Process Management
Business process modeling (BPM) in systems engineering is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed and improved. BPM is typically performed by business analysts and managers who are seeking to improve process efficiency and quality. The process improvements identified by BPM may or may not require information technology involvement, although that is a common driver for the need to model a business process, by creating a process master. Business process modeling results in the improvement of the way tasks are performed by the business. They can pick up errors or deficiencies in the way processes are currently being performed and model an improved way of carrying out these processes.
Change management programs are typically involved in the implementation of improved business processes. With advances in technology from large platform vendors, the vision of BPM models becoming fully executable (and capable of simulations and round-trip engineering) is coming closer to reality.
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. There are three main types of business processes:
1. Management processes, that govern the operation of a system - Typical management processes include corporate governance and strategic management.
2. Operational processes, which constitute the core business and create the primary value stream - Typical operational processes are purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.
3. Supporting processes, that support the core processes - Examples include accounting, recruitment, and technical support.
A business process can be deconstructed into several sub-processes, which have their own attributes, but also contribute to achieving the goal of the super-process. The analysis of business processes typically includes the mapping of processes and sub-processes down to the activity level. A business process model is a model of one or more business processes, and defines the ways in which operations are carried out to accomplish the intended objectives of an organization. Such a model remains an abstraction and depends on the intended use of the model. It can describe the workflow or the integration between business processes. It can be constructed in multiple levels.
A workflow is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, of a simple or complex mechanism, of a group of persons, of an organization of staff, or of machines. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work, segregated into workshare, work split or other types of ordering. For control purposes, workflow may be a view of real work under a chosen aspect.