Business Process Modeling 3 Step-by-step Guide: Definition, Techniques, and Benefits
Business Process Modeling: Business processes is at the core of every business. It decides the way by which any business is being operated. Moreover, it provides us a deeper insight of what they actually are, what are the ways by which they function and what kind of impact they create! The more clarity of accountability and roles in business implies better management your business.
You need to understand your processes thoroughly and clearly to create a reasonable and efficient process. That’s when business process modeling comes to play. It helps in effective visualization of the processes and this in turn, helps us to get a vivid understanding of the working of business functions, along with your strengths and weaknesses. All of this makes a process more efficient and fruitful.
BPM is not a fanatical concept – it has been there for a while now. But you can see visible and effective changes in the productivity and efficiency of businesses. These changes are capable of bringing about a revolution in business.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about the BPM ; definition, techniques, and benefits to understand the ways to manage processes for better results in business.
What is Business Process Modeling (BPM)? | Definition
Business process modeling (BPM) definition is the methodical depiction or to put simply an illustration representing the flow of business processes in an organization. Process Modeling is a crucial part of effective business process management.
Process modeling software provides us a clear analytical representation of the ‘as-is’ processes within an organization and compares it with the ‘to-be’ processes to make businesses more efficient.
What is the Difference between Business Process Modeling and Business Process mapping?
Business Process Mapping is a way by which collection of activities in a process that transforms one or more inputs into one or more outputs are put together. This business process mapping definition provides a minimalist view of what a process map does. A process map gives us a way of visualizing what a business does by taking into account roles, responsibilities and standards.
The ultimate goal of Business Process Modeling is process optimization. Both process modeling and process mapping techniques involve breaking the process into small parts and this allows us to study the processes clearly, but they aren’t the same thing. Process mapping is more focused on providing roles clarification and procedures. While, process modeling integrates the process work flow with the business rules.
Business Process Modeling is concerned with the trials performed in order to envision the possibilities that a process can hold. Process modeling opens up numerous ways to have a deeper understanding of the tests, trials and results. It also sets up a strong start for process optimization, and so the possibility of finding and visualizing the loopholes and inefficiencies are easier.
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What is Business Process Modeling Techniques?
Business process modeling is basically part of some larger concepts as follows:
- Business Process Management (BPM): Business Process Management is a management approach to align organization vision, strategies, business objectives to its business processes.
It defines critical business process KPIs which are essential to focus on to control the business and delivers the promise. BPM is a means to improve business performance outcomes and responsiveness of operations.
- Business Process Analysis: The business process analysis definition is it is the set of procedures used to garner understandings of the internal workings of a process, and identifying their strengths, weaknesses, inefficiencies and bottlenecks. This in turn, provides us an outline for business process performance improvements.
- Business Process Re-engineering: Business process re-engineering definition is fundamental rethinking and redesigning of business processes so as to attain vivid improvements in all the critical aspects like service quality, process outcome, cost, and process speed.
Business process reengineering (BPR) intents to cut down the enterprise costs and reduce the redundancies and repetitions within the process on a large scale.
There are a number of process modeling techniques, 12 in total to be specific. Today we will discuss some of the most common ones.
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
BPMN 2.0 is becoming a standard arrangement for the process analysts and to those who are involved in the creation of business modeling tools. It is comparatively a simpler usage of lines, arrows, and geometric shapes to communicate the flow and gradations of the process. A process consultant can have a look at a BPMN 2.0 model and will know exactly how it is supposed to function!
Although BPMN 2.0 is a simpler and easier concept to grasp, still regular business users don’t intuitively think of it immediately. It is not recommended if you want to create your own application, but is a great tool for process consultants to explore.
Universal Process Notation (UPN)
You don’t require learning a whole new language for this. Universal Process Notation or UPN is more of an intuitive system. It gives you a simple box for completion of each and every task.
The box depicts what exactly is supposed to happen, who is assigned to what role, and when should a sequence of processes be performed. It is truly beneficial for the IT for designing and analysing the processes, for management to be aligned with the correct business norms, and – most importantly – for the end business users to be able to understand the processes as intended.
