Key Business Process Terminologies and Technologies
Are you looking for definitions and introduction to the lingo around business processes and associated technologies? Then you will find many of the answers here.
Business Process Terminologies You Should Know
Whether you’re a company of one or one thousand, business processes are essential to your organisation’s success and can result in its downfall if they’re not properly managed.
Business processes occur at all levels of your organisation, and are important for management, employees, suppliers, and customers alike. Whether the processes are formalised, implied, or casual, they are processes all the same. Before you can truly harness the power of your processes, it is important to understand a few of the terminologies, tools, and technologies used in this space.
Components Of Work
Measurements Of Work
Methods Used To Formalise And Improve Processes
The Supporting Tools and Technology
Terms Referring To Digital
Similar But Different
In Conclusion
The Components Of Work
- Task: A task is usually a piece of work assigned to a person or system, often to be finished within a certain time.
- Process: A process is a recurring sequence of tasks completed to achieve an objective, it is also the way a team coordinates and communicates to deliver a result. A formal process is one that must be followed as determined by the business.
- Workflow: Workflow is the path a task follows from its beginning to end. Tasks, information, and documents are passed from one participant to another for action according to a set of procedural rules.
- Documentation: Documentation could be a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence, serving as an official record. This includes paperwork, emails, photographs, audio or video recordings, spreadsheets, and so forth.
Broadly speaking work is made up of various tasks, some are recurring, others once off. When a collection of tasks is repeated regularly a process is formed. A workflow path is then also formed along which the tasks are executed. Tasks very often include documents which must be retained for reference, reuse, or auditing purposes.
Many of these informal processes exist in businesses and drive core business functions. While an organisation is small and still establishing itself these processes often remain informal and change more frequently. Larger companies or ones that are governed by stringent legislations regularly formalise their processes for greater control and transparency.
Measurements Of Work
- Output: The objective of a task, a project or a process is to achieve an output or a result, often referred to as a deliverable.
- Timing: In most cases, timing or a schedule play a part. For example, a task begins on a specific date, is due by a particular time, or needs to be completed within a specified timeframe.
- Quality: Fundamentally, quality is about how good something is and more specifically, it’s about how good something is relative to how good it should be. Quality is the ongoing process of building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating, and fulfilling stated and implied needs.
The ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”
As an organisation grows so do the number of people, systems, and regulatory requirements within the business. The measurement of work becomes increasingly important as stakeholder interest grows, and more legislations begin to apply. With additional moving parts to oversee, companies begin to manage these elements more stringently through formal policies and procedures.
As the business continues to evolve, eventually the policies and procedures will need further clarification, formalisation, or improvement. While there are no hard and fast rules on how often you should re-evaluate your business policies and processes, every twelve months is a good rule of thumb. Of course, re-evaluations are necessary after major changes such as acquisitions and mergers, new product or service offerings, new legislation, transitions to remote work, shifting marketplace competition and so on.
Methods Used To Formalise And Improve Processes
- Business Process Mapping: Process mapping is a method of drawing out all the existing steps and tasks involved in a business process, to create a process map, or a workflow diagram, which visually describes what happens, step-by-step from start to finish. Process maps can support compliance activities such as auditing.
- Business Process Modelling: Process modelling can be used to communicate an ideal-world version of how a department, process, or business function should operate. A process model will typically include elements of process documentation, noting all information necessary to properly execute the process and how it fits into the wider organisation.
- Business Process Analysis: Business process analysis (BPA) is a detailed, multi-step examination of each part of a process to identify what’s working well in the current process, what needs to be improved, and how these improvements can best be made.
- Business Process Improvement: Business process improvement (BPI) is a methodology aimed at identifying weak processes and improving them, leading to higher organisational efficiency.
- Business Process Reengineering: Business process reengineering (BPR) involves the redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, cycle times and quality.
- Business Process Management: Business process management (BPM) is a methodology that helps businesses to align their processes with their goals to improve productivity and overall corporate efficiency.
- Business Process Automation: Business process automation (BPA) is a technology-enabled approach used to automate business processes to improve efficiency, and to reduce complexity, cost, and paperwork.
- Business Process Integration: Business process integration (BPI) allows companies to connect their people, data, and applications. Supporting the automation of business processes, integration of systems and services, and the secure sharing of data across numerous applications. Overcoming integration challenges allows organisations to connect systems internally and externally, allowing for better coordination internally, with partners, customers, and vendors to achieve improved results.
The Supporting Tools and Technology
- Business Process Model And Notation (BPMN): Is a standardised graphical representation for specifying workflows and business processes.
- Document Management System (DMS): A document management system (DMS) is the software system used to track, manage and store digital or digitised documents.
- Content Management System (CMS): Is software system that supports the creation and modification of digital content.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Is software used by companies to manage and integrate the important parts of their businesses. An ERP software system can integrate planning, purchasing inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, and more. It is often referred to as the system of record of the organisation.
- Business Process Management Software (BPMS): Is the software used to automate and manage business processes. BPMS is often used to connect people to the data and functionalities that reside in the other systems and to orchestrate processes that need to flow between systems, departments, or regions.
Terms Referring To Digital
- Digitisation: Is the process of converting information from a physical format into a digital format that can be processed by a computer.
- Digitalisation: Is the process of using digitised data to perform work functions, e.g., unlike a paper form a digital form can have intelligence behind it, such as notifications or automation.
- Digital Transformation: Is essentially about taking advantage of digitalisation to create completely new business concepts.
Similar But Different
- Are Task Management, Project Management and Process Management The Same Thing? Unlike process management, task management focuses on individual tasks, while project management focuses on handling tasks within projects which are often one-time and non-repeatable.
- Are Workflow Management And BPM The Same Thing? Well-designed workflows are a component of BPM, but a workflow refers to a series of sequential tasks that need to be completed in order, to reach a goal. Unlike BPM, which manages multiple workflow sequences across many activities and systems within an organisation as a means of improving business results and operational agility.
- Are ERP Systems And BPM Systems The Same Thing? The two systems are frequently confused and although there are some similarities between them, there are also several key differences. Both systems are generally implemented in an organisation to help increase efficiency, reduce costs, and increase profit, but the system or systems you choose will ultimately depend on the functional needs and specific goals of your organisation.
- Do ERP Systems And BPM Systems Work Together? When a BPM system is integrated with an ERP system, the BPMS adds a layer of management and control for processes across the entire organisation. When done correctly this has numerous benefits including, better quality standardised data being inputted into the ERP.
While process management may sound overwhelming at first, it’s something we all use in one form or another most days of our lives. Whether it be the simple process of making the perfect cuppa at home or as complex as procuring a four-million-dollar dump truck for a mine.
When you begin to think about repeatable work as processes, you will soon discover multiple ways to improve how work is performed and the variety of technologies that can assist.
If you are excited about improving your business, but would like the assistance of a reputable company, please contact FlowCentric and discuss your needs with us.
