Part 1:

Introduction to BPM
Prof. Dr. Jochen De Weerdt
 Lecture overview

1. The world of Business Process Management (BPM)

2. The BPM lifecycle

3. Process discovery: as-is process modelling

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Many of the slides in this presentation are based upon lecture material from W. van der Aalst
(TU/e), M. La Rosa (QUT), J. Mendling (WU Vienna), and M. Dumas (University of Tartu).
 Lecture material
• Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., Reijers, H. (2018)
Fundamentals of Business Process Management.
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 5 (Sections 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3)

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1. The world of BPM

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 Business Process Management: What is it?

• Body of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze,

execute and monitor business processes

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 Why BPM?
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is
that automation applied to an efficient operation will
magnify the efficiency.
The second is that automation applied to an inefficient
operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

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 Why BPM?

Information Yields
Technology Business
Value

Enables
Yields
Process
Change

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Index Group (1982)
 How to engage in BPM?

Continuous Process Improvement (CPI)

• Does not put into question the current process structure
• Seeks to identify issues and resolve them incrementally,
one step at a time and one fix at a time

Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)

• Puts into question the fundamental assumptions and
principles of the existing process structure
• Aims to achieve breakthrough, for example by removing
costly tasks that do not directly add value
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 Our phenomena of interest:
Business processes
• Collection of related events, activities and decisions, that involve
a number of actors and objects, and that collectively lead to an
outcome that is of value to an organization or its customers.

• Examples:
• Order-to-Cash
• Quote-to-Order
• Procure-to-Pay
• Application-to-Approval
• Fault-to-Resolution (Issue-to-Resolution)
• Claim-to-Settlement

“If it does not make at least three people mad, it’s not a process.”
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Hammer and Stanton (1995)
 “My washing machine doesn’t work…”

Insurance
Call Centre Company
Technician

Customer Customer
Parts
Service Store
Dispatch
Centre

VALUE
fault-to-resolution process

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 Processes and outcomes
• Every process leads to one or several outcomes, positive or
negative
• Positive outcomes deliver value
• Negative outcomes reduce value

• Fault-to-resolution process outcomes:

• Fault repaired without technician intervention
• Fault repaired with minor technician intervention
• Fault repaired and fully covered by warranty
• Fault repaired and partly covered by warranty
• Fault repaired but not covered by warranty
• Fault not repaired (customer withdrew request)

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What is a business process: Recap

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 The core elements of a process
• Activities
• active elements (e.g. ‘enter sales order’)
• time-consuming, resource-demanding
• state-changing

• Events
• passive elements (e.g. ‘sales order has been entered’)
• represent conditions / circumstances
• atomic, instantaneous

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 The core elements of a process
• Business Objects (or Data)
• the organizational artifacts that undergo state changes
• physical or electronic information
• examples:
• sales order, digital object, consulting proposal

• Actors (or Resources)

• the entities performing process activities and generating events
• human and systems
• examples:
• financial officer, warehouse clerk
• ERP, CRM, SAP, application X…

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 How do we combine these?
1. What needs be done and when? - Control flow
2. What do we need to work on? – Data
3. Who’s doing the work? - Resources (humans & systems)

Finance ERP Invoice Report Invoice

Department
Enter Check
no
Invoice Invoice Post Invoice
mismatches
Invoice Details Mismatches
Invoice
received posted

Invoice DB Invoice
Senior Finance Officer
mismatch Block
exists Invoice
Invoice
blocked

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 Process perspectives
Enter Check

•
no
Invoice Invoice Post Invoice
Control flow perspective Invoice Details Mismatches
mismatches
Invoice

•
received posted
“what needs to be done and when”
• predecessor/successor relationship among activities and events
Block
•
mismatch
the central information depicted in a process model exists Invoice
Invoice
blocked

• Data perspective
• “what do we need to work on”
• input/output data to activities Invoice Report Invoice DB

• complements the control flow

• Resource perspective Finance ERP

•
Department

“who’s doing the work”

• human participants and systems that perform
control flow activities and generate events Senior Finance Officer

• complements the control flow

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2. The BPM lifecycle

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 BPM lifecycle
…design, analyze, execute and monitor business processes…

