Business Process & Technology

Overview

• There are three types of business processes (citation by August-Wilhelm Scheer and Mark von Rosing)
• Management processes, the processes that govern the operation of a system. Typical management processes include corporate governance and strategic management.
• Operational processes, processes that constitute the core business and create the primary value stream. For example, taking orders from customers, and opening an account in a bank branch.
• Supporting processes, which support the core processes. Examples include Health & Safety, accounting, recruitment, call center, technical support.

• A business process begins with a mission objective and ends with achievement of the business objective. Process-oriented organizations break down the barriers of structural departments and try to avoid functional silos.
• A complex business process may be decomposed into several sub-processes, which have their own attributes, but also contribute to achieving the goal of the super-process. The analysis of business processes typically includes the mapping of processes and sub-processes down to activity/task level.
• Business processes are designed to add value for the customer and should not include unnecessary activities. The outcome of a well designed business process is increased effectiveness (value for the customer) and increased efficiency (less use of resources).
• Business Processes can be modeled through a large number of methods and techniques. For instance, the Business Process Modeling Notation is a Business Process Modeling technique that can be used for drawing business processes in a workflow.

Workflow

• Workflow is the movement of information or material from one activity or worksite to another. Workflow includes the procedures, people and tools involved in each step of a business process. A single workflow may either be sequential, with each step contingent upon completion of the previous one, or parallel, with multiple steps occurring simultaneously. Multiple combinations of single workflows may be connected to achieve a resulting overall process.

Business process re-engineering

• Business process re-engineering (BPR) was originally conceptualized by Hammer and Davenport as a means to improve organizational effectiveness and productivity. It consisted of starting from a blank slate and completely recreating major business processes as well as the use of information technology for significant performance improvement. The term unfortunately became associated with corporate ``downsizing`` in the mid-1990s.

Business process management (BPM)

• Business process management also termed as BPM covers how we study, identify, change and monitor business processes to ensure they run smoothly and can be improved over time. It is a continuous evaluation of existing processes and identification of ways to improve upon it, resulting in a cycle of overall organizational improvement.

Knowledge management

• Knowledge management is the definition of the knowledge that employees and systems use to perform their functions and maintaining it in a format that can be accessed by others. The Gartner Group definition states that Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers.

Total quality management

• Total quality management (TQM) emerged in the early 1980s as organizations sought to improve the quality of their products and services. It was followed by the Six Sigma methodology in the mid-1980s, first introduced by Motorola. Six Sigma consists of statistical methods to improve business processes and thus reduce defects in outputs. The lean approach`` to quality management was introduced by the Toyota Motor Company in the 1990s and focused on customer needs and reduction of wastage.