Modern business management systems. Basic principles of modeling business processes. Process Life Cycle in BPM

Today in the domestic business is gaining popularity the new kind Software for managing business processes, namely, BPMS systems. And, of course, their appearance caused many questions. What are they needed for? How do they work? What are their principled difference from other business automation options?

When I first encountered BPMS, I also had all the questions listed above. I did not immediately understand why you need a new tool, why you can not implement all the business processes in already existing accounting systems or CRM, and what is the fundamental difference between BPMS from other business processes automation options.

In this article, I want to talk about what BPMS systems are, why are they needed and the process approach differs from traditional working methods. I will not talk about the technical aspects of BPMS (about modeling and developing business processes), this will be devoted to the following article. Now I will try to reveal the essence and meaning of BPMS as simple as possible and understandable:

What is bpms?

BPMS is another abbreviation from ERP, CRM discharge, which has no clear definition. Although definitions are quite a lot: both foreign, and Russian. In addition, companies that produce their own BPM systems also give their own, special definitions, which makes an additional confusion. In addition, the BPMS is often combined with other systems (for example, BPMS + CRM, BPMS + ERP) and then the developers give the definition of the BPM system, based on this context.

But in order to figure out what is actually BPMS, and what are their features, you must first figure out what BPM is.

BPM (English Business Process Management, Business Process Management) - The concept of process management organization, considering business processes as special enterprise resources, continuously adapted to constant changes, and relying on such principles as the obviousness and visibility of business processes in the organization for The expense of business processes using formal notations, the use of modeling software, simulation, monitoring and analyzing business processes, the possibility of dynamic rebuilding of business processes models by the participants and means of software systems.

Wikipedia.

BPMS (eng. Business Process Management System) is first of all software to support the BPM concept in the company. BPMS systems are needed in order to implement the BPM concept in the software environment.

BPMS considers the company's work as a set of processes, and not as a set of functions. The BPM system is not the work of the sales or purchase department, but the process of sale, the process of customer support, the process of supplying the supply, etc. And on the basis of this understanding, work on the reengineering of business processes in BPMS is being built.
The BPM system is aimed, mainly to improve the company's work, on more profitable enterprise activities by optimizing and monitor business processes.

User operation in BPMS and other systems

For a better understanding of the essence of BPMS, you need to understand how ordinary systems (ERP systems, CRM) are suitable for users. For example, the user needs to make a customer order. What are his actions?

The user can fill out a document arbitrarily if the sequence of its operation is not programmed:

It may first open the order form, choose the goods, specify prices, then define the client.
It may first create a client, then - its order.

In a word, there are variations in the user's actions, i.e. Officer, based on the situation, can choose its own versions of action.

The BPM system examines the user as another brick in the system. A person must clearly know, in which process he works and what he should do.

Employees in the BPM system are not considered from the point of view of the result of the process, but from the point of view of performance. The variability of the user's action is excluded here. The employee does only what is programmed in the system or more nor less.

Ways to implement business processes

BPMS is one of the ways to implement the business process. Consider what methods are presented in the realities of Russian business for understanding, why the BPM system is needed.

We highlight three approaches:

"Paper" approach;
Automated approach (using other systems);
Process approach in the BPMS system.

For example, take the business process to match the payment for payment, as it is quite simple and visual.
In my practice there was such a case: the client paid me completely the bill, although at that time only a part of payment was paid in the amount of 50%. Why did this happen?

Because they did not have an account harmonization procedure. I learned the company's director about this completely by chance. I found out that periodic failures occur in their company in their company's coordination stage, and the director was surprised to find that he paid not 50% of the account, as planned, and immediately 100%.

Why did it happen so? Everything is simple. Worked, the so-called "spoiled phone". An expert brought an account with accounting to pay with the phrase "you need to pay 50% of the amount." The accountant clarified by the manager, pay this account or not. The head, being confident that it is about 50% of the amount, confirmed payment. And the accountant, in turn, forgot that out loud it was said about half of the amount, and understood the leader so that it was necessary to pay the whole bill. What was done.

On the example of this company and this business process, we will look at all three approaches.

"Paper" (not automated) approach

How did the account in this company earlier occurred before?

An employee receives an account, transfers it to the accounting department;
Accounting fits the bill in the payment statement, coordinates it with the head;
If the manager approves and signs a request, accounting pays the bill.

What's wrong with this approach? There are blurred boundaries of the transition zones of responsibility between the stages. In case of misunderstanding and not timely payment or non-payment of the account, employees shift the blame on each other, and it is impossible to find responsible in the end.

Automated approach

As a rule, companies try to control a particular business process in the accounting system in which they already work. But it is also wrong. Consider what minuses are with this option.

Since additional funds for the implementation of business processes in the company, which I cite in the example, was not allocated, we took advantage of the tools that were already at the enterprise, or rather the accounting system.
The task was to pay an employee if necessary, the amount of payment passed through certain stages of approval.

How it looked:

In the system are assigned responsible persons for coordination of expenses;
Based on any document (order supplier, the receipt of goods or another document), a document is created for the consumption of cash in the status of not coordinated;
If the responsible agreement agreed and changed the status on agreed, the account was sent to the accounting department;
If the status was rejected, it means that the application went back to the face that initiated the process.

In this company, the CEO is responsible for coordination of expenses, and that's what it was necessary to make him able to fulfill his functions in coordination:

create access to the system;
teach working with the necessary documents;
configure the interface for ease of use;
configure access rights.

