Business Process Management:

Process Identification

prof.dr.ir. Hajo Reijers

BPM recap
Any process is better than no process
A good process is better than a bad process
Even a good process can be improved

Michael Hammer
(1948 2008)

BPM life-cycle

Planning

Identification

Discovery

Design

Deployment

Diagnosis

Control

Execution

Agenda
Identification phase
The link with process modeling

Goal
Identify processes that are worthwhile to manage
e.g. to redesign or to support with workflow technology

Key activities
Enumerate major processes
Determine process boundaries
Assess strategic relevance of each process
Render high-level judgments of the health of
each process
Qualify the culture and politics of each process
Define manageable process innovation scope

Process selection
See Davenport (1993)

Processes are not functions

Some people take the lazy way out. They use the
term process without really understanding it []. A
common indication of this occurs when we ask
someone to identify the organizations processes
and the response is: Sales, marketing,
manufacturing, logistics, and finance. Simply calling
your functions processes doesnt make them
processes.
Hammer and Stanton (1995)

Business process
A set of logically related tasks performed to achieve
a defined business outcome.
Davenport (1990)
Two important characteristics:
it has customers, either internal or external to a firm
it crosses organizational boundaries, i.e. it occurs
across or between organizational subunits

Rule of thumb
If it does not make at least three people mad, its not
a process.
Hammer and Stanton (1995)

Examples of business processes

Ordering goods from a supplier
customer: user of the good
involved parties: purchasing, receiving, accounts
payable, supplier organizations

Developing a new product

Creating a marketing plan
Processing an insurance claim
Etc.

Process enumeration
Typical number of processes is unclear
Trade-off:
ensuring process scope is manageable
process scope determines potential impact

Rule of thumb: 10-20 main processes

Process boundaries
Processes are interdependent
Insight into relations is required
main processes subprocesses
upstream downstream processes

Processes change over time

identification should be exploratory and iterative
improvement opportunities are time-constrained

Process selection
Four criteria:
1. Assess strategic relevance of each process
2. Render high-level judgments of the health of each
process
3. Qualify the culture and politics of each process
4. Define manageable process innovation scope

Process selection
Concurrent process initiatives
limited resources
coordination complexity

Limited number of active process management

projects

BPM Life-cycle

Planning

Identification

Discovery

Design

Deployment

Diagnosis

Control

Execution

High-level process Renders

a detailed
overview
is sufficient understanding
Require detailed models of processes

Conclusion
Identification is a necessary first step
Few strict rules, many issues
Process modeling is required for all further phases of
the BPM life-cycle