1BM05 – Business Process Management 2021-2022 Q2
Lecture 1 – ch1 + ch2
1a introduction on BPM
BPM is relevant in a number of sectors and a lot of sectors have already adopted this.
There are a few definitions which build upon each other
- A systematic, structured approach to analyze, improve, control and manage
processes with the aim of improving the quality of products and services (Elzinga,
Horak, Lee and Bruner, 1995)
- A customer-focused approach to the systematic management, measurement and
improvement of all company processes through cross-functional teamwork and
employee empowerment (Lee and Dale 1998)
- Supporting business processes using methods, techniques and software to design,
enact, control and analyze operational processes involving humans, organizations,
applications, documents and other sources of information (van der Aalst, ter
Hofstede and Weske 2003)
Key observations
- BPM is about processes and for customers
- There is a lot that can be done with those processes: design, analysis
- It’s at the intersection of management and information technology
- Focus on processes instead of single activities
- Add additional value to customers
- Teamwork
1b brief history of BPM
Second industrial revolution (1865-1900) Taylor’s scientific
management
- Rationalization
- Division of labor: people are specialized in specific
tasks and does not see the whole manufacturing
process makes them faster
- Specialist/manager
- Functional units: still used based on this theory
Taylor’s scientific management is extremely effective, tenfold
improvements. We still work this way, but there are
contemporary effects:
- Departmental suboptimization: some departments
have much more info than others
- Client dissatisfaction is abundant
- Lack of workforce commitment
- Inflexible organizations
So now cross-over functional units are used so that a good
products is made
The process wave of the 90’s: improve customer service by improving cross-functional
processes using IT, and redesigning/reengineering/innovation process structures
Now there is BPM: improving business processes, while focusing on the customer, by
performing actions on these processes
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,1d process identification: process architecture
Process identification: main steps
- Designation phase: identifying organization processes
and their relationships
- Evaluation phase: prioritizing the identified processes
for process management activities
How to identify processes: enumerate organization processes
and find the right balance between impact and manageability
e.g. talk with people
Example: schiphol case enumerate what to expect
- Baggage handling
- Passenger check in
- Security check
- Boarding
But large collections of processes models require structure
process architecture
Process architecture: a representation of the
processes in an organization and their relations
(e.g. hierarchical, ordering)
The colors represent different modes of
transport (different processes)
1e build a case/function matrix
We focus on the approach proposed by Dijkman
et al: two main dimensions; case and functions
Approach
1. Identify case types
o Something that is handled by
(part of) the organization
o Typically, a service/product that is
delivered to organization
customers (or internal departments)
o E.g. customer types, product types, services types, channel
2. Identify functions
o Business function: something a company can do
o Different functions for different organizational units
o Different functions for different roles
4. Identify processes
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,1f identify processes
- Start with one big process
- Split it up
Split up the process
- Different flow objects: vertically
- Change in flow-object multiplicity: vertically
- Change in transactional state: vertically
- Logical separation in time: has nothing to do with time passing, only with the
periodicity of the event happening vertically
- Logical separation in space: leads to split in horizontal axis, only split if cases are
treated differently (e.g. billing from the Netherlands is different from billing from
Belgium) horizontally
- Using a reference model
- Significant difference in functions per case type: horizontally
1g evaluation and prioritization
Evaluation
- Process management requires commitment and efforts: not all
processes can be targeted by BPM projects
- How to select the most important processes?
o Importance: which processes have the greatest impact on
the company’s strategic goals?
o Dysfunction: which processes are in the deepest trouble?
o Feasibility: how susceptible are the processes to process
management initiatives?
Define manageable scope
Qualify culture and politics
• Leadership
• Culture: customer first, teamwork, personal responsibility
• Governance: processes for process management project
management, maintenance, knowledge managment
• Expertise
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, Chapter 1: introduction to business process management
BPM is the art and science of overseeing how
work is performed in an organization to
ensure consistent outcomes and to take
advantage of improvement opportunities. It is
about managing entire chains of events,
activities and decisions that ultimately add
value to the organization and its customers
processes
Origins of BPM
The BPM lifecycle
• Process identification. In this phase, a business problem is posed. Processes relevant to the problem
being addressed are identified, delimited, and interrelated. The outcome of process identification is a new
or updated process architecture, which provides an overall picture of the processes in an organization
and their relationships. This architecture is then used to select which process or set thereof to manage
through the remaining phases of the lifecycle. Typically, process identification is done in parallel with
performance measure identification.
• Process discovery (also called as-is process modeling). Here, the current state of each of the relevant
processes is documented, typically in the form of one or several as-is process models.
• Process analysis. In this phase, issues associated with the as-is process are identified, documented, and
whenever possible quantified using performance measures. The output of this phase is a structured
collection of issues. These issues are prioritized based on their potential impact and the estimated effort
required to resolve them.
• Process redesign (also called process improvement). The goal of this phase is to identify changes to the
process that would help to address the issues identified in the previous phase and allow the organization
to meet its performance objectives. To this end, multiple change options are analyzed and compared in
terms of the chosen performance measures. Hence, process redesign and process analysis go hand-in-
hand: As new change options are proposed, they are analyzed using process analysis techniques.
Eventually, the most promising change options are retained and combined into a redesigned process. The
output of this phase is typically a to-be process model.
• Process implementation. In this phase, the changes required to move from the as-is process to the to-be
process are prepared and performed. Process implementation covers two aspects: organizational change
management and automation. Organizational change management refers to the set of activities required
to change the way of working of all participants involved in the process. Process automation refers to the
development and deployment of IT systems (or enhanced versions of existing IT systems) that support
the to-be process. In this book, our focus with respect to process implementation is on automation. We
will only briefly touch upon change management, which is a field on its own.
• Process monitoring. Once the redesigned process is running, relevant data are collected and analyzed to
determine how well the process is performing with respect to its performance measures and
performance objectives. Bottlenecks, recurrent errors, or deviations with respect to the intended
behavior are identified and corrective actions are undertaken. New issues may then arise, in the same or
in other processes, which requires the cycle to be repeated on a continuous basis.
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