying to transform the organizational culture. True iterations are only possible through the collaborative efforts of process participants. In a majority of organizations, complexity requires enabling technology (see below) to support the process participants in these daily process management challenges.

To date, many organizations often start a BPM project or program with the objective of optimizing an area that has been identified as an area for improvement.

Currently, the international standards for the task have limited BPM to the application in the IT sector, and ISO/IEC 15944 covers the operational aspects of the business. However, some corporations with the culture of best practices do use standard operating procedures to regulate their operational process.  Other standards are currently being worked upon to assist in BPM implementation (BPMN, enterprise architecture, Business Motivation Model).

Technology

BPM is now considered a critical component of operational intelligence (OI) solutions to deliver real-time, actionable information. This real-time information can be acted upon in a variety of ways – alerts can be sent or executive decisions can be made using real-time dashboards. OI solutions use real-time information to take automated action based on pre-defined rules so that security measures and or exception management processes can be initiated. Because “the size and complexity of daily tasks often requires the use of technology to model efficiently” when resources in technology became increasingly widespread with general availability to businesses to provide to their staff, “Many thought BPM as the bridge between Information Technology (IT) and Business.”

There are four critical components of a BPM Suite:

• Process engine – a robust platform for modeling and executing process-based applications, including business rules
• Business analytics – enable managers to identify business issues, trends, and opportunities with reports and dashboards and react accordingly
• Content management – provides a system for storing and securing electronic documents, images, and other files
• Collaboration tools – remove intra- and interdepartmental communication barriers through discussion forums, dynamic workspaces, and message boards

BPM also addresses many of the critical IT issues underpinning these business drivers, including:

• Managing end-to-end, customer-facing processes
• Consolidating data and increasing visibility into and access to associated data and information
• Increasing the flexibility and functionality of current infrastructure and data
• Integrating with existing systems and leveraging service oriented architecture (SOA)
• Establishing a common language for business-IT alignment

Validation of BPMS is another technical issue that vendors and users must be aware of, if regulatory compliance is mandatory.  The validation task could be performed either by an authenticated third party or by the users themselves. Either way, validation documentation must be generated. The validation document usually can either be published officially or retained by users.

Cloud computing BPM

Cloud computing business process management is the use of (BPM) tools that are delivered as software services (SaaS) over a network. Cloud BPM business logic is deployed on an application server and the business data resides in cloud storage.

Market

According to Gartner, 20% of all the “shadow business processes” are supported by BPM cloud platforms. Gartner refers to all the hidden organizational processes that are supported by IT departments as part of legacy business processes such as Excel spreadsheets, routing of emails using rules, phone calls routing, etc. These can, of course also be replaced by other technologies such as workflow and smart form software.

Benefits

The benefits of using cloud BPM services include removing the need and cost of maintaining specialized technical skill sets in-house and reducing distractions from an enterprise’s main focus. It offers controlled IT budgeting and enables geographical mobility.

Internet of things

The emerging Internet of things poses a significant challenge to control and manage the flow of information through large numbers of devices. To cope with this, a new direction known as BPM Everywhere shows promise as a way of blending traditional process techniques, with additional capabilities to automate the handling of all the independent devices.

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Businesses, in order to achieve its goals and objectives, design, implement and use business processes which they, in turn, manage for optimization and standardization purposes, using what is known as Business Process Management.

Business Process Management (BPM) is a management discipline describing the systematic approach to “identify, execute, document, measure, monitor and control both automated and non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted results aligned with an organization’s strategic goals.”

To put it simply, it is the systematic approach to improving the business processes of an organization, making the workflow more efficient and effective, and improve its overall ability to adapt to an ever-changing business environment.

Management of business processes through BPM involves modelling, analysis, design and measurement of these processes. It sounds like a lot of work, which is why BPM is designed to be technology-enabled. This means that it makes use of various technological tools in carrying out its roles.

Aside from the obvious, which is the improvement of business processes to achieve its goals and objectives, why is it so important for businesses to have a BPM system in place?

• BPM facilitates the improvement and management of processes that drive optimized business results, leading to lower costs, higher revenues and high customer satisfaction, to name a few.
• BPM enables businesses to align its processes with the needs of their customers.
• BPM aids decision-making on matters such as deployment, measurement and monitoring of the resources of the organization.
• BPM contributes to the maintenance of a sound financial management system of the company.
• BPM allows the organization to keep track of its progress in meeting and achieving its goals.