At the same time, in the accounting system, it was necessary to fill a lot of unnecessary information to create and coordinate the application: the recipient's current account and its own company, counterparty, an article of expenses, an article of cash flow, foundation, etc. All this information, in fact, is not needed by the Director-General for the decision-making, but, nevertheless, it must be fill in an employee that sends the application.

To make a decision in this case, only 3 points are interesting:

money (how much we have to pay);
recipient (who should pay);
purpose (for what we pay).

And, it means filling excess informationThe employee loses time, and the coordination process is delayed.

In addition, such an implementation of coordination in the accounting system is quite primitive and does not imply variability (for example, the division of responsibility zones depending on the amount of the document or the expenditure item).

In the BPM system, nevertheless, the coordination process itself is important, and not reflection of information for future reporting, etc. There are just people who need to be based on the context of information, quickly perform the process.

So, the main differences in the maintenance of business processes in BPMS from the accounting system:

In BPMS, it is important exactly what is being done. It is important not accounting information, not reporting, but the need to quickly decide that the business process is moving on. With the accounting system it will not work so, here we must indicate which documents at what kind of are created, etc. - it is not comfortable. There is no clear context.
Easy logic and development. If we conduct a business process in the accounting system, then a large number of logical links should be taken into account: how documents are held, transactions, to which it affects which additional licenses should be purchased, etc. - Although it would seem responsible for approval to face it is not necessary. But in the accounting system we must be attached to the configuration objects or to refine them, which is not very correct.

This is how BPM systems were created for this, in which all logic is not aimed at calculations, not to store data, but on the rapid execution of the process and its control.

We now turn to the third approach and consider how this business process in the BPMS system should be resolved.

Process approach in BPMS

First, determine the logic of the work and divide the business process to sequential steps.

In our example there will be three:

Creating an application for approval of an account;
Verification of the application;
Application result:
- if approved - Printing Application,
- if not approved - report this supplier

Next, we design the conditions at which events or attributes there are certain actions (for example, it is possible to reflect the dependence of the responsible from the counting amount if different amounts in the enterprise coordinate different employees; or send alerts on one or another stage of work).

In the system, each user works under its login and password and sees only its form and its place in the business process. In our example, an employee is responsible for creating an application, and the head for verification and coordination is, and each of them sees only its own forms, and can only perform their actions.

Accordingly, if an employee who created the application pressed the transition to the next stage, then responsibility is removed and proceeds to the manager who must check the application. By this we achieve the separation and control of zones of responsibility.

In this example, it is clearly seen that, in BPM systems it all depends on the context. All interactions of the forms are aimed at ensuring that the user sees only what is needed and only that it is necessary at a particular stage, based on the context of the process.

If other systems are aimed at ensuring that the operation is performed, then in BPMS we are concentrated on actions.

The BPM system can be compared with the Japanese appliances of archery Yui. In schools, shooting from Yumi preach the following approach: If you want to get, you do not need to concentrate on purpose, you need to do every action now. Those. It uses the principle that is used in the Japanese archery already mentioned by me: focus on each action, at each stage, perform every action. And then you will definitely come to the goal!

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And if you transfer such an approach to a particular enterprise, each of the employees should do what is needed. And concentrate only on this. The employee should not think about the goal, he should only do what is needed at a particular point.

In fact, in the BPMS system, each employee works, as if on the conveyor. Each task, each business process in which an employee participates, becomes a separate conveyor line. And, as a member of this process, an employee, as part of a task, can only fulfill certain actions, a rigidly limited task execution algorithm.

Of course, the comparison is not quite accurate, because the employee can choose which of business processes it will process now, and what - later. Those. Until a certain point, it is over processes, and can choose which of the pipeline branches it will join at the moment. But within a certain business process, it becomes a member of the conveyor belt, the processes in which are imposed on each of the participants a rigid restrictions.

Let us return to the example with the coordination of the account, and consider what opportunities there is at the process approach:

Separation of responsibility zones;
Concentration of employees on specific actions;
Notification of users about changes in processes (or to make changes) in which they are involved.

In the BPM system, we describe the business process in the notation of BPMN 2.0. In this notation, there are already many moments that prompt how to configure one or another business process. There are other different systems of automation of business processes, but they are based on their logic, which is not generally recognized. In order to simulate a business process based on such systems, it is necessary in these systems to understand, understand their logic of work, settings forms and interrelations.

BPMN 2.0 is a generally recognized standard description of the business process and people familiar with this notation immediately understand the business process model written in this format.

Conclusion

So, I hope that I managed to make clarity to the question of what a BPM system is and why it is needed by comparing the process approach with other options. In the next article, I will show how technically simulation and execution of the business process on the example of a particular system occurs.

Stages of development of software management software

What tasks are called to solve BMP systems and what place they occupy among other software automation software?

To answer this question, turn to the Best Practices In Business Performance Management: Business and Technical Strategies report (Successful Experience of Business Efficiency Management: Business and Technical Strategies) International Data Warehouse Store Institute (The Data Warehouse Institute, TDWI). The authors of the report made in the summer of 2004 are positioned by BMP systems, making a general development scheme for automation of business processes over the past twenty years (see the translation of the scheme in Fig. 1).

