BPM (Business Process Management) is a set of related activities, such as process modeling and design, process execution, process monitoring, and process optimization. This Refcard provides an overview of the BPM lifecycle together with the roles and results of business process modeling. It gives an overview of the BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) and presents the most important BPM patterns.
* Process modeling
* Process implementation
* Process execution and monitoring
* Process simulation
* Process optimization
Note:
KPIs are financial and non-financial metrics used to
help an organization define and measure process
efficiency. Examples of a KPI are “Average revenue
per customer”, “Average time for response to a
customer call”, “ Average order amount”, etc.
Note:
Business activity monitoring (BAM) is real-time
observation of key performance indicators.
- Design new business processes
Focus on business goals, KPIs, customer needs, and business partner expectations. - Model existing business processes
Assure the right flow of activities. Identify normal flows and possible exceptional flows. Identify inputs and outputs of activities. Identify key documents and sources. Identify business rules. - Restructure existing business processes
Focus on the activities and their added value. Focus on lines of business and their relations. Model responsibilities and roles. - Development of endto-end IT support for
business processes Detailed modeling of process flow. Detailed modeling of data, documents, business objects, and interfaces. Detailed exception handling
The team should include different profiles and encourage looking at the process from different angles. This is particularly important for optimizations. Four to six people is usually an optimal team size. The following table lists the various profiles that should comprise the team:
- Line of Business Expert
Good, in-depth knowledge of the process. - Process Owner
Responsible for the overall execution of the process, approves process modifications. - Moderator
Responsible for the meeting, for asking questions for leading the discussion into the right direction. Modeling Expert Responsible for design the process model (during and after the meeting). - QA Owner
Responsible for the alignment of processes in aspect of total quality management.
- Top-down
- Approach
We start with the process architecture. First we identify the major process activities and their flow. Then we model each activity into more detail. - Problem
• High level process modeling requires good knowledge about the process and some experience. • Modeling lower levels can reveal inconsistencies on higher-levels.
- Bottom-up
- Approach
We start with the identification of activities. We model sub processes and business transactions and merge them into processes. - Problem
• We get lost in the details. • Getting overview of processes and their relations can become very difficult. • We can focus on too many details.
- Inside-out
- Approach
We start with core processes. We expand them with adding support processes around core processes. - Problem
• It can be difficult to identify core processes and how to progress into the right direction - Note:
The Inside-out approach is usually the most pragmatic approach to prcess modeling. Provide a brief explanation of why it is the most pragmatic approach.
We should model the process to understand the detailed structure of it. We should identify at least the following:
• Process activities, on various levels of details (depending
on the selected approach)
• Roles responsible for carrying-out the process activities
• Events, which trigger the process execution and events
that interrupt the process flow
• Input and output documents exchanged within the
process
• Business rules that are part of the process
Below is the most conventional approach for designing a process model, in order of occurrence:
