Business Process Management as a managerial discipline – principles, benefits and implementation

By Grzegorz B. Gruchman, IDS Scheer

The Concept. Every government, public or privately owned organization on Earth is full of business processes, regardless of the size or the industry in which it operates. Processes are chains of coordinated tasks performed by people using machines and equipment or supported by IT technologies. Some of them are improvised along the way, but most are routine and repeatable. Small scale processes within departments are coordinated by managers responsible for their performance and costs.

More important however are processes that relate organizations with their customers, the so-called end-to-end processes. Everything that gets done between a request for a birth certificate and delivery of this document, between a passport application and its delivery, between an order and delivery of products to the customer, or between a loan application and repayment of debt is such a process. Such large scale processes are cross-functional, since they include and link tasks scattered in various departments. However, in a typical government institution or a company, no one is really responsible for end-to-end processes in a managerial sense. This means that usually no one really takes care in a comprehensive manner of the work that counts most. 

This issue is addressed by Business Process Management (BPM). It is an IT-enabled management discipline that helps companies to improve operational performance and facilitate change. It changes the way institutions and companies work and are managed, using a process-oriented mindset, process maps and performance measures, as well as cross-functional governance structures. It is based on a principle of continuous process management as a cycle, where all processes undergo analysis, design, implementation and controlling within a company-wide business process strategy. While processes have to undergo larger change from time to time, smaller scale, incremental improvements are emphasized. Such improvements are facilitated by process execution software that links together people and various applications systems.

Benefits. All contemporary organizations, no matter what type, face today a constantly changing political and business environment. Competition is increased and accelerated, while the citizens demand better services. New regulations demand also more control over operations. All this results in an increased need for process visibility and better management of the ways organizations operate on a daily basis.

To work better, institutions and companies must discover first how they coordinate and manage daily work, what are the related problems and how to improve delivery of their services and  products. Later on, they must monitor performance of daily operations to check if it is indeed improved and does not deteriorate again. If there are problems, appropriate small scale or larger scale changes have to be designed and implemented. The effects of changes are measured and confronted with performance in the past. All this should be applied to end-to-end, comprehensive processes that begin and end outside the organization. That is what business process management is all about.

Successful adoption of BPM transforms struggling companies into leaders and makes good companies stronger. Such companies and other organizations enjoy increased effectiveness and efficiency, better alignment between strategy and operations, as well as better alignment between operations and IT applications. Such companies are also more agile and find it easier to introduce organizational change. Last but not least, they find compliance with external regulations much easier.

Even more important are market benefits of BPM. Institutions and companies that discovered the secret of business process management and successfully applied its principles are simply better than others. They provide better services, their products are of better quality and their customers are more satisfied. This happens all around the world, since the quest for recognition, for a better image and for getting ahead of competition is applicable in every country. As a reward, companies where processes are properly managed enjoy increased customer focus, improved products and services, shortened time-to-market and increased productivity, better communications and more process innovations.

Implementation. Successful process improvement projects increase effectiveness and efficiency of business processes within the scope of change. However, BPM applied on a project-by-project basis have a weaker longer impact and may disappear. This happens because improvements in processes tend to degenerate over time, due to changes in the business environment, or within the company. Without permanent, on-going monitoring and problem resolution the impact of a process project decreases over a relatively short period of time. Objective of Business Process Management is to prevent such deterioration of processes’ performance and to improve it incrementally at the same time.

BPM implementation is very beneficial, but it is also not easy. It involves implementation of a permanent process-oriented culture and structures. Traditional approach to organization of companies and institutions is based on hierarchy of departments and managerial positions. In a traditionally structured organization, work performed in different departments is frequently not sufficiently related and coordinated, that is why larger scale improvements cannot be achieved. Business process management addresses this issue head-on. It is focused on how work is really being done and looks at relationships and coordination of activities performed by people and applications in the whole institution or company. This makes it possible to analyze and improve process performance, to increase quality and timeliness of work. 

Successful implementation of Business Process Management requires long-range vision, persistence and patience. It requires also many changes in organizational structures, management practices and technologies. The target is to transform an organization into a process-oriented one, where an on-going process management is institutionalized on top of process governance structures. Such organizations use:

• Portfolio approach to process project selection
• Holistic approach to processes
• Formal process change methodology
• Repository-based process modeling tools
• IT as an enabler, not as a driver

Portfolio approach means that business processes are directly linked with strategy, expressed in terms of strategic objectives and Critical Success Factors. In this way, process change projects and other related initiatives are launched with strategic priorities in mind. The process scope of such initiatives is defined with relationships to other processes explicitly analyzed and taken into account. Project objectives focus on delivering value to the customers. Process analysis, design and implementation efforts are guided by standard methodology, supported by advanced process modeling tools. IT issues are secondary to process ones. In cases when implementation relies on IT, technology issues are addressed after process designs are completed. 

Support. Process maps are the most visible artifacts of process management. They describe how the institution or company works, that is how departments and people work together. Such blueprints require a suitable way to describe how people work together and how they use information.

Twenty years ago, that was the inspiration for a German Professor August-Wilhelm Scheer to create a special graphical language for such descriptions. He also founded a company to put those ideas into practice. His company was named IDS Scheer and developed later a specialized software to store, manipulate and distribute graphical descriptions of institutions and companies, based on the invented language. The software is similar in concept to Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs used by engineers to design and construct everything from a production plant to a car or a cell phone. But it is also different in its application, because it is used primarily for improving the way people work to deliver services or products in a better or cheaper way.

The software is called ARIS and is actually a whole suite of integrated products that support strategy, design, implementation and controlling of business processes within their life-cycle. One of the solutions built on top of this software is ARIS Solution for Enterprise BPM, synonymous with process analysis, optimization, communication and implementation. The integrated ARIS Value Engineering methodology prescribes steps, tools and work packages for defining strategies, identifying improvement potential and handling subsequent change processes. There are also other related methodologies, such as ARIS Solution for BPM Governance or for Process Intelligence and Performance Management. 

Consultants apply the ARIS Value Engineering approach to ensure cost-effective, on-time delivery and the highest quality deliverables. Through ARIS Value Engineering, IDS Scheer utilizes a unique procedural model that flexibly combines the individual elements of the process lifecycle. All ARIS Value Engineering methods have proven successful in many BPM projects and benefit from the cumulative knowledge of IDS Scheer process consultants.

ARIS Solution for Enterprise BPM is based on the market-leading ARIS Platform architecture, ensuring a comprehensive approach. From Process Strategy, Design, Implementation and Controlling, the ARIS Platform supports all target groups within a company — from the coordination department to the management team and from specialist departments to the IT departments and controllers. The integration of methodologies and technologies, briefly described above, ensures that all organizations can be effectively supported in their efforts to begin and continue their journey towards mature Business Process Management.