We understand the concept of BPM. What is business process management?

In modern conditions, business actively applies the process approach to work organization. But there is still a problem of understanding what is business process management and how to use BPM correctly.



The definition according to the EABPM (European BPM Association) version of the term is as follows:

Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach for reflecting, designing, executing, documenting, measuring, monitoring and controlling both automated and non-automated processes to achieve the goals and business strategies of a company. BPM embraces a conscious, comprehensive, and increasingly technological definition, improvement, innovation, and support of cross-cutting processes. Thanks to this systematic and conscious process management, companies achieve better results faster and more flexibly.

I believe that this definition introduces more confusion than a true understanding of BPM, especially for people who have not studied this topic deeply.



In my work, I constantly use graphical notations of business process management and BPMN. I consider this tool very convenient, it helps me not only in developing business solutions, but also in their justification. After all, as I have repeated many times, one picture is worth a thousand words. A person thinks in images, and it is much easier for him to imagine some kind of activity using a picture (scheme).

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I also remind you that this is not the first time I've been raising this topic. I talked a lot about business processes in such articles as "What is a business process and a description of a business process" or "A brief description of BPMN with an example."



But questions remain, they are often asked to me, and readers of articles, and my clients. In addition, a lot of confusion in the understanding of the essence of marketing articles and terms related to this field of activity. Both software developers and business consultants who constantly use these tools in their work have managed to add a lot of marketing concepts to the business process management sphere. On the one hand, this process is inevitable in any commercial sphere. On the other hand, BPM is not the easiest methodology for a non-expert. And marketing introduces additional confusion.



So I decided to give my detailed definition of what business process management is. And I hope that I will be able to help understand the main issues related to the use of BPM.

How did BPM come about?

Any new business can be compared with a child. Each company, created from scratch, goes through a period of formation and training. It is necessary to organize the interaction of staff and departments, to create mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge, etc. And no matter how big this company will be - in a small business all these issues are as important as in a large organization with a large number of branches.



At the same time, humanity does not stand still. And both in the field of teaching children and in the field of business organization, new tools appear, more flexible, convenient, intuitively understandable, which is especially important for people taking the first steps in any sphere.



If we turn to the old records and try to study the features of the organization of labor in Soviet enterprises and in Western companies, for example Ford, we will see mostly dry, difficult to read text instructions related mainly to the functional approach:

1. Description of the workplace
2. Job description employee
3. Safety requirements, etc.

All this, as many remember, is extremely difficult to perceive, and much of these instructions gathering dust on the shelves, often by anyone other than the creator, not read. And the experience and requirements were transferred from an experienced employee to a newcomer.



And what if there is a need to quickly change the work of the whole organization? And if automation is also being introduced? The answer to these requests was the appearance of BPM.



I already wrote about what a business process is (“What is a business process and a description of a business process”), and therefore I will not repeat the main points and the definition of the business process itself. And on the concept of business process management, let's dwell on this.

About business process management in simple terms

Business process management is what you regulate, describe and change business processes. It is changing, not improving, because you can both improve and worsen the business process. Unlike a machine or car, it is impossible to directly manage with the help of directives or pressing a button. But we can define a sequence of actions that the team will perform when solving a particular task. This is what is called BPM.



Definition from me:

Business process management (BPM) is the management of actions (automated and manual) in a team through business processes.

To manage any business processes you need:

1. Describe the business processes themselves.
2. Embed the described business process in the work of the team
3. Designate people responsible for business processes, so-called stack holders or business process owners.

It is important to understand that the business process can be performed both by a person and be partially automated. Similarly, a stack holder can be both a person and a program (automatic execution of operations and automated control).



At the same time it is necessary to manage an extremely heterogeneous environment. Different business processes require different approaches and actions of employees, various automation tools. And all this needs to be able to be described separately, and then merged into a common system.



It is necessary to proceed from understanding: the process approach is the management of the whole through the management of parts.



And in order to eliminate confusion in terminology, I will explain:

• BPM is a methodology. those. a set of basic principles and approaches to the construction of notations and the organization of work itself using business processes.
• BPMN is a notation (language) in which notations are built, including executable ones.
• BPMS - IT execution system, built according to certain rules defined in the methodology

If we draw an analogy with science, then BPM is primarily an approach, a kind of worldview. BPMN is the methods and algorithms for solving specific problems. For example, evidence for a theorem or a set of methods for creating a project to provide an object with electricity (production, an apartment building). And, in turn, BPMS are ready-made application solutions that can be “turned on” and they will already work. For mathematics, these are ready-made solutions of problems of practical importance. For physics - the direct implementation of the very wiring and connection of objects. For the sphere of IT - ready program code.

