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Business
Process Management
Business processes
are the backbone of a business:
- Processes
are how strategies are operationalised and goals are achieved.
- They guide
your people as to how to get things done
- Policy is
embedded in business rules the processes use
- Roles are
defined to support process activities
- Processes
are implemented in systems that manage process flow
- Systems report
against measures and objectives,
- Processes
provide relationship interfaces.
Business processes
are how the organisation gets things done.
Business
Process Programs and Projects
A BPM program
covers process redesign and implementation, including computerisation,
and is about innovation and strategic alignment.
The program
owner, who needs to be a senior executive, assembles a program team
of stakeholder business representatives and a BPM consultant. There
may also be IT and other functional team members.
The phases of
a BPM program are outlined below.
The BPM program
team undertakes the Business Assessment, Process Architecture, Project
Selection phases and oversees the process projects and Technical
Platform Selection, which are set up as separate projects.
BPM
Program Phases
Business
Assessment
An assessment
identifies systemic business issues, problems and opportunities
in the organisation and its value chain. Customers and suppliers
as well as internal stakeholders are consulted, and documentation
is reviewed. This reveals current weaknesses in the organisation’s
business processes and enables the team to gain a rapid system
view of how the business works in practice.
Process Architecture
A high-level
process architecture is designed which encompasses all activities
within the organisation and their inter-relationships. This is
reviewed with stakeholders.
The architecture
enables a clear view, firstly, of all the processes in the organisation,
and there are often many more than people realise, and secondly
of how 'the pain' in the organisation is caused by the lack of
definition or effectiveness of processes.
Each high-level
process, or 'key business process', is analysed to a sub-process
level to enable individual process projects to be scoped.
Selection
of Process Projects
Based on the
Assessment and Architecture, business process candidates are selected
and prioritised on the basis of business benefit from redesign.
Projects are
launched for each process, so that several projects can run in
parallel within the overall BPM program, although the projects
are staggered to enable efficient use of scarce resources.
For each project
a project scoping document is written and approved, and project
teams are selected, with each project leader being a business
person.
Process
Design
Most business
processes are developed by aggregation of incremental changes
over time. Often a process is not identified as a process as such,
merely as a succession of tasks triggered by a particular event.
Because of this, time creates mismatches between recent and older
parts of the process. Process Design introduces a new synchronicity
as well as smarter ways of achieving the desired outcome.
The design
process is iterated several times to achieve the optimum design.
Various tools are used during design to ensure innovation because
there is always a danger of merely automating the current process.
If this is not prevented the business benefits are not achieved.
The final
step in the process design is to develop business requirements
at a level of detail and in formats agreed with IT. During this
step business rules are developed which often requires business
policy to be clarified in detail as prespecified decisions for
implementation in the workflow software.
Technical
Platform Selection
The
technical solution for automating processes should be as modular
and reusable as possible. Individually coded processes are subject
to ongoing IT maintenance costs that are avoidable. Often a BPM
or Workflow Management package is the best way to avoid high IT
maintenance costs.
Selection
of the BPM package, or alternative technical solution, should
be driven by business requirements and selection criteria listed
by the BPM team and endorsed by the program owner and/or stakeholder
group.
Planning
Changes which
are to be undertaken to implement each new Business Process are
identified and a detailed implementation and change management
plan is developed.
Implementation
Implementation
of the process, and associated computer system, requires tight
project and change management to ensure take-up is achieved successfully,
and the business benefits are realised.
Project
Close-down
Once the new
process is installed a pre-selected Process Manager takes over
and the project team, or a subset, move to a support role until
the process is running smoothly. At this point the project is
closed down. New process version projects may be initiated by
the Process Manager to implement process improvements.
Post-implementation
Review
Once the process
has been in place for a while, typically about 3 months, the program
and project teams and stakeholders all meet to eview the project,
the new process and to document lessons learned for use by later
projects.
The
above is a brief outline of a complete BPM program, the reality
is far more complex! Please contact us
if you wish to discuss a BPM program and/or process projects for
your organisation >>
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