What is business process modelling? – Workbook (Preview)
Business processes create value
We’ll start with an overview of business processes themselves whilst introducing various ways of modelling them. The subsequent lessons of the course look at these things in more detail.
What business processes do
An organisation creates value in the form of its products and services.
Its business processes are the means by which it delivers that value, i.e. its products and services, to its customers.
Examples of business processes
- Fulfil order
- Acquire raw material
- Provide holiday
- Resolve customer complaint
- Replenish stock
Characteristics of a process
Business processes,
- Are triggered by a business event, e.g.
- The receipt of a customer order
- Execute a planned response to the event.
- This planned response involves performing a set of related activities, e.g.
- Take the customer’s order
- Prepare the order for delivery
- Deliver the ordered items to the customer
- This planned response involves performing a set of related activities, e.g.
- Realise an outcome or outcomes, e.g.
- The customer has received their order
- The business has been paid, i.e.,
- The order has been fulfilled
Process instances
The execution of a process following a triggering event is referred to as an instantiation (or instance) of that process.
Possible relationships between the activities in a process
Activities in a process will normally be related to each other in one of two ways, i.e.
- In a sequence
- In parallel
Most process instances will consist of a mix of sequential and parallel activities.
Sequences of related activities
Activities running in sequence are performed one after the other in a predefined order.
Predefined’ means that the order is decided by the designers of the process.
Parallel activities
Parallel activities run at the same time as, or independently of, each other.
Consider the case of an order from a customer that involves the activities:
- Create the ordered item/product
- Obtain payment from the customer
These activities are typically performed by different parts of the organisation. Therefore, although they are both in the same process they are independent of each other can be performed, potentially, at the same time.
Related activities that run, or are capable of running, at the same time are said to be ‘parallel’, or ‘concurrent’. We refer to ‘parallel’ or ‘concurrent’ processing
As with a sequence of activities, parallel processing is predefined by the designers of the process.
Other possibilities for activities
Some processes may contain activities where the order in which they run cannot be determined in advance of a particular instantiation. They may be triggered by events that occur whilst a process is running. We shall not consider these further in this course.
Management and Creative Activities
Many of the activities associated with the work of a manager or a creative person such as an illustrator are not normally executed in a predefined order. It is probably not possible to represent such activities with a flowchart. Even with the use of artificial intelligence, AI, It is unlikely, at the moment, that such activities will be fully automated; obviously the overall situation regarding the use of AI is changing rapidly.
Business processes and IT systems
Business processes organise the work of an organisation. They can be supported by IT systems. The diagram shows activities associated with a hotel system, e.g.
- Booking a stay
- By telephoning the hotel booking department
- Accessing the hotel’s online booking system
- Checking in/out
Business analysts are concerned with both business processes and the IT systems to support them. This course, Modelling Business Processes, is primarily concerned with business processes.
Business process improvement is not the same thing as process automation
However, one option for improving processes might be the use of automation, e.g. in the form of robots in a factory. However, business process improvement and process automation are not the same thing.
Ways of modelling business processes
Models of business processes are typically graphical, supported by text. The following forms of model are particularly relevant to the syllabus and exam for the BCS Certificate in Modelling Business Processes:
- Processes in the environment in which they operate, e.g.
- Harmon’s Organisation model
- Sets of related processes that each contribute to the delivery of value to a customer, e.g.
- Porter’s value chain
- An individual process
- In the BCS syllabus for this course, a model of a single process is known simply as a ‘business process model’
- It is commonly referred to as a ‘swimlane diagram’
- An overview of the models is given below. We will cover all of them in detail later in the course
Harmon’s organisation model
Context
Harmon’s Organisation Model, as defined for this course, shows business processes in the context shows business process in the context of the organisation itself and the external environment in which it operates.
The processes are represented by a rectangle labelled, ‘Processes’.
The elements of Harmon’s organisation model
Harmon – Looking inside the ‘processes’ box
The model can be elaborated by identifying the set of processes inside the ‘Processes’ box. The above diagram shows examples of possble processes.
Value chain
A value chain can be described as an ordered set of activities/processes that collectively support the entire lifecycle of a product or service, e.g.