To understand it better, let us take a deeper look at the benefits that organizations can derive from the implementation of Business Process Management.

Revenue growth

Increased revenue potentially means increase in the net profit earned by the company. BPM, as mentioned earlier, helps align business processes and functions to the needs of customers.

This means higher customer satisfaction and improved reputation for the company, which ultimately contribute to more revenue and, consequently, profit.

Reduced costs

Another component of increased profit is having lower costs and expenditures. Inefficiencies and waste of resources – two definite reasons for cost hemorrhage in organizations – may also result from poor planning and subsequent tracking or monitoring of the usage of these resources.

An effective BPM system provides a means for tracking the resources, and gives management the heads up in the event that some adjustments have to be made to address these inefficiencies.

Higher accountability

BPM establishes a system of checks and balances within the organization, so the functions and corresponding responsibilities and accountabilities of each department, each officer, and each employee are clearly defined.

This minimizes (and may even eliminate) the risk of losses due to human error in the conduct of their respective tasks and activities, as well as the potential of fraud and negligence.

Improved and increased productivity

Productivity is affected by various factors, including proper utilization of capital and resources, human resource management, and physical working conditions, among others. B

est practices in BPM have an impact on these aspects or areas of the business, ensuring that overall productivity is boosted.

Improved reliability of information

Having a working and effective BPM system can increase the reliability of generated business information which, in turn, will be used by management for decision-making, and other stakeholders.

Information retrieval and dissemination is also easier, saving time and effort that would have been wasted in looking them up.

Simplified and assured compliance

Many businesses unwittingly find themselves facing issues regarding non-compliance with regulations and rules imposed by legislation and industrial standards. Having a BPM system in place allows the organization to cover all its bases and keep track of their duties and obligations.

Obviously, non-compliance issues can be costly to settle, not to mention other legal repercussions that may threaten even the right of the business to operate.

Tighter security measures

The resources, as well as information, that belong to the company will be safer from loss, theft and misuse, since BPM measures are also designed to protect them. Proper documentation and dissemination of information ensures that they will not fall into the wrong hands, especially those of a confidential nature. Compliance monitoring also sees to it that the company and its employees are protected from possibilities of litigation and other legal repercussions.

Unfortunately, it is a fact that there are still a lot of businesses that do not use Business Process Management, largely because they are not aware of the concept or, even if they do, they do not fully understand its importance or the benefits they can get from it.

For others, they are intimidated by the idea of applying BPM, thinking that it is something extremely complicated and may even cost them money. After all, many are under the impression that BPM strictly means automation of business processes, and they equate “automation” with “more spending”.

There are also a few businesses that decide that they cannot “be bothered” to use BPM, since it is not the core function of their business.

However, the business landscape today has become more competitive due, in large part, to the effects of globalization and the volatility of economies and markets all over the world. Staying competitive has become one of the main concerns of most businesses, and one way to achieve that is through optimization of business processes.

Thus, Business Process Management is something that should not be ignored or easily dismissed.Looking for Your Dream JobSee All …

CORE ELEMENTS OF BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Researchers suggested six elements that every effective BPM should have.

#1. Strategic alignment or synchronization

The alignment referred to is that of the BPM and the overall strategy of the organization, meaning the business processes must be designed, implemented and managed (through the BPM) in accordance with the strategic priorities, objectives and goals of the organization.

There has to be a direct and identifiable linkage or connection between these priorities and the processes. Otherwise, you will have wasted your resources on an ineffective BPM system.

#2. Governance

From the outset, the roles and responsibilities for the different levels of BPM must be clearly established and communicated to all members of the organization and other stakeholders.

This is to ensure transparency and accountability. This also involves setting out clear guidelines on the decision-making process, as well as rewards and sanction programs.

#3. Methodologies

The conduct of BPM initiatives entail the utilization of methods, or tools and techniques that facilitate management of business processes.

The most common example often used is the Six Sigma, a set of techniques developed by Motorola engineer Bill Smith in an effort to improve the capability of business processes.

#4. Information Technology

BPM has become increasingly associated with technology, mostly because of how heavily it depends on IT-based solutions. Thus, information technology plays a very important role in the execution of BPM initiatives.

