Business Process Management: What Are the Top Methods Used to Manage a Business Process?

Updated on :October 18, 2023
By :Shaju Devessy

Managing the various processes, which occur in a business industry through various methods, is referred by this “umbrella” term. Business process management deals with everything that is analyzed thoroughly for the betterment of core processes, which happen inside a particular industry.

For instance, in a business organization, each department collects the needed raw data and transforms it into valuable assets. For this to happen, each department must handle a lot of processes. Business process management allows a company to observe their processes from afar and spot any issues there might be, a fantastic way to get a unique perspective.  

As you are aware, business goals are achieved by repeating certain steps according to proper formulae, as well as being consistent about it. These steps can be referred to as tasks. So, in effect, processes are completed by building them task by task.

When you think back, the projects are undertaken by businesses also comprise of various tasks. However, projects rely on processes. A business is run by processes every time; in effect, processes are the fuel of the business.

What BPM Does

Business process management (BPM) comprises of tasks that are automated. There are a lot of instances where improving the business process can happen outside the bounds of automation and technology. This ensures a persistent process of re-engineering with various methods, which enables the successful completion of many tasks. Thus, business processes are a set of activities that accomplish specific organizational goals.

BPM aids in optimizing the entire business process, which improves the overall performance of the company. This optimization deals with the right management of all tasks and processes via certain optimistic changes.

The motto of BPM is to manage and improve a company’s business processes that are repeated by avoiding all issues and mistakes.

Benefits of Business Process Management

  • The optimization of business processes helps in reducing costs and generating higher revenues along with customer satisfaction. 
  • BPM helps businesses to align their processes with customers to develop customized products. 
  • Business process automation helps save precious time and resources of businesses.
  • BPM aids in various decision-making on critical, or any, matters that drive the businesses forward by giving insight to the timing of deployment, monitoring as well as measuring of various processes. 
  • Sound financial management is essential for any businesses and BPM aids in implementing the process. 
  • BPM helps in achieving various business goals. 

Why BPM?

As aforementioned, BPM can bring clarity to the business processes. It is well-known that cluttered or un-structured processes can cause issues within an organization. 

In the absence of BPM, businesses struggle with the following challenges. 

  • Valuable time is wasted via error-prone processes. 
  • People start blaming each other, and the work environment is toxic. 
  • Employees are demoralized.
  • Lack of proper data to correct the wrong. 

Thus, BPM brings order to the business processes and help them avoid so many problems.

Business Process Management Life-Cycle

A business process management system is carried out in five distinct stages. The first of them would be the design part wherein the processes are broken into various tasks. Then these tasks are fabricated to the right models using BPM software. This helps in devising a plan as well as executing a process, thereby putting a proper system in place.

This system is then monitored and analyzed for any possible issues. The optimization process is complete when the process is changed according to the right parameters.

Different Categories of Business Process Management Systems

There are four types of BPM systems used by businesses. 

Integration – Centric

A BPM approach employed to develop processes that move fast between systems without much human involvement.

It is an integrated approach for designing, developing, and promoting website applications that can be used in any platform (desktop, laptop, tablets, and smartphones). The integration is done between BPM and service-oriented architecture. This whole process aids in tracking variable marketing trends. The integrated term is referred to as the integration-centric BPM Suite.

It helps any business processes to be efficient and simple. The service-oriented architecture in the BPM suite helps in the interaction between various program computing entities.

It significantly reduces management overhead and generates a chance to recycle various application objects. This increases the efficiency in evolving of an application.

Human-Centric 

This system helps in bringing the human element into various tasks and processes of a business.

Human Centric BPM

A BPM approach that focuses on various tasks and processes done by humans manually. This also deals with designing automated functions, which support human actions. In any business process, some important activities can only be done by humans, such as document reviews, creation of reports, evaluation, analyzing things, and authorizing, to name a few.

The various activities done by humans are categorized into packages, which are standardized for integrating into various business tasks and processes. These packages are also referred to as work-units. Human-centric BPM thus deals with business processes that cannot be replaced by machines.

Being flexible, adaptable, and agile in response to various situations and events, human-centric BPM can be easily integrated with other systems. The core benefits involve risk reduction, increased management support, as well as better customer interaction.

Document-Centric 

It deals with important business documents. The system enables routing, formatting, getting the document signed, and verifying the whole task during the execution of document-related processes.

This BPM approach focuses on documents that are essential for businesses to run. It helps in organizing the entire documents so that it is easy to work with them.

This BPM approach improves the business work processes by optimizing it via understanding the document flow by which people do their tasks or processes. It helps in observing any issues that might crop up; this helps in rectifying or modifying them at the right time.

It helps the business organizations to process their important documents without any kind of issues, optimizing the whole process.

Customer-Centric 

A customer-centric BPM approach deals by giving importance to customers. Businesses employ a customer-centric approach to increase interaction with customers; also, to perceive the concept of products from a customer’s point of view. This benefits the organizations to design and develop customized products.