Process
identification

Process
Process architecture
architecture

Conformance
Conformance and
and Process As-is
As-is process
process
performance
performance insights
insights discovery model
model

Process
monitoring and Process
controlling analysis

Executable
Executable Insights on
Insights on
process
process weaknesses and
weaknesses and
model
model their impact
their impact

Process Process
implementation To-be
To-be process
process redesign
model
model
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 Process identification
• What?
• Define an organization’s business processes
• Establish criteria to prioritize the management of these processes

• Why?
• Understand the organization
• Maximize value of BPM initiatives

• Output: Process Architecture

• Captures business processes and their scope
• Serves as a framework for defining priorities and scope of
subsequent BPM phases (e.g. modelling, redesign and automation).

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 Process identification steps
• Designation phase
• Enumerate main processes
• Determine process scope: boundaries (horizontal and vertical) and
interrelationships (order and hierarchical)

• Evaluation phase (a.k.a. process selection)

• Evaluate processes
• Alignment with strategic objectives
• Health (e.g. performance, compliance, sustainability…)
• Culture & politics
• Feasibility to being successfully improved
• Risk of not improving them

After Davenport 20
(1993)
 Designation via reference models
• Example: the APQC Process Classification Framework
(PCF)
• Industry-neutral
enterprise model
• Open standard for
benchmarking
• Four levels
• Categories
• Process group
• Process
• Activity

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The evaluation phase (aka process selection)
1. Importance
• Which processes have the greatest impact on the organization‘s
strategic goals?
2. Dysfunction
• Which processes are in the deepest trouble?
3. Feasibility
• Which process is the most susceptible to successful
process management?

Process Portfolio Management

Hammer, Champy (1993)

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 Evaluation example
Process portfolio of an Australian retailer

Primary Focus
High
F

D E T

C G W Z

I K A N

H P U V X

B J Y M R

L O
Low
Poor Good

0 Process Health 4

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Evaluation example
Process portfolio of a bank

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Praeg (2007)
3. Process discovery: as-is
process modelling

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 BPM lifecycle

…design, analyze, execute and monitor business processes…

Process
identification

Process
Process architecture
architecture

Conformance
Conformance and
and Process As-is
As-is process
process
performance
performance insights
insights discovery model
model

Process
monitoring and Process
controlling analysis

Executable
Executable Insights on
Insights on
process
process weaknesses and
weaknesses and
model
model their impact
their impact

Process Process
implementation To-be
To-be process
process redesign
model
model
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 Process discovery
1. Defining the setting
• This phase is dedicated to assembling a team in a company that will be
responsible for working on the process.
2. Gathering information
• This phase is concerned with building an understanding of the process. Different
discovery methods can be used to acquire information on a process.
3. Conducting the modeling task
• This phase deals with organizing the creation of the process model. The
modeling method gives guidance for mapping out the process in a systematic
way.
4. Assuring process model quality (see later)
• This phase aims to guarantee that the resulting process models meet different
quality criteria. This phase is important for establishing trust in the process
model.

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 Who is involved?

Domain expert Process analyst

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Stakeholders in Detail

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 Challenge 1:
Fragmented process knowledge

I make a photocopy
before handing over the
application

Why can‘t I directly

provide cash after
approval?

We bundle
refinancing to
get better 30

interest rates.
 Challenge 2:
Domain experts think on instance level

“Every trip is different.”

“You cannot really compare.

Our customers go to different
places in different seasons
using different modes of
transportation.”

“We can never do anything

exactly in the same way. There
are so many special
conditions.”

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 Challenge 3:
Knowledge about process modelling is rare
“Could you please tell me, whether this diagram correctly
shows your process?”

