BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT
PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO BPM
1. BPM
= Body of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze, execute, and monitor business processes
PURPOSE = improve these businesses ≠ how to automate them
Physical flows → digital flows digitization efficient management of BP requires a lot of tools
2 approaches to engage in BPM
1) Continuous process improvement (CPI)
- Does not put into question the current process structure
- Seeks to identify issues + resolve them incrementally one fix at a time
2) Business process re-engineering (BPR)
- Puts into question the fundamental assumptions and principles of existing structure
- Aims to achieve breakthrough e.g. removing costly tasks that don’t add value
BUSINESS PROCESSES =
Collection of related events, activities and decisions, that involve a number of actors and objects, and
that collectively lead to an outcome that is of value to an organization or its customers
e.g. order-to-cash, quote-to-order, procure-to-pay, etc.
• There ≠ single right way of modelling a certain BP e.g. washing machine reparation
• Every process leads to one or several outcomes = end events
o Positive outcomes – deliver value e.g. fault repaired without intervention
o Negative outcomes – reduce value e.g. fault not repaired + request withdrawn
! First look at what outcomes you want for the BP (will improve modeling)
• Don’t add much elements only if necessary to understand control/resource flow
Core elements of a process
Activities = active elements e.g. enter sales order
→ time-consuming + resource-demanding + state-changing
Events = passive elements e.g. sales order has been entered
→ represent conditions/circumstances + are atomic, instantaneous
Business objects (data) = organizational artifacts that undergo state changes e.g. sales order
→ physical or electronic information
Actors (resources) = entities performing process activities + generating events e.g. supplier, ERP
→ human and systems
1
, Process perspectives
I. Control flow perspective – “what needs to be done and when”
- Predecessor/successor relationship among activities and events
- The central information depicted in a process model
II. Data perspective – “what do we need to work on”
- Input/output data to activities
- Complements the control flow
III. Resource perspective – “who’s doing the work”
- Human participants + systems that perform control flow activities & generate events
- Complements the control flow
2. THE BPM LIFECYCLE
2.1 Process identification
PROCESS IDENTIFICATION = only step that doesn’t focus on single BP looks at entire landscape
✓ Define an organization’s business processes
✓ Establish criteria to prioritize the management of these processes
PURPOSE = understand the organization + max the value of its BPM initiatives
OUTPUT = process architecture
1) Captures BPs and their scope
2) Serves as framework for defining priorities and scope of subsequent BPM phases
3) Offers a ranking for all BPs + indication whether its useful to improve these
Process identification steps
Step 1 Designation phase
• Enumerate main processes “Which BPs are present in a particular business?”
• Determine process scope “Starting point, ending point & who is involved?”
o Boundaries – horizontal and vertical
o Interrelationships – order and hierarchy
Designation via reference models e.g. APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF)
- Industry-neutral enterprise model for benchmarking
- 4 levels: categories, process group, process, activity
2
, Step 2 Evaluation phase = process selection
• Objectives
o Alignment with strategic objectives
o Culture & politics
o Feasibility to being successfully improved
o Risk of not improving them
o health: performance, compliance, sustainability…
• Process portfolio management
1) Importance: which processes have the greatest impact on strategic goals?
2) Dysfunction: which processes are in the deepest trouble?
3) Which process is the most susceptible to successful process management?
= subjective opinion!
2.2 Process discovery: as-is process modelling
Build a visual process model that details how process is laid out in the organization
PHASES
Phase 1 Defining the setting – assembling organiz team responsible for working on process
Phase 2 Gathering information – building an understanding of the process
→ ≠ discovery methods can be used to acquire info on a process
Phase 3 Conducting the modelling task – organizing the creation of the process model
→ modelling method gives guidance for mapping out the process in a systematic way
See later Phase 4 Assuring process model quality – guarantee resulting models meet ≠ quality criteria
= important for establishing trust in process model
Who is involved? extract info from relevant people involved in the process
! CHALLENGES
Fragmented process knowledge: no one has entire overview of the process ≠ views
Domain experts think on instance level: “Every customer (instance) is different”
ito a process they are very similar
Knowledge about process modelling is rare: extracting real-life info from BPS = complex
→ need to translate this for people who don’t understand it = inefficient
ELICITATION TECHNIQUES = techniques used to extract info
1) Evidence-based
• Document analysis: documents point to existing roles, activities + business objects
→ formal (e.g. organization chart, internal policies), forms, or work instructions
• Observation: observe what people do at workplace + trace business objects over time
• Process mining: automated process discovery log files capture activities + time
→ visualize process models e.g. Disco
2) Interview-based: structured vs unstructured
!! assumption: analyst and stakeholders share terminology
3) Workshop-based: stakeholders interact to create model
3
, Strengths and weaknesses of each technique
Organizing the gathered info – use steps to guarantee modeling at same level of granularity
1) Identify the process boundaries
• Under which condition does the process start?
• With which result does it end? = outcomes.