Flowchart Technique
Flowcharts are the best ways to explain even the most complex process flows simply and effectively. They represent the steps of the process in an orderly fashion, moving from inputs, reaching the actual process, and finally to the outputs. The flowcharts do the job of providing the basic framework for BPMN to showcase innovative and advanced process flows.
Gantt Charts
In spite of sequential flow of data, Gantt charts represent the whole process taking ‘time taken’ as one of the main axes. This shows the overall time spent on completion of a project.
Petri-Nets
Essentially it is a modeling technique used in mathematics. Petri-nets are now useful for modeling business processes as well. Petri-nets are used to categorize or classify the complex steps of workflow steps, users, and routes using different set of colours.
Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)
Data flow diagrams represent the sequential flow of data from one source to another. It demonstrates how different processes are related to each other and to the people using them.
It is essential to note that DFD is not about the mechanics of data storage techniques. To put it more precisely, it is about how the flow of data occurs through different processes.
How to do Business Process Modeling?
There can’t be just one solution that resolve every business problem or suits every business for business process modeling. Ultimately, it is completely dependent on what you really want to attain!
There are 3 major ways to proceed with Business Process Modeling. They are as follows:
- Model Existing Process – Use any of the above process modeling techniques in the process you’re working with. Proceed with it on paper or software.
- Identify Inefficiencies & Potential Improvements – Ask yourself questions like, how well is your process performing? Is it even reasonably efficient? Is it meeting your current operational goals? Are there any of the steps in the process that’s really inefficient?
- Design To-Be Process – Design the new processes and improve the processes depending on the findings in step #2, and finally put it into practice.
Why use Business Process Modeling?
The very first step in modeling is actually to use pen and paper. However, in order to actually run any business process, you will have to digitize that process in the way workflow engine is able to understand.
Business process modeling software allows us to represent the process digitally so that they can then be transferred in a live automated process.
There are numerous benefits to business process modeling. Some of which are:
- Gives everyone the clarity of the working of processes.
- Delivers stability, consistency and control over the process.
- Identifies, observes, and eliminates the redundancies and bottlenecks within the process.
- Marks a clear initial and end point of the processes.
- Helps you categorize identical processes together and find ways to operate them.
It works to enhance the process efficiency and hence increase the overall business yield. An efficient business process modeling (BPM) guarantees your business success.
Conclusion
We can’t neglect the power of process modelling for businesses of all sizes and industry verticals. You need embrace its power every day. Once the understanding of processes is clear, identifying the process which is to be optimized to achieve the set target becomes very clear.
We prepare process models to enhance our understanding of various processes. What is a business process model? These are analytical or illustrated representations of various processes within an organization. It involves characterization of processes under different categories based on their traits. These processes yield the best results when optimized. Business process optimization is the practice of improving processes that in turn, increases efficiency of the organization.
Business process modeling (BPM) definition is the methodical depiction or to put simply an illustration representing the flow of business processes in an organization. Process Modeling is a crucial part of effective business process management.
Process modeling software provides us a clear analytical representation of the ‘as-is’ processes within an organization and compares it with the ‘to-be’ processes to make businesses more efficient
Business Process Mapping is a way by which collection of activities in a process that transforms one or more inputs into one or more outputs are put together. A process map gives us a way of visualizing what a business does by taking into account roles, responsibilities and standards.
Business Process Modeling is concerned with the trials performed in order to envision the possibilities that a process can hold. Process modeling opens up numerous ways to have a deeper understanding of the tests, trials and results. The ultimate goal of Business Process Modeling is process optimization.
Both process modeling and process mapping techniques involve breaking the process into small parts and this allows us to study the processes clearly, but they aren’t the same thing. Process mapping is more focused on providing roles clarification and procedures. While, process modeling integrates the process work flow with the business rules.
There are a number of process modeling techniques, 12 in total to be specific. Some of the most common business process modeling techniques are:
- Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
- Universal Process Notation (UPN)
- Flowchart Technique
- Gantt Charts
- Petri-Nets
- Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)
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