Practical BPM: The Business Process Lifecycle

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By Rashid N. Khan

The first part of this two-part "Practical BPM" column explains what you need to understand about the business process lifecycle.

Business processes go through a series of distinct and definable stages. To fully optimize all process opportunities, it is important to not only be aware of these stages, but be able to hit each mark along the way. Figure 1 illustrates the stages and their interactive roles in achieving continuous improvement.

Figure 1: Detailed View of Business Process Lifecycle

Stage 1: Definition of Roles and Relationships

The first stage in the business process life cycle is to define the roles and relationships of the participants in the process. This is an activity that is done by default in most companies, even before the use of any process. Roles are created for each employee as he or she joins the company, and employees’s relationships with others are defined. In some small companies, the definitions of roles and relationships may be informal, but they do exist. Large companies usually have formal definitions in their organization charts and the roles of their employees. Roles and relationships are generally not tied to a particular business process and once a role has been defined, it can be associated with multiple processes. In any case, the availability of people, their roles and their relationships to each other are necessary prerequisites for business processes, even if they are not automated. For EAI processes the roles are played by computer applications.

Stage 2: Defining Business Processes

The second stage in a process life cycle is the definition of a business process. The definition generally evolves from the need to automate an existing manual process or the need to implement a new process based upon a change in the strategy of the company. Business processes are defined by business process owners who perceive the value for process innovation or improvement. This is a paper design stage in which the business process and its requirements are defined on paper in a design document.

Stage 3: Modeling and Optimizing Business Processes

After a need has been identified and the requirements of the process have been identified, a business analyst converts these into a series of tasks that have to be performed in order to satisfy the need. This is a detailed design of the process from a business perspective. The business analyst can also model the process in order to ensure that the design will achieve the results and benefits that are being sought. This entails making a series of assumptions about the volume of tasks, cost of each step, the availability of resources and the time it takes to complete each step. The purpose here is to create a complete process definition from a business perspective to ensure that it meets the requirements and expectations of the process owner.

Stage 4: Developing Business Processes

In this stage the business process definition created in the previous stage is converted into a practical solution that can be deployed. This activity is best performed by skilled IT professionals who understand the BPM tools and the technologies that work in conjunction with them. These technologies may include databases, messaging, electronic document management systems, desktop applications, enterprise applications and user interfaces (among others). Testing is an integral part of the development stage. Because a BPM solution is a distributed application involving a large number of users, it is not practical to test it after it is deployed. This will inconvenience all the users and is also very difficult logistically. The use of simulation, much like aircraft designers use simulation for their new designs, can help accomplish much of the needed testing and reduce the burden on the users of the BPM system. A BPM tool with integrated simulation capabilities enables designers and quality assurance engineers to role-play and test the functionality and usability of the solution.

Stage 5: Integration with Other Applications

Once a process has been developed, it is necessary to integrate it with a variety of other desktop or back office computer applications. This activity is typically performed by software developers who use tools such as software development kits (SDKs), scripts, XML and Web Services to integrate the BPM solution with other computer applications. In many cases, BPM solutions provide application agents to integrate with specific applications, or use EAI connectors to enable the BPM system to communicate with other applications.

Stage 6: Deployment and Administration

After a business process has been developed, tested and integrated, it is ready for deployment. This stage requires some form of version control, migration from one platform to another, and the ability to configure and manage the BPM system and its various components.

Stage 7: Active Processes

This stage begins when the business process has been deployed and is live. Workflow participants can start using and benefiting from the BPM system. Users participate in a business process through user interfaces to the system that enable them to perform a variety of functions and manage their tasks.

Stage 8: Reports

BPM systems can capture valuable feedback on the efficiency and productivity of overall business processes and the performance of the individual participants. During this stage BPM systems use their reporting capabilities to capture process metrics that can be analyzed to optimize business processes or reallocate resources to improve performance.

Stage 9: Optimization

At the end of each cycle, business metrics generated through the reporting tool are used as feedback to the business process definition stage. The business process is refined to meet the realities discovered by reports generated by the BPM system. The refined business process is re-developed and re-deployed as a new version, thus starting a new cycle of improvement and optimization. As just explained, a BPM solution goes through iterative cycles of definition, development, deployment, use, measurement and optimization.

Each stage of the life cycle involves different types of participants, including process owners, analysts, IT designers, developers, administrators and ultimately business users. The process life cycle is itself a business, a process of improvement that spans these many participants. Modern BPM software provides appropriate tools to support the various participants at each stage in the life cycle. These tools must be optimized for each type of participant that touches the business process. Table 1 lists the stages, the users involved in each stage and the tools used in that stage of the cycle. Taken together, these tools make up the overall BPM solution architecture.

Table 1: BPM Lifecycle Stages, Tools and Roles
Define roles and relationships	BPM organization chart	Process owners
Define process	BPM modeler	Process owners
Model and optimize	BPM modeler	Business analyst
Develop	BPM developer	IT developer
Integrate	BPM developer	Programmers
Deploy	BPM administrator	IT administrators
Use	Workflow client	All process participants
Measure	BPM reports	Business analyst

A business process has a lifecycle during which many different categories of individuals interact with the process. These individuals have different skill sets, and therefore require different software tools that a BPM system must provide in order to scale for enterprise-wide use.

Useful Links

This article is an excerpt from Rashid Khan's Business Process Management: A Practical Guide. Order your copy here:
http://www.bpmenterprise.com/yDQ

About the Author:

Rashid N. Khan is the founder and Chief Technical and Strategy Officer of Ultimus Inc., a pioneer in business process management and workflow automation. Prior to establishing Ultimus, founded Sintech Inc., a leader in advanced software for mechanical testing. Rashid sold Sintech to MTS Systems in 1989, where he worked for a five years as a vice president and general manager. During this period he took the company through ISO 9000 certification. This experience made him aware of the need for business process management and workflow automation. Rashid obtained two undergraduate degrees from MIT in computer science and political science. Khan is the author of Business Process Management: A Practical Guide, has published numerous articles and spoken at a number of events. Contact Rashid N. Khan at info (at) ultimus.com or visit http://www.ultimus.com.

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