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How to Make a Business Process Model

Last Updated: May 8, 2023

This article was co-authored by Chris McTigrit, MBA . Chris McTigrit is an Accounting Professional. Chris has over 20 years of accounting experience including working for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. He received his MBA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2007. This article has been viewed 78,970 times.

Business process modeling, also called simply process modeling, is a method of illustrating a business's processes so that they can be easily understood and improved upon. Process modeling is a key part of business process management (BPM) and often uses a specific type of organization known as business process modeling notation (BPMN), which resembles a flow chart. Business managers often use process modeling to make improvements to a business process, starting with an "as-is" model, which shows the current process, and working towards a "to-be" model, which represent a more efficient version of the original process. [1] X Research source While this process may sound complicated, building out your own business process model is simple if you follow the right steps.

Preparing to Make the Model

Step 1 Define the process you are modeling.

  • Make sure you choose a process in your business operation that has a clear starting point and output.
  • For example, you might model the process of receiving an online order and checking whether or not the customer has the money to pay for it and if the item is in stock.

Step 2 Identify the starting point of the process.

  • External events. These include the initiation of a transaction or a transmitted alert from another business system. For example, a problem in automated system that requires human attention is an external event.
  • Content arrival. For content management systems, the starting point might be the arrival of a new document or other form of content.
  • Human intervention. This includes customer complaints and other human intervention within or outside of the business.
  • For the previous example, the starting point is the receipt of a customer order.

Step 3 Separate the different steps in the process.

  • In traditional business process modeling notation (BPMN), the steps are represented by different shapes depending on their function. Events are circles, activities are rectangles, and decision gateways are diamonds. [3] X Research source
  • Connectors can either be solid arrows (activity flow), or dashed (message/information flow).
  • For the previous example, we would use steps such as "customer order" (an event), "process order" (an activity), "Check credit" (an action), "Credit?" (a decision gateway that leads to one of two other actions, depending on a "yes" or "no" determination), and so on.

Step 4 Clarify who or what performs each step.

  • Pools may be further divided into "lanes," which give more specific information about who's responsible for that step.
  • For the step "Check credit" in the previous example, you might write that the action is performed by the business's online retail platform, for instance.

Step 5 Decide which type of modeling to use.

  • These models usually work best with group input, so you may be better off using the type of modeling that can be worked on most easily by the group.

Creating an As-Is Model

Step 1 Make sure you can rearrange parts as needed.

  • Customer order (event) to process order (an activity) to check credit (an activity) to credit? (a decision gateway).
  • If the customer's credit doesn't check out, you would move to the step contact the customer (activity), labeling the arrow between the steps with a "no" label. Then, you would move to cancel the order (activity).
  • If the customer's credit checks out (a "yes" response), you would move on to check stock (activity) and connect the steps with an arrow labeled "yes." Then, you would check the stock in the decision gateway labeled as "stock?".
  • If the item is in stock, label the arrow "yes" as before and send the order to shipping (an activity).
  • If the item is not in stock, you would move to contact the customer and cancel the order (both activities).

Step 3 Check your model.

  • For the previous example, you may realize that the process fails to let customers know that the item may be back in stock soon. This cancels the order that could otherwise be fulfilled within a number of days.

Designing the To-Be Model

Step 1 Brainstorm improvements to the as-is model.

  • Informational: measuring more data regarding the process to find issues.
  • Sequential: rearranging steps.
  • Tracking: helps you monitor process progress.
  • Analytical: improves decision-making at decision gateways.
  • For the previous example, you could think about implementing a system for checking when an out-of-stock item will be back in stock and alerting the customer to an estimated delivery time.

Step 2 Identify how improvements will help the business or the customer.

Expert Q&A

Chris McTigrit, MBA

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Measure Process Improvement

  • ↑ http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/business-process-modeling
  • ↑ http://www.businessballs.com/business-process-modelling.htm#sequence-in-BPM
  • ↑ http://creately.com/blog/diagrams/business-process-modeling-techniques/
  • ↑ http://www.sparxsystems.com/business_process_model.html

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Business Process Modeling: Definition, Benefits, and Examples

You are Here : Process Software >> Business Process Modeling

business_process_model_and_notation_bpmn_

In today's complex business world, CIOs use technology as a key tool to improve how a company works. One important tool they use is Business Process Modeling.

Even though Business Process Modeling isn't a new idea, it's still a game-changer. As CIOs push for new IT initiatives that match wider business goals, they know that the key to better productivity is seeing, studying, and improving the detailed processes that make their organizations run.

So, what is Business Process Modeling, and why do you need it? This guide will look at Business Process Modeling from a CIO's perspective. We'll explain what it is, how it works, and how it can transform business productivity and efficiency. Just like a CIO uses technology to achieve strategic success, business process modeling acts as a roadmap, leading businesses towards a future of efficient processes, improved teamwork, and excellent performance.

Table of Content

  • What is Business Process Modeling?

Why Use Business Process Modeling?

Business process modeling techniques.

  • What Do I Need in a Process Modeling Software

What is Business Process Modeling (BPM)?

Business process modeling   (or) process modeling, is the analytical representation or put simply an illustration of an organization’s business processes. Modeling processes is a critical component for effective  business process management .

Process modeling software gives an analytical representation of 'as-is' processes in an organization and contrasts it with 'to-be' processes for making them more efficient.

Many business process modeling tools end up producing something like this:

business_process_modelling_diagram-1

Get rid of redundancies through effortless process design.

Your first step in modeling is actually pen and paper. However, to actually run a   business process , you will need to digitize that process in a way that a workflow engine can understand.

Business process modeling software   allow you to represent your process in a digital way that can then be transferred to a live automated process.

There are many benefits to business process modeling:

  • Gives everyone a clear understanding of how the process works
  • Provides consistency and controls the process
  • Identifies and eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies
  • Sets a clear starting and ending to the process

Business process modeling   can also help you group similar processes together and anticipate how they should operate. The primary objective of business process modeling tools is to analyze how things are right now and simulate how should they be carried out to achieve better results.

Kissflow, our   BPM Software , Streamline your business with superpowered processes.

Business process modeling can be expressed through flowcharts, programs, hypertext, or scripts. There isn’t just one way to implement business process modeling; in fact, you can choose from   as many as 12 techniques.

Here are some of the most common business process modeling techniques:

1. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

BPMN 2.0 has become something of a standard syntax used by process analysts and those who create business modeling tools. It is a relatively simple usage of lines, arrows, and geometric shapes that all communicate the flow and nuances of the process. A process consultant can look at a BPMN 2.0 model and know exactly how it should function.

“Eventually, when [those] companies get their products shipping and crank up their marketing machines,  BPMN  will be the unquestioned standard for process modeling and execution. But right now, we are still between the news and the reality.” - Bruce Silver, Process Consultant and Author of the book BPMN Method and Style

However, BPMN 2.0 is still a learned language, and although relatively simple, isn’t immediately intuitive for the regular business user. It is a great tool for process consultants, but not helpful for those looking to create their own applications.

2. Universal Process Notation

Instead of having a new language to learn, a more intuitive system is   Universal Process Notation   or UPN.

UPN provides a simple box for each task to be completed. The box shows what happens, who is assigned to it, and when it happens in the sequence. It is extremely useful for IT to design and analyze processes, for management to comply to business norms, and - more importantly - for end business users to understand processes as intended. Kissflow uses UPN in its modeler.

3. Flowchart Technique

flowchart_technique

Flowcharts explain complex process flows in a simple yet effective way. They illustrates process steps in their sequential order, going from inputs to actual process to outputs. In fact, flowcharts provide the basic framework for BPMN to display advanced process flows.

Kissflow, our   process tracking software , can help your business stay constantly aware of every last business process.

4. Gantt Charts

Rather than showing the steps sequentially, Gantt charts are able to show the entire process using ‘time taken’ as one of the main axes. It does a better job of showing the overall time taken to complete a project than other options.

5. Petri-Nets

Traditionally a modeling technique in mathematics, petri-nets are also useful for modeling business processes. Petri-nets classify or color-code complex workflow steps, users, and routes in different colors.

What Do I Need in a Process Modeling Software?

Most   BPM Suites   include business process modeling tools in them. However, some have the modeler as a separate application.

The modeler is one of the most important elements in a BPMS , and you should spend a lot of time learning it before committing to buy a suite.

Great business modeling tools should:

  • Be easy to learn for the business departments
  • Be simple for IT teams to communicate with other departments
  • Be inexpensive and industry compliant
  • Have an integrated workflow editor tool with graphic interface
  • Be able to simulate workflow before implementing

Learn more about process modelers .

Check out why these   6 BPM Software   are at the top of the competition!

The Challenge:

RENU Contracting and Restoration grappled with unreliable manual processes, difficulty managing complex tasks, and inefficient tracking of process issues. They needed a solution to transform their operations, increase productivity, and ensure accountability.

The Solution:

Michael Casamento, Director of Process and Procedure at RENU, discovered Kissflow during a web search. Impressed by its features, ease of use, and value for money, he implemented it. RENU began building workflows for check requests and merchandise returns. The success of these implementations led to the automation of other operations, such as claims processing, debit memo processing, and maintenance requests.

The Outcome:

Kissflow has become essential for managing many of RENU's critical processes. The company has experienced enhanced productivity, time-saving in process creation, increased accountability, minimal development time, and improved end-to-end trackability of processes. Michael praises Kissflow for its well-designed user interface and responsiveness to community input. Integrations with other apps via Zapier have further improved operations. Now, RENU looks forward to building an on/off-boarding process using Kissflow.

Utilizing a platform like Kissflow for business process modeling can be a game-changer for businesses. It allows organizations to visualize, analyze, and optimize their workflows in a user-friendly interface. 

This not only enhances productivity but also fosters improved collaboration and operational excellence. With its comprehensive and intuitive tools, Kissflow empowers CIOs and other business leaders to seamlessly align IT initiatives with broader business objectives, paving the way for strategic success in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and business.

You may also like:

  • BPM Definition [A complete BPM Guide]
  • What is BPMS? How Can It Help Your Organization?
  • Business Process Management Software
  • 10 Steps to a Successful Business Process Documentation
  • BPM Systems – The Best one MUST (will) have these 10 features
  • How To Make Simple & Effective Business Process.

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Business process modeling gives organizations a simple way to understand and optimize workflows by creating data-driven visual representations of key business processes.

Most enterprises have a pretty good idea of the various business processes powering their daily operations. However, when they need to ensure that those processes consistently drive optimal outcomes, “a pretty good idea” isn’t enough.

If an organization wants research and development (R&D) investments to produce sufficient returns, IT issues resolved with minimal downtime or a highly accurate lead qualification workflow, it needs to understand these processes on an objective and comprehensive level. Even the business users directly involved in these processes may lack total transparency into exactly what happens at every step of the way.

Business analysts can gain end-to-end views of the business process lifecycle through business process modeling , a business process management (BPM) technique that creates data-driven visualizations of workflows. These process models help organizations document workflows, surface key metrics, pinpoint potential problems and intelligently automate processes.

What is business process modeling?

A business process model is a graphical representation of a business process or workflow and its related sub-processes. Process modeling generates comprehensive, quantitative activity diagrams and flowcharts containing critical insights into the functioning of a given process, including the following:

  • Events and activities that occur within a workflow
  • Who owns or initiates those events and activities
  • Decision points and the different paths workflows can take based on their outcomes
  • Devices involved in the process
  • Timelines of the overall process and each step in the process
  • Success and failure rates of the process

Key aspects of business process modeling

  • Process models are not made manually. Rather, they are produced by data-mining algorithms that use the data contained within event logs to construct models of the workflows as they exist.
  • Because process models are based on quantitative data, they offer genuinely objective views of workflows as they exist in practice, including key data, metrics or events that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. For example, by creating a model of its new account creation process, a software company might discover that a significant number of customers are abandoning the sign-up process because it takes too long. A model could even help the company pinpoint the exact stage at which these drop-offs occur.
  • Arrows represent sequence flows
  • Diamonds represent decision points or gateways
  • Ovals represent beginnings and endpoints of processes
  • Rectangles represent specific activities within a workflow
  • Swimlanes are used to identify who owns which components of a process
  • Business process models shouldn’t be confused with process maps , another common type of business process diagram. Process maps are based on employee reports, are created manually and provide higher-level views of workflows. Process models are data-driven deep dives that present more objective views of workflows.

Learn more by reading “Process Mining vs. Process Modeling vs. Process Mapping: What’s the Difference?”

How business process models are made

To fully understand business process modeling techniques, one must first understand the relevant business process modeling tools — event logs and process mining .

Most enterprise IT systems maintain event logs . These event logs are digital records that automatically track state changes and activities (i.e., “events”) within the system. Anything that happens within a system can be an event. The following are some common event examples:

  • A user logs in
  • A user updates a record
  • A user submits a form
  • Information is transferred between systems

Event logs track both the occurrence of events and information surrounding these events, like the device performing an activity and how long the activity takes. Event logs act as the inputs during the production of process models.

Process mining is the application of a data-mining algorithm to all of this event log data. The algorithm identifies trends in the data and uses the results of its analysis to generate a visual representation of the process flow within the system. This visual representation is the process model . Depending on the process targeted for modeling, process-mining algorithms can be applied to a single system, multiple systems or entire technological ecosystems and departments.

Business process modeling use cases

Process models offer unprecedented levels of transparency into company workflows, making them a key business process management tool. While process models can be leveraged in any scenario that requires analyzing business processes, these are some of the most common use cases:

Gaining 360-degree insight into processes

A single process model can contain a wealth of workflow data, allowing team members to analyze a workflow from multiple perspectives. Business analysts often use business process modeling to zero in on the following workflow components in particular:

  • Control flow: “Control flow” refers to the order in which steps and commands are executed within a process. A process model depicts a flowchart of a given process so that a team can clearly see what steps are taken and when. This perspective also helps the team identify any dependencies between steps.
  • Organization: A process model can capture who is involved in a process — including people, teams, systems and devices — and how they interact with each other. This perspective illuminates the connections between people and systems that form the organizational social network. In this way, a process model offers insight into how various components of a business function together.
  • Time: A process model can record how long a process takes, overall, and how long each step takes, allowing the team to identify delays, slowdowns and bottlenecks within the workflow.
  • Case: A process model can offer a general view of how a given workflow typically plays out, or it can reflect a particular case – or instance – of a workflow. Teams often use this case perspective to analyze anomalous process outcomes. For example, if a specific instance of a workflow results in lower-than-average outcome quality, teams can isolate exactly what went wrong.