Executable and non-executable business processes

I have already written in past articles that business process notations can be executable and non-executable. The first are intended for automation, the second - for studying the work of the company and increasing the efficiency of interaction in the team.



Those. we use the principles and methods of BPM to create notations. In this case, use the rules of writing BPMS. In order to create a non-executable notation, in principle, you can even use a sheet of drawing paper and a pencil. The main thing is to strictly follow all the rules.



Executable notation requires a specific IT environment - BPMS. At the same time, I recommend even performing non-executables in BPMN, since here the environment itself helps to identify possible errors, contradictions, which increases the literacy and accuracy of the description of the business process.

Differences process and functional approaches

Another important fact that will help you understand what “business process management” really is. We have already found out that management is the creation of a certain sequence of actions of employees. Those. as a result, each automated system works in a certain way. And a person is obliged to follow the instructions specified in the instructions as well.



It is also necessary to know:



For strategic planning and evaluation of the company's work “as a whole” it is better to use functional modeling and notation (for example, IDF0). I wrote about this in detail in the article “Introduction to the IDEF0 notation and an example of use”. Here you can proceed from the desired result and build a sequence of functions of the “black boxes” necessary to achieve it.



To manage the sequence of actions and optimize one. what happens inside each stage of work, as well as improving the interaction between different “black boxes”, requires a BPM process approach. Here you study the actions themselves, track the speed and complexity of achieving results, optimize and standardize them.



If you make any changes in the business process, then you always start not from the whole, but from the part. Those. You change the algorithm of the program and / or adjust the job description to an employee who performs certain functions. As a result, one of the elements of the business process is changing, and, as a result, the business process as a whole.



It is necessary to understand:



Creating a business process description begins “as a whole”, after which each process is divided into sub-processes and detailed to a certain limit.



Changing a business process, on the contrary, begins with the “lower” levels - maximum detail. And from particulars - to the whole - all the necessary changes are made.



If the functional approach is very important objects in the input and output. In the “black box” function itself, certain objects are processed to obtain the desired result. And here the main orientation goes on “what exactly we want to get,” i.e. approach to business management, rather strategic.



In the process approach, we get an answer to the question “how is this best done”, i.e. we concentrate on tactical, operational management. Therefore, when individual elements change between the “input and output”, the whole process changes.



It is also important to determine the optimal level when detailing: not too “in general”, but also not detailing a large process up to the actions of each employee. I once saw a description of business processes, placed on a two-meter Whatman paper. But the more complex and detailed the process is, the more difficult it will be perceived “as a whole” and, as a result, it will be more difficult to understand and improve.



For these reasons, when working with business processes, multi-level decomposition is used, i.e. the detail of each black box is allocated to a separate process. And for the same reason, the process approach is not used for strategic planning, for this purpose, I repeat, functional modeling is used.

BPM Job Description

For a better understanding of what BPM (business process management) is, I’ll give an example of a business analyst's sequence of actions within this methodology:



A survey of people (company employees). Understanding how the work is done in each case.



Documenting the business process based on the data. At this stage, the analyst receives a description of the business process "as is."



Studying the business process obtained in terms of weak points and optimization possibilities:



Based on the finished optimized (as needed) scheme, documents are created: job descriptions, user manuals, and, if necessary, automated solutions are implemented.



After implementation on the basis of the notation, the business process is monitored, possible inconsistencies are identified, and their causes are studied.



If necessary, changes are made to the scheme on the basis of identified shortcomings or changes in the company's work related to external factors.



Next - again, the study of changes in instructions and software systems. And a new stage of introduction into operation.

BPM Process Life Cycle

As can be seen from the above sequence, each business process goes through a specific cycle from creation to implementation. Then for a period of time it works “as is”. After that, the practice shows certain shortcomings and shortcomings, the analyst studies the reporting and, for his part, finds some “weak points”. The process is being upgraded.



This cycle can be repeated an infinite number of times. Any business, any organization is not a frozen monolith, but a developing organism in a constantly changing environment. The peculiarities of legislation change, competitors come and go from the market, new automation tools appear, etc.



The main rule of a business analyst is to be able to stop on time when optimizing a process. And here it is necessary to clearly analyze - the labor intensity (cost) of changes and the increase in efficiency (benefit) as a result.

