Business Process
It may seem like a simple concept — but the term Business Process is often misunderstood.A business process is any business activity that is repeatable
It's as simple as that.
Business Process Granularity
Business processes can be viewed at the organizational level, departmental or team level. In other cases, they may be very low level — describing how one individual does a particular task.The following is an example of a high level business process (quote to cash for an IT service provider). High level processes can be used to track performance of departments and ensure they are meeting SLAs.
Low level business processes can be used to track the performance of staff and ensure a standard approach to common business activities.
Business Process Management (BPM)
Business Process Management is a management approach that does not necessarily have anything to do with software. Business Processes are documented, executed, controlled, monitored, measured and optimized in a continual cycle.
Document
A Business Analyst leads the discovery of as-is processes and the design of to-be processes.It is critical to have process owners and working level staff involved in the documentation phase. Ideally, this step should be facilitated by process experts with deep experience in the business domain.
Execute
The new processes are implemented and executed. This may entail the deployment of BPM systems, training staff and organizational re-alignments.Control
Processes should be audited to ensure compliance to quality and security standards. Ideally, controls happen in real-time so that problems are flagged and corrected early.Monitor
Run-time processes are monitored and escalations are made when a process breaks or SLA targets are exceeded.Measure
Key process metrics such as time to market, customer satisfaction, costs and sales figures are measured. Ideally, decision makers can view metrics in real-time and drill down from high level to low level metrics.Optimize
Monitoring and measurement data is used to identify bottlenecks and other inefficiencies in the process. These gaps are addressed by a process of continual improvement using the same six steps.Tweet |
|