Optimizing and standardizing processes

Process models accurately reflect existing workflow inefficiencies, making it easier to identify opportunities for process optimization. Once workflows have been optimized, businesses can use process modeling to standardize workflows across the entire enterprise. The model acts as a template for how processes should play out, ensuring that every team and employee approaches the same process in the same way. This leads to more predictable workflows and outcomes overall.

Assessing new processes

Process models can take the guesswork out of implementing and evaluating new business processes. By creating a model of a new process, business users can get a real-time look at how that workflow is performing, allowing them to make adjustments as necessary to achieve process optimization.

Analyzing resource usage

Process models can help companies track whether money and resource investments produce suitable returns. For example, by creating a model of the standard sales process, an organization can see how sales representatives are utilizing the tools and systems at their disposal. It may turn out that a certain tool is used much less frequently than anticipated, in which case, the organization can choose to disinvest from the tool and spend that money on a solution the sales team actually uses.

Communicating processes

Process models transform complex processes into concrete images, making it easier to disseminate and discuss processes throughout the organization. For example, if one department has a particularly efficient process for troubleshooting technical problems, the business can create a model of this process to guide implementation on an organization-wide scale. 

The benefits of business process modeling

Business process modeling arms an enterprise with objective business intelligence that supports more informed decisions for resource allocation, process improvement and overall business strategy. With a clear view of processes, enterprise teams can ensure that workflows always drive the desired results. As a result, operating costs are lower, revenue is higher and business outcomes are stronger.

Specifically, business process modeling allows companies to do the following:

  • Access and utilize quantitative process data: Without a process model, teams are limited to discussing and analyzing workflows in qualitative and subjective terms. As a result, teams may not accurately understand their workflows; they may make business decisions based on misunderstandings, assumptions and/or incomplete knowledge. With process modeling, teams have access to quantitative workflow data, including success rates and error rates, allowing for a more rigorous analysis of business processes.
  • Streamline and accelerate process automation: Before a process can be automated, an organization needs a clear understanding of how that process plays out in reality, including the business logic underpinning each decision point. A process model illuminates both the way a workflow unfolds and the relationships between events, actors, tools and systems within and between processes. This viewpoint helps a team document the process itself and the business rules that guide its execution. This information makes it easier to effectively automate workflows the first time.
  • Keep operation costs down: Process models provide organizations with an easy way to identify opportunities to optimize existing processes. This makes it easier for the company to ensure that processes consistently produce the desired outcomes. As a result, business processes require less investment to maintain and generate positive outcomes at a lower cost.

Business process modeling and IBM

Process modeling forms a cornerstone of any automation effort or business process management initiative. Without comprehensive views of existing processes and their undergirding business logic, enterprises cannot effectively optimize and automate workflows at scale.

Take the next step:

IBM Blueworks Live is a cloud-based business process modeling software designed to help organizations discover business processes and document them in a collaborative fashion across multiple stakeholder groups. Teams can work together through an intuitive and accessible web interface to document and analyze processes. No download required.

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The complete guide to business process modeling (BPM)

how to create a business process model

If you’ve been in business for a while, then you understand the importance of your processes. Your profitability is completely tied to your ability to design, manage, and optimize your business processes and operations.

Sadly, many business owners never take the time to actually map and model their processes in a visual way, leading to a lack of understanding of their own business. In this blog, we’ll take you through why business process modeling is essential for modern organizations and how to implement it today. Let’s start with the basics.

What is business process modeling?

First, we need to make sure we’re all in sync about what a process is.

A business process  is the logical sequence of events that lead to a particular outcome relevant to your organization. A process includes all the activities or tasks in a chain of events that accomplishes something. Some examples of common business processes are issuing purchase orders, product assembly, shipping products,  invoicing clients , and estimating project costs.

Business process modeling is the practice of back-engineering each process in your business to understand the different components needed to achieve the goal and finding potential improvements for each component.

It’s a business analysis and continuous improvement discipline that helps you maximize any process through critical examination. For example, a typical business process model might look something like this:

( Image Source )

Though the above is only one example, there are other popular techniques for business process modeling. We’ll discuss some of these techniques more in-depth a bit later, but first, we’ll look into how process modeling can impact your company.

Benefits of business process modeling

As organizations evolve, so do their processes. We live in a hyper-accelerated world where businesses face massive changes almost overnight. If you don’t have a strategy in place to adapt to this constantly changing environment, your organization won’t survive for long. Cultivating a culture of learning and innovation within your organization is paramount. This fosters an environment that not only adapts to change but also anticipates it, staying one step ahead of industry dynamics.

In short, if you don’t model your processes, you’ll never know whether you’re operating at your best, and you’ll miss out on huge opportunities.

Some key benefits of process modeling are:

  • Better alignment:  align your activities with the core goals of your business
  • More control:  improve the way you control your activities and resources
  • Better productivity:  maximize your time and focus on what really matters
  • Improve your bottom line:  reduce inefficiencies, costs, and bottlenecks
  • Produce better products and services:  build more efficient production processes that delight your customers

A solid process model isn’t just a drawing or visual representation of your process—you’ll need other elements to really get the most out of this strategy.

8 critical elements of business process modeling

Diagrams —like the example we saw above—are just one of the many elements involved. To fully model a process, you must create a document with the following elements:

  • Scope statement:  a relevant description of the process name, as well as when the process starts and ends
  • Outcome:  a definition of the desired outcome of the process
  • Description:  a step-by-step walkthrough of the process description (i.e., the different steps that need to be executed to achieve the desired outcome)
  • Exceptions and variations:  a description of potential alternative process paths based on conditional data or action triggers
  • Entry criteria and inputs:  the elements you must have in place to execute the business process
  • Exit criteria and output:  what must be true once the process is completed
  • Dependencies:  a description of any other process or activity that’s dependent on this one
  • Process flow diagram:  a visual representation of the business process and its components

By documenting the entire process using these elements, you’ll have a clearer idea of where to start, as well as be able to communicate your full plan to your team and stakeholders.

It’s important to remember that business process models should include both visual and textual information to analyze each process at a more granular level. With that said, let’s look at some examples.

What are 5 business process modeling techniques?

Now that you understand the elements of a business model, let’s examine how can you represent your processes visually, starting with these five techniques:

  • BPMN diagram
  • UML diagram
  • Gantt chart
  • PERT diagram

1. Business process modeling notation (BPMN) diagram

BPMN stands for Business Process Modeling Notation, and it’s a technique that helps you represent your processes in a visual manner through 100+ proprietary objects.

Some of these objects include:

  • Process flow object:  represents the sequence flow and execution of tasks
  • Pool:  represents process participants
  • Swimlane:  define sub-groups and divisions within pools
  • Data object:  represents information flowing through the process
  • Artifacts:  used to define how tasks and activities are organized

BPMN provides you with clear specifications for each diagram. By having a unified strategy or “language” to model your processes, you can make sure everyone is on the same page.

The example we shared earlier is a fairly simple business model diagram. Here’s an example of a more complex one:

Complex BPMN diagram of a research process

2. Flowchart

Flowcharts are one of the simplest and most widely-used techniques for process modeling. As the name suggests, flowcharts help you map out the sequence flow of activities you need to perform to complete a specific process.

In a flowchart, you should represent each step in the process with a shape. Then, you should connect those shapes with lines or arrows to indicate the logical progression of each step.

Here’s a simple process model example:

As you can see, flowcharts can use different process diagram shapes to represent different stages of the process. In the example above, we have two different shapes:

  • Rectangle:  represents start and end points
  • Diamond:  represents specific activities

In practice, you can use many different shapes to represent the different components of your processes — especially when you’re dealing with a complex process.

Flowcharts are simple yet powerful tools to communicate a business process in a way everyone can understand.

3. UML diagram

Communicating the value of software design isn’t always easy, especially when you’re dealing with a non-technical audience.

This is where UML comes in handy.

UML stands for Unified Modeling Language. It’s a modeling technique that helps you describe the elements that make up a specific software system and how such elements interact with each other.

UML involves different types of diagrams, which can be broken down into 2 main categories: structural diagrams and behavioral diagrams.

Structural diagrams represent the structure of a system. That is, the different elements and objects that make up the software. Some of the most popular structural diagrams include:

  • Class diagram:  mainly used for data modeling in a system
  • Component diagram:  describes the physical structure of the system in question
  • Deployment diagram:  describes the execution strategy and structure of the system

Behavioral diagrams, on the other hand, focus on the relationship between the objects in a system — how the different objects interact with each other to achieve a particular goal. A few common behavioral diagrams are:

  • Use case diagram:  describe the possible interactions between user and system
  • Activity diagram :  graphical representation of a user’s activities and actions when using a system
  • State machine diagram:  represent the behavior of an object within a system

4. Gantt charts

Gantt charts are used to plan a project’s schedule against tasks and dependencies on a horizontal bar chart.

Setting up a Gantt chart is easy on monday.com because you have access to a built-in Gantt View and a widget for your project dashboard . You can also make changes to tasks directly in the Gantt View.

5. PERT diagrams

Similar to Gantt charts, PERT, or Program Evaluation and Review Technique, is a framework to map out task dependencies and estimations for a project’s duration.

This type of flowchart is useful for the early stages of planning when sorting through how all the pieces go together.

Example PERT flowchart for a fictional project.

Let’s pause quickly; we’ve already covered the importance of business process modeling, as well as some of the most common techniques for visual process representation.

But if you want to achieve the highest level of performance in every one of your processes, you need the right system — a system that helps you centralize all your workflows onto a single place and can automate repetitive activities.

Business modeling processes and monday.com — how to

monday.com is a powerful Work OS that helps you build a custom digital workspace for any type of process, regardless of its complexity. To show you how it works, let’s follow a four-step process to model, manage, and improve your processes and operations.

1. Streamline the process

To improve any existing process, you must break it down into components. Consider what you need to achieve the goal. With the answer to that question in mind, you then need to prioritize those activities based on the impact they make on your bottom line.

Once you organize your activities in a progressive order, coordinate the execution with your team. You may also want to identify which activities can be automated and how.

To achieve all this, you need a flexible system that adapts to your needs and helps you streamline your processes. With monday.com Work OS, you can access fully customizable, pre-built templates to structure different processes in various industries, including:

  • Advanced Project Management Template
  • CRM Template
  • Recruitment and Onboarding Template
  • Social Media Planner Template

You can explore our complete list of templates in our  Templates Center . We also provide you with over 250,000 automations, so you can speed up your operations and improve your productivity. A few tasks you can easily automate include:

  • Recurring activities
  • Notifications
  • Item creation
  • Dependencies
  • Integration recipes

For more on monday.com Work OS automations, watch this short video below:

Finally, monday.com helps you centralize your entire organization into a single workplace, which makes it easier for you to streamline your workflows and improve your processes. You can create or add documents, files, automations, various views, data, and more all from monday.com Work OS.

2. Implement

Once you’ve defined your processes, it’s time to implement them. Start with a platform that allows you to collaborate with your entire team, remove silos between departments, and track progress with ease.

For instance, on monday.com Work OS, you can invite your entire team from the start and access powerful collaboration tools to improve your communication, including:

  • File sharing
  • Instant-messaging
  • Video conferencing

For instance, you can click any of your items on your boards and add context to each task in real-time. This way, you can brainstorm ideas, get direct feedback from your peers, and improve your operations much faster.

monday.com's collaboration features in action

From task management to resource allocation, you can structure and manage all your business processes more efficiently.

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. That’s why you need a system that helps you monitor all the information that’s important to you and analyze your progress.

Access powerful reporting dashboards that help you track everything from revenue to productivity, time, sales, tasks, performance, and more on monday.com.

monday.com's reporting dashboards in action

Dashboards make it easy to understand the overall performance of your processes and optimize accordingly. The best part? These dashboards are fully customizable, and you can adapt them to your exact needs.

4. Optimize

Finally, you should schedule a meeting with your team to analyze the data you collected in the last step and brainstorm how to improve current process. Consider asking:

  • Where are the major bottlenecks?
  • Is the team working productively?
  • Are you using your resources wisely?
  • Where are your biggest revenue leaks?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to spot major issues in your processes before they start snowballing and fix them fast. Since monday.com Work OS is fully customizable, optimizing and adapting your processes to your new process ideas is completely feasible for any type of organization.

monday.com's drag-and-drop features in action

Frequently asked questions

What are the four phases of business process modeling lifecycle or bpm, what are the basic elements of bpmn.

Four elements of BPMN are flow objects, connecting objects, swimlanes, and data.

Ready to improve your business processes?

Hopefully, now you have enough understanding of the overall process, as well as why it’s crucial for the success of your business. And if you’re looking for a platform that helps you optimize each of your processes with surgical precision, then monday.com Work OS may be a great fit for you.

To see for yourself, we suggest you start with our  Advanced Project Management Template . It’ll help you get your business process modeling off to a great start.

how to create a business process model

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BPMN Tutorial: Quick-Start Guide to Business Process Model and Notation

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Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN) is like a flow chart on steroids.

It’s the one true way to graphically map your processes and is a globally-recognized, standardized method. In other words, it’s information any business looking to draw reliable process maps needs to know.

When you map your processes (especially with a standardized method like BPMN), you start being able to:

  • Get a clear vision of exactly how everything in your business works
  • Save time by eliminating unnecessary tasks
  • Reduce the rate your employees forget, overlook, or wrongly execute work

So, what exactly is it?

I compared it to a flow chart but much more than that: it has the functionality for representing things like information moving between teams, data being stored on the cloud, and departments working in parallel on the same process.

Although, at its simplest, a process map drawn with BPMN looks like this:

how to create a business process model

BPMN makes it easy to understand the flow without actually understanding the exact symbols because it’s a simple, intuitive method.