Pros and cons of BPM

Benefits of using BPM include:

• The ability to maximize the detail of the actions of people and systems necessary to obtain a result.
• Graphic notations are vivid, which makes it possible to understand the peculiarities of the processes in the company and to see their weak points.
• The notations are great as instructions to the performer, who will receive a clear and unambiguous sequence of actions. At the same time it will be framed graphically - the most convenient for human perception.
• When using the process approach, the outcome of the process will be standardized and correspond to the expected. This will reduce the influence of the human factor on the level of service or the performance of any other types of work.
• The BPM methodology is well developed and standardized by BPMN. At the same time, the tools (BPMN notation) are intuitive, even for people who have not studied business process management in general. On the other hand, the availability of standards and rules makes it possible to avoid mistakes in development and to create executable notations (ready-made elements of business automation) in the BPMS system.

The cons of BPM, as is often the case, are in the same place as the advantages:

• A high degree of detail of the processes hinders the perception of the business for strategic planning.
• The people who develop the process model have a very big responsibility. Any mistake can lead to sad results. For example, when developing a functional model, there are data at the input, the result at the output, the tools that the company provides to the performer, and the performer himself. As long as the executor at the output gives the expected result, within the framework of the function he can act at his own discretion, choosing the optimal method for achieving the goal. With the process approach, the performer loses "freedom of maneuver." He has a clearly defined sequence of actions, taking into account all possible conditions. And he has no right to act differently, even if the result turns out to be different from the expected.
• The business process is static and practically not subject to adjustments "from the inside". The contractor receives a clear sequence of actions and can no longer take the initiative. As a result, performers will repeat any mistake from time to time until it is corrected in the business process itself.

What companies are suitable BPM

The process approach is ideal for state-owned companies. Here it is important to improve the level of service and quality of work, while standardizing service is also important. In a state-owned company, customers do not expect any bonuses or special initiatives. But the service must be performed in and out at the appropriate level.



In commercial companies, the process approach is good for the standardization of work, it will allow to “tighten” the level of service to certain standards. On the one hand, this is a big plus. On the other hand, it’s also a minus at the same time, as the initiative and talented employees, with all their desire, will not be able to show themselves and bring more benefits and profits. The process approach is precisely stability and a certain static nature. Therefore, when using it, you need to clearly understand where this option works for you, and where it is better to give people more freedom.



In order for the business process to benefit and not to harm, it is recommended to collect comments and errors from the participants of the business process. No need to assume that BPM is the ultimate truth.



I have already talked about how to manage a business with the help of business processes in past articles, and I will speak more than once. Here I tried to as simple as possible to explain the differences between the terms BPM, BPMS, BPMN and describe the very concept of "business process management." Without this basic knowledge it is impossible to understand the process approach.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between functional modeling and process modeling?



In the functional approach, we consider the actions of people and automated systems as a “black box”. And we approach modeling from the point of view of - the stages of achieving the set goal, as well as the necessary resources for this. In process modeling, we study the sequence of actions of employees and systems at each stage to optimize them and increase efficiency.



What concepts are included in BPMN?



First of all, it is the BPMN system itself, as well as a description of the BPMS notations. I wrote about them in this article, and in detail in previous articles (see recommended links at the end of the publication). In addition, not so long ago there were new concepts - DMN and CMMN. I will not dwell on them now. I will try to describe new concepts and their features in future publications.



Why do we need so many difficulties and different approaches in building notations?



Business process management and the BPM methodology itself is also necessary for the directive management of large teams. This is precisely what requires notations, descriptions of business processes and a wide range of tools.



How to start working with BPM?



Learn the language of BPMN notations and try to use it in your work. The main thing, do not be afraid to start. You will understand that in practice simple notation is much easier to build than it seems. And step by step you will be able to study the methodology, relying on simple and clear graphic BPM tools.



Can BPM be used for human systems?



Can. This approach is intended, first of all, not for automation (there are tools in the IT sphere), but for organizing the work of a company or any team. It can take into account areas of work with the use of automated systems. And only processes in a team can be considered, and, moreover, any - from construction teams or production to creative teams in a theater or a philharmonic society. The main thing is to clearly describe how the process of interest to you happens and how you want to change it.



For a better understanding of the subject I recommend articles:

• What is a business process and business process description
• Business modeling. Basic approaches
• Introduction to the IDEF0 notation and usage example
• A brief description of BPMN with an example
• What is BPMS
• Using GAP analysis to identify and coordinate project tasks

Also, currently I am preparing a book for publication and an online course in which I will describe in detail my own vision of the process approach to business, as well as my own practical experience in the field of functional and process modeling. Anyone can subscribe to the notice of the release of a new book on and other news from the <a href=real trinion.org/podpiska-na-novosti-sayta> link.