WB835 Unit02 Script
WB835 Unit02 Script
Slide 1
Introduction to Business
Process Management
Slide 2
Unit objectives
• Understand the process spectrum
• Define Business Process Management (BPM)
• Define process modeling
• Understand the high-level project phases of a BPM project
• List and describe the phases in the IBM Playback methodology
• Describe Playback 0 and the achievements that are reached at this
stage in the Playback methodology
Slide 3
Topics
• Business process management (BPM)
• Introduction to process modeling
• Business Process Management project development
• The Playback methodology
• Playback 0
Slide 4
Business Process
Management (BPM)
Slide 5
Integrated Processes
Measure Optimize
Business Process Management is about value, not technology. BPM spans both technology and
methodology. By itself, BPM is not a technology.
Business Process Management includes the services and tools that support process
management (for example, process analysis, definition, processing, monitoring and
administration), including support for human and application-level interaction. BPM tools can
eliminate manual processes and automate the routing of requests between departments and
applications.
Slide 6
Slide 7
Three themes
• BPM is also described with these common themes: the goal, the system, and the expected
results.
• All organizations have processes; however, the visibility of processes can be varied. BPM is
a way to increase that visibility and hence give direction to the continued efficiency of the
processes.
• In true BPM, all aspects of a system are important, including human interactions. True BPM
seeks to define and visualize all aspects of your process regardless of what role or system is
conducting that part of the work. BPM results in continual process improvement, which
provides many beneficial outcomes to the client.
Slide 8
• The BPM lifecycle has four phases: design, modeling, execution, and optimization.
• Looking at the BPM lifecycle, it becomes apparent that opportunities are available to use the
expertise of business and IT to collaborate in each phase of the lifecycle. Using this approach
to BPM, the business process is stable and on target. This stability is because of the overall
iterative improvement cycles in keeping up with business goals, business change, and
opportunities within each phase to make critical adjustments.
• Business and IT working in concert throughout the BPM lifecycle require a clear set of goals
for each phase. Matched against those lifecycle phase goals are the responsibilities for each
group. Clearly, the governance of the business process varies at each phase for each group,
but the involvement of both ensures that the process improvement is realized.
• After business practices or external conditions change, or the current process is no longer
optimal, BPM iterates again through the lifecycle. This continual iteration allows the effective
management of business processes.
• A true BPM implementation tool allows these iterations to be easily applied.
Slide 9
• The modeling phase is more than just creation of the process model; it also requires an
understanding of how to adjust the model to meet evolving business requirements. So,
throughout this phase, the process model goes through continued analysis and a series of
adjustments and refactoring efforts to obtain a model that can be implemented into a process
application.
• All the adjustments and testing allow for a process model that meets what the business
expects in terms of an improved and efficient business process at the end of project
development.
• BPM done correctly results in business processes that are modeled, analyzed, and adjusted
early and often. The BPM effort goes far beyond basically applying technology to a process
to yield a changed process. Applying technology to automate a bad business process without
regard to necessary analysis and adjustment efforts leads only to a more efficient, but still
bad process.
Slide 10
Introduction to process
modeling
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Slide 11
Activities
Inputs Outputs
• A set of activities that takes specific inputs and converts them into
specific outputs in a defined, predictable fashion
• Every organization uses business processes to accomplish work. A business process is a set
of business activities that represent the required steps to achieve a business objective. For
example, you might have a business process that handles credit card disputes. In this case,
the business objective is to resolve the dispute in an efficient and accurate way to minimize
cost to your organization and to retain customer satisfaction. The process itself includes all of
the steps that are needed to meet the objective (in this case, it might be activities like
receiving the claim, examining the validity of the claim, deciding whether to remove the
charge, and informing the customer of the decision).
• Business processes often require a combination of internal activities and activities that must
be performed by humans. Therefore, we can look at Business Process Management as the
intersection between people, processes, and technology.
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Slide 12
Activities
Inputs Outputs
Process modeling captures the ordered sequence of the business process tasks or activities, and
the responsible roles that are conducting the activities. It also captures the conditional branching
and the sequencing of the flow of work between activities, along with the supporting information
from start to end.
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Slide 13
Three-phase approach
Process modeling
Business
Deployment
process
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Slide 14
• A good process model is a graphical representation or diagram of the business process that
is universally understood. Business people understand it easily, and it is directly implemented
in a Business Process Management system or BPMS such as IBM Business Automation
Workflow.