It has been under active development since 2004, and is now widely accepted as the  way to draw process maps. That’s because:

  • It’s simple and easy to understand at a glance
  • It’s precise, with a wide range of symbols to cover every use case
  • It’s designed to model both human-centric and IT processes with equal accuracy

The main scope of BPMN, as described by Trisotech :

“It provides businesses, with the capability of understanding their internal business procedures in a graphical notation, and gives organizations the ability to communicate these procedures, in a standard manner”

On the scope of this BPMN tutorial:

If you’re going to take a stab at mapping your business processes but don’t know where to start with transferring the rough notes and sketches into maps anyone can use, this is the article for you. It will get you acquainted with the basic concepts, and also give you references to deeper documentation you can use if you need it.

Overall, this guide will work as a standalone for the majority of uses cases startups and small businesses face .

The history of BPMN

Business Process Model and Notation was originally developed under another name in 2000 by the Business Process Management Initiative — a non-profit organization founded by industry BPM leaders from companies like Ernst & Young and Versata.

The aim was to standardize how processes were visually represented, and that aim has been carried on since 2004 by Object Management Group — a NFP technology standards consortium, snappily abbreviated as OMG .

how to create a business process model

As businesses change — and IT becomes more vital — OMG keep BPMN updated, and able to handle new kinds of processes. At the time of writing, we’re on BPMN 2.0, which defines more symbols and map types to represent the real ways modern organizations get work done.

Learning BPMN

Learning BPMN is similar to learning a programming language; while you can read overviews and short quick-start guides or watch video tutorials, the best thing you can do to get to grips is make sure you understand the basics, then start mapping out your business processes while reading the documentation whenever you’re not sure how to represent something .

Understanding lanes and pools

The canvas for a map drawn with BPMN consists of lanes and pools.

how to create a business process model

Pools represent different organizations or entirely separate processes. Lanes represent different teams or individuals within the same organization.

Pools are the biggest unit on a map: they’re the areas that contain lanes, events, tasks, etc. They represent  who is doing the task. If we were to map our customer support process, there’d be one pool for Process Street and one pool for the customer. Work can flow between pools, signifying something like sending the customer a message.

The exact usage of pools and lanes can be a matter of taste. Whether you use separate pools to represent different departments in your company or just opt to use lanes, there are some hard and fast rules:

  • Each pool can contain a maximum of one process
  • Pools represent participants: companies, customers, or departments

Often, processes need two or more departments to interact with each other. For example, a simple order fulfillment process might look like this:

  • Customer places order over the telephone with credit card
  • Order clerk charges credit card
  • Clerk notes down SKU and customer details
  • Clerk emails SKU and details to the warehouse
  • Item is packaged up with label
  • Shipping mail it to the customer

Or, in BPMN:

how to create a business process model

The main canvas (or pool) of a process map can be divided up into rows (or lanes). Each lane represents one parallel of the process, and shows both the exact tasks and responsibilities each department has, and the interplay between them.

Lanes don’t always mean departments or people. According to Camunda’s  reference , they can be:

  • Positions in the primary organization, for example, accounting clerk
  • Roles in the secondary organization, for example, data protection officer
  • General roles, for example, customer
  • Departments, for example, sales
  • IT applications, for example, CRM system
  • Differentiating manual and automated steps

You’ll also notice some new shapes in the example above. The message shape signifies information transferred between two activities, and the shaded circle represents the end of the process.

Understanding basic notation

how to create a business process model

The basic shapes of BPMN are very similar to flow diagrams, but instead of representing pure logical stages, they can also represent business-specific actions, like messaging other departments, and escalating issues.

Activities represent tasks

Activities are simple for most purposes. Just a rectangle with rounded corners. They represent work to be done, like a checkbox on a checklist or an item on your todo list.

Connecting objects show associations and the flow of work/information

Since BPMN aims to show the flow of activities, it uses three different kinds of connecting objects that show how the activities are related to each other:

how to create a business process model

Sequence flow the basic line that connects together elements of your map. It shows the flow of work, and is necessary for connecting together activities. Without a sequence flow, your map is invalid.

Message flow  is used when different departments or organizations send information between each other. Since you don’t get up and go and oversee the work in different departments when you want a task done, message flow represents a request or the sharing of information, not a strict action. It’s the only kind of flow that can take place between pools or lanes (organizations or departments).

Association is used to tie documents, databases, and other artifacts together with activities. For example, if you had an activity to sign off on a purchase order, you’d use a document symbol and an association line to link the two together.

how to create a business process model

Gateways deal with logic/decisions

how to create a business process model

Similar to diamonds in regular flow charts, gateways represent a split or convergence in the process chart.

For example, when making a choice of what to eat, the process will split depending on the final meal choice, but will converge at the point where the meal is eaten, because no matter which  meal is chosen, it will eventually be eaten.

Event Gateways

Not all gateways are choices, though. It could be that the continuation of the process depends on getting hold of more data, or waiting for a specific time, or meeting some other condition. In that case, it’s represented as an event gateway , and branches into whichever event takes place next.

For example, if you’re waiting for over a week for your delivery to come, you might reach a point where you decide whether to wait patiently, or  call the shipping company. You’d have an event-based gateway at that point, branching into waiting more time, or into calling. Like this:

how to create a business process model

In the above diagram, take note of the time and message shapes — both very simple concepts that don’t need much elaboration!

  • Time can either be days/hours/minutes or specific dates/years/quarters.
  • Messages are any information directed by and to a specific recipient (individual, department, organization, etc.). It can be data, files, emails, phone calls, letters, etc.

Parallel Gateways

If a task isn’t dependent on another task, there’s no reason for them not to be done in parallel when the process begins. To represent this on a BPMN map, use a parallel gateway .

how to create a business process model

All that signifies is that there is now a chance for both subsequent tasks to be started : the process breaks down into two parallel branches.

Exclusive Gateways

Sometimes, a process can go only one of two (or any number of) ways. For example, either the podcast recording is accepted and moves onto the editing stage, or it’s rejected and moves back to the editor for another pass.

That’s an example of when you would use an exclusive gateway — because there’s no third option. It looks like this:

how to create a business process model

Inclusive Gateways

An inclusive gateway breaks the process into multiple branches, with an explanation of which condition must be met for the flow to continue down that branch.

how to create a business process model

An example given by Lucidchart to explain a inclusive gateway is a process that forks based on a specific customer’s response to a survey. They explain :

“One process is triggered if the consumer is satisfied with product A. Another flow is triggered when the consumer indicates that they are satisfied with product B. A third process is triggered if they aren’t satisfied with A. There will be a minimal flow of one and a max of two.”

Inclusive gateways allow for multiple possible outcomes to be selected. For example, the customer could be both ‘not satisfied with A’ and ‘satisfied with B’, and in that case they’d be sent the voucher and also get added onto the B list.

An example of BPMN concepts in action

Here’s an example of a process map using the basic shapes, made with Draw.io:

how to create a business process model

To explain, above we have two pools with one lane each. The process is started by the customer, who sends a ticket to your company’s support team. Support responds, and then waits two days. If the customer hasn’t replied, the ticket is closed. If the customer is satisfied, the ticket is closed. Otherwise, communication continues until one of those conditions is met.

It’s a massive oversimplification, but it’s a start, and a good way to illustrate the basic concepts.

Diagram tools that support BPMN

It’d be mad to use a pen and paper for technical drawing like this, so take your pick from the range of BPMN tools available:

Draw.io [free]

Draw.io is an amazing tool, especially considering that it’s 100% free. You  can pay for features like integrations and compliance, but overall the core software is free, supports every BPMN symbol, and makes it easy to create great process maps.

how to create a business process model

Microsoft Visio [$15.50/month]

Microsoft’s behemoth of a process mapping tool — Visio — is the industry standard that all other mapping tools wish they could take down. Just because it’s the most widely used doesn’t mean it’s the best; it’s widely used because it’s packaged with Office 365 and other Microsoft packages. It doesn’t integrate, it’s incompatible on Mac, and it’s the most expensive.

It is, however, easy to use and is the subject of a lot of helpful guides around the web.

how to create a business process model

Lucid Chart [starting at $4.95/month]

While Visio is quite a rigid product, Lucidchart allows for real time collaborative editing, chat, and comments. That can make process development in BPMN a collaborative activity, encouraging teams to work together and helping keep the process accurate with less margin for error.

how to create a business process model

SmartDraw [$14.95/month]

SmartDraw was designed with power users in mind, but that doesn’t mean it’s hard for new users to pick up. It groups its symbols in a similar way to Draw.io, meaning that all your BPMN symbols will be in one place, easy to access.

Additionally, it includes a method of quickly drawing flows that link together:

Implementing BPMN: your first step

The first step to implementing process maps using BPMN depends really on your starting point.

  • If you have existing process maps, you could standardize them with BPMN
  • If you have never mapped a process before, use this checklist  to create one, and this checklist to optimize a process.

Follow this checklist for every process you choose to map:

As for implementing BPMN itself, just make sure to use a BPMN-compatible tool like the ones listed above, and refer back to the documentation if you need assurance.

To put these techniques into practice you’ll need more than just process maps. Process maps are good for overviewing a flow but they’re not going to be followed by your team. Check out the links below to read about the software you need for the use case you’re dealing with:

  • Workflow software
  • Business process management software
  • Onboarding software
  • Standard operating procedure software

I hope this guide has helped you better systemize your business, or learn a new skill you can use to effectively map processes 🙂

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Benjamin Brandall

Benjamin Brandall is a content marketer at Process Street .

33 Comments

Hi Ben, Thanks for another excellent article. I’ve used BPMN for a few years, but haven’t yet settled on a “good enough” tool – I’m always trying new ones. We need our clients to also be able to edit the diagrams once we have finished our assignment, I’ll give your suggestions a go. I’d also love to know what tool you used to create the BPMN graphics in this post – it doesn’t seem to be any of the ones you mention, such as Draw.io or Lucid Chart. They are really eye-catching, what did you use? Regards, Terry. http://www.middlestone.ltd

Glad this post gave you some new things to try. Unfortunately, the graphics in this post weren’t done by BPMN software — they were made by our talented designer, Adam! 🙂

Nice tutorial but how do you combine the rigid BPMN with the flexible ACM (adaptive case management) on which Process Street seems to focus?

A really good point. We’re hoping to implement some of the BPMN features in Process Street in the near future.

Great article… ProcessStreet is amazing… we love it and our customer, too… 🙂 Greets chris from germany

Awesome! Thanks for the encouragement.

Hi there, great article. I learnt a lot. Is this sentence correct: “Parallel Gateways: If a task isn’t dependent on another task, there’s no reason for them to be done in parallel when the process begins.” Shouldn’t it be if a task isn’t dependent, then there’s no reason for them NOT to be done in parallel…?” I’m trying to make sure I understood what you were saying. Thanks. Also, “For example, when making a choice of what to each, the process will split depending on the final meal choice,” That should be “what to eat”?

Hey Vernon,

Thanks for that — ‘not’ is right, good catch. I’ve updated the article, and the ‘each’ mistake!

Also, for Inclusive Gateways, would the third option have to cover all possibilities not met by the first two options, so Not Satisfied A or B -> Send voucher. ?

This is literally one of the best articles I’ve read on BPMN tutorials. very straight forward and easy to understand. Thank you so much Ben!

So glad to hear! Thanks, Jessica! 🙂

Great article, but what tool/app was used to make the graphics in the article?

Hey Rebecca,

Thanks for commenting!

All of the nice looking ones were created by our designer using Adobe Illustrator, not an actual BPMN tool.

The only exception is this diagram which was created with Draw.io.

Have a great day 🙂

Thanks for the article, I enjoyed reading this. I’m decently familiar with BPMN myself but still got plenty to learn so I’m always keeping an eye out for articles which might help me look at things from another perspective. And I enjoyed reading this.

Now, at the risk of coming across as a spammer (definitely not my intention!) but I hope you don’t mind me mentioning ‘Visual Paradigm’ as yet another tool which allows you to do BPMN modeling. I mention this because you already listed several tools and well… I’ve been using VP for over 8 years now, I’m quite a fan, so obviously I couldn’t resist 😉

Thanks again for the article, definitely going to skim around and check some of your other work.

Thanks for the comment and the recommendation. Visual Paradigm isn’t a tool I was familiar with, it’s interesting to find out about.

Hi, came here via your article on B2C. Since you have mentioned some tools I’ll pitch our tool Creately as well. It’s web based, support all BPMN icons and has real-time collaboration to work with teams and peers. The personal plan starts at $5/month so it’s affordable too.

I using your tutorial to introduce students in my Systems Analysis, Design and Implementation class. I also plan to use it in my Project Management class.

Hi Lennie — that’s awesome to hear, thank you! Quite the endorsement. Hope it is all going well

I have also used your tutorial to introduce BPMN to my students Thank you so much for this useful intro

Hi everybody !

You forgot GenMyModel cloud tool. BPMN2 diagram modeling was implemented in 2015. There is thousands of public diagrams, that everyone can clone 🙂

I am actually carrying out this role now after having completed into the organization as a BA. The points raised here are spot on and have really resonated with me. One thing I have found difficult is giving the time to the user stories and AC that I would like. This could be more to do with the effort required to get the team up and sprinting. The team gave raised it at the retro so changes are afoot!

Your example with the ticket is completely wrong! Sequence Flows cannot cross pool boundaries (see ISO 19510:2013, Glossary for example). Also, after the Exclusive Gateway from the Support Department you need an activity called “Close Ticket” and only then an End Event called “Ticket closed”. Otherwise there is no ticket closing activity. Even if it is software automated, you have to specify it as an activity (a Script Task) if you want to make a BPMN compliant diagram…

Also, you cannot connect a Gateway and a Message Flow. If you want to see how I think your diagram should look like in order to be correct, contact me. Best regards.

why not mention cawemo.com ‘s free tool? It seems quite good, no?

thanks for the information

Hi there, thanks for the information, appreciate it a lot. In the video you say that a common mistake is that sequence flows are not allowed to cross pool borders. In the section “An example of BPMN concepts in action” a sequence flow does cross pool borders. Did you mean that it is not allowed to have sequence flows between activities in different pools (as in the example there are events that are linked)? Can you please specify? Thanks already for your support.