- Obtain raw materials
- Create product
- Sell product
- Service sold product
- ‘Dispose of’/’recycle’ product
Such ordered sets of activities/processes can be considered as links in a chain, that, end to end, provide an organisation’s products and services to its customers. The ‘chain’ is referred to as a ‘value chain’. Each of its activities must add value to the ‘end to end’ process.
The BCS syllabus for this course includes, ‘Porter’s Value Chain’.
Porter’s value chain
Porter’s value chain models the types of activities/processes that together make up a complete chain. Note that Porter refers to activities, rather than processes. When viewing Porter’s model, it’s convenient to consider the terms ‘activity’ and ‘process’ as meaning the same thing.
The top level view of Porter’s value chain model shows two categories of activity, i.e. ‘primary’ and ‘support’.
- Primary
- The various types of activity/process needed needed to create and supply an organisation’s products and services
- Cover everything from sourcing raw materials to delivering the service or product
- Support
- Activities that provide services needed by an organisation in order to carry out its chain of primary activities
- Support activities keep an organisation running ‘day by day’/’year by year’
- Support activities include,
- Ensuring appropriate governance of the organisation
- Providing support for employees
- Maintenance of buildings
- Provision of technologies
- Activities that provide services needed by an organisation in order to carry out its chain of primary activities
Porter defines sub categories of both the primary and the support activities.
Modelling an individual process with ‘Business Process Models’
Each process can be elaborated by identifying its component set of activities. For the BCS syllabus and exam, these activities are referred to as tasks.
Tasks can be modelled using what the BCS syllabus for this course call a ‘Business Process Model’, sometimes loosely referred to as a ‘swim lane diagram’.
We can create a business process model for each one of the processes in the value chain.
A business process model shows
- The event(s) that can start a business process, e.g. a customer placing an order
- The possible flows of activities that may be triggered in response to a business event
- These flows can be a mix of sequential and parallel/concurrent activities
- This allows the modellers to determine all possible routes through the activities
- All the ways in which the process can end, i.e. all the possible outcomes
- Stakeholder roles (actors) that are involved in the performance of the process
Modelling an individual activity/task from a process
As mentioned, a process consists of a set of activities. In the syllabus for the BCS ‘Modelling Business Processes’ course, these activities are referred to as ‘tasks’.
- Some tasks may be performed by a person, with or without a computer
- Other tasks may be performed by a machine, e.g. a robot
- Tasks can be modelled in various ways, e.g.
- Flowchart style diagrams
- Narrative descriptions of the, e.g. scenarios
- Easy for business stakeholders to understand without training
- Decision tables
- Useful when modelling business rules and complex sets of conditions
So, what is Business Process Modelling?
Business process modelling:
- Is the act of creating the various representations of business processes and other activities
- Is a key skill of a business analyst
Standards for business processes modelling
The BCS syllabus for this course describes two modelling standards:
- Unified Modelling Language – ‘UML’
- Business Process Modelling and Notation – ‘BPMN’
In this course, we show enough about BPMN to satisfy the syllabus and so prepare for the BCS exam.
For those interested in seeing more, the Capiro’s YouTube channel has a playlist of videos covering BPMN in some detail. Click the link to view the playlist.
- UML
- UML is a well known and freely available standard for modelling many aspects of systems, both business and technical.
- UML activity diagrams can be used to model
- Entire business processes
- Component activities/tasks of a process
- BPMN
- BPMN can be used to model business processes
- The lowest modelling element in BPMN is the task
- Therefore, unlike UML activity diagrams, BPMN cannot be used to model the internal details of a task.
- In this course, we show enough about BPMN to satisfy the syllabus and so prepare for the BCS exam.
For those interested in seeing more, Capiro’s YouTube channel has a playlist of videos covering BPMN in some detail. Click the link to view the playlist.
Stakeholders involved with business process modelling.
Business process modelling is normally facilitated by business analysts working with:
- Business stakeholders who operate or manage the process, or who have some other interest in it
- Business stakeholders describe their processes to the business analysts and other modellers
- Enterprise and Solution Architects
- Help to create the models and implement them as operational processes
- These models might be created on whiteboards or on large sheets of paper attached to the office walls
- Specialist process modellers
- Use tools to capture the models in a formal manner, e.g. to UML and/or BPMN standards
- Some tools support the automatic generation of software to implement the models as working software