Concepts

It is increasingly important for organizations to analyze their existing business processes and be able to communicate them to management, partners and suppliers, and the technology architects who build and support their business systems.

Business process design

A business process is a set of related business activities that deliver products, goods, services, or information to a customer. Business processes can be taken individually, as discrete steps in a business cycle, or collectively, as the collective activities that make up the business in which the company is engaged. The customer of a business process can be either another organization or individual within the company, or the end purchaser of the goods or services.

Although most large businesses are organized into divisions and departments, the actual workflow of business processes generally involves multiple internal departments. The customer may see only one process—for example, a sale being completed—but the process itself may span several departments—the sales department that finds the customer, the distribution or fulfillment department that fills the order, and the finance department that invoices the customer. Traditional businesses are often organized vertically by function, but processes are generally horizontal, across the entire organization.

What is a business process model?

Business process modeling helps the business analyst understand and measure requirements and eliminate the risk of losing value through inefficient or inappropriate activities. If technology is being implemented, the technology architect needs to understand the processes being automated and make sure that the appropriate technology is selected, configured, and implemented.

A business process model typically consists of diagrams, descriptions, and data that provide both overview and detailed information about an organization’s business processes. These describe the processes and activities that take place within the organization through processes, workflow diagrams, text descriptions, inputs and outputs, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

A business process model provides a bird’s-eye view of what an organization does and how information flows in and out of activities. It allows individuals to see the place their activities have within the company as a whole.