Buisness Process Management - an Introduction

Quality Engineering and Process Improvement

Project: Buzzwords

Business Process Management

Define your buzzword.

Gartner defines Business Process Management (BPM) as a management discipline that treats business processes as assets that directly contribute to enterprise performance by driving operational excellence and business agility.1 In this sense, it becomes necessary for a business to realize the processes it has in place ultimately contribute to its bottom line. Organization must therefore be willing to invest in the resources required to not only execute the processes, but commit to maintaining and monitoring those organizational processes to ensure they continue to operate efficiently. Failure to do undoubtedly impacts the performance of the business. In order to monitor the process and increase the efficiencies within the organization companies have invested in BPM software. One can therefore state BPM is a concept or method that requires a tool, predominantly software, for successful implementation within an organization. Organizations must be not only be willing to adopt and embrace the concept, but then make the financial commitment to invest in the tool in order for BPM to add value to the organization.

Provide a history of the tool/method.

The term Business Process Management was first seen in the late 1990s early 2000s. Its use originates from earlier workflow solutions. Where workflow's main focus is on document-based processes performed by people, BPM focuses on both people and systems processes. Workflow automates processes within an individual department, whereas BPM addresses processes that may span across several departments or even the entire enterprise. Figure 1 depicts the BPM lifecycle.

Figure 1. Business Process Management Lifecycle2

1 Gartner IT Glossary: Business Process Management http:/www.gartner.com/it-glossary/business-process-management-bpm/ (August 2012)

2 Business Process Management 101: The Basics of BPM and How to Choose the Right Suite http://www.informationweek.com/software/business-intelligence/business-process-management-101-the-basi/199204260?pgno=2 (August 2012)

Explain how the tool/concept/method fits into the quality management "world."

The term Business Process Management fits into the quality "world" as it seeks to define a way of doing business. In general terms, BMP is essentially any process improvement discipline or activity, including reengineering, TQM or Six Sigma quality methods, outsourcing and lean manufacturing. Any of these process improvement methods can be considered as BPM. Organizations look to define quality in their business practices