Definition of a Business Process | • A business process is a collection of related, structured
activities or tasks that produce a specific service or
product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer
or customers.
• A business process is a specific ordering of work
activities/tasks across time and space, with a beginning
and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs: a
structure for action. ... Taking a process approach implies
adopting the customer’s point of view. Processes are the
structure by which an organization does what is
necessary to produce value for its customers. |
Characteristics for a Business Process | •Definability: It must have clearly defined boundaries, input andoutput. • Order: It must consist of activities/tasks that are orderedaccording to their position in time and space (a sequence). • Customer: There must be a recipient of the process' outcome, acustomer. • Value-adding: The transformation taking place within theprocess must add value to the recipient, either upstream ordownstream. • Embeddedness: A process cannot exist in itself, it must beembedded in an organizational structure. • Cross-functionality: A process regularly can, but not necessarilymust, span several functions. |
From the BMM Perspective | • Business process delivers offering
• Business process manages asset
• Business process realizes course of action |
BPM-Process levels | • Level 1- Process Area: A high-level aggregation of deliverable processes.
• Level 2- Process Group: A bundle of processes that belong to the same
area of responsibility dealing with similar tasks and activities for functional or other reasons.
• Level 3- Business Process : The business process is the level that
aggregates business-oriented functions or steps into a unit that is meaningful
and comprehensive in a sense that the steps or function incorporated are
essential steps that transform an input into an enriched output .
• Level 4- Process Steps: an activity performed by a user or a piece of
software together with other steps forming a business process.
• Level 5- Process Activities: Activities are the lowest granularity for business process modeling and reflect the single actions a user or a system performs to fulfill the process step. i.e., filling in the fields of a special mask consist of activities as each field has to be filled to end the step |
Level 1- Process Area | •A Process Area is a high-level, abstract aggregation
of a set of Process Groups that frames or positions
the context of the Process Group as its nature.
How to Identify Process Areas?
• A process area is categorized according to either:
• Enterprise business areas, business units, or divisions.
• End-to-end flow of process areas.
How is a Process Area Documented?
• Typically documented using a process map such as
the value chain diagram. |
Level 2- Process Group | • A Process Group is a bundle of processes that acts
as a container to combine a coherent and complete
set of processes, which together produce a final
output that provides a specific benefit or value to a
specific set of stakeholders (internal or external).
•A well-formed Process Group will consist of a
complete set of processes that describe the activity
required to carry out the full set of work required for
the business to deliver both the valued output that the
Process Group is intended to produce and all the
business objects within its operating cycle.
• process group provides capabilities for the enterprise to operate |
Level 2- How to identify a Process Group? | A Process Group must meet the following conditions:
1. Every Process Group will have a single output identified that it
is accountable to produce.
2. The output of a Process Group must be in a final valued form.
3. The Process Group output must address the recognized needs
of an identified group and be received by at least two categories of recipients.
4. A single, unique owner is accountable for the output
5. A Process Group must be represented by business service
created to encapsulate the set of resources and business
processes needed to produce the output.
6. The output Business Service must be either consumed by two or
more other Business Services, two or more recipients of the
Business Service, or some combination. |
Level 2- Process Types of the Process Group | • Planning Processes that describe the work of determining how that
Business Service will respond to demands. Planning Processes
operate on a planning cycle, or in response to contingencies.
• Provisioning Processes that describe the work of preparing the
Business Service to respond to demands in accordance with plans.
• Delivery Processes that operate repeatedly when each request for a
Business Service output is received.
• Deregister/Decommission processes that recognize the lifecycles
of resources, suppliers, Business Service outputs, or Business
Service recipients and operate according to the lifecycle stages of
these elements.
• Oversight Processes that monitor, provide feedback, and thus
control the performance of the other processes within the Process
Group. |
Level 2- How a Process Group Documented? | • Process group is documented in a Process Map.
• A process Group is named based on the valued
output it is accountable for producing prefixed with a
verb that imparts the finality of what is accomplished.
• Verbs such as “provide” (provide funding, provide
food), “furnish” (furnish car, furnish payment),
“address” (address question, address complaint), and
“steward” (steward funds, steward buildings) are
appropriate. 23 |
Level 3- Business Process | • A Process will produce a single, usable,
and complete business object: a product,
a control object, or information object, any
of which can then be consumed as a
single thing, which makes it essential to
fulfill the requirements to complete
something that is needed by the enterprise
as a mean to act. |
Level 3- How to Identify Process? | •Each process will produce a single, complete, and meaningful result
that contributes to the completion of the valued output necessary for
the conclusion of the work of A Process Group.