#5. People

Technology and information systems are pretty much useless by themselves, without any human factor. Therefore, organizations assign specific manpower solely dedicated to carry out its BPM initiatives.

These people possess all the necessary knowledge and skills in process management, while seeing to it that they are in alignment with the goals of the organization.

#6. Culture

This mostly pertains to the organizational culture, or the collective values within the organization. First and foremost, the organization must have a culture or environment that facilitates, complements and supports its BPM initiatives.

After all, BPM is not a standalone unit of the organization, since it cuts across the entire organizational structure.

THE BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

The BMP Life Cycle is characterized by iterative set of activities, done in phases. This means that the cycle can be repeated, instead of ending once the final phase is over.

There are six phases in the BPM life cycle.

PHASE 1: Process Planning and Strategy

In business, everything begins with a plan. This plan will serve as the guidelines to be followed by those who will implement it.

BPM begins with the development of a plan that clearly maps out the strategy and the direction of the organization’s BPM initiatives. In order to be useful for BPM, the strategy must be process-driven, and the plan must be designed and structured in a way that will ensure the delivery of value to customers.

Process planning and strategy involve the following:

• Understanding of the organization’s strategies and goals. These will serve as a guide in setting the objectives and strategies of BPM, since the two must be aligned.
• Identification and enumeration of current processes, requiring an in-depth look at the existing process architecture of the organization.

There are three types of processes or activities that exist in organizations:

1. Primary processes

These are the core processes of the company, which are readily identifiable because of their cross-functional nature, and the fact that these are the processes that directly deliver value to customers. These processes arise from the main activities of the business.

Geary Rummler categorized primary or core processes into three:

• Processes that imagine and create the product or service (ex. Product development, prototyping, conduct of feasibility studies)
• Processes that produce or make the product or service (ex. Production process, raw materials procurement)
• Processes that sell or deliver the product or service to the customers (ex. Sales, distribution)

2. Secondary processes

These are processes that are in place purposely to provide support to the primary processes, which is why they are also referred to as “support processes”. Unlike the primary processes, they do not directly deliver value, and are usually restricted to the functional areas of the organization.

The most common examples of support processes are:

• Human resource management
• Technology development
• Information technology management
• Supplies procurement
• Facilities management

3. Management processes

All organizations strive for efficiency and effectiveness, and the task of monitoring that falls on the shoulders of management, who are responsible for performing management processes.

These processes take a look at both the primary and secondary processes, mainly to monitor whether they are on track in meeting the company’s operational and financial goals. They are also in place to ensure compliance of the primary and secondary processes to regulatory and legal guidelines.

Just like the support processes, management processes also do not directly provide value, but are nonetheless vital to the organization.

• Identification of appropriate BPM roles and responsibilities within the organization. Who are the key players in BPM? What level of support will the organization’s BPM initiatives get from top management and the other members of the organization?
• Identification of methodologies and performance measures to be used in BPM.

PHASE 2: Analysis of Business Processes

There is a need to understand the current or existing business processes since they are the very object of BPM. Obviously, one will not be able to manage something that it does not understand. The objective of this phase is to find out whether the business processes currently in place are aligned with the goals and objectives of the organization.

Certain methodologies are applied in the analysis phase. The most common, and usually first, step undertaken is the gathering of data and information on the business processes. These are obtained from currently maintained company or organization documentation, strategic plans and process models. It may also require more than a peek into the performance measurements being used by the company.

Analysis will provide insights on the strengths and weaknesses of the business processes, and open windows to understanding how they impact the overall performance of the organization.

The process analysis techniques can be classified into two.

1. Qualitative analysis

Qualitative analysis is performed for two reasons: to identify wastes, redundancies, or losses incurred in the processes and eliminate them, and to identify and understand all the issues involved, and prioritize them accordingly.