I am starting on BPMN and find this article informative. Appreciate your effort in putting together a complex subject in a simple way. Thanks !!

I am trying to do a BPMN project and I am a little confused about terminology. I would like to know what the difference is betweem=n a process client and a actual process. My boss ask me to “create a pool for the process client and for the actual process” and I am not sure if I need one or two pools. Thanks for helping me out.

I was looking for a good tutorial on BPMN but just reading this article does the trick. Also your real world examples are awesome. Thank You

I’m glad we could help!

Hello I am currently working on the bic cloud tool and I was wondering if there is a way to create an abbreviations for specific processes in Bic tool. Like I have 3-4 words for each activity which already has an abbreviation but I am not sure if I can create an abbreviation table inside BIC so when I export the process into a word I would want to see a table with all the abbreviations. Could anyone please help me here. Thank you.

This guideline is so informative, thanks for your efforts.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it Mohammed

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Take control of your workflows today

Beginners Guide to Business Process Modeling

By Kate Eby | November 11, 2016 (updated August 4, 2023)

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How can you visualize where your business is and where it should be? This type of prediction is difficult, so thankfully, there’s a tool that can help. Business Process Modeling is a quality management tool that is part of modern Business Process Management (BPM). The tool depicts the current processes of an organization in a formalized way for analysis or improvement. In this article, we focus on two different perspectives: the business perspective and the software engineering perspective. For both fields, processes are of the utmost importance. We look at the nuts and bolts of Business Process Modeling, as well as the different methods, languages, and its future. Along the way, our modeling experts weigh in.

Why Use Business Process Modeling?

Organizations use Business Process Modeling (BP Modeling) in order to visually document, understand, and improve their processes. A part of Business Process Management (BPM) , BP Modeling has been used as an organizational tool to map out what is (or “as-is”) as a baseline and to determine the future (or “to-be”) with any improvements assimilated. BP Modeling visually represents all of the connecting activities, events, and resources of the process of a product or service to make it more efficient. BP Modeling often combines the disciplines of process mapping, process discovery, process simulation, process analysis, and process improvement. Within a Business Process Reengineering (BPR) event, BP Modeling is used to illuminate what processes are already in use, and to represent new processes. Some of the other reasons to use BP Modeling are as follows:

  • To create visual models of processes - Word-driven documentation is often not sufficient for employees to understand the way a process is performed. Backing it up with visual representations helps provide a comprehensive picture.
  • Align operations - With any new business strategy, keeping processes consistent after a change requires figuring out how to stay within the overall organizational strategy. Analyses are also performed to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and enable process agility.
  • Improve process communication - Communication is the key to all of the following tasks: formalizing existing processes (that were once informal knowledge), making consistent processes, eliminating guesswork with business rules, handling exceptions, providing regulatory compliance, ensuring business people are in charge, and supporting new initiatives (such as Lean Six Sigma).
  • Improve operational efficiency - Modeling processes promotes optimization by allowing simulation and illustrating needed improvements. This reduces cycle time and promotes better resource utilization. 
  • Gain competitive advantage - A process is better overall when it is constantly refined and aligned with its business’ strategies. This efficiency places the company in a forward-leaning position to be better than the competition.

Business Process Modeling in Software Development

Software development is a risky field. Twenty years ago, the 1995 CHAOS report by the Standish Group reported that 90 percent of software projects fail. Today that numbers are lower, but still reflect that there is work to be done. In the 2015 report by the same group, the rate of success for software development projects was still only 29 percent. The group’s recommendations to improve these numbers over the years have ebbed and flowed with new trends, but one main recommendation holds: communicate with all of the stakeholders, especially the end users, since end users are those who end up defining the requirements in the first place. Experts recommend developing clear models with understandable notation early on in projects in order to validate the requirements of the software. BP Modeling allows software engineers to negotiate with stakeholders to determine the system that needs to be built, based on what is optimal for both groups. 

Most BP models have been developed as part of existing enterprise architectures, which shows that the intent during development is that the end user is represented. However, these models have been done from a number of different perspectives including functional, behavioral, organizational, and informational. Experts agree that the combination of these perspectives in process design is the best method.

  • The functional perspective shows what process elements are being performed and what information is relevant to them.
  • The behavioral (or dynamic) perspective demonstrates the sequence of interaction and how process elements are performed. 
  • The organizational perspective shows by whom and where the elements of a process are performed.  
  • The informational perspective represents the origin of information that is produced or analyzed.

Business Process Modeling Languages in Software Business Process Modeling

All of the existing business processing model languages come from different facets of scientific tradition, and have been built to suit one perspective or another.  There is significant overlap in the languages, but there are four broad categories of business process modeling languages.  

  • Traditional process modeling languages: From the management information system (MIS) tradition of information engineering, these languages are meant to be understood and are not typically formal. These include IDEF, Petri Nets, EPC, Role-Activity Diagrams, REA, and BPML.
  • Workflow modeling languages: These scripting languages are for describing workflows for a workflow management system (WfMS) . These very formal languages include Workflow Process Description Language (WPDL), and proposed interchange formats (PIF, PSL).
  • Process integration languages: These languages are for the purpose of integrating between enterprises, and capture different levels of the semantics in processes. These include RosettaNet, ebXML, and BPEL4WS.
  • Object-oriented languages: Meant to be understood by both IT and domain experts, these languages represent the software domain. Most of the object-oriented modeling takes into consideration the functional, behavioral, and informational perspectives.  

Hafedh Mili et al recommends that teams should use a core language for modeling, and then use different parts that suit the process from other languages. In this field, it appears that experts agree that even the languages should be driven by the tasks.

How to Approach a Business Process Modeling Project

Choosing an approach to BP Modeling is just as essential as performing it. The approach, based upon the actual task itself, is not a one-size-fits-all affair. Some classifications should be made before a project is undertaken. According to Bider , professionals should consider three factors: the actual business processes, the characteristics of the modeling environment, and the intended use of the model. These three factors may be broken down into specific business considerations.

  • The business processes – Businesses should consider their active and passive participants, how closely they are meeting their operational goals, how closely the process interacts with its environment, and the nature and orderliness of the process flow. 
  • The characteristics of the modeling environment - For the modeling environment, businesses should consider the maturity of their existing processes and whether or not there are personnel available that understand the very formal notation.  
  • The intended use of the model - Businesses should consider their objectives for designing models and what basis they are using to create models. For example, they could be trying to improve the current processes, providing analysis or reengineering, or building a new computer system.

Since there is no universal approach to BP Modeling, experts recommend considering all of the unique business factors. Some pros recommend a specified formal approach that gathers all of the information before choosing tools, while others recommend specific tools that have worked for them in the past. Two of our experts make their recommendations below.

According to Dani Peleva, Managing Director of Local Fame Ltd :

how to create a business process model

“When approaching a business process modeling task, I’d always break it through the prism of project management as it helps me get an idea of the objective of the system that needs engineering, the time the process needs to be completed for, as well as the resources available. Once you know what the requirements are, i.e. the purpose of the process is, what the deliverables are, the budget/resource constraints and so forth, it is a lot easier to approach the design/engineering stage.  When it comes to process engineering at Local Fame, we always have efficiency and effectiveness in mind - the most cost-effective, timely and optimized manner that a process can flow. For this purpose, I always approach the task from a few different angles - from the start of the process, as well as from the end of the process backwards. When you do not limit yourself with the direction of the process flow you can identify gaps and possible flaws in the strategy and implementation, as well as possible bottlenecks. Once I come up with a few different models I test those applying different scenarios in order to understand how sustainable those are in turbulent environment. This is when usually you sift through the best models and shortlist one or two successful ones.  Additionally, an intrinsic part of business process modelling for me is risk management, more specifically, identifying the potential flaws of the model and where and under what circumstances the model can fail. Identifying those weaknesses of the process helps you create contingency plans and backups, and as you often may find yourself, you get to optimize the process even further and scrap some of the chunks you initially considered essential, but later on realized you could go without. When thinking about risk management, however, one should know a risk could be both a positive and a negative, risk can create opportunities for the process to fail or get delayed, but also speed up and become more efficient, which again leads to the process optimisation and potential changes in the model. Tools I often use when doing business process modelling are Gliffy, Activiti Modeller, and Gantt charts.  To conclude, when modelling a process or re-engineering an existing one, I usually approach the task from a project management perspective analysing the requirements fully before moving to the design stage. After design stage, I test the model numerous times in different scenarios and if needed I return to different stages to optimise and tweak it further. Lastly, I always think about risk management and contingency to make sure that the process is resilient and sustainable.”

how to create a business process model

Ray McKenzie, Founder and Principal, Red Beach Advisors , recommends, “As a management and business consultant for small- to medium-sized companies, a primary duty of mine is to develop efficient and optimized process for every organization to be productive. I always start with examining the problem and finding out the history of the problem, the different parts of the problem, and the effect the problem has on the business. Understanding the problem and components are core pieces to developing an effective process model to improve. Start with the problem. Examine the parties involved. Understand the current performance and measurements. Define the performance improvement goals. Outline an efficient process which drives results and displays success.”  

Workflows and Business Service Oriented Approach (BSOA)

Some experts consider BP modeling for software development to be a before and after prospect that revolves around the introduction of web services. Before the development of the web, the main approach for developing processes was workflows . In the workflow approach, the business processes are pre-determined. The most suitable languages are Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and Flow Definition Language (FDL). The workflow approach was criticized as not being very flexible in a modern environment.

After the development of web services, the approach for BP Modeling for software development became more focused and identified as the Business Service Oriented Approach (BSOA). Process modeling is based upon the flexible composition of business services. The approach can be tailored to address what the designer’s goals and requirements are in architecture development by using building blocks. Services carry out small tasks, such as data development, or simple service procedures. Taken all together, BSOA makes an extremely reusable system that can be fixed and regularly upgraded. This approach is credited as being Agile, and applicable to many different types of organizations.

Different Ways to Model Business Processes

Between all of the standards and standardized languages, some professionals think that the creativity in designing processes is being leached out. Alternative approaches can restore some of that creativity.  Some of the most popular techniques that can stand-alone or even complement more formal approaches are the following:

  • Flow Chart Technique
  • Data Flow Diagrams— Yourdon’s technique
  • Role-Activity Diagrams (RAD)
  • Role-Interaction Diagrams (RID)
  • Gantt Chart
  • Integrated Definition for Function Modelling (IDEF)
  • Colored Petri-nets (CPN)
  • Object Oriented Methods (OO)
  • Workflow Technique
  • Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
  • UML Activity Diagram
  • Transformational Process Models
  • Storytelling
  • Hierarchical Process Models
  • Visualization

how to create a business process model

According to Bernard Lee, President of Charlotte Search Engine Consultants , there are other ways to model your projects visually. He points out that, “As a lifelong entrepreneur who started my first business at 20, I am now 53 and am considered a ‘college dropout.’ It has always been about systems, automation, and measuring risks to achieve our stated goals. This has been true in my career as a wealth manager, a Healthcare IT executive, and now as the founder of a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO. Yes, SEO is about metrics, analytics, and CTR (click-through rate). Nevertheless, I've found the creative aspects is what separates the pretenders from the achievers. We are Google partners so we believe in the usual success measurements, but get there differently. YouTube, Geo-Tagging, and unorthodox combinations of our client's digital properties consistently land multiple properties on page one for the most important keywords. The visual of multiple positions on page one always has an immediate impact on our client’s brand, traffic, and conversions while moving competitors to page two.”

Process Mapping vs. Process Modeling

Process mapping is a high-level review of an organization as a single entity with interconnecting parts. The flow of business processes through the organization is reviewed to clarify who does what, how processes are performed, and by what standard they are judged. In process modeling, professionals are more focused on how efficient the processes are, using business and economic best practices. Although both depict the processes graphically, process modeling is a deeper dive into the relationships that produce the services and outcomes.

Framework for the Modeling and Evaluation of Software Processes (FMESP)

One of the complicated issues that came from developing standardized business processes is the notion that their efficacy must be determined. In other words, how successful are business processes? FMESP comes in as a set of metrics to evaluate conceptual models of business processes: what they do and what they do not do. FMESP measures the structural complexity of software process models and then the activities, roles, and work products. This framework is intended to give businesses objective information about the maintainability of their models.

Develop Good Business Process Models

How does a professional get started on a BP Model? One of the common approaches advocates picking a problem, selecting the method, and then solving the problem. Keeping it simple ensures that everything relevant is in the model and everything in the model is relevant.   Other professional tips include:

  • Ensure that you know who will be your resources. Develop lists of tasks, people, and the time required to complete the model. 
  • Conduct your interviews in the order the roles appear on the process model.
  • Document. Document. Document.
  • Recheck all of your symbols, ensure there is a key, and follow each step to ensure that the path takes you either back or ahead.
  • Know your desired outcome ahead of time.
  • Figure out your start and end points.
  • Get ahold of the documents and forms ahead of time that are part of the process.
  • Use templates whenever you can.

According to Steve Wallis, Co-Founder/Analyst/Consultant at ASK MATT, Foundation for the Advancement of Social Theory (FAST) - Theory for a better world : 

how to create a business process model

“BPM is incredibly useful for showing ‘what goes on’’ within a business organization. However, it can also create a false sense of comfort. When the map says, ‘You are here’ we feel a sense of security. However, unless the map shows how to get from ‘here’ to ‘there’ it is not going to be very useful. More importantly for the ever-shifting world of business, a map needs to show multiple paths so that leaders can take advantage of new options when unanticipated problems arise (and you know they will). Research in this area suggests that models (maps) which are more complex and have more interconnections are more useful for understanding how organizational processes work, and how they might be changed when the need arises. What does NOT work is a simple, linear model such as: 

how to create a business process model

Image Source: Steve Wallis

Oh, if only life were so easy – and so predictable, however, it is not. Therefore, we looked for a slightly different approach to business process modeling. Calling it Strategic Knowledge Mapping (SKM), we focus on the transformational aspects of modeling. Rather than modeling what is happening on the “surface” level (e.g. Research gives information to manufacturing), we encourage our clients to see what changes occur at all of the interconnected steps of the process. From our research and experience, we have developed two easy techniques for developing good models.  First, in order to understand a transformation in a model, there must be more than one arrow pointing towards each box. For example, if we are talking about making pastries, the process of creation requires raw material (flour, eggs, sugar, chocolate, etc.) and equipment (oven, racks, mixers, etc.) and cooks (with some level of expertise). Therefore, in order to better understand the transformation, we create a model showing how each of those ‘inputs’ combines to create the transformed ‘output.’ To some, that may seem obvious. However, here is the hidden insight (ex: chocolate filling): If you have a model where there is only one arrow pointing towards something, that lack of additional arrows indicates a gap in the model. For managing the process, you are missing an alternative path.  The second tip for making effective models is to understand each arrow as being ‘causal.’ This is one of the great bits of ‘forgotten knowledge’ in the world of business. Causality is the essence of scientific understanding. To understand the transformational process, and business processes in general, it is not enough to simply say, ‘The cook mixes the ingredients and makes the cakes.’ A good manager understands that having more raw materials, more equipment, and more expertise will cause the transformation into a marketable product (or service). And, for managing that process, there may be some tradeoffs between them (a really good expert might be able to stretch the raw material a bit), but each stream is required to create the end product. Without raw materials, I will not have a pastry with my coffee!”

