Make Process Modeling the Focal Point of Business Innovation & Transformation
Connect the Dots with Extended Process Modeling Series Part 2
We all know the critical role process modeling has in business innovation and transformation, but for it to be successful, it has to include a much wider community and link all interrelated objects. Is process modeling serving all these constituencies? No… Can process modeling ever be the focal point of business innovation and transformation? YES! But where do you start?
Start with the RIGHT Process Modeling Solution
Your choice needs to support industry-leading enterprise architecture concepts, with a notation that is understood by all levels of users. It needs to be concise at the business level, detailed at the implementation level, with rich task types for Service Modeling, Rule Modeling and report definition, etc., etc., and oh yeah, Business, Information and Data Object abstractions that provide “real-world” conceptualization, interface definition, and data abstraction in support of a layered approach to Object Modeling and visibility are needed. Take a breath. It doesn’t end there…
The right foundation must also use connectable objects to represent all the elements above related to processes to enable impact and gap reporting, must support KPIs (key performance indicators)/PPIs (process performance indicators) in context of flow, must have What-If Analysis (e.g., process simulation), and finally must also include process performance monitoring capability for visibility into the impact of change across multiple PPIs and KPIs.
Helping the Underserved: Enhancing the BPMN 2.0 Standard with Extended Process Modeling
With all of the valuable information above being captured in an enterprise model, the inability for different knowledge workers to make and understand the connections throughout it all leads to the failure of modeling to truly serve a purpose of transformation. To achieve true business transformation, all constituencies creating and consuming models must be able to engage and understand more than just what conventional process modeling allows. There’s a need to extend and enhance process modeling to bridge the gaps between the knowledge experts across the organization.
BPMN 2.0 can indeed address all of the necessary constituencies… with a modified approach. Let’s take a couple minutes to talk about just two of the many uber-important practitioners – Business Strategists and Architects, and Information Architects – and walk through how an Extended Process Modeling approach can help with some of the challenges they face.
Business Strategists/Business Architect
Your business has got to solve the age old problem most businesses face, really. Just how do you prioritize allocation of your resources within your organization with so many important initiatives competing for their attention? How do your people even begin to go about supporting the business needs when they have no clear visibility into business strategy and objectives?
Business Strategists and Business Architects help create the vision of how to align resources based on business priorities by exposing competency gaps to achieving business objectives, letting you identify opportunities for resource reuse and eliminating redundancy. Being able to model and roll up PPIs at the process level into KPIs, goals – and ultimately strategies – is central to prioritization of business optimization efforts and weaves the work of strategists and architects into the models for a better understanding of the business. Not tying in this constituency perpetuates misalignment.
Information Architect
It’s a plain fact. By not modeling information flow – which follows a very different path than the actual process flow – you’re setting yourself up for some big time misunderstandings by not clearly modeling how your business actually works. By applying Extended Process Modeling, you have the ability to easily distinguish between Business, Information and Data Objects, and you increase the potential for success of process improvement initiatives because you are able to root out inefficiencies/understand the impact of change on business requirements, and ensure effective communication and optimization of decisions.
For more on the on the Connect the Dots with Extended Process Modeling Blog Series, check out the next post: Process Improvement Done Right—No More “Whack-a-Mole”
