<\/p>\n
This is probably the best question to start with.\u00a0 Just take out a sheet of paper and try and draw your process in a flow chart fashion.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t know anything about formal modeling languages like BPMN (BPMN 1.2, BPMN 2.0).<\/p>\n
Image from ProcessMapper BPM<\/a><\/p>\n BPMN 2.0 Diagram from ProcessMapper<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Image from <\/a>ProcessMapper BPM<\/a>N 2.0 Modeler<\/a><\/p>\n Almost everyone has some innate ability to draw a flowchart.\u00a0 Whether you are old or young, you\u2019ve certainly had to draw some decision diagrams or something similar.\u00a0 So, start by trying to draw your process.\u00a0 Think about the tasks and how they need to flow from one user or system to another.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t a test of your ability to draw a flowchart.\u00a0 By trying to draw your process, you may realize that a) you don\u2019t actually know your process, b) you don\u2019t have a process, or c) your process is not actually a structured process and hence cannot be drawn easily.\u00a0 If any of these are true, then you are certainly not ready for BPM software.\u00a0 Or, it may mean you need a slightly different type of BPM Software (perhaps you need more Case Management than Process Management for instance).\u00a0 However, at the most basic level, you should note that BPM software becomes useful only after you can draw your process \u2013 that\u2019s where the automation part starts.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How frequently does my business run its business process or processes?<\/strong><\/p>\n The general rule in BPM is that BPM Software makes sense when you have a high load of cases (also called instances or tickets).\u00a0 There are very few scenarios where a low volume process justifies the use of\u00a0 BPM Software.\u00a0 If you have a process that you execute a few times a month or a few times a year, the chances are that you do not need a BPMS to automate this process.\u00a0\u00a0 Low volume processes generally do not make good automation candidates.\u00a0 Implementing a BPMS in your business is an investment \u2013 an investment of time and money.\u00a0 So, unless you are going to get a decent Return on your investment (ROI),\u00a0 you should consider implementing a BPMS.\u00a0 If you tell me you want to automate your purchase request process, my first question is going to be \u2013 \u201cgreat, how many times does that process get executed (per day, week, or month).\u201d\u00a0 If you tell me it is only being executed one time per month, then I will immediately be skeptical that you need BPM Software to automate the process.\u00a0 There is little chance your business will derive sufficient ROI from a piece of software that will only be used to manage 12 process cases year.\u00a0 Of course, there are exceptions (for example for very long running processes), but they don\u2019t apply to your average business.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many people are involved in the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you only have a few people touching or acting in the process, then it is also unlikely that BPM Software and process automation will help make your business run better.\u00a0 Workflow is all about coordinating lots of people and positions.\u00a0 There are lots of good \u201ccollaboration\u201d software packages on the market today.\u00a0 And these are great for managing work in small, dynamic groups.\u00a0 Workflow\/BPM software becomes useful when there are lots of users, many of whom probably don\u2019t even know each other.\u00a0 In other words, collaboration and flexibility are not really possible because the workflow is simply too big and too complex and there are too many users.\u00a0 This is when you need workflow automation. \u00a0 Banks don\u2019t generally want unstructured collaborations to guide their credit decisions \u2013 it is simply not practical if you have tens of thousands of employees evaluating hundreds of thousands of credit applications and you want to insure a fair and impartial result.\u00a0 For this type of process, a bank wants to insure it has well defined business rules guiding the process and thereby insuring very predictable results.\u00a0 On the other hand, a company of 20-30 employees will usually prefer to run its internal processes with the aid of collaboration tools.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How often will my process change?<\/strong><\/p>\n If your process is never going to change, then you probably shouldn\u2019t be considering purchasing BPM Software.\u00a0 It will work better and look better if you simply hard code it.\u00a0 The point of BPM software is that it can be changed and adapted relatively easy.\u00a0 But if you never have to change your process, then why pay for having this feature, right?\u00a0 BPM Software is usually very adept at making changes as business rules change.\u00a0 This is a principle reason for purchasing this type of software. But if your process is never going to change, then you might be better off building a hard coded piece of software to manage your process.<\/p>\n 5) Am I looking to automate one process or many processes?