• Which perspective do you assume
2) Identify activities and events first list these before you add control flow
3) Identify resources and their handovers
4) Identify the control flow
5) Identify additional elements
4
PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO BPM
1. BPM
= Body of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze, execute, and monitor business processes
PURPOSE = improve these businesses ≠ how to automate them
Physical flows → digital flows digitization efficient management of BP requires a lot of tools
2 approaches to engage in BPM
1) Continuous process improvement (CPI)
- Does not put into question the current process structure
- Seeks to identify issues + resolve them incrementally one fix at a time
2) Business process re-engineering (BPR)
- Puts into question the fundamental assumptions and principles of existing structure
- Aims to achieve breakthrough e.g. removing costly tasks that don’t add value
BUSINESS PROCESSES =
Collection of related events, activities and decisions, that involve a number of actors and objects, and
that collectively lead to an outcome that is of value to an organization or its customers
e.g. order-to-cash, quote-to-order, procure-to-pay, etc.
• There ≠ single right way of modelling a certain BP e.g. washing machine reparation
• Every process leads to one or several outcomes = end events
o Positive outcomes – deliver value e.g. fault repaired without intervention
o Negative outcomes – reduce value e.g. fault not repaired + request withdrawn
! First look at what outcomes you want for the BP (will improve modeling)
• Don’t add much elements only if necessary to understand control/resource flow
Core elements of a process
Activities = active elements e.g. enter sales order
→ time-consuming + resource-demanding + state-changing
Events = passive elements e.g. sales order has been entered
→ represent conditions/circumstances + are atomic, instantaneous
Business objects (data) = organizational artifacts that undergo state changes e.g. sales order
→ physical or electronic information
Actors (resources) = entities performing process activities + generating events e.g. supplier, ERP
→ human and systems
1
, Process perspectives
I. Control flow perspective – “what needs to be done and when”
- Predecessor/successor relationship among activities and events
- The central information depicted in a process model
II. Data perspective – “what do we need to work on”
- Input/output data to activities
- Complements the control flow
III. Resource perspective – “who’s doing the work”
- Human participants + systems that perform control flow activities & generate events
- Complements the control flow
2. THE BPM LIFECYCLE
2.1 Process identification
PROCESS IDENTIFICATION = only step that doesn’t focus on single BP looks at entire landscape
✓ Define an organization’s business processes
✓ Establish criteria to prioritize the management of these processes
PURPOSE = understand the organization + max the value of its BPM initiatives
OUTPUT = process architecture
1) Captures BPs and their scope
2) Serves as framework for defining priorities and scope of subsequent BPM phases
3) Offers a ranking for all BPs + indication whether its useful to improve these
Process identification steps
Step 1 Designation phase
• Enumerate main processes “Which BPs are present in a particular business?”
• Determine process scope “Starting point, ending point & who is involved?”
o Boundaries – horizontal and vertical
o Interrelationships – order and hierarchy
Designation via reference models e.g. APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF)
- Industry-neutral enterprise model for benchmarking
- 4 levels: categories, process group, process, activity
2
, Step 2 Evaluation phase = process selection
• Objectives
o Alignment with strategic objectives
o Culture & politics
o Feasibility to being successfully improved
o Risk of not improving them
o health: performance, compliance, sustainability…
• Process portfolio management
1) Importance: which processes have the greatest impact on strategic goals?
2) Dysfunction: which processes are in the deepest trouble?
3) Which process is the most susceptible to successful process management?
= subjective opinion!
2.2 Process discovery: as-is process modelling
Build a visual process model that details how process is laid out in the organization
PHASES
Phase 1 Defining the setting – assembling organiz team responsible for working on process
Phase 2 Gathering information – building an understanding of the process
→ ≠ discovery methods can be used to acquire info on a process
Phase 3 Conducting the modelling task – organizing the creation of the process model
→ modelling method gives guidance for mapping out the process in a systematic way
See later Phase 4 Assuring process model quality – guarantee resulting models meet ≠ quality criteria
= important for establishing trust in process model
Who is involved? extract info from relevant people involved in the process
! CHALLENGES
Fragmented process knowledge: no one has entire overview of the process ≠ views
Domain experts think on instance level: “Every customer (instance) is different”
ito a process they are very similar
Knowledge about process modelling is rare: extracting real-life info from BPS = complex
→ need to translate this for people who don’t understand it = inefficient
ELICITATION TECHNIQUES = techniques used to extract info
1) Evidence-based
• Document analysis: documents point to existing roles, activities + business objects
→ formal (e.g. organization chart, internal policies), forms, or work instructions
• Observation: observe what people do at workplace + trace business objects over time
• Process mining: automated process discovery log files capture activities + time
→ visualize process models e.g. Disco
2) Interview-based: structured vs unstructured
!! assumption: analyst and stakeholders share terminology
3) Workshop-based: stakeholders interact to create model
3
, Strengths and weaknesses of each technique
Organizing the gathered info – use steps to guarantee modeling at same level of granularity
1) Identify the process boundaries
• Under which condition does the process start?
• With which result does it end? = outcomes.
• Which perspective do you assume
2) Identify activities and events first list these before you add control flow
3) Identify resources and their handovers
4) Identify the control flow
5) Identify additional elements
4