Fig.1 Development scheme for automation of business processes

Judging by the scheme, at first there were systems for automation of back office processes, first of all, production and accounting. Then Front Office: Sales, Services, Marketing. At the end of the 20th century, the organization switched to the automation of cross-processes that affect the work of several units, the introduction of customer relationship management technology - CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and supply chain management technologies - SCM (Supply Chain Planning). And on top of the pyramid, corporate governance, which began to automate quite recently. To solve the last task and highlights a special class of software - BMP systems.

Pyramid levels reflect a gradual transition from automation of operational business processes to automating business management strategy. The processes of higher levels of the pyramid control processes on more low levels. Consequently, the purpose of BMP systems is to automate the strategic planning of business development and in support of tactical (or operational) management of business processes at different levels. The task of BMP systems is to help implement the strategic business objectives in real conditions. Ensuring the user with the necessary information at the right time will increase the efficiency of operational management.

And what in Russia?

Periods for the emergence and formation of various classes of software specified on the above scheme reflect the global state of affairs and do not belong to Russia. In the field of automation, the latter traditionally lagged from the West, although in recent years the difference is leveled. The difference for the lower levels of the pyramid is still noticeable (for example, the peak of automation of back-office, accounting tasks came in Russia for 1992-1993, and in the world it happened 5-7 years earlier), but at the same time for the control system of the corporation The lag is no longer than 2 years.

The appearance of software for comprehensive support for management technologies TDWI denotes the beginning of the XXI century. But in Russia and the CIS countries, in the early 2000s, the introductions of BMP systems were almost no, their actively appear refers to 2002. And the term "BMP" appeared only at the turn of 2003-2004.

According to some estimates, currently in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan there are about two hundred finished projects on the implementation of the corporation level management systems, a third of them are made for credit organizations. At the same time, the growth rate of the Russian BMP market market is ahead of the world.

Composite parts BMP

The functional architecture of the classical BMP system of the bank is made up of three components. The first part is the data warehouse. This is the basis of the BMP system. It consolidates operational financial information from various automated head office modules and branches of the organization, from subsidiaries. The second component of the solution represents a set of tools to support enterprise management technologies: financial planning, management accounting, forecasting, etc. The third component of BMP is OLAP tools for operational work with business data accumulating in the repository.

So, the BMP system combines well-known managerial technologies and software solutions that used locally and solved tasks of individual units and users.

Fig. 2. Stages and cycle tools corporate governance

What is the feature of the BMP approach? Since the BMP system is designed to support the full cycle of the company's management, it means that BMP tools are interrelated and ensure the execution of the four main stages of business efficiency management (see Fig.2):

Stage 1. Strategy Development.

The goal is to allocate business targets and the planning of quantitative values \u200b\u200bof their metric - KPI ( Key Performance Indicators., key performance indicators). Strategic planning relies on one of the BMP methodologies, known as BSC ( BalancedSCorecard, system of balanced indicators).

Stage 2. Planning.

At this stage, tactical plans are being developed to achieve the strategic goals. The guidelines for the development of tactical (operational) plans become KPI. The main tool of operational planning is the budget.

3 stage. Monitoring and monitoring performance.

The third stage in the corporate governance cycle is monitoring and monitoring the execution of budget plans. Actual values \u200b\u200bfor management accounting items are calculated based on the primary data collected in the repository. To compare the intended and achieved budget indicators and KPI, the tools of the "Plan-Fact" analysis based on OLAP technology are used.

4 stage. Analysis and regulation.

At the final stage, strategic plans are adjusted in accordance with the actual working conditions of the Bank. To plan changes, use tools for predicting and modeling various scenarios for the development of the situation. As a result, the Corporate Governance cycle - between the chosen bank and its practical implementation - closes.

Thus, BMP systems allow you to create a holistic infrastructure to support the agreed strategic and tactical bank management based on a single data model. In this, the fundamental difference between the integrated approach of the system of automation of the corporation scale from an isolated solution of individual managerial tasks.

However, the integrated approach does not exclude the stage when performing BMP projects in banks. Using step-by-step technology The introduction of BMP systems is accepted worldwide, and Russia is no exception. Customers start "with small" - first use a BMP platform to support some one management technology (in domestic banks it, most often, management accounting and management reporting), and then gradually increase functionality, implementing a full range of corporate strategy management. . Pragmatism in this case is quite understandable - a phased approach allows in a short time to obtain the first results from the introduction of new management technologies and evaluate their practical benefits. In addition, the bank's management can monitor and promptly correct the development of the project.

About Terminology: BMP, CPM, EPM ...

The concept of BMP was first suggested by an analytical company IDC INTERNATIONAL DATA CENTER). The same terminology follows another authoritative research organization - META GROUP. Among the solutions, there are in the Russian market, the BMP concept fully meets the software of Hyperion, SAS, Intersoft Lab and some others.

But besides BMP, the most common CPM reductions ( Corporate Performance Management., corporation efficiency management) and EPM ( Enterprise Performance Management., management of enterprise efficiency). What do abbreviation data indicate and what differs from BMP?

By definition of Gartner, the Corporation Efficiency Management (CPM) is a combination of techniques (for example, Balanced Scorecard), indicators (financial and non-financial, long-term and short-term, etc.), processes (for example, strategy development, budgeting, forecasting) and systems used to control and manage the productivity of the organization's business activities. From the implementation position, the SRM system combines the same functional blocks as the BRM solution: data warehouse, automation tools for efficiency management and OLAP. This means that the terms of the CPM and BRM do not have a significant difference in meaning. Although a number of authoritative foreign experts, considering the concept of corporate governance in relation to the banking sector, use just this reduction. Among Western suppliers, on this, the term in the designation of their own software developments prefers Cognos and Oracle.

