Introduction
- 6 benefits of business process management
o Improved business agility
o Increased efficiency
o Complete visibility
o Ensured compliance and security
o Easier transfer of business knowledge
o Increased opportunities for continuous improvement
- Great customer experience stories
o We are investing a lot but experiences are still bad
The right processes bring clarity and can even feel
magical
His 2 stories of lost luggage
A good process does not add complexity, it removes
friction: most frustration comes from not enough clarity
and not because of too much process (which
bureaucracy claims)
o 3 key factors
People: stewards, customer service, pilot …
Technology: cheap tickets integration, reservation
system, lost luggage tracking, text system, …
Processes: operate flight, recover lost luggage, …
Process design, process execution, process
excellence
- Ask yourself
o Would you really eat McDonalds, get surgery, … if there
weren’t any processes?
o Does the absence of a process truly foster creativity or does it
mostly create uncertainty for both the customer and the
employees?
, Process Discovery
- Problem: everyone had a different view on how processes should be
labelled and how they should be visualised
- Processes are important
o Definition
most of the time a business process is defined as some
variation of the idea that a process is a set of activities that
deliver value to the customer of the process
Some say that an organisation has between 10 and 20
business processes while others state that typical
organisations have 1000 and 1000 of business processes
o What we need = process discovery
a set of guidelines to help us define what a process really is
,A definition
A business process is a collection of activities that must be labelled
action verb-noun and generates a valuable result and is started by an
independent trigger and happens repeatedly
- Collection of activities
o The work that must be performed by some resources in
organisation
o Where is value created
from process point of view each of these tasks creates no real
value it’s the chain of activity that creates value
Sales – production – finance – logistics: value is delivered
by the combined effort of the functions = the processes
o Rise and limitations of functions
easier to manage people and activities if they are grouped in
specialized fields such as finance, economies of scales,
development of high skill levels
Successful but creates problems: optimizing individual
parts does not optimize whole => overall process
becomes fragmented, customer becomes irrelevant, lack
of communication and collaboration
Process and function should come together
- Action verb-noun
o Different naming conventions
Verb – noun: enrol student, verb – noun – noun: enrol
student in course verb – qualifier – noun: take new order,
from-state to to-state: purchase to pay
o Action verb – noun
to avoid misconceptions
Keep the noun singular, only use plural if the thing being
processed makes sense in plural
Action verbs = no unclear verbs, dynamic verbs, express
a physical or mental action
Bad verbs: maintain, manage, support, …
- Valuable result
o The output is trackable, countable and valuable
Trackable: does it make sense to talk about one of them
Countable: does it make sense to count them
Valuable: is the result something meaningful
o Value of process = activity (work to achieve result) + name
(refers to result)
, - Independent trigger
= the event that instantiates the process
o Process instances live in isolation, only compete for resources
activities are linked 1 – 1 to the trigger
o Trigger
time/interval, action, condition or message
Incoming communication but it’s unpredictable:
customer files complaint but you don’t know when and
how many
Ad-hoc action: evaluate vendor but you don’t know when
and how many
Something happens with predictable timing but it’s not
part of anything else: every quarter we must file VAT
listing, so you know when and how often but it’s not part
of anything else
Condition is fulfilled but it’s unpredictable: app is down,
you don’t know when this happens and how often
o Not an independent trigger
= task activated because another task was completed
Request quote => receive quote
o Batch processing
= you only work Friday and evaluate complaints that were filed
during the week => no trackable, countable, meaningful result
business process
Business process: solve complaint, you don’t know when
and how many
No batch: every month we calculate amount due and
collect invoice => trackable, countable and meaningful
result
- 6 benefits of business process management
o Improved business agility
o Increased efficiency
o Complete visibility
o Ensured compliance and security
o Easier transfer of business knowledge
o Increased opportunities for continuous improvement
- Great customer experience stories
o We are investing a lot but experiences are still bad
The right processes bring clarity and can even feel
magical
His 2 stories of lost luggage
A good process does not add complexity, it removes
friction: most frustration comes from not enough clarity
and not because of too much process (which
bureaucracy claims)
o 3 key factors
People: stewards, customer service, pilot …
Technology: cheap tickets integration, reservation
system, lost luggage tracking, text system, …
Processes: operate flight, recover lost luggage, …
Process design, process execution, process
excellence
- Ask yourself
o Would you really eat McDonalds, get surgery, … if there
weren’t any processes?
o Does the absence of a process truly foster creativity or does it
mostly create uncertainty for both the customer and the
employees?
, Process Discovery
- Problem: everyone had a different view on how processes should be
labelled and how they should be visualised
- Processes are important
o Definition
most of the time a business process is defined as some
variation of the idea that a process is a set of activities that
deliver value to the customer of the process
Some say that an organisation has between 10 and 20
business processes while others state that typical
organisations have 1000 and 1000 of business processes
o What we need = process discovery
a set of guidelines to help us define what a process really is
,A definition
A business process is a collection of activities that must be labelled
action verb-noun and generates a valuable result and is started by an
independent trigger and happens repeatedly
- Collection of activities
o The work that must be performed by some resources in
organisation
o Where is value created
from process point of view each of these tasks creates no real
value it’s the chain of activity that creates value
Sales – production – finance – logistics: value is delivered
by the combined effort of the functions = the processes
o Rise and limitations of functions
easier to manage people and activities if they are grouped in
specialized fields such as finance, economies of scales,
development of high skill levels
Successful but creates problems: optimizing individual
parts does not optimize whole => overall process
becomes fragmented, customer becomes irrelevant, lack
of communication and collaboration
Process and function should come together
- Action verb-noun
o Different naming conventions
Verb – noun: enrol student, verb – noun – noun: enrol
student in course verb – qualifier – noun: take new order,
from-state to to-state: purchase to pay
o Action verb – noun
to avoid misconceptions
Keep the noun singular, only use plural if the thing being
processed makes sense in plural
Action verbs = no unclear verbs, dynamic verbs, express
a physical or mental action
Bad verbs: maintain, manage, support, …
- Valuable result
o The output is trackable, countable and valuable
Trackable: does it make sense to talk about one of them
Countable: does it make sense to count them
Valuable: is the result something meaningful
o Value of process = activity (work to achieve result) + name
(refers to result)
, - Independent trigger
= the event that instantiates the process
o Process instances live in isolation, only compete for resources
activities are linked 1 – 1 to the trigger
o Trigger
time/interval, action, condition or message
Incoming communication but it’s unpredictable:
customer files complaint but you don’t know when and
how many
Ad-hoc action: evaluate vendor but you don’t know when
and how many
Something happens with predictable timing but it’s not
part of anything else: every quarter we must file VAT
listing, so you know when and how often but it’s not part
of anything else
Condition is fulfilled but it’s unpredictable: app is down,
you don’t know when this happens and how often
o Not an independent trigger
= task activated because another task was completed
Request quote => receive quote
o Batch processing
= you only work Friday and evaluate complaints that were filed
during the week => no trackable, countable, meaningful result
business process
Business process: solve complaint, you don’t know when
and how many
No batch: every month we calculate amount due and
collect invoice => trackable, countable and meaningful
result