Some of the most commonly used techniques are:

• Value-added analysis – In this technique, each step in the processes are classified on whether they are value-adding (VA), business value-adding (BVA), or non-value-adding (NVA). A step is considered VA if it produces value to the customer, denoted by a willingness on the part of the latter to pay for that specific step. An example is the assembly process of a product. After completion of the production process, but before delivery to customers, the finished product is required by law to undergo physical inspection by an independent third-party. This does not add value to the customer, but it adds value to the business, since it is a requirement for the continuous operation of the business. This is BVA activity. Rework costs in case the product was defective due to worker negligence, as well as costs of delay in shipment or delivery, on the other hand, do not add value to the customer. This is NVA. Basically, any other activity that does not fall under the VA and BVA categories will fall under this.
• Root-Cause analysis – This issue analysis technique often makes use of cause-and-effect diagrams and why-why diagrams, highlighting causal factors and seeking answers to the “Why” questions regarding the processes. This makes the technique effective for getting to the root of the problems or issues.
• Pareto analysis – Pareto bar charts are primarily used in this technique. The bar chart presents the impact of all the relevant issues or problems. The higher or taller bars are those that require more attention, which means they should be prioritized.

2. Quantitative analysis

Quantitative analysis techniques are centered around numbers, figures and statistics. These often include:

• Quantitative flow analysis – There are several flow analysis techniques being used, depending on the process being analyzed. Flow analysis is usually used in the analysis of capacity requirements, error rates in the process level, as well as costs. Cycle time analysis is also a common application of flow analysis, where the average duration or cycle time for an entire process – or a step in the process – is calculated, in order to assess efficiency and effectiveness.
• Queuing analysis – Unlike the flow analysis, queuing takes waiting time into consideration. Variability in service times, delays and rework times, are factored in, in recognition of the fact that these capacity problems are unavoidable and should, therefore, play a role in process design and redesign.
• Process simulation – Process simulation also considers waiting times, but it is also applicable for processes that involve parallel activities running simultaneously. Queuing generally does not apply to these types of activities. In process simulation, the process is modeled into a simulation model, which is enhanced with simulation data, and undergoes simulation. The outputs are then analyzed. In the event that there are multiple scenarios, the simulation model can be tweaked accordingly and undergo simulation again until all alternative scenarios are covered.

Findings during this phase will usually point to either one of two: it is either the business processes are aligned with organizational goals and objectives, or they are not. The findings will be used in the next phase of the BPM life cycle.

PHASE 3: Design and Modeling of Business Processes

Depending on the results of the business process analysis, there may be a need to design new processes, or redesign the existing ones. The objective is to come up with a process design that provides a full picture of the work, from end to end, to guarantee the delivery of value to customers.

The main concern in this phase is to determine whether the process is good “as is”, or if it should be redesigned in a better, more appropriate “to be” process.

This phase entails the following:

• Understanding of the intention of the organization with respect to the business process, such as what they want to achieve and how they are going to use the process to achieve them.
• Documentation of the work to be performed through process modeling, in detail:
  • Nature of the work
  • Time, duration and frequency of performance of work
  • Location of performance of work
  • The workers primarily and secondarily involved in the work performance
  • Methodologies, tools and techniques used
  • Sequence of activities within the work process
• Identification and understanding of the environmental factors that have an impact on the process, as these are likely to influence the design (or redesign, as the case may be) of processes.

Business process modeling is basically the activity of representing the processes of the organization in a structural form. It serves two main purposes: documentation and analysis. The business process model serves as a ready reference for members of the organization for any future projects or process evaluations. It is also a useful training aid in the case of new employees.

Further, the process model will play a central role when management evaluates the performance of the departments or units, and when it is looking for opportunities for change. In the event that there are plans for business expansion and growth, the documentation will also be a great help.

This can be in the form of a narrative description, a diagram or an illustration, as long as it provides an end-to-end perspective of all the processes of the organization – whether they are primary, support, or management processes.

Perhaps the most identifiable form is a workflow chart or diagram, which maps out the logical flow of activities within the process in a unit or department of the organization. Some companies prefer the representation to be in the form of a map, since it offers more precision. In other cases, the preference is for a model, which are highly precise and highly detailed, and also require a lot of work.

When it comes to process redesign, there are two approaches:

• Continuous Process Improvement. In this approach, there is an implied acceptance of the current processes. Therefore, the main focus is to identify the problems or issues that were previously unnoticed, and seek solutions for them. This approach looks for these solutions incrementally, taking one issue at a time.
• Business Process Re-engineering. Unlike the Continuous Process Improvement, Re-engineering takes a look at the entire process structure and aims to rework it entirely, with the aim of streamlining it or making it more effective and efficient. It is decidedly a more sweeping approach.

PHASE 4: Process Implementation

The designed (or redesigned) process will be implemented. Implementation is performed either systemically or non-systemically.