• When creating a process, the name given to the process will be derived
from its goal. The process goal is an atomic statement describing the
result of the successful completion of the process based on the
process type and output produced.
• Processes are named by referring to the business object that is
completed by the process, suffixed with a verb that gives a sense of
completion.
• Verbs such as “determine”, “complete”, and “answer provide this sense
on completion, whereas “draft”, develop”, and “propose” lack the finality
needed to convey the needed completeness and will result in
candidate processes that will not stand up to further decomposition. |
Level 3- How are Processes Documented? | • Documentation of business processes is
captured in a Process Map.
• Processes have preconditions that must be
met or dependencies that must be satisfied.
Therefore, whereas model map maybe used
to show the inventory of processes, a process
model will show the dependency chain
required. |
Level 4- Process Step | •A Process Step exist as an essential part of what is
required to control a process.
• In each case of the process step, one of the two rules
involved initiates the sequence by performing one or more
aspects of the work and a second role is involved in
completing other parts of the process before the output
needed to complete the process achieved.
• A process step is part of the journey to completion of the
process object that is produces by a particular process.
• A process step is a unit of work that is related to exactly one
object (e.g, human, sheet of paper, purchase order
(system), and that is executed by one role. |
Level 4- How to Identify Process Steps? | The specifics of the steps involved in a
process are based on two factors:
1. Is the nature of the process, which then
permits the core steps to be defined.
2. Is driven by seven process oriented policies.
These independent policies will dictate the
steps required to flesh out or be added to a
process to complement and complete the
set of core process. |
Level 4- The 5 process types used to define core steps: | The 5 process types used to define core steps:
1. Respond to request (prepare request, submit request, receive
request, act on request, provide response, accept response).
2. Provide or publish an output (prepare output, provide output,
receive output).
3. Provide or publish and output and confirm receipt ( prepare
output, provide output, receive output, verify conformance of
output to requirement, confirm receipt of output, receive
confirmation of receipt of output).
4. Collaborate to produce a shared output (collaborate of output).
5. Monitor and respond (observe conditions, assess conditions,
determine action required, provide direction/assessment, receive
direction/assessment).
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Level 4- Process Step
The 7 process-oriented policies: |
Level 4- what are The 7 process-oriented policies? | The 7 process-oriented policies:
1. When are payments for the output made? (n/a, before, now,
later).
2. When is value provided relative to the request? (now, later).
3. Is a profile of the service partner (customer, supplier)
maintained? (yes, no).
4. How is the price of the output established? (n/a, negotiate,
standard pricing).
5. Are the rights to the output transferred? (yes, no).
6. Is the output tracked after the transaction? (yes, no)
7. Is the output prefabricated or made to order? (invented, built to
order). |
Level 4- the 7 process-oriented policies are used to create a
process step? | Collectively, the answers to these questions and steps identified
through the process type complete the list of steps necessary to
capture the specification of work at this level.
• For example, if the answer to Question 4, “How is price for
the output is established?” where that the prices is
determined by standard pricing, the process step “look up
product price on price list” would have to be added.
• If the answer to the this question indicated that the prices are
determined via negotiation, the process “negotiate product
price” would be needed |
Level 4- How Are Process Steps Documented? | Process steps may be documented in a
structured model that identifies the events
(things outside the work that initiate, and
terminate the actions described in the model)
and the steps required to move the business
object to completion.
• Process steps is typically documented in a
Process Step Model using a BPMN notation. |
Level 5- Activity | How to Identify Activities?
• At this level we are capable of exposing and capturing the
interaction with the individual atomic objects that a worker
in a role can view, access, and/or manipulate within the
work.
Activities will be of two types:
• There will be one activity will always recognize the work to
convert some set of inputs into output (transformational work),
complete a transaction within rule-based work, or, in situations of
high ambiguity, reach a judgment or conclusion (tacit work).
• The remaining activities are each associated with one of the
inputs consumed in creating the output. |
Level 5- How Are Activities Documented? | • Process activities are documented in a
structured model that identifies the events
( things outside the process that initiate,
terminate, or happen during the course of action
described in the model), and the set of activities
required within scope of the process step.
• Process Activities typically documented in a
Process Activities Model using a BPMN notation. |