Business Process Modelling: The BCS Approach

Key ideas#

Functional view vs. process view#

An org chart shows departments and reporting lines. It is static, inward-looking, and hides how work really moves. A process view shows how work flows across departments to satisfy a customer (an order passing through sales, warehouse and delivery, for instance) and makes the need for cooperation visible.

The organizational context#

Harmon’s organization model places the organization’s processes in their environment: suppliers (of materials, money, people and ideas), beneficiaries (customers, but also owners, whose expectations may conflict with customers’), competitors (for customers, funding and staff) and general factors similar to PESTLE.

A process map is the top-level set of processes, each shown as a black box with inputs and outputs, and how they depend on one another. A process model is a detailed view of one process. To build the map, start with the core process, then add the processes that feed it, those that deliver to the customer, and sales, marketing and service. Porter’s value chain helps structure it: primary activities (inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, service) and support activities (infrastructure, HR, technology development, procurement). Start with operations.

Value propositions, a concept the book takes from Kaplan and Norton, explain why customers choose you: product attributes (function, price, quality, choice, availability), the customer relationship, and image. Organizations typically differentiate through operational efficiency, product leadership or customer service. Knowing which applies tells you where process improvement creates the value the organization promises.

Swimlane diagrams#

Use UML activity diagram or BPMN notation. Draw one lane per actor (a person, team or IT system), with the customer lane traditionally at the top; time runs left to right. Start with a named event and end with a bullseye. Decisions are diamonds, with guard conditions in square brackets on the outgoing arrows. Name tasks verb–noun and avoid vague verbs such as “manage” or “process”.

The book uses three levels of detail: a process (everything from trigger to outcome), a task (one activity by one actor at one time, the unit on the diagram) and a step (detail inside a task, usually written as text).

Handoffs#

Every handoff, where work passes from one actor to another, is a likely source of queues, delays and miscommunication. The BCS authors observe that in a typical as-is process a transaction spends most of its time waiting, often more than 80%. Common causes: unsynchronized work, too little capacity (pushing utilization up when work arrives randomly makes queues longer), and re-keying data between systems. Inherited processes also suffer from duplicated work, inconsistent practices across sites, and inconsistent measures.

Ways to improve a process#

Simplify: remove steps, or combine tasks done by different actors.
Remove bottlenecks: if one task handles 100 items an hour and the next only 90, work piles up.
Change the sequence: many sequences date from paper files that only one person could hold; electronic work allows parallel tasks.
Redesign from scratch: from trigger to required outcome, ignoring the current process.
Move the boundary: outsource, or let customers serve themselves online.

Measuring processes#

Use internal measures (from objectives, critical success factors and KPIs) and external measures (what the customer expects in time, cost and quality). Internal task targets must add up to the external expectation. Targets also change behavior, sometimes for the worse: sales staff chasing volume may discount too deeply. That is suboptimization: a local gain that hurts the whole.

Six Sigma and DMAIC#

Six Sigma was developed at Motorola in the 1980s from statistical process control. It aims to eliminate defects in processes that matter to customers, targeting no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Its cycle, DMAIC: - Define the problem, its scope and the goal. - Measure: identify symptoms, map the process, focus on the most damaging symptoms. - Analyze: test theories and find root causes. - Improve: evaluate options, then design, test and implement the best one. - Control: monitor the new process.

How to apply it#

Draw the process map and mark the process in scope.
Agree the value proposition and the external measures with the business.
Model the as-is swimlane and mark every handoff.
Estimate waiting time versus working time at each handoff.
Apply the improvement options and draw the to-be swimlane.
Set internal targets that add up to the external one.

Example#

The Workshop, a fictional chain of bike-repair workshops, models “book repair → return bike”. Lanes: customer, front desk, mechanic, parts supplier. As-is: the customer phones; the front desk writes in a diary; the mechanic diagnoses on arrival; if parts are missing, the mechanic tells the front desk, which phones the supplier; parts arrive; the mechanic repairs; the front desk phones the customer.

There are five handoffs, and the bike waits at three of them. Internal targets (one day to diagnose, two for parts, one to repair) add up to four working days, but customers expect three. In the to-be process, customers book online and describe the problem, the mechanic orders parts in the supplier’s portal at diagnosis, and the system notifies the customer automatically. Two handoffs disappear, and the targets are reset to fit three days.

Pitfalls#

Modeling the org chart → follow the work across departments.
Measuring only internal efficiency → check against what the customer expects.
Vague task names → use specific verb–noun names.

Sources and further reading#

D. Paul, D. Yeates, J. Cadle (eds.). Business Analysis, 2nd ed. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 2010, ch. 8 “Modelling Business Processes” (presents Harmon’s organization model, Porter’s value chain, Kaplan and Norton’s value propositions, and Six Sigma).