• Systemic implementation entails the use of specific software and technologies in implementing the process design.
• Non-systemic implementation is when these technological BPM tools are not used.

The choice between the two will largely depend on the nature of the business process and, in a small part, on the resources of the organization. After all, the use of technology is bound to cost the company.

PHASE 5: Process Monitoring and Controlling

The process, once implemented, requires tracking, measuring, and controlling, which is supposed to be done on a continuous basis. The purpose of these is to:

• Obtain necessary information to ascertain whether changes or adjustments must be made to the process design, or even to the resources and tools used in its implementation.
• Measure performance of the process to gauge whether it, indeed, leads to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.

Business process analytics are the main inputs in this phase, where historical analytics are used for process controlling purposes. Monitoring of the business activities are usually done through the use of dashboards and rule-based notifications, particularly in organizations that have their own IT infrastructure that they can use for the BPM initiatives.

PHASE 6: Process Refinement or Improvement

BPM allows organizations to maintain the high level of quality and performance of its business processes. Through monitoring and control of process performance, the organization will be able to innovate and improve its processes primarily through redesign and reengineering.

Basically, the results of all that analysis and design (and redesign) work will be implemented to “fine-tune” the process. Remember that the company aims to optimize its processes through BPM, and that is mostly fulfilled in this phase.

This phase targets the improvement or refinement of three aspects: performance of the processes, of process management, and of the organization as a whole.

Business Process Modeling: Definition, Benefits and How to

Business Process modeling isn’t a radical concept–it’s been around for a while. However, the changes it can bring about in business productivity and efficiency are nothing short of revolutionary.

But what is it, and why exactly do you need it?

What is Business Process Modeling (BPM)?

Business process modeling (or) process modeling, is the analytical representation or put simply an illustration of an organization’s business processes. Modeling processes is a critical component for effective business process management.

Process modeling software gives an analytical representation of ‘as-is’ processes in an organization and contrasts it with ‘to-be’ processes for making them more efficient.

Many business process modeling tools end up producing something like this:

Why Use Business Process Modeling?

Your first step in modeling is actually pen and paper. However, to actually run a business process, you will need to digitize that process in a way that a workflow engine can understand.

Business process modeling software allow you to represent your process in a digital way that can then be transferred to a live automated process.

There are many benefits to business process modeling:

• Gives everyone a clear understanding of how the process works
• Provides consistency and controls the process
• Identifies and eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies
• Sets a clear starting and ending to the process

Business process modeling can also help you group similar processes together and anticipate how they should operate. The primary objective of business process modeling tools is to analyze how things are right now and simulate how should they be carried out to achieve better results. ? Kissflow, our BPM Software, Streamline your business with superpowered processes.

Business Process Modeling Techniques

Business process modeling can be expressed through flowcharts, programs, hypertext, or scripts. There isn’t just one way to implement business process modeling; in fact, you can choose from as many as 12 techniques.

Here are some of the most common business process modeling techniques:

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

BPMN 2.0 has become something of a standard syntax used by process analysts and those who create business modeling tools. It is a relatively simple usage of lines, arrows, and geometric shapes that all communicate the flow and nuances of the process. A process consultant can look at a BPMN 2.0 model and know exactly how it should function.

“Eventually, when [those] companies get their products shipping and crank up their marketing machines, BPMN will be the unquestioned standard for process modeling and execution. But right now, we are still between the news and the reality.” – Bruce Silver, Process Consultant and Author of the book BPMN Method and Style

However, BPMN 2.0 is still a learned language, and although relatively simple, isn’t immediately intuitive for the regular business user. It is a great tool for process consultants, but not helpful for those looking to create their own applications.

Universal Process Notation

Instead of having a new language to learn, a more intuitive system is Universal Process Notation or UPN.

UPN provides a simple box for each task to be completed. The box shows what happens, who is assigned to it, and when it happens in the sequence. It is extremely useful for IT to design and analyze processes, for management to comply to business norms, and – more importantly – for end business users to understand processes as intended. Kissflow uses UPN in its modeler.

Flowchart Technique

Flowcharts explain complex process flows in a simple yet effective way. They illustrates process steps in their sequential order, going from inputs to actual process to outputs. In fact, flowcharts provide the basic framework for BPMN to display advanced process flows.? Kissflow, our process tracking software, can help your business stay constantly aware of every last business process.

