Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
BPM stage 1 - discovering your business processes
Discovery of new processes is started most of the time by business analysts. It involves a
certain level of
knowledge engineering
; a branch of requirement gathering involved in
correctly merging different knowledge representation strategies, such as business rules,
process definitions, and so on, with the knowledge from domain experts.
This stage has added weight when you're implementing the first iteration of the BPM cycle,
which is choosing a starting point to demonstrate the importance of BPM for the business. I
recommend choosing a small process to start, with a noncritical objective from the business
perspective, since the results of the first iteration will surely teach you a lot of ways to do it
better in the next iteration. It is important to take time to evaluate the learned lessons at the
end of each of the iterations.
You'll notice that business analysts alone are not enough to perform this stage. Most com-
panies that reach a certain level of maturity on BPM end up having a
Process Improve-
ment department
, which involves technical people and a project leader solely dedicated to
discovering and improving company business processes. They also include or collaborate
with business experts, sponsors, and BPM champions (highly ranked people in the com-
pany, by title or merit, who are dedicated to encouraging the use of BPM throughout the
company). Making BPM an enterprise-wide discipline is extremely important to make it
work successfully; therefore, communication and acceptance of all areas of the company
involved in BPM becomes a priority.
After identifying a goal to build a process around, this stage consists of performing inter-
views with business experts, representatives of operation, and anyone who is involved (or
that should be involved) in the process. To achieve effective interviews, you have to pre-
pare a questionnaire for each person/role involved in the process. Always target your ques-
tions to each role in the company. It is also advisable to have a wide set of questions to ask
each interviewee as well as more specific questions, in case complex activities arise.
Some questions that I've found useful for these interviews are as follows:
• What is your role in process X?
• Which screens do you use to complete the activity X?
• Are you doing paper work? What kind of forms are you filling out?
• Is the activity related to the review of information sent by another person or sys-
tem?