EPM abbreviation is actually used as direct synonym BMP and CPM. However, some authors invest a broader meaning into it, and in addition to traditional components include key components of the EPM system, reference data, source systems and applications related to the data store. Thus, in contrast to BMP, an independent layer of data sources is allocated as part of the EPM solution. Meakingifying your name, EPM is more often used to designate managerial solutions built for enterprises.

Significantly consistent with the concept ( Enterprise Commerce Management, management of commercial activities of the enterprise). It, as an alternative to BMP, offered an independent analytical company AMR Research.

Also on the pages of electronic editions, as a replacement of BMP, you can meet BAM abbarivatura ( Business Activity Management., business activity management). The tasks of these class systems include control of business processes based on the KPI measurement in an integrated business environment. This concept is more focused on the solution of a part of BMP tasks associated with accounting and analysis of the actual state of business, and does not affect business planning.

As a result, the rag of terms and abbreviations does not change the essence of the solutions under consideration. Almost all of the listed BMP / CPM / EPM platforms are designed to manage the implementation of a corporate strategy based on a unified information model of the organization.

The most common misconceptions relative to BMP

BMP system is just a data warehouse

Not. Data warehouse and BMP system solve different tasks. In this case, the data warehouse is one of the components of the corporate governance automation system. When implementing the BMP system, the repository provides a collection, coordination and financial consolidation of corporate data.

The goal of the BMP project from the Customer is the setting and automation based on a single model of these data of management techniques, which will help embody the corporate business development strategy. The solution to this task goes far beyond the capabilities of the data storage and is provided by another functionality in the BMP system.

Solution based on data warehouse is a BMP system

This is an erroneous imaging. Yes, the data warehouse is a basis for building a BMP system. To do this, it is based on a set of specialized BMP applications, providing a full cycle of business efficiency.

If the storage-based applied solutions solve individual management tasks or generally serve other purposes, this complex cannot be called a BMP system. For example, if the data warehouse is used in a banking bank for issuing compulsory reporting, the constructed decision does not apply to the BMP class.

Budgeting system is a BMP solution

Not. Budgeting is only one of the corporate governance tools. The budgeting technique implemented on the basis of data warehouse maintains only operational (tactical) management. Whereas the main task of the BMP system is to ensure the relationship between the management on the strategic and tactical level.

On the other hand, several budgeting systems are presented on the market, which are intended only for financial planning and do not have a data warehouse in their composition. These are highly specialized systems, they do not belong to the BMP class and provide support for the only managerial technology - budget management.

Any analytical system refers to the BMP class

This is an incorrect score. First, as well as applications for budgeting, analytical functionality is only an integral part of a comprehensive corporation scale management system.

Secondly, traditionally under the "analytical system" understand the tools that implement specialized analytical techniques based on a complex mathematical apparatus, for an example for analyzing counterparty banks. Such systems are allocated to an independent class of software and are not related to BMP.

Separate analytical techniques can be embedded in the BMP system, but are not its mandatory attribute. In fact, the most simple analytical functions are claimed in BMP: generalization / detailing, comparative analysis, etc., which are primarily implemented using the OLAP built-in tools built into BMP.

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In modern conditions, business actively applies the process approach to the organization of work. But still there is a problem of understanding - what is management of business processes and how to use BPM.

Definition according to EABPM (European BPM Association) of this term sounds as follows:

Business Process Management (BPM) is a systematic approach for reflection, design, execution, documentation, measurement, monitoring and controlling both automated and non-automatic processes, to achieve the company's goals and business strategies. BPM covers conscious, comprehensive and increasingly technological definition, improvement, innovation and maintaining through processes. Thanks to this system and conscious management of the company's processes, the best results are faster and more flexible.

I believe that this definition contributes more confusion than the present understanding of BPM, especially for people who have not studied this topic.

In our work, I constantly use graphic notations of business processes and BPMN. I consider this tool very convenient, it helps me not only in developing business solutions, but also in their justification. After all, as I have repeated many times, one picture costs thousands of words. A man thinks images, and to present some kind of activity with the picture (scheme), it is much easier for him.

I will also remind you that I will raise this topic for no first time. I talked a lot about business processes in these articles like "what is a business process and a description of the business process" or "BPMN brief description with an example."

But questions remain, the readers of articles often ask them, and my clients. In addition, a lot of confusion in the understanding of the essence make marketing articles and terms related to this area of \u200b\u200bactivity. Both software system developers and business consultants who constantly use these tools in their work managed to contribute a lot of marketing concepts to the scope of business processes. On the one hand, this process is inevitable in any commercial sphere. On the other hand, BPM already not the most simple methodology for a non-specialist. And marketing makes an extra confusion.

Therefore, I decided to give my detailed definition of what is management of business processes. And I hope that I will help to help understand the main issues related to the use of BPM.

How bpm appeared

Any new business can be compared with the child. Each company, created from scratch, passes the period of formation and training. It is necessary to organize the interaction of employees and units, to create mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge, etc. And it does not matter how big this company will be - in a small business, all these issues are also important as in a large organization with large number branches.

