BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

         BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT LIFE  CYCLE


BPM LIFE CYCLE







Process Identification

In this phase , a business problem is posed, processes relevant to the problem being address are identified and delimited. 


The outcome of process identification is a new or updated process architecture that provides an overall view of the processes in an organization and their relationship.

Types of processes 








Process Discovery  

- The act of gathering information about an existing process and organizing it in terms of an as-is process model. 

- The Process Discovery phase of the BPM lifecycle identifies how to create models that are both correct and complete. 

- This is clearly more than modeling (however, modeling is a part of  it.)


Phases of Process Discovery 


1. Defining the setting. 
2. Gathering information.  
3. Conducting the modeling task. 
4. Assuring process model quality.


Process Discovery Challenges 



1.Fragmented Process Knowledge 
2.Domain Experts think on Instance Level 
3.Knowledge about Process modelling is rare.

Challenge 1: Fragmented Process Knowledge 

- A business process defines a set of logically related activities. 

- These activities are assigned to specialized participants. 

- Thus, when collecting knowledge a process analyst needs to  talk to not just one domain experts but different domain experts  who are responsible for different tasks. 

- A domain expert typically has abstract understanding of the  whole process but a very detailed understanding of their own  task.

Challenge 2:  Domain Experts think on Instance Level 

- Domain experts will easily describe the activities of a  specific case   but they might have problems responding to  general questions. 

- Often said by domain experts: “every case is different”. - Process analyst will have to organize and abstract from the  pieces of information provided by the domain experts.

Challenge 3:  Knowledge about Process Modelling is rare

- Domain experts are often not trained to create or read  process models. 

- Thus seeking feedback to a draft process model is  difficult.

Process Analysis Techniques

 Qualitative analysis 

Value-Added Analysis 

Root-Cause Analysis 

Pareto Analysis 

Issue Register 

Quantitative Analysis 

Quantitative Flow Analysis 

Queuing Theory 

Process Simulation

 Purpose of Qualitative Process Analysis 

- Identify and eliminate waste 

             Valued-added analysis 

- Identify, understand and prioritize issues 

      

                  Issue register 

                  Root-cause analysis (e.g. cause-effect diagrams) 

                  Pareto analysis

Process Redesign 

“Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance” 


Why Redesign?

Problems in the existing processes 

Complex structures: 
           - Not transparent: badly controllable, fault intolerant 

System proliferation: 
          - Overlap, difficult information exchange, uncomfortable, bad maintainability

 Inflexible structure: 
         - Change = pulling a house of cards


Process perhaps designed once, but organic evolution for years...

Process Implementation 

Conceptual “to-be” process models

 • are made by domain experts 

• provide a basis for communication amongst relevant stakeholders

• must be understandable 

• must be intuitive and may leave room for interpretation 

• contain purely a relevant set of process information



Executable process models 

• are made by IT experts 

• provide input to a process enactment system - BPMS 

• must be machine readable 

• must be unambiguous and should not contain any uncertainties 

• contain further details that are only relevant to implementation.


Bridging the gap: one task at a time


1. Identify the automation boundaries 
2. Review manual tasks 
3. Complete the process model 
4. Adjust task granularity 
5. Specify execution properties



Process Monitoring and Controlling

Monitoring?


Real-time scrutiny of an activity or set of activities that have been set up to accomplish a specific organizational goal.

Why Monitoring?

Enables an organization to measure and analyze process performance to identify critical process problems pro-actively 

Using data to make decisions that will improve 

 Speed 

 Quality 

 Efficiency

Aspects of Monitoring

Steps in Monitoring

Controlling: Aspects

 Risk and Compliance 

               Ensure compliance to regulations from internal and external sources 

 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 

              Metrics of performance of the business 

 Change Management 

             Process for approving changes to the system, access control 

 Escalation mechanisms 

            Alerting in exception scenarios 

 Audit Trail 

           Track the work item from initiation to completion

Control Strategies


1. Compliance and risk management 
2. Change Management and User Management 
3. Business Activity Monitoring 
4. Escalation and approval workflows 
5. Audit Trail 
6. Security