Business Process Modelling – The Basics

Business Process Model – Why Use It?

Business process models and business process modelling are used in a variety of circumstances including business process re-engineering (BPR) and business process management (BPM) and it can play a part in process improvement approaches such as lean and six sigma. This article considers how process models can play a part in a ‘typical’ project where existing processes are impacted or new processes are introduced and does not explore lean or six sigma.

In a typical project of reasonable complexity, there is value in modelling the ‘To Be’ processes as these will be of value in the project for the reasons described at the start of the article.

There may also be value in modelling the ‘As Is’ business processes. However, this may take considerable effort so it is important this is considered and it is decided there is benefit before it is undertaken.

There is value in undertaking ‘As Is’ process modelling for the following reasons (there may be other reasons):

• Existing processes are poorly understood and will be impacted by new project;
• Business units understand only their part of the process;
• Existing processes are largely manual and project objective is to automate the existing process.

Business process models provide real value on a project as they can engage the business stakeholders in a language they understand. They also provide the bigger context for a project which when presented in a diagrammatic form can generate insights which produce a better set of requirements and identify possible requirement gaps – for example, where handoffs occur between different teams.

Business process models are used for many purposes, including:

• To document an existing process;
• To use as a basis for training members of staff;
• To understand how the process works and where the problems lie;
• To provide a basis for business process improvement;
• To identify who is involved in the entire process;
• To show the sequence of process flow activities and the alternative flow activities.