Business Process Management (BPM) is the art and science of organising work to produce consistent results while creating opportunities for improvement and innovation.
What can improve through process work
- Reduce the time needed to complete work.
- Reduce errors and improve quality.
- Improve the team’s experience through clear, coordinated work.
- Create more value for the customer.
Process work goes beyond one person’s activities. It concerns the chain of events, actions and decisions that creates value for an organisation and its internal or external customers. This chain is what we call a process.
Magic: “That’s brilliant! How did we do it?”
- Magic is difficult to analyse and improve.
- It cannot be taught to others consistently.
- It is difficult to rely on when a repeatable result is needed.
Process: “That’s brilliant! Next time we’ll do it even better”
- A process can be described and analysed.
- Its weaknesses and opportunities can be identified.
- It can be improved deliberately and consistently.
- It can be passed on and taught to others.
The process improvement cycle
- Identify processes: core, supporting, management and development processes.
- Analyse the current state (as is): find bottlenecks and possible improvements.
- Design the future process (to be).
- Implement the updated process.
- Monitor results and review how the process works.
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”