Business Process Management

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Simply put, Business Process Management is the systematic transformation and ongoing management of  all aspects of an organization's core work processes, concurrent with improving other conditions (e.g., organizational subsystems) that affect process and people performance.  This is done from the perspective of how well the core work processes support the organization's business strategy.  Business Process Management implies a shift in an organization’s focus from managing functions or geographic territories to managing common processes on a global basis. 

What does BPM entail?

Business process management represents a holistic approach to transforming the organization, as opposed to a piecemeal approach for improving business processes.  BPM looks not only at how the core process is working, but other aspects of the organization as well.  This is done in a structured, systematic, yet efficient manner, enabling the achievement of significant improvement in not only operational performance, but in how the culture of the organization supports or reinforces employee commitment to those improvements. 

The organization is viewed as a set of process steps that transform inputs into outputs.  The effectiveness and efficiency of this transformation process is affected by a number of things, as depicted in the diagram below.

To the extent that: 

• The organization's strategy is well understood and executed   

• The structure is aligned to support that execution

• Technology enables the transformation process

• Management practices reinforce effective work practices, and

• That policies, procedures, and various people processes are in alignment...

...the organization design will enable high performance.  If these elements are not aligned, however, the organization's performance will be sub-optimal.

Key actions typically associated with a BPM initiative include:

• Establishment of a formal governance structure and processes for BPM with the direct involvement of executives who have direct authority and responsibility for the organization's core business processes

• Identification and prioritization of those core business processes that have the greatest overall impact on the organization's performance

• The systematic analysis of core business processes to identify the root causes of poor quality, customer dissatisfaction, high costs, low throughput, and other key operational problems

• The systematic analysis of organizational and people processes that may be contributing to sub-optimal performance

• The formulation of a design solution and implementation plan to address the root causes of problems, and lead to lasting organizational improvement.