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Elicitation techniques used at the process
discovery (process modelling) stage
1. Evidence-based
• Document analysis
• Observation
• Process mining: Automated process discovery

2. Interview-based

3. Workshop-based

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 Document analysis
• Documents point to existing roles, activities and business objects

• Formal documentation in terms of

• Organization chart
• Employment plan
• Quality certificate report
• Internal policies
• Glossaries and handbooks

• Forms

• Work instructions

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 Observation
• Observe what people do at their workplace
• Trace business objects in the course of their lifecycle
• Inspect the work environment

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 Process mining: Automated process
discovery
Make order form
Case
Case
Activity Name Origin
Originat
Timestamp Extra
Extra
ID Activity Name or Timestamp Data
ID ator Data
001 Make order form Mary 20-07-2010 14:02:06 …
001 Make order form Mary 20-07-2010 14:02:06 …

002 Make order form Jane 20-07-2010 15:45:29 … Scan invoice

002 Make order form Jane 20-07-2010 15:45:29 …

001
001
Scan invoice
Scan invoice
John
John
10-08-2010 09:52:31
10-08-2010 09:52:31
…
…
Genetic Miner
001
001
Central registration
Central registration
John
John
10-08-2010 10:00:36
10-08-2010 10:00:36
…
… HeuristicsMiner Central registration
002 Scan invoice John 11-08-2010 09:15:22 …
002 Scan invoice John 11-08-2010 09:15:22 …

002 Central registration John 11-08-2010 09:20:01 …

002 Central registration John 11-08-2010 09:20:01 …

001 Accepted Sophie 13-08-2010 08:20:54 …

001 Accepted Sophie 13-08-2010 08:20:54 …

002 Accepted Sophie 13-08-2010 08:21:12 … Rejected Accepted

002 Accepted Sophie 13-08-2010 08:21:12 …

001 Decentral rejection Mary 14-08-2010 14:15:14 …

001 Decentral rejection Mary 14-08-2010 14:15:14 …

001 End System 14-08-2010 14:15:15 …

Syste
001 End 14-08-2010 14:15:15 …
002 Decentral approval
m
Jane 16-08-2010 19:22:56 … Decentral revision Decentral approval
002
002
Decentral approval
Invoice booked
Jane
System
16-08-2010 19:22:56
16-08-2010 19:22:59
…
…

Syste
002
002 InvoiceEnd
booked System 19:23:00
16-08-2010 19:22:59 …
m
003 Make order form Mary 19-08-2010 07:52:41 … Invoice booked Decentral rejection
Syste
002 End 16-08-2010 19:23:00 …
004 Make order form m
Mary 19-08-2010 15:21:39 …

003 Make order form Mary 19-08-2010 07:52:41 …

Fodina
004 Make order form Mary 19-08-2010 15:21:39 …
End

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 Interviews
Interview

Validation Modeling
• Correct
• Complete
Verification
• Sound
• Structured vs. unstructured interviews
• Assumption: analyst and stakeholder share terminology
• Then, questions target at identifying deviations from
standard processing
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 Workshops
• Gather all key stakeholders together
• One process analyst, multiple domain experts
• Participants interact to create shared understanding
• Often: software-supported, a model is directly created during the
workshop (separate role)
• Model is reference point for discussions
• Alternative: brown-paper workshops

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 Strengths and Weaknesses
Technique Strength
Document Analysis • Structured information
• Independent from
availability of
stakeholders
Observation • Context-rich insight into
process
Automatic Discovery • Extensive set of cases
• Objective data
Interview • Detailed inquiry into
process
Workshop • Direct resolution of
conflicting views
Weakness
• Outdated material
• Wrong level of
abstraction
• Potentially intrusive
• Stakeholders likely to
behave differently
• Only few cases
• Potential issue with data
quality
• Requires sparse time of
process stakeholders
• Several iterations
required before sign-off
• Synchronous availability
of several stakeholders
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 Organizing the gathered material
1. Identify the process boundaries
2. Identify activities and events
3. Identify resources and their handovers
4. Identify the control flow
5. Identify additional elements

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 1. Process boundaries
• Under which condition does the process start?
• With which result does it end?
• Which perspective do you assume?

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2. Identify activities and events

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3. Identify resources and handovers

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4. Identify control flow

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 What should you know and what should you
be able to do?
• You should know:
• how a business process is defined, what the core elements are of a
business process are and what the field of BPM is about
• the different phases in the BPM life cycle, give examples of activities
and techniques used in each of these phases
• what process identification is and how designation and evaluation of
business processes serves as a starting point for BPM initiatives
• what process discovery (= as-is process modelling), who is involved,
what the challenges are, what techniques are used, what their
strengths and weaknesses are, and which steps should be
undertaken for modelling as-is processes
• You should be able to:
• contrast and compare different elicitation techniques for process
modelling

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