At the same time, humanity does not stand still. And both in the field of children's education and in the field of business organization, new tools appear, more flexible, comfortable, understandable intuitive, which is especially important for people who make the first steps in any field.

If we turn to the old records and try to explore the characteristics of the organization of labor that in Soviet enterprises, that in Western companies, for example, Ford, we will see predominantly dry, complex textual instructions for perception related to a functional approach:

Description of the workplace
Official instructions of the employee
Safety requirements, etc.

All this, as many people remember, it is extremely difficult to perceive, and a significant part of such instructions dust in the shelves, often by anyone, except for the creator who are not read. And the experience and requirements were transferred from an experienced newcomer.

And what if it becomes a need to quickly change the work of the whole organization? And if the automation is introduced yet? The answer to these requests and was the appearance of BPM.

About what is a business process, I have already written ("What is a business process and a description of the business process"), and therefore I will not repeat the main provisions and the definition of the business process itself will not. And on the concept of management of business processes, let's stop in more detail.

About managing business processes with simple words

Business process management is that you regulate, describe and modify business processes. It is to change, and not improve, because you can improve the business process as much as possible. Unlike the machine or car, it is impossible to manage directly with the help of directives or pressing the button. But we can specify the sequence of actions that the team will perform when solving a task. This is what is called BPM.

Determination from me:

Business Process Management (BPM) is the management of actions (automated and non-automatic) in the team through business processes.

To manage any business processes need:

Describe the business processes themselves.
Introduce the described business process to work
Appoint people responsible for business processes, so-called, holding stacks or business processes owners.

It is important to understand that the business process can be performed as a person and be partially automated. Similarly, a person and a program (automatic execution of operations and automated controls) can be the stack of holding.

In this case, it is necessary to control the extremely heterogeneous medium. Different business processes require a different approach and actions of employees, various automation tools. And all this needs to be able to describe separately, after which to combine into the general system.

It is necessary to proceed from understanding: the process approach is to control the integer through the control of parts.

And to exclude confusion in terminology, I will explain:

BPM is a methodology. those. A set of basic principles and approaches to building notation and organizing work with the help of business processes.
BPMN - notation (language), in which notations are built, including executable
BPMS - IT execution system built by certain rulesspecified in the methodology

If you pose an analogy with science, then BPM is primarily an approach, a kind of worldview. BPMN is methods and algorithms for solving specific tasks. For example, evidence for the theorems or a set of methods to create a project for providing electricity to the facility (production, apartment building). A, in turn, BPMS is already ready-made applied solutions that can be "enabled" and they will already work. For mathematics, these are ready-made solutions to tasks that are practical. For physics, the immediate implementation of the wiring itself and connecting objects. For Aichi - ready-made software code.

Executable and Unlightened Business Processes

I already wrote in past articles that the notations of business processes can be executable and unpleasant. The first are intended for automation, the second - to study the work of the company and improve the efficiency of interaction in the team.

Those. We use the principles and methods of BPM to create notations. At the same time, using BPMS writing rules. In order to create a notation unlocked, in principle, it is possible to use the Watman Sheet and Pencil. The main thing is to clearly comply with all the rules.

For executable notation requires a certain IT environment - BPMS. At the same time, even unpleasant I recommend to perform in BPMN, as the environment itself helps to identify possible errors, contradictions, which increases the literacy and accuracy of the description of the business process.

Differences of process and functional approaches

Another important factwhich will help to understand what is actually "business management". We have already found out that management is to create a certain sequence of employee actions. Those. As a result, each automated system works in a certain way. And the person is obliged by instructions also to perform the action specified according to the instructions.

At the same time you also need to know:

For strategic planning and evaluation of the work of the company "In general", it is better to use functional modeling and notation (for example IDF0). I wrote in detail in detail in the article "Meet the notation of IDEF0 and an example of use." Here you can proceed from the desired result and build the sequence of the functions of "black boxes" necessary to achieve it.

To manage the sequence of actions and optimize that. What happens inside each stage of work, as well as improved interaction between different "black boxes", the BPM process approach is required. Here you are studying the actions yourself, track the speed and complexity of achieving results, optimize and standardize them.

If you make some changes in the business process, then you always repel not from the whole, but from the part. Those. You change the program algorithm and / or adjust the job description employee that performs certain functions. As a result, one of the elements of the business process is changing, and, as a result, the business process as a whole.

It is necessary to understand:

Creating a description of the business process begins "in general," after which each process is divided into subprocesses and is detailed to a certain limit.

Changing the business process on the contrary, begins with the "lower" levels - maximum detail. And from private - to whole - all the necessary edits are made.

If with a functional approach, objects at the input and output are very important. In the function of the "black box", there is a certain processing of objects to obtain required results. And here the main orientation goes to what "what exactly we want to get", i.e. The approach to business management, rather strategic.

When processing the approach, we get the answer to the question "how it is better to perform", i.e. Concentrate on tactical, operational management. Therefore, here when changing individual elements between "input and" output "changes the entire process.

It is also important when detailing determine the optimal level: not too "in general", but also not to detail the major process up to the actions of each employee. I once saw a description of business processes placed on a two-meter Watman. But the more difficult and the process will be registered more detailed, the more difficult it will be perceived "in general" and, as a result, it will be harder to understand and improve it.