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you only want to automate a single process, then my answer to this question will be similar to #4 \u2013 go build the software yourself.\u00a0 BPM software has lots of features built in to maximize flexibility.\u00a0 But flexibility comes at a price both in monetary terms and in terms of design.<\/p>\n The point is that if you have a single process, why compromise?\u00a0 Make your software look exactly the way you want, i.e. build your own solution or go find the solution that does EXACTLY what you want it to do.\u00a0 If you want to automate 30 or 40 processes in a single platform \u2013 then BPM software is the way to go.\u00a0 You get a lot of flexibility and can manage all of these processes in a single platform with BPM Software.\u00a0 However, it is a general life-rule that products with a single purpose work better.\u00a0 Just think about it.\u00a0 The best, most elegantly designed coffee makers only make coffee \u2013 they don\u2019t also make juice and toast.\u00a0 I imagine there are devices that do all three, but they will never do all three functions as well as three different products dedicated to three different functions.\u00a0 (The Spork <\/a>is great if you need a spoon and a fork, but if you really want only a\u00a0 fork then the spork kind of sucks).\u00a0 BPM Software is a multifunctional device.\u00a0 It is great for doing many things well, but it can rarely compete as a best of breed software for doing one thing perfectly.<\/p>\n 6) Do I need a better ability to generate reports and measure my process against my company SLAs & KPIs?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the primary reasons for automating a business process is in order to measure the process.\u00a0 With processes based on paper, excel spreadsheets, or paper it is very difficult to measure the process.\u00a0 Even with \u201ctransactional\u201d systems, it is usually very difficult to measure the process.\u00a0 Most companies want to understand the level of service they are giving and getting in a particular process.\u00a0 Companies want to understand where their bottlenecks are and how long it is taking different users and user groups to perform certain tasks.\u00a0 A good BPM suite will have reports and dashboards available that allow the company to measure SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and track them against explicit goals and performance indicators.\u00a0 Imagine that you are a bank and your process is a credit application process.\u00a0 You suddenly start getting complaints from women located in Boston that their credit check is taking too long.\u00a0 In a good BPM software, you should be able to set a conditional SLA on the activity related to CREDIT CHECK which specifically measures how long this task is taking given the condition SEX = FEMALE and LOCATION = BOSTON.\u00a0 If you determine that this activity should not exceed 4 hours, you should then be able to generate a report or an alert that clearly identifies when this SLA is not being met.\u00a0 In the report, you should then be able to drill down case by case to see what happened and identify patterns that are causing the SLA not to be met.<\/p>\n Setting Service Level Agreements in ProcessMaker<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SLA Monitor Feature in ProcessMaker<\/p>\n 7) Are there parts of the process where I wish I could change the routing of my process based on its performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n BPM software should allow you to easily escalate and redirect cases that are not being handled in a timely manner.\u00a0 With the information that we gathered thanks to the reporting in point #6, we can then take advantage of another BPM Software characteristic \u2013 the ability to reroute cases more efficiently.\u00a0 In my example above, we can now go a step further.\u00a0 If applications from FEMALES in BOSTON are not getting through the task CREDIT CHECK in 4 hours, then we should escalate these cases to a manager (TIMER BOUNDARY EVENT) or reroute them to a colleague.\u00a0 Maybe the problem was as simple as an official going on vacation and the case load not being redirected appropriately.\u00a0 If our business needs to adjust this quickly to changes in the overall performance of the process, then this is another good reason to start shopping for a BPM Software.\u00a0\u00a0 Ideally, we should be able to \u201cset and forget\u201d so that the business runs more smoothly.<\/p>\n I hope that these questions help you better analyze if BPM Software is the solution to your business problems.\u00a0 After reading these 7 questions, are you still convinced that you need BPM Software for your business? Yes?\u00a0 Well, then wait for my next blog \u2013 \u201cYour Business Needs BPM Software \u2013 7 Questions to Ask BEFORE you Buy.\u201d\u00a0 In this blog I\u2019m not going to try and convince you which BPMS is the right one to buy.\u00a0 In this blog I want to take two steps back and first help you analyze whether or not you should even be shopping for a BPMS.\u00a0 Time is money, and I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t have time\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/processmakerblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/bpmn-diagram.png?resize=300%2C176\" "\\"bpmn")
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