What is a business process?
A business process is a structured series of actions taken and decisions made to achieve a specific outcome or objective.
Business processes represent a conceptual blueprint of how resources, tasks, and decisions are related, sequenced, and orchestrated to facilitate the end-to-end flow of information, work, and value in a defined and organized manner to support value creation and capture.
Framing business processes as strategic assets rather than operational constraints opens an organization up to new possibilities where process is embraced as an enabler rather than an inhibitor of optimization and sustainable growth.
What is business process architecture?
Business process architecture focuses on the structuring and optimization of actions taken and decisions made in the context of a defined process.
Understanding the steps to be taken, the information to be collected, the context to be applied, the stages to reach and gates to pass through, and the handoffs to be made are all critical to designing and maintaining effective business process architecture.
By aligning business processes with the strategy and capabilities of the organization, business process architecture has the potential to transform loosely structured operational workflows into value generating institutionalized processes leveraged to deliver exponential returns on invested resources.
What are applications of business process architecture?
What business process architecture expertise do I bring to the table?
Business Process Design
Business process design encompasses defining and aligning the underlying processes of an organization with its business strategy and the needs of its customers.
Designing business processes involves identifying the participants of a process, the required inputs and observable outputs of the process, the steps and actions that will be taken during the process, and the expected outcomes from executing the process.
Balancing micro and macro perspectives, local and global needs and constraints, strategic intent and desired outcomes, and the expected performance of a process with the capabilities of supporting systems and resources is part art and science.
Business Process Modeling
Business process modeling is the art of visually representing the abstract concept of an end-to-end enterprise business process in a manner that fully embodies the conceptual design and intended functioning of the process.
Visually or, if possible, physically modeling business processes enables stakeholders across the various business and technical domains of an enterprise to understand how the process works, what information and value flows through the process, and where handoffs and decisions are made within a process.
Having complete visibility into a process in a form that helps to identify opportunities for improvement and anticipate the impact of changes provides a foundation for planning and decision making that align with strategic goals and objectives.
Process Automation
Process automation leverages technology to execute well defined and repetitive and tasks and workflows on behalf of, or in conjunction with, humans.
Automating processes ensures high levels of accuracy, consistency, and efficiency in the handling and processing of data and information across enterprise systems and platforms.
By automating work at the individual steps of a process, or by orchestrating the flow of information and value across entire business processes, integrating technology to eliminate routine or monotonous tasks enables organizations to focus valuable human tacit knowledge on novel and more strategic challenges.
Workflow Design
Workflow design at is essence involves the detailed and disciplined planning of the inputs, sequencing of activities and decisions, data flows, and outputs required to complete tasks in support the execution of strategic business process.
Designing workflows is a socio-technical discipline in that not only are there specific human and systemic functions and responsibilities to be defined individually, but the interactions between humans and technology must also be addressed with usable and intuitive interfaces.
Enterprise workflow design ensures tasks and transactions are organized and executed in the most effective and efficient manner, ensuring low friction and smooth transitions not only between teams or stages of a process, but between humans and machines, and automated and manual activities.
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