Understand the different business process modeling methodologies

Websphere Business Modeler v6.1

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IBM Certification Test 992.1 - Industry and Tooling

1. Understand the different business process modeling methodologies
   1. Business process modeling methodologies
   2. Six Sigma business management strategy
   3. Model and analyze business processes
   4. Related links

Understand the different business process modeling methodologies

Business process modeling methodologies

A business process methodology is a set of procedures and practices for examining the business processes of an enterprise.

 

There are several ways an organization can approach model development to support business process management. The objective of any successful methodology should be to enable the realization of defined strategic goals.

 

Some of the key benefits provided by a robust modeling methodology include:

 

• A common communication vehicle for the users, management, consultants, and technology implementation teams across the organization
• A verification of the business system (process, organization, technology), the flow, and the relationships between the processes and activities
• A means to coordinate processes across different geographic locations, divisions, or subsidiaries
• A basis for identifying problem areas within the existing processes and opportunity areas where process redesign, new applications, or enabling technologies could improve those processes
• A knowledge base providing a useful reference to obtain buy-in for future process design

 

In general, business process reengineering focuses on streamlining and automating processes to achieve business goals more efficiently. The essential steps for process redefinition are:

1. Model and simulate the existing, or As-Is, process
2. Model and simulate the proposed or,To-Be, process
3. Generate reports of process comparison metrics to prove value of the reengineered process

 

To make improvements, one must be familiar with the existing, or As-Is, process steps. First, the analyst captures the current process in a model with the relevant supporting data so that it can be simulated and, later, compared to the reengineered process. Modeling the As-Is process helps the business analyst identify and quantify the existing process pain points.

 

Once the As-Is process is analyzed and documented, the business analyst can start to redefine subprocesses by automating user-centric tasks, such as replacing paperwork with business applications and integrating applications to prevent redundant data entry. This proposed or To-Be process can then be evaluated using various inputs to identify the approach that best meets the business objectives.

Six Sigma business management strategy

The Six Sigma approach is a more systematic methodology that is based on the statistical analyses of process errors and failures and their causes. The Six Sigma process improvement methodology is built on the following five steps, known as DMAIC:

 

1. Define
   Define process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
2. Measure
   Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
3. Analyze
   Analyze the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered.
4. Improve
   Improve or optimize the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of Experiments.
5. Control
   Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and continuously monitor the process.

 

Model and analyze business processes

A business process methodology is a set of procedures and practices for examining the business processes of an enterprise. WebSphere Business Modeler does not force a particular methodology. Instead, it is a tool that business analysts can use in their chosen business process methodology to store business process data, identify problems in how the enterprise operates, and provide solutions to those problems.

 

WebSphere Business Modeler particularly supports business process methodologies that use comparative analyses between two states of models. The first state, the current model, represents the business processes as they are currently working. It has two primary purposes: to identify problem areas such as bottlenecks and inefficiencies and to serve as a baseline for the second state. The second state is a set of what-if models that solve the problems identified in the first state in various ways. From the second state, the business modeling team identifies one model from the set as the best solution.

 

WebSphere Business Modeler helps you implement the chosen what-if model by generating BPEL or other artifacts. IT personnel can import these artifacts into a development tool such as WebSphere Integration Developer, where they can create deployable applications to implement the chosen model.

 

The chosen model also serves as a foundation for building the first state (current model) in the next iteration of business process modeling. Another product, WebSphere Business Monitor, enhances the accuracy of the first-state model in the next iteration by providing performance feedback on the implemented model.

Related links

• Business Process Management: Modeling through Monitoring Using WebSphere V6.0.2 Products
• WebSphere business process management zone (IBM Developerworks) 
• WebSphere Business Modeler certification exam 992 prep, Part 1: Manage business processes (pdf)
• Best Practices for Using WebSphere Business Modeler and Monitor