• For all parties to understand a process model universally, process owners, process
participants, and the BPM development teams must understand each other and recognize
the same concepts in the same context. IT does not need to redraw a process model to
provide more clarity or a different point of view.
• A good process model provides views into a process that are clearly and easily
communicated in 5 minutes or less, at every level of granularity.
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Slide 15
Administrator
Systems
Introduction to Business Process Management © Copyright IBM Corporation 2020
IBM Business Automation Workflow uses a single shared environment for project design and
development. All process artifacts are stored in a single shared model architecture. All parties
that are involved in the effort to define, model, implement, measure, and improve the process are
working from a common shared model that encapsulates all of the various components. It helps
maintain the vision of bringing business and IT together.
The following list shows various people who are all using the same process model:
• Business analysts who are modeling the process
• The IT developers who are constructing the detailed implementation of the model
• The responsible process participants who are completing their activities in the process
• The process owner and analysts who monitor the process performance and identify
improvements
The model of the process that the analysts and developers build is the same one that completes
at run time. It is the same one that is used to create reports on the performance and status of the
process, and the same one that is used to implement process improvements.
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Slide 16
Business Process
Management project
development
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Slide 17
Process
Vision modeling
Goals
KPIs and metrics Descriptive
modeling
Business requirements
Process requirements
Analytical
modeling
Functional requirements
Development requirements Executable
Solution implementation modeling
The top-down diagram view of the BPM components provides a quick view of how a typical BPM
project development evolves. Any of these components that are missing from a project would
interrupt the effective design, definition, and creation of the process application, and curtail the
engagement of business people.
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Slide 18
• Definition:
▪ Discover and define the process
▪ Analyze the process for improvements, model the process, and set the
process performance measurement criteria
• Development:
▪ Prepare the process application for deployment by using an iterative
development with three or more playbacks
• Test:
▪ Validate the process application performance in achieving expected
business process goals in a production user environment
Introduction to Business Process Management
In contrast to the traditional IT application development approach stands the phased BPM project
development approach that closely aligns to the overall BPM lifecycle. This approach also
focuses on the BPM project components and allows for the different phases of process modeling.
The project development phases are:
• The Definition phase, in which you discover and define the process, analyze the process for
improvements, model the process, and set the process performance measurement criteria.
• The Development phase, in which you prepare the process application for deployment with
an iterative development with three or more playbacks.
• And the Test phase in which you validate the process application performance in achieving
expected business process goals in a production or user environment.
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Slide 19
• Process sponsor
• Process owner
• BPM project manager or
program manager
• Subject matter experts
▪ Core process activities
• Core team members
▪ Analyst
▪ Developer
▪ Solution architect
• Administrators
• Facilitators
▪ Ad hoc member (optional)
The unique phases and components of a BPM project require a specific set of project roles,
including:
• The Process sponsor is responsible for establishing the project goals and scope,
securing organizational support and resources, and ensuring alignment with
organizational business goals
• The Process owner is accountable for the successful execution of the process, knows
the process from end to end at a high level, and can identify the subject matter experts
• The BPM project manager is responsible for the success of the project
• Subject matter experts are people with knowledge of specific process resources, or
systems
• Core team members include Business process management (BPM) development
teams, typically including BPM analysts, BPM developers, and solution architects.
• The Administrator installs, updates, and configures the Business Process Management
system
• A Facilitator is an optional role that typically manages the collaboration meetings for a
BPM team
All of these participants work together to collaborate in the design of the process model.
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Slide 20
• The Playback methodology is based on agile programming principles and techniques. IBM
Business Automation Workflow was created from the ground up as an agile software
development tool. IBM’s clients sometimes attempt to use IBM Business Automation
Workflow with other methodologies. However, it repeatedly happens that the most successful
projects combine the right people (business and IT), agile software development practices,
and IBM Business Automation Workflow to achieve their project and process goals.
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Slide 21
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What is a Playback?
• A Playback is a focused demonstration of a partially implemented
process application, which is delivered to the business and IT
communities for discussion, consensus-building and approval.
▪ Iteration plan defines the set of user stories to be demonstrable
▪ The business users should run the Playback
▪ Each Playback provides validation that the solution is headed in the correct
direction
▪ Fosters business ownership, expectations, and sponsorship of the solution.
▪ Create questions and suggestions that feed into subsequent playbacks.
During a Playback for business stakeholders, users, and development, the process model is
examined at a designated development phase to establish process goals, achieve consensus,
collaboratively improve the process model, and, ultimately, approve the process model. By using
playbacks, you can develop a process application iteratively.