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)

BPMN was developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) as an open-industry standard, and is now maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG) . No software or consulting company owns it. It is a graphical notation for creating process models, similar to flowcharts, that is used and understood industry-wide. Many software tools support BPMN . However, the meaning of the shapes and symbols are independent of those tools, and those meanings are precise. BPMN is a core part of Business Process Management (BPM), an initiative of enterprise architecture. The version of BPMN that is currently in use is v2.0, last updated in 2011. Professionals may become certified in BPMN v2.0 through the OMG exam process. The OMG also offers guides that show how the notation is broken down into the groups of events, activities, flows, data, artifacts, etc. Elements are categorized into four major groups that are referred to as flow objects, connecting objects, swimlanes, and artifacts. 

how to create a business process model

Source: OMG

The intent of BPMN is that technical users and business users may be able to understand a common diagrammatic language. BPMN is based upon a flowchart technique similar to one developed from the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and is able to be mapped directly to Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), an XML-based language that is used to define enterprise business services within web services.

Critique of BPMN

Industry opinion varies on the use of BPMN for BP Modeling. Critics argues that BPMN is much more complex and advanced than it needs to be for stakeholders who may not be very close to the actual process. Further, with so many symbols it is easy to make mistakes, defeating the purpose of its use.   Proponents of BPMN say that most professionals only use a handful of symbols - making the knowledge of obscure symbols unnecessary. Some international companies require BPMN’s consistency, especially when languages may be varied. Understanding the processes with a standardized notation is less of a challenge. 

Other Types of Notations and diagrams

In 2012, Cristina Venera performed a study of two popular notation languages, BPMN and UML Activity Diagram (UML AD). Among professionals and the literature, she found that both languages are equally easy to understand by stakeholders interested in BP Modeling, and that they in fact both provided similar solutions. However, the difference was that BPMN is able to be mapped to (WS)BPEL, whereas UML AD is not able to be automatically mapped to any BPEL.   Other types of notations include Event Driven Process Chain (EPC), workflow diagrams, and mind maps. EPC is most often used for higher-level business processes, consists of five elements and rules, and always starts with and ends with an event. There are rules in between: “OR,”“AND,” or “XOR” represented as graphical connectors.  

Workflow diagrams illustrate stages and relationships between all parts of a business. In workflow diagrams, there is no set of agreed upon (standard) symbols. It is more difficult to compare models done across an organization, but does allow more freedom for creativity.

Mind maps are the least restrictive of any of the techniques listed here. Although they are generally hierarchical, they can be done by hand on a napkin in a pub, if necessary. Mind maps are a way to show relationships around a single concept as well as any associations. They are free-flowing and allow for maximum creativity.

how to create a business process model

Source: Jennifer Frith

What to Look for in Business Process Modeling Software

From all of the expert opinions and research, there does not appear to be one tool that will fit all of an organization’s forever needs. The major requirements that are recommended for a tool or a suite of tools are that they are fast (to learn) and inexpensive. The BPMN homepage lists 74 BPMN compliant tools. If BPMN compliance is a requirement, then the search is already narrowed. Otherwise, users should specify their objectives and requirements, which tools satisfy their requirements, what are the most significant criteria, and what the potential tools could be for use. Then, TEST.  Finding the right tool may be a process, but it will not be a regrettable one.

According to Norbert Nogrady, Managing Director & Co-owner of JCM Ltd: [email protected], Twitter: @kgordos

how to create a business process model

“I started to reorganize organizational units more than 15 years ago. At the time, the number of available process modeling tools was very limited, much less their functionality. However, as time went by, I witnessed the evolution of such tools. In the beginning, I used large sheets, then Microsoft Word and Visio. However, I had a number of serious issues with these tools. The biggest problem is that BPR projects tend to be lengthy and thus overwhelming. The usual routine at the large corporations I worked for was (one of the following):

  • Management appointed the IT department to find a tool for business process management (workflow) that fit the IT requirements.
  • Management-level leaders with BPR engineers created their respective processes
  • Process diagrams had been created using various tools.
  • Processes were then transferred to the IT department, so that they could evaluate if the processes fit the workflow system of their choice.
  • After a number of iterations – most usually resulting in compromises regarding the processes – the IT department started programming the processes into the workflow system.
  • The processes were implemented in the organization, with the immediate need to re-engineer many of them.
  • Points two through six have been repeated for a long time until a somewhat acceptable set of business processes were created.

As it is clear from the above, BPR this way was not easy, but instead very time and resource consuming. In addition, I realized very soon that departments should create their own processes, instead of iterating with IT; therefore, a number of process compromises could be avoided. In addition, it took a really long time to implement the created processes into the workflow system by programming. Both of these issues bothered me to the level that I started to look for a solution that fits the usual IT requirements and fully supports my BPR activities.”

After much trial and error Nogrady finally found a solution that worked for him. After his successful search, he suggests looking for a workflow system that has an integrated process and workflow editor tool with a graphic interface, hence making process programming obsolete. The advantage is that once a process has been created in the graphic workflow editor, it only takes a click of a button to have it run in the workflow system immediately. Therefore, all departments can create their own business processes, without the need for programming. Going this route means there are a little to no compromises in the workflows and most importantly, a lot of time and resources could be spared this way. Finally, a good solution will make testing the processes take much less time and effort. In this manner, if a process could use some improvement, anyone in the department can have their suggestions, and if the department leader approved it, the modified process should be able to run in the workflow system in a couple hours. 

The Future of Business Process Modeling

One critical area of concern for the future of BP Modeling includes how modeling approaches could be standardized. Many businesses are moving to a more Agile platform, and BP Modeling does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with Agile processes . A modeling approach may only be considered Agile for some types of processes, according to a recent study by Nancy Alexopoulou .  

As Ian Gotts, Founder and CEO at Elements.cloud and columnist at Digital Business also notes, “There are big issues in the BP Modeling space. BPM, automation and workflow software vendors have hijacked BPM, so that the B in BPM has disappeared. Modeling has come to mean defining workflows by IT for IT. However, process visualization (business process modeling) is valuable for end users. They use the business process diagrams to agree on how work is done. That then gives the behind-the-scenes IT perspective. Nevertheless, trying to use the BPMN notation as a model for everyone is difficult to achieve; with so many symbols it looks convoluted, and business people are quickly dis-engaged and wondering why they are doing this."

how to create a business process model

“There is a notation - Universal Process Notation (UPN) -  that works for business people, that has been very successful. It is outlined in Chapter two of the e-book, Analysis, Automation & Adoption for #AwesomeAdmins. The first principle that is relevant here is that we are not building a huge flowchart, but a hierarchical process map, where every diagram is easier to follow. For example, at a bank, there may be 10,000 diagrams for all of the processes, but they are organized in a hierarchy so no diagram is overwhelming. Second, the notation is a simple model using an activity box or step with inputs and output, resources identified (or swimlanes), and hyperlinks to supporting information. This process map is useful for end users, but it is also valuable for compliance, IT, and management where metrics can be viewed in the context of a process. Using this approach is valuable for app vendors to improve adoption. An end-to-end process can make sense of the detailed flow of apps.”

Learn more about Business Process Modeling

 Interested in learning more about BP Modeling and how to implement it at your company? The following are lists of resources for further reading that can help.

Books and eBooks

  • Analysis, Automation & Adoption for #AwesomeAdmins - Free UPN software handbook
  • A Pragmatic Guide to Business Process Modelling , by John Holt
  • Essential Business Process Modeling , by Michael Havey
  • Business Process Modeling, Simulation and Design, Second Edition , by Manuel Laguna and John Marklund

White Papers 

  • Strategic Knowledge Mapping For Improved Policy and Strategic Planning , by Steven E. Wallis & Bernadette Wright.
  • Strategic Knowledge Mapping: The Co-Creation of Useful Knowledge , by Steven E. Wallis & Bernadette Wright.
  • A List of Free Business Process Modelling Software
  • Comparison of Business Process Modeling Notation tools
  • Market Guide for Enterprise Business Process Analysis - from Gartner 

Other Types of Diagrams

  • Free tools for business (process) analysts – 2015 edition

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how to create a business process model

How to create a business process model in 10 easy steps

How to create a business process model in a company? If you have that question in mind, it means that you are thinking about BPM . For that to work, it is crucial to know that it is not enough to define and map processes, it is necessary to create an effective process culture in your organization, that lasts and generate results. Disjointed efforts, without planning and leadership, do not gain synergy and end up not being applied. It is crucial to have everybody’s support, starting with the high management, which needs to be convinced about the need to create processes in the company.

10 steps in how to create a business process model

If you are persuaded that create a business process model is a way to go, check this list of steps to concretize this goal.

1 – Communicate everybody: we are creating a business process model in the company!

An endomarketing campaign, informing all the staff about this new perspective and its strategic importance will make it clear what is expected of each one and the results wanted . It must permeate all the process, show advances, news and which step of the business process model is being created. It has to be motivating since the engaging of the staff is fundamental.

2 – Formalize a business process office

The process office will be responsible for all the management of process creation, researching about methodology and tools, always looking for the best practices and keeping a close relation with the strategic goals of the company.

3 – Define the Value Added Chain of the company

All businesses search to meet client’s needs through a series of coordinated activities that culminate with the product/service delivery. How to create a business process model in a company? Defining well this Value Chain .

4 – Relate processes with the corporative strategy

The processes created in a company must have a strict relation with the business strategy. All that is defined must have as a goal bring this strategy to success. Therefore, you should know how each process would contribute to this.

5 – Define priorities in creating business process model in your company

Which processes must be prioritized and are more important to achieve the goals defined by the company’s strategy? Start by them, avoiding that your initiative of implementing BPM in the company turns into a long and endless romance. You need to show the benefits, prove results and gain increasingly more supporters in the project.

6 – Map the AS-IS processes

To create a business process model in a company we have to know how the processes are running presently. Even though these activities are not formalized, you need to clearly define, among other things, the following points:

  • Information about the process
  • Activities list and their order
  • Description of such activities
  • The logical ways of the process
  • Problems and bottlenecks

See for more details: AS IS process mapping

7- Analyze and diagnose the processes

Now that you understand how the process works today, you can see the improvement opportunities and precisely identify how to create a business process model in your company.

8 – Define the future of the process, how it is going TO BE

Optimize your processes . Formalize with details, through documents, how the new process will be executed in the future.

Understand: TO BE process mapping.

9 – Implement the new business process model

It is a crucial step. Here we must make sure the changes happen efficiently. The managers of the affected area in each process to be improved need the help of the business office. Especially in the definition and following of the KPI – key performance indicators – so that they can measure the results, make decisions, manage and adjust the application of the new process.

10 – Improve the process in a continuous way

All of us have heard about continuous improvement of processes. It must happen through measuring, always. After implanted and initiated, the understanding of how to create business process models goes beyond, it never ends. We must always check how we are going, and improve more.

Now that you know how to create a business process model in your company see some BPM best practices and start implementing now!

  • What is Business Process Management? 10 special topics selected for you
  • The BPM Cookbook

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The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Modeling

May 5, 2021 - 10 min read

Yuvika Iyer

Want to improve your organization's overall productivity? 

Before you get started, take some time to analyze the gap between the existing and desired state of performance. If there is none, pat yourself on the back. If there is, it’s time to figure out how to close it and get your teams closer to your ideal performance standards.

To achieve consistent and stable business growth, employees need a clear picture of how the organization works. Did you know that using visual tools can lead to an increase of 23%–89% in human performance? Utilizing a graphical tool can stimulate our imagination and enhance individual and team outcomes.

This article will explore how business process modeling can help illustrate and improve your organization’s internal workflows and, in turn, boost team productivity.

What is business process modeling?

Business process modeling (BPM) is a business process management technique that depicts an organization's internal workflows to help identify areas for improvement. It utilizes various graphical representation techniques such as data-flow diagrams, flowcharts, Gantt charts , etc.

Most business process modeling tools help in mapping two states for every process:

  • As-is : In the as-is state, the current process is depicted as it exists, without any changes
  • To-be : To-be is the ideal state of a process after the suggested changes are completed

You can use old-fashioned pen and paper or spreadsheets for the modeling process, but having specialized business process modeling tools can help.

Why use business process modeling?

Every company wants to achieve the best results and consistently operate at peak efficiency. By embracing process modeling, organizations have a chance to take a deeper look at their internal processes and workflows.

Mapping the processes in a visual format benefits teams as they are able to clearly see the importance and structure of each workflow. It gives them a better position from which to identify the steps required to streamline the processes. Here are five more reasons why an organization should consider using business process modeling.

Align strategies with business objectives

No strategy can work well unless it's aligned with the overall company goals and objectives. Process modeling ensures teams work within the broader organizational framework.

Process modeling techniques explore the reason ‘why’ any task is performed in a specific process. They evaluate whether the task is required or if it can be done away with to optimize the broader business process.

Enhance process efficiencies

In process modeling templates, each task is represented step by step, allowing teams to understand how resources can be optimized. 

Completion of this detailed simulation identifies any potential bottlenecks that can then be removed to enhance business processes.