Gantt Charts

Rather than showing the steps sequentially, Gantt charts are able to show the entire process using ‘time taken’ as one of the main axes. It does a better job of showing the overall time taken to complete a project than other options.

Petri-Nets

Traditionally a modeling technique in mathematics, petri-nets are also useful for modeling business processes. Petri-nets classify or color-code complex workflow steps, users, and routes in different colors.

What Do I Need in a Process Modeling Software?

Most BPM Suites include business process modeling tools in them. However, some have the modeler as a separate application.

The modeler is one of the most important elements in a BPMS, and you should spend a lot of time learning it before committing to buy a suite.

Great business modeling tools should:

• Be easy to learn for the business departments
• Be simple for IT teams to communicate with other departments
• Be inexpensive and industry compliant
• Have an integrated workflow editor tool with graphic interface
• Be able to simulate workflow before implementing

The 4 Types of Process Diagramming Tools in BPM software

The key feature of any business process management (BPM) tool is how it diagrams workflows and processes. The entire idea of BPM is being able to create and edit a process in such a way that a system can follow along.

However, diagramming tools have changed a lot in the last several years. Here are the four major types of interfaces you might encounter when selecting a BPM tool.

1. Coding

This was the only option in most of the original BPM software. A programmer would need to go in and manually write out all of the code needed to map out the workflow. He would need to create each task individually, and tell the system what should happen in every situation (if it is approved, rejected, etc).

Coding is still an option for some business process management tools. It provides the highest amount of flexibility because you can build the process completely from scratch. However, only people who know the programming language are able to create and modify the process. Process owners have to rely on the programmer to make the process function properly, and they will need to go back to him frequently for even the smallest changes.⋙ Do you know these 7 compelling reasons to go for cloud BPM?

2. Data Entry

At some point, BPM tools began offering an interface that used forms to ask users standard questions about how they wanted the process set up. This was a huge leap because now non-technical users could create their own processes. However, the data-entry model is the least flexible. Users cannot go beyond what is available on the form and are very limited on how they can build workflows.

3. Visual Designer Based on Activities

Many modern BPM options use this designer. It is a good bridge between the business user and the programmer. Most of these options make use of business process model and notation (BPMN). This is a consistent graphical representation to specify a business process. Rather than using a programming language or text fields, the user can actually see graphically what a process looks like.

These designers allow a user to create events and activities as a part of the workflow. Once an activity takes place, the user can then choose what happens. Some activities performed by a machine (like a data transfer) will sequentially and automatically lead to the next activity. At other activities (sometimes called gateways), multiple actions might take place. For example, if it is an approval step, the path will diverge if the answer is yes or no.

These process builders are quite robust in terms of functionality. By the end, you can create something that looks like this:

(Source Wikipedia)

4. Visual Designer Based on Business Steps

Visual design was a huge step for diagramming workflows. However, it was still a compromise between the human business user and the machine. The user needs to learn the proper notation and think through every possibility that might take place after an action is finished.

But most business users don’t think like that. They think in terms of business steps. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, done.

A visual process modeler that is based on business steps starts from the user’s point of view. It stays in the business context without delving into what the software needs to consider. The user can create a process that shows how the process should function 99% of the time. For example, the above diagram might look like this:

This model makes much more immediate sense for the user. The key difference is that the system takes care of all the additional work that showed up in the earlier notation.

For example, should the CEO reject the notes from the discussion, he can send it back to any earlier step, and the system takes care of it.⋙ Thinking of BPM, but unsure which way to use it? We’ve written about choosing the right BPM methodology here.

Think Like a Human

If you are going to use a BPM software, use the interface that allows your business users to think as they normally do. When they are forced to learn a new notation style just for the sake of creating a workflow, it won’t end up serving their needs.

Kissflow Process is an example of a human-centric workflow that lets business users diagram workflows as they imagine them and then lets the system do all the heavy work in the background. This plays to the strengths of the user and the system. The user knows how the process should run every time and the system can offer the best way to structure the path.

When selecting the best business process management tool, it all starts with the process builder. If you choose one that is complex for your business users, they will either be at the mercy of IT and external consultants for every small change, or they will abandon it altogether. Put the power of making processes in the hands of your business leaders!