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Slide 22
Playback methodology
• Implementing a Business Process Management program is best
performed in an iterative delivery cycle.
• IBM Business Automation Workflow supports playbacks to verify
requirements often.
• The Business Process Management approach is iterative; you don't implement it once, never
to be touched again. Instead, you design, model, create, simulate, monitor, and optimize your
processes on a regular basis. The feedback that you receive from testing and monitoring your
processes drives continuous improvements to your organization's workflows.
• Iteration of your process is one critical key for BPM success.
• An “iteration” of a Playback allows users to focus on a part of the overall project and validate
it before moving on to the next part.
• Most playbacks allow users to gather requirements, design and build solutions, and then
validate and test them. When the Playback is validated, you move to the next area of focus
until this part of the project is complete.
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Slide 23
Playback cycles
1 – 3 weeks 6 – 8 weeks
Definition Development
Descriptive
and analytical Executable modeling
modeling
0 1 2 3
• Often playbacks are conducted as themed stages. The number of actual collaboration
meetings that are conducted inside of each stage can vary. Usually, multiple smaller
playbacks are conducted and target individual groups with a specialized role (developers,
administrators, and other roles), but these smaller playbacks build upon one another, leading
to a final Playback. During this final Playback, make sure that you reach consensus before
moving into the next stage.
• This slide is an example of a project plan that contains a typical Playback timeline and
content of each of the playbacks. In modeling and implementation, shorter cycles than what
your company might currently be accustomed to are good practices. The agile development
approach with shorter cycles is critical to BPM success. Larger projects are scoped down to
smaller release cycles.
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Slide 24
Playback 0
• Review business requirements & business process
• Define components and code management
• Review non-functional requirements
• Assess process characteristics
• Build Services catalog (50%)
• Assess caching needs
• Define system context
• Assess fit to purpose
• Select technology 0
• Define data model
• Define security approach
• Define naming convention
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Slide 25
Playback 1
• Review process definition
• Finalize logical architecture
• Address technical risk with
Proof of Concept
• Address high availability
• Prepare performance
architecture and test strategy
• Complete Services catalog
(100%)
01
• Document architecture decision
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Slide 26
Playback 2
• Prepare non-functional requirements and performance testing
• Address technical risk with Proof of Concept
• Address any remaining architecture issue
• Technical tradeoff and leadership
• Design reusable logic, services
• Complete architecture decision
• Define Error Handling
• Enforce simplicity
• Ensure sustainable solution 02
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Slide 27
Playback 3
• Non-functional requirements and performance testing
• Develop tracing & logging mechanism
• Technical tradeoff and leadership
• Address infrastructure challenges
• Develop deployment strategy
• Scope tradeoff / estimation
• Design Reporting
• Mentor resources
03
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Slide 28
Playback 0
Playback 0
• Playback zero is an important milestone in a Business Process Management project-
development lifecycle because it is during Playback 0 that a business process is
identified and analyzed as a good candidate for a Business Process Management
project. During Playback 0, the business process is defined, modeled, refined, and
reviewed through discussion, discovery, and process analysis.
• Typically, a process discovery phase also precedes Playback zero that takes two to three
weeks. If the review is complete and the process model is approved, refining the process
requirements can occur during the implementation playbacks, such as Playback One.
Even if your team decides not to proceed with the development of the process, you have
a documented process.
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Slide 29
• Descriptive modeling
• Analytical modeling
Process
modeling
Descriptive
modeling
Playback 0
Analytical
modeling
Functional requirements
Development requirements Executable
Solution implementation modeling
• Going back to the BPM project components, you can see Playback 0 covers Descriptive and
Analytical Modeling. The definition stage of project development focuses primarily on these
modeling efforts. The goal for Playback 0 is that the concerns and achievements at this stage
of project development are iterated until a final solution is reached.
• The process must be discovered before it is modeled as a diagram. That requires sessions
with the business process owner to uncover the particulars of the business process at a high
level. As the process is defined, it is then necessary to start to analyze and create initial
models if possible. Use an incremental approach from the current state to a future state
business process that is accepted and agreed upon as a final “to-be” model.
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Slide 30
Discovery map
Process milestones
Process steps
• The process discovery effort in Playback 0 allows for the capture of the initial process
information that translates into the initial process model.
• It is typically an effort from process owners and BPM team members who want to make sure
that the current state of the business process is documented.
