Analyzing and improving your team’s process requires a wise approach. While instinct is important, it will not always replace an analytical, logical approach to the problem. Business Process Modeling (BPM) is the activity needed when you want to focus on the right details and quickly identify inefficiencies. What is BPM and how will it improve your process?
What is Business Process Modeling?
Business Process Modeling is a way of visual presentation of the workflow in a company or a team. Viewing subsequent activities makes it easy to refine every single process. BPM can represent the flow of tasks between individual employees or departments.
What Are the Goals of Business Process Modeling?
It all depends on the company’s needs. However, there are several common features for different organizations and one of them is a need to understand the process. The visual arrangement of individual elements allows managers to quickly notice the relationships between them. Thanks to that, they can easily identify weaknesses and work on improving them.
Another undeniable advantage of the Business Process Modeling is the ability to organize the workflow. The readable diagrams can be easily modified, which allows you to arrange each task and find the best place for it.
Organized data speeds up work and limits the number of errors. It also decreases downtime on indecisive moments and brings clarity to the worker’s responsibilities.
Elements and Techniques of BPM
The Business Process Modeling is composed of three main elements: events, activities, and gateways. An event symbol (a circle) stands for the beginning and end of a specific action. An activity (a rectangle) represents an event and can be used at various stages of the process. A diamond symbol represents the gateway and it determines which paths an activity can follow. Finally, an arrow connects the individual elements.
What does the Business Process Modeling cycle look like? The first step is to define the process that we want to present. To properly redesign the process, it is necessary to look at its weak points. The phase of monitoring and controlling changes is equally important.
What Is Worth Knowing About Business Process Modeling Techniques?
The Business Process Modeling can be carried out using a variety of techniques.
1. Flowchart
The first of them is the flowchart. This tool enables the manager to divide the decision-making process into several elements. In this way, they can notice how actions affect each other.
2. Gantt Chart
This chart, popular in many marketing departments, perfectly shows individual team members involved in the process, as well as the project’s timeline. Gantt chart allows you to note which tasks will be performed at a given timeline and detect the most challenging points on the project.
3. Data Flow Diagram
A DFD is another technique to show the visual flow of information. Unlike the flowchart, Data Flow Diagram does not focus on the logic of the business process.
4. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
The last technique worth noting is the Business Process Modeling Notation. A BPMN aims to simplify communication as much as possible. Using the BPMN technique, a manager or a team member can map the process in such a way that it is perfectly understandable and clear to other project members.
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