Methods of Defining a Business Process

by: Tienie Victor - August 2009

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
- Mark Twain

Business Process Mapping is a method of analysis that graphically defines the processes and actions taken by a business to perform its work. This means that each step in the process is linked to other subsequent steps or decision points, defining the flow of work from one entity or system, to the next. Mapping does not define an implementation of the core business processes, but a representation of it. This allows business to see a holistic view of what is being done internally to perform work from start to finish or from request to final delivery.

The people involved in the process can see a visual representation of what they do and where they perform their tasks. Business process maps allows subject matter experts to review current processes and gives them an idea of where tasks can be simplified, removed or combined so as to identify bottlenecks and eliminate redundancy. In addition, Business Process Mapping allows business to see the hand-offs that occur from one area to the next and identify where these are causing slow responses.

Business Process Mapping is a precursor to Business Process Management. In other words it forms part of the Business Process Management life cycle and is part of the initiation and analysis aspect of a Business Process Management Project.

Business process-mapping tools graphically depict the following elements of a business process:

• user tasks
• system tasks
• deadlines and escalations
• conditional flows
• flow lines to join elements together
• swim-lanes
• sub-procedures

Formal standards and methodologies exist to define these processes; most worthwhile process tools enforce these rules automatically without the analyst necessarily knowing. After an “AS-IS” process has been mapped and defined, a continual cycle of optimization en re-engineering can begin, drawing from the input of users and subject matter experts. A visual Map or Model can be seen as a roadmap to what your business does, the actors and roles involved, the hand-off from one task to the next, including the required prerequisites for a task to start and the deliverables that task will produce.

Process Modeling Standards

Standardization of the diagram objects and methods of putting them together enhances shared understanding and thus allows any person looking at it to identify improvements without even the implementation of an IT solution. Examples of these standards include BPMN, UML and XPDL.

There are several organizations that control the standards of business process mapping, and each have subtle differences in the way processes is mapped. One of these standards that have been widely adopted is BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) and is maintained by the Business Process Management Initiative and the Object Management Group.

A White paper on this standard can be found at:
BPM Notation V1.0.

Another resource for BPMN is the following:
Notations and Workflow Patterns which does a comparison between BPMN and the UML (Unified Modeling Language).

Many of the tools used for analysis adopted at least one of these standards, making it possible to map in tool A and easily import into tool B. And for most of these tools allowing it to be fully executable as an automated process because of the XML model interchange that can occur between these tools because of the XPDL (XML Process Definition Language) standard. In other words, a model designed in a BPMN tool can be exported into XPDL and imported in to a executable BPM engine.

A few examples of BPMN compliant modeling tools are Metastorm ProVision, TIBCO Business Studio , ARIS, Rational Rose, Eclipse jBPM Modeler, Intalio Designer, BizAgi Process Modeler and of course Microsoft Visio.

A firm Procentrica favorite is a MetaStorm product called ProVision, which provides many different modeling techniques into one tool and connects each type of model within a hierarchical structure to each type of interaction and organizational structure giving a complete over view of the business and its activities. Every part of the business architecture can be mapped from people, products to systems and technologies. Within the set of models that ProVision provides is a workflow tool to map the tasks and activities of a business unit and then links this business unit to the rest of the business, showing how each resource is interlinked and referenced. ProVision can even be set to maintain the design according to a specific framework and standard such as Six Sigma.

Here is an example process that was built using TIBCO Business Studio:

This is an example of the same process mapped in the Eclipse jBPM Modeler:

This is an example of the same process mapped in Intalio Designer (another add-on for Eclipse):

This is an example of the same process mapped in BizAgi Process Modeler:

Industry Frameworks for Modeling and Optimizing Business Processes:

• 6 Sigma improves the quality of process outputs by removing the causes of errors. Business Process Mapping is a tool used to conduct a six sigma project analysis.
• The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) has developed the Workflow Reference Model which helps with the definition of interoperability in Workflow systems. It is a standard for the definition of implementation components and procedures.
• The APQC is a research organization that does research on methods of improving processes and establishing connections between best practices by developing the Process Classification Framework.
• The CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is a process improvement approach that is a collection of best practices which are arranged in a collection for the needs of different areas. It is effective in determining if improvement objectives has been met and sets a guide line for future improvement efforts. In other words the CMM describes the characteristics of an effective process.
• 8 Omega has evolved into the CEM Method or Customer Expectation Management Method and builds processes with the customer in mind, but mapping every action and activity explicitly.