For these reasons, a multi-level decomposition is used when working with business processes, i.e. The detailing of each "black box" stands out in a separate process. And for the same reason, the process approach is not used for strategic planning, for this, I repeat, apply functional modeling.

Description of work with BPM

For a better understanding of what BPM is (business processes management), I will cite an example of a business analytics actions as part of this methodology:

Survey of people (company employees). Understanding how work is performed in each case.

Documenting a business process based on the data obtained. At this stage, the analyst receives a description of the business process "as is".

Study of the received business process from the point of view of weak points and optimization capabilities:

Based on the finished optimized (as needed), the scheme creates documents: job descriptions, user manuals, and, if necessary, automated solutions are implemented.

After introducing the notation, the business process is monitored, possible inconsistencies are detected, their causes are being studied.

If necessary, changes are made on the basis of the identified flaws or changes in the work of the company related to external factors.

Process Life Cycle in BPM

As can be seen from the sequence described above, each business process passes a certain cycle from creating before introduction. Next, some period of time it works "as is". After that, the practice shows certain disadvantages and shortcomings, the analyst examines the reporting and on its part finds some "weak points". The process is undergraduate.

This cycle may repeat the infinite number of times. Any business, any organization - not frozen monolith, and a developing organism in a constantly changing environment. The characteristics of the legislation are changed and the competitors come from the market, new automation tools appear, etc.

The main rule of the business analyst: when optimizing the process, you need to be able to stop on time. And here it is necessary to clearly analyze - the laboriousness (cost) of changes and improving efficiency (benefits) as a result.

Pros and Cons BPM

The advantages of using BPM include:

The ability to maximize the actions of people and systems necessary to obtain the result.
Graphic notations are visual, which makes it possible to understand the peculiarities of the processes in the company and see their weaknesses.
Notations are perfectly suitable as an instruction to the Contractor who will receive a clear and unambiguous sequence of actions. At the same time, it will be decorated graphically - most convenient for perception man.
When using a process approach, the result of the process will be standardized and match the expected. This will reduce the influence of the human factor at the level of service or perform any other types of work.
BPM methodology - perfectly worked out and standardized thanks to BPMN. In this case, the tools (BPMN notations) are intuitive even for people who have not studied business processes at all. On the other hand, the availability of standards and rules allows you to avoid errors in developing and create in the BPMS system executable notations (ready-made elements of business automation).

Minuses BPM, as often happens, are located there, where and the advantages:

The high degree of processes detail prevents the perception of business work for strategic planning.
In humans that develop a process model, is very big responsibility. Any error can lead to sad results. For example, when developing a functional model, there is data at the entrance, the result at the output, the tools that the executive company provides, and the performer itself. While the executor at the output gives the expected result, in the framework of the function, it can act at its own discretion, choosing the optimal method of achieving the goal. Upon process approach, the Contractor deprives "Freedom of the maneuver". It appears a clearly defined sequence of actions taking into account all possible conditions. And he has no right to act differently, even if the result is different from the expected.
The business process is statical and practically cannot be adjusted from the inside. The artist receives a clear sequence of actions and can no longer manifest the initiative. As a result, the performers will repeat any error from time until it is fixed in the business process itself.

What companies fits bpm

The process approach is ideal for state companies. It is important to raise the level of service and quality of work, it is also important to standardize service. In the state company, customers do not expect some bonuses or special initiatives. But the service must be performed from and to at the appropriate level.

In commercial companies, the process approach is good for standardization of work, it will allow you to "pull up" the level of service to certain standards. On the one hand, this is a big plus. On the other hand, both minus, since initiative and talented employees, with all the desire, will not be able to show themselves and bring more benefits and profits. The process approach is precisely stability and definite static. And therefore, when it is used, it is necessary to clearly understand where this work option is suitable, and where it is better to provide people more freedom.

In order for the business process to benefit and not harm, it is recommended to collect comments and errors from participants. No need to consider that BPM is truth in the last instance.

For more information about how it is to manage business with the help of business processes, I told in past articles, and I will talk more than once. Here I tried to just explain the differences between the terms BPM, BPMS, BPMN and describe the very concept of "business process management". Without these basic knowledge, it is impossible to understand in the process approach.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between functional modeling from the process?

With a functional approach, we consider the actions of people and automated systems Like a black box. And approach modeling from the point of view - stages of achieving the goal, as well as necessary for this resources. With process modeling, we study the sequence of employees and systems at each stage to optimize them and increase efficiency.

What concepts come in BPMN?

First of all, it is directly the BPMN system, as well as a description of the BPMS notations. I wrote about them in this article, and in detail - in previous articles (see recommended references at the end of the publication). In addition, new concepts appeared not so long ago - DMN and CMMN. I will not stop in detail on them now. I will try to describe new concepts and their features in future publications.

Why is it necessary in building notations so many difficulties and different approaches?

Management of business processes and the BPM Methodology itself are necessary, including for the policy management of large groups. It is for this that we need notations, descriptions of business processes and a wide list of tools.

How to get started with BPM?

Examine BPMN notation language and try using it in your work. The main thing, do not be afraid to start. You will understand that simple notations in practice build is much easier than it seems. And step by step will be able to study the methodology, based on simple and understandable BPM graphic instruments.

Can I use BPM for non-automatic systems?