• This documentation can be stored in various tools available to the team, including Blueworks
Live. Blueworks Live has the advantage of providing connectivity to IBM Business
Automation Workflow. With Blueworks Live, the documentation effort maintains a high level of
usage, even beyond process discovery and analysis of the business process.
• Agile software development places a greater value on working code than on comprehensive
documentation. Although documentation is valuable, code that works is more valuable.
Process discovery should attempt to capture the process as quickly and accurately as
possible but should not sacrifice project time to create documentation that does not lead to
the project goals. Capturing and documenting processes inside of a tool like Blueworks Live
and IBM Business Automation Workflow directly contribute to implementing the process.
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Slide 31
Definition
1 - 3 weeks
Descriptive modeling is discovering what you currently have; it is providing visibility. The aim is to
document the “as-is” model, or what you currently do. This action provides the baseline for going
forward.
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Slide 32
Definition
1 - 3 weeks
• The next phase in process modeling and Playback 0 is analytical modeling. The milestones
to get to the final stage in analytical modeling are analysis and the “to-be” model. The “to be”
model is what is implemented in Business Automation Workflow.
• The successful outcome of Playback 0 for a process owner is to have the most efficient and
effective business process that is modeled for continued use in implementation.
• This course does not cover in detail the “how to” for process discovery and analysis. IBM
Cloud Education offers courses on process analysis and methods.
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Slide 33
Playback 0: Iteration
Playback
0 0
Playback 0 has a unique set of achievements during this stage of project development. A BPM
analyst handles Playback 0 when working in concert with the process owner and BPM project
manager. BPM project managers need the data from Playback 0 to plan for the next project
development cycles, or Playback stages..
The strategy that is used to gather Playback 0 data is the iterative phased approach of:
• Capture: Make sure that the business process information is shared fully
• Document: Refine documentation as the analysis continues because there exist more
stakeholders than just the process owner
• Map: Create a discovery map that can clearly define the important information in an
easy-to-read manner
• Refine: Allow for adjustments to a business process to be incrementally made
All requirements in Playback 0 are iterated, including the model that is finalized for validation. It is
typical to encounter scope creep, or a broadening of the requirements to implement during this
iteration. Keep in mind the duration of the iteration and use the backlog to document those
requirements that do not make this iteration.
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Slide 34
Activities
Inputs Outputs
Business data
Task 1
Business data
Task 2
Business data
Task 3
• Analytical modeling allows the process owner and BPM team to identify the business data
that is needed for the process model. In general, business data provides the context of the
process task for each responsible role for task completion. For example, if the business
process is to process an insurance claim, the task verifies the claim, and the business data
provides the claim type, claim number, claim description, and claim submitter.
• When defining the business data for a process model, BPM teams look at the process as a
whole. The question for each activity becomes: “What data does the process require to
complete this task?” In the end, the process analysis produces the “to-be” process model and
a business data model as well.
• Business data is not implemented during Playback 0. Capture the inputs and outputs of
activities or tasks in the documentation. Later in Playback 1, you implement the business
data as part of the process. For now, business data is useful to conceptualize the process
and to determine the following information:
o which activities must be part of the process
o what occurs inside of the activity
o what are the outputs of the activity
o and what input data is necessary for the next activity.
• At the completion of Playback 0, the “To-Be” process model is finalized and you move from
analytical modeling into executable modeling.
36
• You create the “To-Be” model in the exercise at the end of the next unit.
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Slide 35
Unit summary
• Understand the process spectrum
• Define Business Process Management (BPM)
• Define process modeling
• Understand the high-level project phases of a BPM project
• List and describe the phases in the IBM Playback methodology
• Describe Playback 0 and the achievements that are reached at this
stage in the Playback methodology
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Slide 36
Review questions
1. True or False:
The goal of Business Process Management is to optimize the efficiency of
structured processes whereas the goal of Case Management is to provide
flexibility in controlling the flow of the process.
2. A playback is:
A. A focused demonstration of a partially implemented process application
B. A demonstration of the components of Business Automation Workflow
C. An in-depth technical overview of how the solution works
D. Provided only at the end of the project lifecycle
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Slide 37
Review answers
1. True.
2. A: A Playback is a focused demonstration of a partially
implemented process application, which is delivered to the
business and IT communities for discussion, consensus-
building and approval Design, Modeling, Execution, and
Optimization
3. B: At the completion of Playback 0, the “To-Be” process
model is finalized and you move from analytical modeling
into executable modeling.
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