Boost internal team communications 

Since human talent is one of the most important resources for success, you must help staff communicate better for optimum performance and productivity.

Internal team communications are crucial for activities such as:

  • Eliminating a redundant process
  • Sharing a new process with other teams
  • Creating a standardized process for all teams to follow

Increase market competitiveness 

Innovation can make or break a business. Research has proven that highly innovative organizations have an average of 11% higher annual revenues and 22% higher Earnings Before Interest Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) than companies that don't innovate.

By embracing process modeling, companies will be able to stay resilient in the dynamic business landscape and handle change management more effectively.

Foster best practices

Are you managing a mid-size or large enterprise? You may have multiple teams performing the same process differently. Creating a standardized process design ensures that the entire company follows the same best practices.

Are there different business modeling techniques?

There are more than 12 different kinds of BPM techniques. While some have been tried and tested for decades, others are relatively new.  Below, we take a closer look at some of the most widely used and accepted process modeling techniques.

Flowchart technique

Flowcharts depict a business process using different shapes and symbols. One flowchart typically showcases an independent workflow in a detailed layout. If your team wishes to represent the complete business process, they need to consolidate multiple flowcharts into one design.

Each team will have its own method for designing flowcharts, but they can be created using pen and paper, specialized business process modeling tools, or versatile workflow management software .

Data flow diagrams

Data flow diagrams (DFD) graphically represent the flow of information from one process to another, portraying the interdependencies between them.  

Developed by Edward Yourdon , DFDs is a data-focused process modeling technique with limited applicability in complex business process modeling that focuses more on activities done or to be done.

IPO Model 

An input-process-output (IPO) technique is a real-world graph used to categorize the inputs and outputs of a particular process . In this method, there are three principal elements:

  • Inputs : Information, data, or materials added into the process
  • Outputs : The final outcomes or results obtained upon completing a specific business process
  • Process : The particular business activity being improved or streamlined SIPOC diagrams 

SIPOC diagrams is a business process modeling framework in which the significant stakeholders classify the most critical elements of the process improvement into the following categories:

SIPOC is a globally accepted synonym and part of the Six Sigma framework .

Gantt charts

A Gantt chart is a process modeling procedure in which a complex activity is subdivided into smaller sub-activities, linked by interdependencies.

Gantt charts are perfect for representing business activities with tighter deadlines as they quickly let teams know the pending tasks and the estimated time required to complete them. Use them to stop any vital tasks from slipping through the cracks and keep your process modeling project on track.

PERT diagrams

Program Evaluation and Review Technique ( PERT ) diagrams are one of the most globally accepted process modeling techniques.

PERT diagrams are simple illustrations that portray an accurate timeline for completing a business process. Process modeling teams can quantify the estimated time needed to complete the business process and all its consequent tasks.

Unified Modeling Language diagrams (UML)

Unified Modeling Language (UML) was originally designed for software development processes, but with its robust facets and dynamic use cases, it’s now a highly popular and globally accepted process modeling tool.

UML diagrams are a multi-dimensional process modeling technique that illustrate the close relationship between the elements and systems of a business process.

With over 14 UML diagrams in circulation, interpreting them requires significant expertise and practice. These diagrams include:

  • Sequence Diagram
  • Activity Diagram
  • Deployment Diagram
  • Use Case Diagram
  • Package Diagram
  • Communication Diagram
  • Component Diagram
  • Interaction Overview Diagram
  • State Diagram
  • Timing Diagram
  • Class Diagram
  • Object Diagram
  • Composite Structure Diagram

Introducing business process model and notation

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a visual framework that uses standardized elements and symbols to represent a business process. 

BPMN is one of the best ways to make business process modeling easier for all project stakeholders. The predefined symbols mean that all team members working on the business process model will be able to understand the process maps. Let’s take a look the four primary elements of BPMN:

Flow objects

Flow objects in BPMN refer to the primary visual foundations that outline the nature and scope of a business process: Events, Activities, and Gateways.

Activities : Activities are flow objects that initiate, alter, or end a business process. Different activity triggers can be:

  • Compensation

Events : Events are specific tasks executed by an individual or system and illustrated using a rectangle with curved edges. These tasks can include loops, compensations, multiple instances and sub-processes.

Gateways : Gateways are decision-making points based on the condition or an event that is represented in a diamond shape. These flow objects can be based on multiple events or diverse data points.

Artifact objects

Artifact objects are elements that add detailed nuances to process modeling diagrams. Developers can add any of the three kinds of artifacts such as data objects, annotation or groups.

Data objects : Data objects represent the most essential data required to perform a specific activity.

Group : Group aligns the tasks in the business process in a rational manner without altering the flow of the diagram.

Annotation : An annotation adds diverse facets to a section of the diagram.  

Connections

Connecting objects join primary data with other relevant information to manage the overall process flow. These objects can regulate the sequence of tasks and can be either associations, message flows, or sequence flows.

Association : Associations are depicted using a dotted line and connect a text or artifact to an activity, gateway or event.

Sequence flow : Sequence flow connects objects that classify the activities to be done. They are illustrated with a default or conditional flow in a straight line.

Message flow : Message flow objects join together different events or tasks in different pools. They include messages that transcend organizational limitations, teams, or departments.  Message flow is drawn in a dashed line starting with a circle and ending with an arrow.

Swimlanes group business modeling essentials into pools and lanes.

Lane : Lanes represent the tasks included in a specific pool for an individual role or contributor. Doing this helps outline responsibility and accountability for that particular part of the process.

Pool : A pool refers to the primary members of a business process. A different department, team, or company can be illustrated in a separate pool within the same process.

Process mapping vs. process modeling: what is the difference?

Even though many teams use business process mapping and process modeling interchangeably, they are not the same.

One of the biggest similarities is that process modeling and process mapping are part of the same broader concept of business process management. Both of these terms also support in defining business processes.

However, business mapping is a tool that emphasizes documenting existing processes, while process modeling illustrates what an ideal business process looks like or how it should be done. Process mapping is static and does not have any scope for managing change agents. Process modeling lets teams reflect and adapt to changes in the process or its broader environment.

If you want to showcase diverse stakeholder perspectives in your business improvement initiatives, process modeling tools can help your teams illustrate different viewpoints. Teams using process modeling typically centralize communication with a single source of truth . On the other hand, teams that select process mapping end up with multiple variations of one process. Doing this is both expensive and unnecessary, and can cause duplication of work.

Process mapping would be a good fit if a once-off evaluation of a business process is required. But if your team wants a long-term reusable asset that maximizes the process lifecycle, picking business process modeling would give a better ROI.

How to perform business process modeling

If you wish to streamline internal workflows and boost team productivity, BPM must be on your to-do list.

There's no one-size-all fits modeling technique — the key is in understanding the overall objectives the team wants to achieve by completing this exercise.

Here's a simple three-step plan that can help your team perform business process modeling successfully.

Document the as-is process

Before starting business process modeling, make sure your team documents the complete process as it stands. They can use anything they're comfortable with to do this, such as a simple notepad or a robust business modeling software .

Identify what can be improved

Once the team has listed the current process clearly, it’s time to identify the bottlenecks, issues, and inefficiencies plaguing it. Prompt your team members to brainstorm by asking critical questions such as:

  • Is this step really required?
  • Does a specific task help in generating any measurable outcome?
  • Do the current tasks in the process meet the predefined operational goals?

Design the ideal to-be process

Once the results of the previous step are in place, put them into action. Develop the newer, more streamlined version of the process by incorporating all the findings. 

Using this process modeling method in alignment with the Business Process Management (BPM) framework can make your company’s business processes more efficient.

Top tips for planning a business process modeling project

Are you all set to start a business process modeling project? There are many small but critical steps that can ensure that your team is set up for BPM success.

Keep it simple but detailed

Even the most qualified process modeling specialists tend to make this common mistake: In simplifying a particular process, they end up leaving out some of the most vital steps. Simple is good, but make sure your team doesn't miss the finer details.

Business modeling is a collaborative effort involving many stakeholders who have different opinions, interpretations, and levels of understanding. The team creating the modeling charts may assume these smaller details are insignificant and fail to document them. 

However, for the team assessing the modeling diagrams, these points may be essential in understanding the process and making valuable recommendations for improvement.

Utilize a suitable BPM Software

Business process modeling is so much more than just diagrams. Every element, shape, and symbol in a business process model has a specific meaning. Each one of them outlines a particular process or action.

A robust BPM software such as Wrike supports the new-generation advanced business process modeling standard BPMN 2.0. Wrike provides everything your teams need for a successful process modeling project, including standardizing intake, accelerating internal processes with automation, and optimizing processes with custom dashboards.

Create precise titles that clarify user intent

When your company has a process modeling project underway, you must ensure that it is simple and easy to understand for all stakeholders. One way to do this is by creating precise titles that clarify user intent and lead to the desired action.

Here’s a process modeling example that shows how to do this. For a particular action that represents a portion of the money utilized for a specific process, the title can be “budget utilization” to make it easy to understand for all stakeholders.

Give a diverse set of options

There can be several ways to streamline a particular process. Just adding a title to the alternative option will not help — make sure your teams are outlining and describing the alternative routes for optimization too. 

Remember that the objective of the entire business process modeling exercise is to improve the process, even if it means choosing a different path.

Standardize processes using premade templates

Starting with Wrike's premade business process model templates can save company resources, effort and precious time. 

Your teams can customize the templates for every digital transformation project instead of using an ad-hoc approach based on previous experiences.

What are process modeling tools available for business process modeling projects?

Teams can create their process model entirely on paper or even a spreadsheet. 

However, leveraging automated business process modeling tools lets your teams digitize processes and sets them up for success.

Discovering areas for improvement is easier with business process modeling software. 

Here are a few process modeling tools that can help your teams excel at process modeling projects.

If your teams struggle to find the latest version of a critical document or spend hours documenting processes, choose a process management tool such as Tallyfy . 

Use Tallyfy to track progress, automate monotonous tasks, and save hours of manual effort. It uses a mobile-first platform, gives a real-time Business Intelligence (BI) feed, and has industry-leading features such as Single Sign-On.

Boost process compliance and enhance competitive advantages for your company with an intelligent process automation tool such as Bizagi. 

Bizagi brings together robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, and digital process automation to organize, automate, and integrate business processes.

Facilitate end-to-end process modeling automation by organizing people, systems, and processes to create more optimized, accurate, and Agile workflows.

ProcessMaker  

Support your teams in creating and deploying low-code business processes with Processmaker's award-winning BPM and digital process automation software. 

ProcessMaker helps you eliminate departmental silos, minimize manual efforts, and boost progress visibility across the entire company.

This BPMN 2.0 compliant process modeling tool allows team members to quickly create decision points, drag and drop tasks, and add project-specific users, forms, and more.

Need a smart diagramming tool for your team? With SmartDraw's intelligent formatting engine, your team members will be able to create, edit, and publish diagrams in a flash with over 4500 templates and 34,000 symbols.

Smartdraw also has a unique and industry-leading functionality that can automatically resize shapes to match the shape of a given diagram. Teams can use it to create class diagrams, organization charts with in-built extensions, or produce manifests and enhance diagrams.

Why Wrike is the process modeling software you need

Companies can’t just "set and forget" their business processes in today's ever-changing landscape. They need to constantly review the tasks that work while cutting the ones that don’t.

A business process modeling software such as Wrike could be a great fit for your organization, whatever its size. 

Minimize process bottlenecks and enhance resource optimization by using Wrike to boost productivity across teams. Automate internal approvals, streamline process workflows , and drive better results with Wrike's business process management software .

Empower your teams with dynamic integration capabilities and custom reporting tools to effortlessly achieve their process modeling goals. Start your next process modeling project today with a free two-week trial .

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Yuvika Iyer

Yuvika is a freelance writer who specializes in recruitment and résumé writing.

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Business Process Modeling (BPM) Tutorial

Business process modelling represents:

  • Business activities,
  • Information flow and,
  • Decision logic in business processes.

With the power of visualization, it is used to communicate information regarding a process and the interaction it includes within / between organizations either among the persons reading a model or the persons who create it.

Steps to create business process

The steps below outline the major steps to take in creating a business process.

  • Define the process you are modeling – Define a process in your scope of business operation involved, and what are you trying to achieve
  • Identify the starting point of the process
  • Identify the different steps in the process.
  • Clarify who or what performs each step.
  • Decide which type of modeling notation to be use used such as BPMN

Business process diagram for process improvement

To perform business process improvement, perhaps you could perform the additional gap analysis steps:

  • Create an As-is Model (the now state)
  • Design the to-be Model (the future state)
  • Perform the gap analysis
  • Formulate improvement actions

Performing business process modeling

Create new diagram

  • Rename the pool by double clicking the pool.

Switch Off Auto Stretch

  • Double click the task to rename the task. We are renaming the task we created at step 10 to  Fill-in the Leave Application Form in this tutorial.
  • Repeat step 10 and 11 for more tasks.

New gateway

  • Repeat step 13 for more gateways
  • You may want to give some sequence flows a name. You can achieve this by double clicking the sequence flow.

End Event

  • Create more end events by repeating step 16.

how to create a business process model

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What is business process management? A BPM guide

Julia Martins contributor headshot

If outdated processes are holding you back, business process management (BPM) can help. In this article, learn how to streamline essential business processes so your company can get more done, faster.

What is business process management (BPM)?

Business process management, or BPM, is the practice of analyzing and improving business processes. A business process is a sequence of tasks or activities your business performs to achieve a specific organizational goal. 

Why is this necessary? Over time, your business processes—which were likely built when you had fewer team members or before you used certain tools—may have become outdated, inefficient, or ineffective. BPM helps you analyze those processes and optimize them through tried-and-true process improvement practices. Oftentimes, this includes business process improvements like reducing bottlenecks, automating manual work, optimizing and streamlining inefficient processes, or re-orienting project goals around specific business outcomes. 

Why is BPM important?

According to Gartner, a foremost authority in BPM research, the importance of business process management lies in its ability to synchronize people, systems, and information to achieve targeted business outcomes.

Here's how BPM helps both project managers and business process managers improve team and organizational process performance.

BPM systems streamline operational efficiency by improving business operations to become more efficient.