BPM helps in bringing in a cultural change that allows enterprises to switch from product-centered processes to customer-centric ones. A good tool can facilitate a flow of novel ideas, transparency of available information, ease of communication, and an entire process re-designed from a brand new perspective. Customer satisfaction becomes an integral part of the production process with this approach.

It helps business firms to understand everything from a customer’s point of view. The design process will be modified accordingly. A customer-centric thinking process is implemented.

It imparts more flexibility to the production process for managing the customer’s needs and requirements. The objectives of the companies get good clarity. Companies become more innovative, which attains a state of visibility to the customers. With this BPM approach, the companies accomplish more transparency, sharing of information and knowledge as well as better control of business processes. 

Top Methods in Business Process Management

The basic business process management methodology travels via specific steps taken during the analysis of business data. Although this forms the core of the BPM system, every business approaches the management process in their unique ways. The pattern of the BPM system remains the same with slight variations.

Analysis of the business process management system is done as follows.  

  • Assess the situation on hand with all parameters
  • Identify the limitations as well as possible changes. It aids in the betterment of the system by pointing out what needs to be done. 
  • Try to answer the questions that pop up during designing a new process, such as will it help, if it is digitized? What are the systems, which need to be linked, and how much a BPM platform system help? By analyzing these queries, business organizations can set up a robust BPM system. 
  • Test for improvements. It is essential to keep and implement the whole BPM system in track. 
  • Monitor and repeat the process while checking if it’s optimized properly. 

BPM Methodologies

The well-established BPM methods are as follows.

DMEMO 

It is the most known BPM method. Following is the description of DMEMO. 

Design: The overall design of various tasks and processes that help a business take off.

Model: Improvements that can be made to improve the product or process. 

Execute: Adjustments that can be made to improve the product or process. 

Monitor: What’s the progress of the process; is it getting there?

Optimize: What other improvements can be made?

BPM Flowchart

DMAIC

Here is a description of DMAIC.  

Define: Making a definition of any issues or problems.

Measure: Collecting as much data as possible about the issues. 

Analyze: Analyzing and interpreting the data and having a discussion about forming suggestions. 

Improve: Assigning improvements to the whole BPM system.

Control: Reducing the issues and bringing in further improvements.

The methods that aid these systems to run smoothly typically include quality management as well as statistical analysis. These are implemented on high-critical data for making it better.

Some of the other complementary and helpful methods comprise of BPTA (BP Trends Association) and Rummler-Brache. BPTA is an integrated and comprehensive approach to the BPM system processes. It is used by big business enterprises effectively.

Rummler-Brache methodology takes an improvement approach based on the whole business process. There are a lot more methods. However, those mentioned above are the more popular ones.

Build a Customized Methodology

If you know the basics of a BPM system, then you build your methodology to improve the business process, more effectively. In a way, you would be making a customized solution to a general problem. Interesting, isn’t it?

There are options to build practices on top of the others with good BPM systems as a base model. Maybe you could develop a hybrid model. With proper guidance, this is achievable.

Focus on Technology 

The technology that you use for developing BPM methodology should be supportive and updated to the latest version. Technology advancement has also given the top business process management software to help your business.

The best BPM software, such as Flokzu, KiSSFLOW, Bitrix24, Accelo, etc., ensure that you can leverage BPM effectively. And then there are some excellent free and open-source BPM software too. 

You should make sure the BPM strategies you are making are in sync with your technology. Also, the technology should be able to adapt to the BPM software solution.

Tools to Aid Methodologies

Various tools are needed to manage BPM systems successfully. The first and foremost tool deals with the communication process within the business as well as the professional environment. This can help develop a feedback system with customers, which makes the task-management system easier. Planning of tasks and processes within a business organization is done swiftly using the collaboration method.

The second tool that aids BPM systems would be useful in designing processes. This is referred to as the drag and drop design. With this tool, there is no need to know about coding to kick-start the process. The optimization process becomes easier with drag-and-drop functionality.

The integration tool helps in obtaining relevant data and information from various sources. Certain tasks can be done entirely with the help of machines. Business organizations can gather the information they need from different sources and integrate them to improve their tasks and processes.

A blueprint of the whole BPM system is essential for its successful implementation. These process diagrams help develop a structure for the whole plan. With this tool, it is easier to handle exception cases while implementing the BPM system.

Wrapping Up!

A business process management system is essential for all enterprises, which wish to be in a competitive market. BPM helps all to analyze and improve their processes through various processes and tools, as mentioned above.

Also, with the right amount of knowledge, one can develop their own methods and tools to optimize their businesses, an integral benefit of the BPM system. Through BPM, businesses can know more about customizing their products and processes based on valuable customer feedback and reviews.

Last but not least, the top BPM software helps you with all your business process management needs. Try one now. And, if you have already used one, don’t forget to post its review here.

So, what are you waiting for? Embrace this knowledge and improve your business!

Shaju Devessy
Shaju Devessy

Shaju Devessy works as Marketing Manager at Intellect Outsource. Her company provides complete eCommerce business process outsource services worldwide.

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