Business Process Design Tutorial # 1: Why, What & How?
Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on
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At the end of the workshop, our client confessed, ‘I didn’t know our business
worked like that’. We’d come onsite and over three months mapped out the
processes in his Finance, Sales and Operations Depts.
For me, one of the most
rewarding aspects of Business Analysis is discovering how a business works and
then mapping it out in Visio.
Get your MS Word Business Process templates here
We write the process narratives in Word. In simple
terms, business process design is a way of gathering related, structured
activities (tasks) that serve a particular goal, usually for customer though it
can also be for an IT system.
The best way I've found to capture the business
process is in flowcharts, which show the sequence of activities and where each
task inter-relates.
Definition: What is a Business Process?
I've learnt so much how business models work by taking a business apart,
process by process, and seeing where it’s working best and where it needs some
fine-tuning.
- One definition of a business process is that it's a 'set of
coordinated tasks and activities that will lead to accomplishing a
specific organizational goal' TechTarget's
Definition of Business Process.
- In addition, business process
management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving those processes.
The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) promotes the
standardization of common business processes, as a means of furthering
e-business and business-to-business (B2B) development.
- To realize end,
it developed the Business Process Modeling Language (BPML), an
Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based meta-language for modeling
business processes.
A Business Process Design let's you
illustrate activities that are designed to produce specific outputs.
For
example, if you worked for a bank, you might have a Credit Card application process. That
shows what the customer needs to give in, what happens when the
application is received, and what results are expected. The customer
gets a new credit card or is rejected. You need to design processes for
each these scenarios.
Get your Business Process Visio templates here
Business Process Example
Let’s look at an example of creating a process flow diagram for a
Credit Card application. Like we said, business processes show how to capture
(record) the order in which activities occur.
For example.
- Customer applies for credit card on the bank site
Or
- Customer applies for credit card in the branch
Or
- Customer applies for credit card at promotional event
Then
- The credit card application is received electronically, but the
email is wrong (separate process flow)
- The credit card application is received at main office, but
address is missing (separate process flow)
- The credit card application is received at branch office who
send it to head office (separate process flow)
Then
- The customer gets a new credit card in the post
- The customer is offered a new credit card but has to come into
the branch (with ID) to pick it up
- The customer is offered a new credit card but it send to the
wrong address (printing error)
Or
- The customer is rejected online.
- The customer is rejected at branch.
- The customer is rejected at sub-branch.
All of these scenarios need to be mapped correctly and, if necessary,
form part of a new process. For example, the credit card rejection
process.
As a Business Analyst, you need to design business processes for each
these scenarios.
Business Process Analysis
A process must have a
start, inputs (documents or information) and outputs
(reports/forms/results). At its most simple level, every process has a:
- Start – what triggers the process into action? I want a credit
card.
- Middle - what goes on in the process? The different steps,
including variations, business rules, and possible exceptions.
- End – what conditions are necessary to close the process? I got
my plastic friend. Woohoo!
Get Your Business Process MS Word Templates Here
Business process modeling involves
designing processes that add value by showing the transformation of inputs into
useful outputs.
What are Business Process Analysis inputs?
Inputs are whatever enters something into the process, for example, the
customer (a human resource) submits a credit card application. In another
process, a HR system (equipment) may submit a report to anther IT system, maybe
the SAP or Oracle databases. Inputs can be resources (people), materials,
energy, and equipment (software).
In UML, a resource is an input to a business process and is consumed
during the processing. For example, as each daily train service is run,
the service resource is 'used up' as far as the process of recording
actual train times is concerned. When
mapping business processes, an Input link indicates that the
resource is consumed in the processing procedure. For example, when
customer orders are processed they are signed off and used only once per
order.
What are Business Process Analysis outputs?
Outputs are the result, the end product,
in the business cycle. Outputs may be a physical product (possibly used as an
input to another process) or a service. Outputs are whatever is produced as a
result of this action. While this seems obvious, remember that in
complexes there may be two or more outputs. You need to decide which is
the main output and relegate other outputs to sub-processes. More on
sub-processes later.
As a Business Analyst, this means that in the credit card
application, the outputs will be the Acceptance of the Credit Card
request or a Rejection of the request.
When designing the process map, make sure you cover all scenarios so the
process flow and all intermediate activities are covered.
To recap: A business process will typically produce one or more
outputs to the business, either for internal use of to satisfy external
requirements. Outputs may be a physical object (such as a report), a
transformation of raw resources into a new arrangement (a daily
schedule) or a business result such as completing a customer order.
Remember, business process A’s output may feed into business
processes B, either as a requested item or a trigger to start new
activities.
Business Process documentation Template
Next week, I'll look at how to use Business Process
design techniques for large Software Development projects. You might
want to read this if you're looking at ways to improve your department’s
performance, outsource projects, or to improve your knowledge of process
design.
About the Author:
Ivan Walsh is a contributing editor to the
Klariti Small Business Centre. Ivan also
shares Business Plan tips for SMEs on his
business plan
blog. Follow him
on Twitter.
~~~
Process Design Tutorial
Benefits of a Business Process Template
A Business Process is a set of activities designed to
produce a specific output. It is used to capture the specific ordering
of work activities, including inputs, outputs, triggers and actions.
Business Process documentation Template
These Business Process templates will help you to:
-
Introduce the process and outline its purpose, goal,
and outcomes
-
Identify the fundamental assumptions behind this
process. For example, what assumptions does the process audience
have in relation to this process and how does the process support
those assumptions
-
Identify where and how the process interfaces with
other processes or whether it is a component or sub-components of
other processes
-
Use Visio flowcharts to illustrate process
activities, including inputs and outputs, decision points and user
activity
-
Identify data to be collected, such as reports,
forms, and policies
-
Identify reporting requirements associated with the
performance of the process and the format it must be delivered in
-
Identify the audience, role, and individuals who
will use the process definition, and the responsibilities of these
roles
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Microsoft Word 97-2003, Word 2007 and Apple Macintosh. 
I'm Ivan Walsh, the person behind this site. I help people improve how they write, publish and extend their business assets.