BPM enhances productivity by identifying and correcting inefficiencies, which leads to an increase in team productivity.

BPM drives innovation by aligning organizational processes and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Consider a software development team whose ad-hoc processes and frequent communication breakdowns caused delays in their project timelines. After adopting BPM systems, they established a clear workflow , assigned specific roles and responsibilities, and set measurable SMART goals . As a result, project completion rates improved significantly, and team collaboration became more efficient.

In essence, BPM helps project management professionals not only manage business process performance but also transform how teams achieve their goals.

3 types of business process management

BPM focuses on improving processes. But there are a lot of processes and use cases at your company, so there are additional types of BPM solutions to help you get to the bottom of these improvements. 

You don’t necessarily need to use these terms, but understanding the three different types of BPM helps you know which one to use to improve your processes. 

Human-centric BPM

Human-centric BPM caters to processes predominantly carried out by people. There are things that only people can do and often involve numerous approvals and tasks carried out by individuals. In this case, you can’t create perfect efficiency and effectiveness even if you try. So this type of BPM system works to unblock humans by integrating simple notifications, user-friendly interfaces, and effective tracking capabilities. All of which optimize people's understanding of the processes and provide them with real-time guidance. 

Examples of human-centric business processes: 

Hiring and onboarding. You can improve job postings, resume tracking, referrals—but there’s a uniquely human element to hiring a new employee. From that first phone screen to the onsite interview, improving hiring processes focuses on human-centric BPM.

Creative work. You can’t automate the creative process. This process requires a human component—the designers or copywriters—to provide the creative spark. In this case, human-centric BPM makes it easy to review and publish creative work, and to unblock creatives on your team for high-impact work.

Document-centric BPM

As the name suggests, document-centric business processes are those where a document is the main thing being created. Think of a legal document, blog post, or any document that goes through multiple rounds of revision. 

Integration-centric BPM

Did you know the average knowledge worker switches between 10 tools up to 25 times per day ? Integration-centric BPM addresses that problem through digital transformation—adopting technology to use and integrate tools in one central platform. By enabling integrations between tools, you can create a central source of truth for all of your information. Instead of manually updating your tools or searching through apps for the data you need, integration-centric BPM makes it easy to find information and prevents things from falling through the cracks.

5 stages of the business process management lifecycle

Business process management helps you reduce inefficiencies and optimize business processes. To get started, follow these five steps of the BPM lifecycle:

Before optimizing your processes, you first need to understand what they are. The first step of BPM is Analyze—though it’s sometimes referred to as the Design step. During this step, take a look at your current business processes and map them end to end. At this point, you aren’t making any changes to your business processes; you’re simply understanding what they are. 

For example, imagine you work at a small business. You want to improve the way you engage with your customers. To begin improving the customer experience through BPM, analyze what you currently do. How are tickets filed? Who responds? What happens when a team other than the customer service team needs to get involved? How quickly do you get back to customers? What’s their satisfaction rate? What’s the most recent NPS score? Do you use a CRM? Answering these questions helps paint a full picture of your customer experience process.

quotation mark

To help your team work more efficiently, you first need to understand a current process from start to finish. Then identify steps that can be cut or improved. Finally, train the team on the new process and roll it out, ideally via a template in Asana so the team can own future improvement.”

Now that you understand the process from start to finish, model what it should actually look like. Ideally, you’ve identified inefficiencies during the Analyze phase that you can trim, or places where work is being bottlenecked. Model the ideal process and flow of data, so you can begin to implement it in the next step. 

To return to our example, one big blocker your team has is getting responses from people who aren’t on the customer service team, since they use a different tool. Your customer service members spend a lot of their time manually copying information from one tool to another. To streamline and automate these workflows, you decide to integrate your CRM with your work management tool . Now that you understand what you want the process to look like, model the behavior you want to see before implementing it.

3. Implement

During the Implement step—sometimes called the Execute step—put your model into action. As you do, establish metrics for success or failure, in order to evaluate whether this process is better than the one you already had in place. 

Depending on the scope of the change, use a change management process to roll this out, especially if it’s a new technology or system your team isn’t familiar with. Luckily, we’ve got you covered—read our article on 6 steps to build a successful change management process .

To continue our example, you’ve modeled the ideal behavior between your work management and CRM tool. Now, you implement an integration-centric business process management model to do this. With effective integrations between your two tools, your customer service team can stop manually ferrying information from one tool to another and spend more time doing what they do best: serving your customers.

When you are beginning to implement new things and bring new things to your business, work with your leaders and your managers around change management of what's coming, how the organization will change, and what's required of everybody to be successful together. It’s much more than just flipping a switch or bringing in a new tool.”

Once you’ve implemented new processes, monitor them to see how well they’re doing. Have these new processes actually improved bottlenecks and inefficiencies? Are people using them? Sometimes, things that look good on paper—or even do well during a small test—don’t work during an organization-wide rollout. If that’s the case, pull back the rollout or consider pivoting to something else. By monitoring these processes, you can proactively identify any issues and jump on them if necessary. 

For example, after rolling out a new integration between tools for your customer service team, monitor tool usage. Are people using the integration? Has the amount of manual work done by your customer team gone down? If not, host additional training and enablement sessions to encourage adoption. 

5. Optimize

During the Optimize step—sometimes called Automate—continue to tweak and improve your business process. Even if the process you implemented worked perfectly, look for additional inefficiencies or manual processes to improve. This is also where business process automation comes into play. BPA is the process of automating business processes to make them more efficient and reduce manual work. 

To return to our customer service example, you now want to automatically push updates between your two tools, instead of having the customer service team manually initiate the integration. Or, look for adjacent activities to automate. For example, create a rule to automatically send a customer feedback email after a ticket is closed, in order to gauge customer service efficacy and continue improving processes down the road.

BPM best practices

Effective BPM implementation can transform an organization's operational efficiency and align it with strategic objectives for optimal business value. Here are the top best practices essential for the success of any BPM initiative:

Engage diverse perspectives: Involving stakeholders from various departments, including the CIO and project management teams, ensures a broad range of insights. This diversity is key to re-engineering processes for improved performance.

Establish a BPM Center of Excellence (CoE): Create a central hub of BPM expertise, staffed with professionals skilled in Six Sigma and Agile methodologies. This CoE guides BPM projects to align with the organization’s strategic set of activities and business goals.

Manage expectations: Clearly define the project scope and objectives with all stakeholders to ensure that the BPM system is aligned with the business value it seeks to create. A well-defined scope prevents misinterpretations and sets a clear path for project success.

Integrate performance measurement: Incorporating clear performance metrics and KPIs is key. This enables the BPM process to be continuously monitored and improved, guaranteeing that it continuously generates business value and satisfies stakeholder expectations.

Benefits of business process management

Without a big picture view of your company processes, you have no way of knowing how efficient and effective those processes are. With BPM, you have a way to understand, analyze, and improve your business processes. When you model a business process, you outline your ideal process. Then, if it doesn’t currently look like that, you figure out why, and you improve it. 

Remember, business process management isn’t a one-and-done process. Instead, it’s an ongoing effort to evaluate and improve your processes. As a result, you can drive meaningful process improvements, increased efficiency and effectiveness, and easier ways for team members to accomplish their goals faster and with less effort. 

Maps and improves your processes

Automates processes where possible 

Reduces waste

Eliminates bottlenecks

Cuts down on errors

Improves efficiency and effectiveness

Generates better services and products

Leads to better customer satisfaction

Streamlines inefficiencies

Ensures your business processes are clearly contributing to business outcomes

Business process management isn’t just effective for large, enterprise organizations—even small teams and small business users can benefit. If you have a business strategy with key business objectives, BPM helps you optimize processes and achieve those objectives. 

What is business process management software?

BPM software is technology created to help you map and capture business processes. A BPM suite of tools helps your organization understand, monitor, and streamline business processes. 

Business process management systems typically: 

Map current, existing processes

Model ideal processes

Automate processes to achieve business goals with less manual work

Track ongoing work for continuous improvement of business processes

Business process management tools sometimes also:

Offer adaptive analytics dashboards to proactively identify business process opportunities.

Offer templates for specific business processes or workflows.

Offer BPM tools for A/B testing before you roll out business processes—especially for large changes that require change management.

Track new processes to ensure team members are using them correctly, and enforce change if they aren’t.

Types of BPM technologies

Business process management software makes use of various BPM technologies to help organizations manage their processes more effectively. By integrating tools for process design, execution, control, and analysis, it enables automation and optimization of workflows. Successful BPM implementation requires selecting the appropriate technology for your organization's unique requirements.

Process design

Process design technology focuses on the creation and modification of business processes. It involves tools that help in visually mapping out process flows, defining steps, and setting parameters for how a process should operate.

An e-commerce company may employ process design tools to revamp its order fulfillment system. The software helps visualize the entire order-to-delivery workflow, identifying bottlenecks and enabling the redesign of steps for faster processing and delivery.

Process mining

These tools analyze data from various business systems to discover, monitor, and improve real processes by extracting knowledge from event logs readily available in today's cloud-computing information systems.

A healthcare provider could use process mining tools to analyze patient flow through its facilities. The insights gained may lead to improved scheduling and resource allocation, which could significantly reduce wait times and enhance patient satisfaction.

Process performance

This type of BPM technology centers on monitoring and optimizing the performance of business processes. It involves tools that track key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of processes.

A manufacturing company might implement process performance tools to monitor production lines. These tools track the speed, quality, and downtime of each line, providing data that helps fine-tune operations for maximum efficiency and product quality.

Business process examples

Business process management plays a transformative role in various departments of an organization. 

By looking at specific BPM examples, we see that it's more than just improving process performance. BPM aims to make organizations more agile, responsive, and strategically aligned. BPM, whether in sales, HR, or finance, can have a substantial impact on a company's success and competitiveness.

In sales, business process management can streamline the entire sales process, from lead generation to closing deals. It helps in managing customer data, tracking sales performance, and ensuring that sales activities align with business strategies.

Example: Consider a technology company implementing BPM to manage its sales pipeline . The BPM system automates lead tracking to ensure timely follow-ups. By analyzing sales data, the system identifies successful patterns and areas needing improvement. This allows the sales team to focus on strategies that yield the best results.

Human resources

BPM in human resources (HR) can automate and optimize various processes like recruitment, onboarding, employee performance management, and leave requests. This results in a more effective HR department, which enhances employee satisfaction and talent management.

Example: In a large retail corporation, business process management is used to streamline employee onboarding. The system automates document submissions and training schedules and integrates with payroll systems. This efficiency reduces the onboarding time, improves the new hire experience, and allows HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives like employee engagement and retention.

In the finance department, BPM can be used to manage processes such as budgeting , invoicing, compliance, and financial reporting. It enhances accuracy, speeds up financial operations, and ensures compliance with regulatory standards.

Example: A manufacturing firm employs BPM for its budgeting process. The system allows for real-time budget tracking and variance analysis, enabling quick adjustments. This process ensures that the financial resources are optimally utilized, reducing waste and enhancing the company's ability to make data-driven financial decisions.

What type of process optimization is right for you?

There are a variety of process methodologies to help you optimize your business. Here’s how BPM stacks up:

Business process management vs. workflow management

Business process management focuses on the end-to-end business process. Instead of homing in on a specific workflow, BPM aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness across your organization. 

Part of BPM is workflow management. A workflow is an end-to-end process that helps teams meet their goals by connecting the right people to the right data at the right time. Workflows organize data in an understandable and repeatable way by focusing on three things: planning, execution, and review. An effective workflow is a repeatable, sustainable business process.

Looking to improve a specific workflow? Learn how to create clear, repeatable workflows in 7 steps.

Business process management vs. project management office (PMO)

Business process management is a way to evaluate your entire process, model the ideal process, and then improve your work based on that process model.

A project management office (PMO) is also focused on improving business processes, but it goes about it in a slightly different way. Instead of tackling business processes, a PMO aligns your organization around project management best practices , defines how to execute core processes, and aligns strategic initiatives across the organization.

Looking for a PMO instead of BPM? Learn how to set and align project management conventions with a project management office.

Business process management vs. business process automation

BPM looks at your organization’s business practices holistically, then looks for ways to improve them. This often includes, but isn’t limited to, automating manual processes. Within BPM, this is referred to as business process automation (BPA).

Business process automation is critical because so many processes we do in our day-to-day lives are manual: duplicating work between tools, following up on the status of work, or even searching for information. However, you don’t need BPM in order to automate manual processes. Instead, look for any work management tool that offers workflow automation features. This type of no-code platform provides an intuitive user interface, so employees without technical expertise can still streamline manual processes. 

What is robotic process automation (RPA)?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a type of specialized business process automation. RPA helps your business build, deploy, and manage software robots that perform repetitive tasks—so your employees don’t have to. These robots can mimic all sorts of human-computer interactions, like copying and pasting or moving files from one location to another. 

Business process management vs. task and project management

BPM helps you establish and align processes at the business level. When you implement business process management, you’re looking at your entire organization’s business processes and improving them. 

Task and project management are slightly different. Task management is for individuals looking to improve their personal efficiency and effectiveness. With good task management software , you can gain clarity on your work and get your highest-impact work done. 

As the name suggests, project management functions at the project level. Project management is a way for teams to organize, track, and execute work within a project. There are five phases of project management : project initiation, project planning, project execution, project performance, and project closure.

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Create a Business Process Model (BPMN)

This tutorial will introduce how to create a business process model.

The Dragon1 modeling language enables you to create business process models at a conceptual, logical, and physical level, high level and in detail. This makes sure you can design and model the problems in the current state and solve the problems with solutions in the future state.

Dragon1 has a unique approach to creating business process models. You design a process, using input, output events, decisions, activities, tasks, performance indicators, actors, stakeholders, but also applications, and technology.

Also you can create a standard formal process model, that does not communicate well but is very correct on the theory side. And next, you can use that model to generate a very understandable view for strategic stakeholders, so that they are willing to make decisions using this picture.

One of the great things is that you can publish your business process model interactively and dynamically to stakeholders. For instance, if you change the data in the repository, the change immediately processes in the published visualization, so people never have an outdated version of the truth. You can create a drill-down process model to click through to back-office materials and documentation, like service-level contracts, procedures, or status reports.