Can. This approach is intended primarily not for automation (in the IT sphere there are its tools), and to organize the work of the company or any team. These areas of work using automated systems can be taken into account. And exclusively processes in the team can be considered, and anyone from construction teams or production to creative teams in the theater or philharmonic. The main thing is to clearly describe - how the process you are interested in, as well as how you want to change it.

Process management becomes for many leaders by the standard "de facto", but without the use of modern tools, business processes are organized in the company quite difficult, and this is primarily associated with their complexity of both management facilities. In addition to the definition of the business process, its descriptions, improvement and regulation requires its "cross-cutting" automation to introduce into the company. In order for the business process to be managed, it is necessary to ensure the routing of tasks in accordance with its logic, as well as monitor parameters, such as the execution time of individual functions, deviations from the normative execution time, the cost of the process. If the company uses such a tool, then we can talk about creating a complete cycle of business process management, in which, taking into account the collected statistics, this process is improved. Despite the overall passion for the implementation of the ERP class systems, the results obtained do not provide a "cross-cutting" automation of business processes, and therefore now has an increase in interest in solving its tasks with the help of specialized class information systems. Business Process Management System (BPMS, BPM system).

BPMS class systems are heirs of workflow systems, while under the term workflow means managing the flow of work and through it - a business process. According to Glossary of the International Organization Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC) Workflow is a complete or partial automation of a business process in which documents, information or tasks are transmitted to perform the necessary actions from one member to another in accordance with the set of procedural rules. An expert from Delphi Group (Boston Consulting Company, specializing in Workflow) speaks about this: "Workflow management emphasizes the importance of the process to which the role of the container for information is given.

The basis of this model is processes, not information. " Therefore, Workflow / BPM system is a system that provides the creation, implementation and management of workflow using software that is able to interpret the description of the business process, to interact with the work flow participants and if necessary to call the relevant applications. In fact, Workflow / BPM systems are an IT market reaction on a process management approach. At the same time, the realities of the Russian automation market of business processes have its own specifics associated with a fairly strong presence in the Document Management System - DMS system in the market, which in addition to the functionality of the storage and search for documents have document routing modules - docflow.

The problem is that many customers have not yet distinguished the functionality of docflow and workflow among themselves, and when choosing information systems, you are looking for a single platform to solve document management tasks and management of business processes, despite the fact that these are different system classes. Therefore, when choosing an information system, the requirements for functionality, which is present in systems of different classThat shows the insufficient development of the markets for information management information systems and management of business processes, as a result of which various tasks are trying to solve with one tool. The clear border of the application of the BPMS class systems is the orientation of managing business processes, and not documents.

If the business process has a clear logic and a large number of copies per day, for example, the banking process of retail lending (more than 1,000 applications per day), then, of course, the main task will be the routing of credit applications, while the task of search and storage will be secondary. In such cases, when an automation object is a business process, the use of BPM systems is most justified. However, if the task is to automate the free routing of the company's documents (without clearly defined processing algorithms) and with a low execution frequency, in this case the DMS system containing the DOCFLOW functionality will be preferable.

The introduction of BPMS is closely related to the implementation of process management in the company, and without orientation on business processes as control objects it will be complex and ineffective. If the company works through the registration and painting system, then it is necessary to first allocate and standardize the main business processes to go to the management of business processes and the use of BPMS, and then begin to automate them, which will require changes in the terms and responsibility in the company.

Basic BPMS classes

If you analyze analytical materials, you can see that Gartner analysts divide the BPM-systems market into two large segments. The first segment is the BPM market (system system) market, and these solutions are initially focused on integrating information systems. They are mainly used for the internal integration of business processes passing in information systems. An example of such integration can be a billing process in a telecommunications company, where many information systems can be used, the functions of which are performed without the participation of a person, but the systems must be integrated with each other for the "end-to-end" automation of this process. The second segment of the BPM system market is the BPM class system (man-person), which are primarily intended to automate the sequence of work, i.e. Business processes performed by people.

In total, according to analysts Gartner, five classes of BPM systems are allocated:

administrative systems responsible for controlling instructions;
means of collective work with the main emphasis on document management, which can be attributed to the functionality of DOCFLOW;
BPM components of other systems - internal workflow modules in other systems; BPM systems intended for integration - systems with functional integration "System system";
independent BPM systems that solve the tasks of automating business processes performed by people.

It should be noted that the BPMS market, despite the strong dynamics of development, has a large number of suppliers, which, according to Gartner analysts, will lead in the near future to large-scale mergers and acquisitions. The developers of "heavy" ERP and CRM systems increase the Workflow functionality in their decisions, and in addition to this Document Management System (DMS) document management systems include purchased or own workflow modules, which contributes to strengthening competition in this market and complication. System selection tasks.

Scope of BPMS

In most cases, the use of BPMS is most effectively in those industries where companies initially have a processing organization and specificity in business processes logic, as well as a high frequency of changes in existing processes. For such BPMS companies are the only way to automate processes, since the use of "monolithic" IT solutions or own developments, as a rule, leads to the fact that due to the emerging changes in business, these decisions quickly cease to meet new requirements.

The banking industry is one of the main consumers of BPMS. This is due to the peculiarities of the organization of front-office processes from each bank. The most common example of using BPMS in the bank is the automation of retail lending processes. Examples of other banking business processes, which are used to automate BPMS, can be managed customer service requests in the information and reference service (change address, refund, account management and opening new accounts).

