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Have you dreaded Business Transformation projects? Well, I can tell you, most consultants have! With this blog, my first one, I would like to share some thoughts on Business Process Modeling and its key aspects.

So let's begin with a basic understanding of Business Process Modeling. It is an exercise of visualizing how enterprises conduct their current or future business processes, and the value of those processes- by defining what is done, who is responsible , how the process success is measured, which requirements needs to be realized, what are the IT capabilities, etc. Once the processes are documented, they can be used in all future phases of Business Process Management. Confused?? Let's try and put it in simple terms. Business Process Modeling is a way in which the processes of an organization, both present and future, are depicted covering the what, how and who is involved in the successful implementation of these business processes. Next question comes as to how do we depict these processes? Business Process Modeling , these days, is expressed using Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). Simply put, BPMN is a graphical representation of an enterprise's business processes using standard objects. In other words, it is a set of graphical objects and rules defining available connections between the objects. Furthermore, the graphical notation will facilitate the understanding of the performance measures and business transactions. As of now, we are using BPMN2.0 as the modeling language for Business Process Modeling.


Now, let's take another dig as to how Business Process Modeling plays a crucial role for Business Transformation projects to be successful. During Business Transformation, it is required to ensure that the owners will know what to change and those whose work will be impacted will know what to do differently. And how can this be achieved till the time process models are not clearly defined in a standardized graphical notation so that all the stakeholders are on the same page. Thus, comes the relevance of effective process modeling which falls under the umbrella of Business Process Management.


Recently, I collaborated with few consultants who were of the perspective that Business Process Modeling comes with a tag of being an expensive approach. Well, this is entirely not the case. It has often been termed as a time consuming and costly exercise, especially in large organizations and binders full of documented processes didn't necessarily mean they were of decent quality. But now the times are changing and Business Process Modeling with some intuitive, collaborative standard tools and methodologies can be cost effective to ensure success in Business Transformation.


Some pointers as to how Business Process Modeling can make your life easier and hassle free-

  • Program set up is the crucial bit- All transformation projects (especially large ones) must include process owners, process participants along with modeling and governance experts, involving a standard approach (such as SAP MaxAttention Next Generation), for standardized documentation of the relevant processes and all this is provided by effective Business Process Modeling
  • Standard Business Process Models help in better understanding of opportunities for improvement consistently
  • The Governance Model is key and from an organization and tool perspective, guarantees the creation of high quality outcomes beyond individual projects
  • A collaborative , intuitive process modeling environment allows people to concentrate on what matters - designing value adding processes and increasing process performance (such as Signavio Business Transformation Platform)
  • A central repository as the single source of truth ensures process consistency
  • Seamless integration between Business Process Modeling, Requirements and IT capabilities accelerates project delivery and raises overall quality of project outcomes
  • A collaboration portal ensures participation of all project team members and stakeholders in increasing process performance

So next time you work on a Business Transformation project, ensure that effective Business Process Modeling approach is implemented with the aim to collaborate all the stakeholders on a visualizing framework, then the success is ensured with rest of the factors put in place.

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