Almost the entire front office of banks can be automated using BPMS, and in addition to this integrated with other information systems used in the bank. The BPMS telecommunications industry companies can be used to automate processes related to the processing of requests for multiple customers. These companies also can also automate the processes of user incidents (Trouble Ticket) and others.

For companies of the energy industry, BPMS is most effective in processes that are related to the service of a large number of customers. One such processes are technological connection to the network, within which the company's clients and several internal units are interacted. In addition, other processes can be automated, for example, in one of the energy companies, the encoding procedure and invoices approval were automated. It is important to note that BPMS can also be applicable to automating supporting business processes. Processing Service Requests and Purchase, Personnel Management, Accrual wages, Ticket and Car Order - All these processes are already automated using BPMS, which is confirmation in the form of completed projects.
The quality management system is another area of \u200b\u200busing BPMS, and this is primarily due to records management processes that can also be automated. Moreover, quality control procedures can be embedded in processes automated with BPMS, which eliminates large number Routine work. Some companies use BPMS to control compliance with the requirements of such a law as the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) law, which allows you to create a system. internal controlMost of the actions in which are performed in automatic mode (control procedures, creating test certificates, etc.).

Another extensive area of \u200b\u200busing BPMS is state administration. Examples of administrative management processes automated with BPMS may be answers to citizens' complaints, administrative correspondence tracking, issuing licenses or permits, etc. There are examples of using BPMS in health care for the automation of new customer registration processes and consulting companies (inclusion of new employees in Activities, development of commercial proposals, coordination of contracts, personnel management).

Criteria for selecting BPMS.

From the right choice of the BPMS information system, its further use essentially depends. However, today most solutions are intuitive, which often leads to disappointment from the results of automation. When choosing BPMS, as a rule, only focus on exterior signs - Number of installations, "volume" name and, of course, cost. At the same time not paid special attention Its functionality and technical implementation, which leads to restrictions in further work: the absence of cross-platform, insufficient scalability, the complexity of changes.

By producing a choice without an understanding of the technical and functional parameters of the BPMS, you can make an error that in the future it will be impossible to correct, so it is necessary to answer the following questions: how to choose information system Depending on the objectives and objectives of the business and the current status of automation; how to arrange priorities for business processes that require automation; Whether the effect of the implementation will exceed the cost of purchasing BPMS.

One of key stages BPMS selection is to develop system requirements and supplier. As part of these works, the most critical business processes are determined, IT infrastructure audit is carried out, the automation boundaries are determined and the requirements from key users of the company are collected. The amount of these requirements may vary widely, for example, for large companies, it can be about 500, and for small about 100.

For the convenience of working with such a number of requirements, it is necessary to classify them by groups: functional, technical, cost, to the supplier. This allows you to apply various rationing, weighing and evaluation techniques for each group and achieve maximum qualitative assessment Compliance with BPMS needs of the company. Gartner analysts offer to pay attention to the following requirements when choosing BPMS:

support for the tasks "Man-Man" and the convenience of the user interface
support for organizational structure and role-playing groups
the ability to reassign tasks, operational intervention in the process and processing of exclusive situations
the ability to manage the logic of the process from the user's workplace; Ease of Use and Administration
presence of graphic means of developing business process models
supported architectures and standards
performance and scalability; ability to serve numerous, long and distributed processes
an understandable configuration interface and the possibility of minimal participation of IT professionals in implementing and supporting
the possibility of informing real-time on the deviations of the process indicators
support for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA - Service Oriented Architecture)
the presence of business processes templates based on which new processes can be developed
low cumulative cost of ownership

Considering these BPMS requirements as a basis and adding specialized requirements for your company, you can see what the BPMS selected should be. Further, the tender participants are determined by collecting information on the existing BPMS. Now there are about 50 large BPMS suppliers on the Russian market, while their number is growing from year to year, so it is necessary to systemately approach the process of collecting information.

BPMS information can be obtained as a result of an analysis of open sources based on the list of systems taken for consideration, and then using forms (RFI-Request for information), the information request is distributed to suppliers. Based on the responses received, the primary analysis is for compliance with the requirements, after which the participants of the tender are determined.

After the participants are defined, a tender is carried out by drawing up and distributing requests for a commercial offer (RFP - Request for Proposal) containing full list Requirements for BPMS. Based on the response of the participants, commercial proposals are evaluated, and it is also recommended to "try" how these systems will work on real data from the company. For this, a control example of a business process is preparing or a "pilot" implementation of BPMS in one process is carried out. Experience in project implementation has shown that the choice of BPMS can be made within a month. During this time, you can form the necessary and sufficient requirements and, taking into account them to select BPMS and the implementation team.

Skl sophie

The transition to process management can be gradual and carried out through the automation of small procedures and auxiliary processes using BPMS, therefore, choosing BPMS, it is necessary to understand the strategic advantages of the approach from the point of view of changing the company's management system. It is important to note that the process approach and BPMS will allow you to apply such modern approaches such as service oriented architecture (Service Oriented Architecture - SOA).

However, the main obstacle to the introduction of BPMS in Russia is not understanding of all the advantages of the process management. Commitment of the functional control scheme often does not make it possible to make a full automation of business processes and implement process control. But at the same time, the strengthening of competition in many Russian industries allows you to hope that the tasks of improving business processes will become an urgent need that will cause even greater interest in BPMS.

A. Koptelov, Director of Project "Controlling 24" Company IDS SCHEER Russia and CIS countries

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