Business Process Modeling Examples

The first visualization shows an example standard business process model. This makes it easier to measure and improve your business process.

Business Process Model with BPMN.

The second visualization makes it easier to communicate your business process model with stakeholders.

dragon1 process model artist impression example

Process Model Artist Impression Example.

Common Entity classes to use in Business Process Models are:

If you prefer you can also use BPMN as a modeling language for process modeling on Dragon1.

Steps in the Tutorial

To create a business process model, you will take the following steps:

Step 1. - Create a Dossier Structure

First we are going to create a dossier structure in a cabinet to store our data.

To create a dossier structure:

Step 2. - Enter Data

On Dragon1 you can enter data by dragging shapes to a folder.

To enter data:

Step 3. - Create a Model, using the data

To create a model:

Step 4. - Create links between models

To create a link between models:

Step 5. - Create a View, using the model

To create a view:

Step 6. - Create links between views

To create a link between views:

Step 7. - Create a Visualization, using the views

To create a visualization:

Do this for all three view shapes

With this rule you will only see the processes from the view data. You can also show the whole view with Rule Condition = *.

Step 8. - Publish the visualization

To publish a visualization:

On Dragon1, you can use visualization templates for business process modeling. Go to the Demo Section and start with a complete business process model template.

(c) Copyright 2024, Dragon1, www.dragon1.com

All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams

What are your requirements regarding bpmn diagrams.

Learn all about business process mapping and discover how you can effectively use it within your organization.

9 minute read

Would you like to create a BPMN diagram? Test Lucidchart - fast, easy, free.

What is business process mapping?

Business Process Mapping details the steps that a business takes to complete a process, such as hiring an employee or ordering and shipping a product. They show the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where” and “how” for these steps, and help to analyze the “why.” These maps are also called Business Process Diagrams and Business Flow Charts. Like other types of diagrams, these maps use defined symbols such as circles, rectangles, diamonds and arrows to depict the business activities.

Business Process Mapping can be used to document a current process and to model a new one. Its purpose is to gain a detailed understanding of the process, people, inputs, controls and outputs, and then potentially to simplify it all, make it more efficient and/or improve the process results. It requires time and discipline to conduct this mapping, but the payoff can be significant over time. Mapping has become common in the business world to standardize procedures, become more efficient, meet audit requirements and gain competitive advantage.

Business Process Mapping has its roots in the 1920s and ‘30s. In 1921, industrial engineer and efficiency expert Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. introduced the “flow process chart” to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  In the early 1930s, industrial engineer Allan H. Morgensen used Gilbreth’s tools to teach business people at his work simplification conferences how to make their work more efficient.  In the 1940s, two Morgensen students, Art Spinanger and Ben S. Graham, spread the methods more widely. Spinanger introduced the work simplification methods to Procter and Gamble. Graham, a director at Standard Register Industrial, adapted flow process charts to information processing. In 1947, ASME adopted a symbol system for flow process charts, derived from Gilbreth’s original work.

Current-day purpose and benefits

Business Process Mapping can be used to prepare for business audits or a sale, to reduce expenses, to plan for automation, to understand impacts of pending changes, to realign related processes, and to measure and realign the efforts of people involved in the processes. Often, a business may think it understands its processes, but then discovers twists and turns during a mapping initiative. When modeling a new business process, the mapping is sometimes called Business Process Modeling, or BPM. (That same acronym means Business Process Management, a related area.) For a more detailed look at Business Process Modeling, see this article.

Here are more specific examples of the uses of Business Process Mapping:

  • Compliance with International Organization for Standardization, called ISO 9001. It’s used to conduct third-party audits of an organization’s quality management, and Business Process Diagrams are often a key part. ISO 9001 tries to ensure that a company’s product is complying with government regulations and meeting customer needs.
  • Internal audits. Businesses can ensure that they are meeting their company standards, and that their processes are aligned with their mission and goals.
  • Compliance with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX. It’s also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, and it protects the public and shareholders from accounting errors and fraudulent practices. It requires public companies to disclose compliance issues. As with ISO, Business Process Mapping plays a key role in SOX compliance.
  • Standardizing a process. By documenting a process, a business can standardize it so that it’s always performed in the same, most optimal way, reducing confusion and inefficiency.
  • Training employees. The mapping also provides a standard training document for anyone to learn the process.
  • Improving a process. Once an existing process is mapped, it can be analyzed for bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Business Process Modeling can be used to model a better process.
  • Communication. Mapping provides visualization that may be much easier to understand than narrative text would be. This can help for interpretation and collaboration, either with an internal team or external team or consultants.

Business process mapping symbols

Here’s one more important entrant in the acronym arena: BPMN. That’s Business Process Modeling Notation, the set of symbols and notations in common use today for modeling. It was developed by the Business Process Management Initiative. It depicts these main components of Business Process Diagrams:

  • Process: A set of activities, performed by people or systems, in a sequence, monitored and modified by controls.
  • Task or Activity: A particular activity performed by a person or system. It’s shown by a rectangle with rounded corners. They can become more detailed with subprocesses, loops, compensations and multiple instances.
  • Participant: Person or system that performs a task or provides an input.
  • Flow: The sequence, shown by lines and arrows on the map.
  • Event: A trigger that starts, modifies or completes a process. Event types include message, timer, error, compensation, signal, cancel, escalation, link and others. They are shown by circles containing other symbols based on event type.
  • Gateway: Decision point that can adjust the path based on conditions or events. They are shown as diamonds. They can be exclusive or inclusive, parallel, complex, or based on data or events.

Another important mapping concept is called swimlanes , which show who is responsible for specific work. Just like swimlanes in a pool, tasks are shown for a particular participant in a lane, or row, on the map.

Need more detail? See this article on BPMN .

How to do business process mapping

This requires a commitment of time and energy, but the payoff in understanding and analysis can be large. There are four major steps to a mapping initiative:

  • Identify the process. Clearly define what is being mapped and what you hope to gain from it. Make sure the scope is appropriate for your goals.
  • Gather information. Observe and study the steps involved, capturing who, what, when, where and how it’s all occurring. Get down to the necessary level of detail. Keep digging and breaking down the process into more detail.
  • Interview participants and stakeholders. Talk with the participants in the process as part of your mapping to understand what they are doing. This also often helps to uncover inefficiency, miscommunication and potentially better ways to do things.
  • Draw the maps and analyze. Document it all in your Business Process Mapping software , and now you will have the basis for in-depth analysis and interpretation.

To conduct a significant mapping project, you will need to have a support structure in place first. As with any project, you would follow these steps:

  • Create a project charter or purpose statement explaining what you plan to do and hope to achieve.
  • Have an executive sponsor for the project.
  • Select the team to do the work.
  • Plan and conduct the mapping, as outlined in the four steps above.

In Business Process Management, the idea is to create a life cycle of continuous improvement. The steps are model, implement, execute, monitor and optimize.

Business Process Mapping is better for some types of processes than others. For example, it usually doesn’t lend itself to diagramming decision-making processes. High level, open-ended decision making often has too many intangibles and wild cards to effectively map. Business Process Mapping is better for the other two types of processes: transformational and transactional, both of which have more clearly defined activities. Transformational refers to processes such as manufacturing or systems development, which take inputs and change their forms, either physical or virtual. Transactional refers to an exchange such as a sales process or any other transaction.

As with any type of diagram, there are situations when another diagram method might be more fitting. For example, a Data Flow Diagram (DFD ), popularized by computing pioneers Ed Yourdon and Larry Constantine in the 1970s, is best at illustrating how information flows through a system or process. Value Stream Mapping (VMS) details the steps required to deliver a product or service. Items are mapped as adding value or not adding value from the customer’s standpoint, with the purpose of rooting out items that don’t add value. And Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used in software engineering to visualize the design of a system.

Key tips for business process mapping

  • A skilled practitioner, such as someone trained in Six Sigma, can make a mapping project go much, much smoother. If you don’t have one in house, consider a consultant to work with your internal team.
  • Identify metrics of importance. This will enable your mapping to speak effectively with data.
  • Interview one or two people at time. If you interview in groups, some people might not speak up or might not want to contradict another person.
  • As you interview, keep asking how, where and why. Such as: How do you spend most of your time, and why? Where in the process do you repeat work, and why? Do you ever skip steps? Why? Where are your pain points, and why?
  • Be on the lookout for assumptions that may not be true. Keep asking questions until you reach the definitive answer.
  • Validate your maps after you initially draw them by reviewing them with participants and your other data sources.

Drawing your map

For a simple process, you might start with Post-It Notes, a white board or a hand-drawn map. However, you might find yourself limited rather quickly as the complexity increases. With chart software, you can draw professional-looking maps that allow for more detail. You also will be able to do subsequent breakdowns with multi-level Business Process Maps, typically ranging from Level 0 (overall view) to Levels 1 through 4 for breakout detail of subprocesses, tasks and flows. Sometimes, a sequence table can be the best way to supplement a map by showing a series of steps. Map software will provide you with the shapes you’ll need to map out the process.

How to do mapping with Lucidchart

Helpful resources.

  • Visio BPMN Stencil and Templates
  • BPMN Event Types
  • BPMN Diagram Symbols & Notation
  • BPMN Activity Types
  • BPMN Gateway Types
  • BPMN & BPMN 2.0 Tutorial
  • What is Business Process Modeling Notation

Lucidchart makes it quick and easy to build business process maps that can help improve efficiency within your organization. 

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How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

In a perfect world, every business process would be documented. Employees would have everything they need to do their jobs and would know exactly how to carry out each step.

But this isn’t always the case — 60% of employees find it difficult to get the information they need for their work. This suggests that companies aren’t doing enough to document their processes, which can lead to inconsistent results.

So how can you improve your processes? And how can you ensure that employees have the information they need to do their jobs well?

Using a business process diagram is a good place to start.

In this article, we’ll cover what a business process diagram is, how it can help your company, and how to create one. We’ll also look at using business process automation software to document and automate your processes.

Click the links below to jump straight to the section you want to learn more about :

  • What Is a Business Process Diagram? 
  • How Does a Business Process Diagram Help Your Business? 

5 Essential Parts of a Business Process Diagram

7 steps to create a business process diagram, what is a business process diagram.

A business process diagram is a visual representation of a process that your company carries out to achieve a goal. It uses standardized symbols to describe each step of the process.

You can use a business process diagram to depict anything from onboarding new hires to developing and launching a new product.

Typically, a business process diagram will look like a flowchart. It could be a basic flowchart, or it could be a more complex cross-functional flowchart that spans multiple departments.

Here’s an example of a business process diagram for purchase orders:

Example of a business process diagram for purchase orders

Creating a business process diagram is the first step to improving operational efficiency. It can help you understand how a process works, allowing you to identify inefficiencies that may not have been obvious before.

When you share your process diagram with colleagues, higher-ups, and stakeholders, you can get feedback on how to adjust and optimize the process. 

If you think your business processes are as efficient as possible, think again: 68% of organizations saw key processes break down in the rapid shift to remote work in 2020. 

68% of organizations saw key processes break down due to remote work

Using a business process diagram increases productivity, minimizes errors, and facilitates digital transformation when you combine it with workflow automation software.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of business process diagrams.

How Does a Business Process Diagram Help Your Business?

Business process diagrams contain plenty of valuable information for your business. They show you how your processes actually work, not just how you think they should work.

That’s incredibly useful. 

When you use that information to identify roadblocks and optimize your workflows, your entire business benefits. Here’s how a business process diagram benefits your company.

Increases Efficiency and Productivity

44% of organizations measured the return on investment (ROI) of their business processes through how much time employees saved. The results? 66% of departments that prioritize automation say they reduced time spent on manual tasks by 11–30%. 

Reduces Business Costs

A business process diagram breaks down each step of a process, which can help you identify automation opportunities and lower operating costs. 46% of departments that prioritize process automation say they’ve reduced costs by 11–30%. 

two pie charts showing that 66% of teams reduced time by 11-30% and 46% of teams reduced costs by 11-30%

Increases Transparency

With a clear process diagram, every team member can see what they need to do. Business process models extend this idea, helping everyone see how they’re part of the larger picture.

Creates a Record of Institutional Knowledge

When employees leave the organization, they take a lot of knowledge with them. If that information isn’t documented, it’s likely gone forever. Creating a business process diagram and keeping it updated helps preserve company knowledge.

Reduces Errors and Redundancies

When everyone knows their role in a business process, you’ll get fewer mistakes and fewer instances of people doing the same work twice. 

Prefer to see and hear it rather than read about it? Let us show you how easy it is.

Improves the Employee and Customer Experience

Employees and customers appreciate when processes move quickly, whether that’s returning an item or getting all your new hire documents signed. 

With business process diagrams, you can speed up your processes while also keeping them accurate, leading to better employee and customer experiences.

While any part of a business can benefit from process mapping and automation, some departments will get a higher ROI than others.

The following departments see the highest ROI from process automation, according to a Salesforce study:

  • Operations: 47%
  • Customer service: 37%

Process Automation ROI by Department

Before you can start creating a business process diagram, you need to understand how it’s structured.

A key goal of business process mapping is to connect different sources and types of information. 

The average business process has five components. Think through where to look or who you’ll collaborate with to find the following pieces of information:

  • Goal or outcome: What is the end result of the business process? Define Points A and B, so you can fill in the blanks later in the process. 
  • Steps of the existing process: What are the main steps of the process? Communicate with your team about the steps they follow or perform the process in its entirety yourself. If any step includes a subprocess, note that here, too. 
  • People or departments involved: What skills or resources are needed to complete this process? Do specific people or departments need to be involved? Keep in mind that different steps may require different people. For example, contracts may need to go through multiple rounds of approval before they’re processed.
  • Rules or conditions for moving from step to step: Does the process change depending on who is involved, such as a new or important client, or other factors like budget and time limits? 
  • Software, tools, or devices: What resources do you need to complete the process? This could include anything from a customer support platform that logs customer complaints to BPM tools that track vacation requests. Make sure everyone who needs access to these tools has it. 

icons showing what you need to create a business process diagram

You’ll also need to consider how you’ll create, share, and manage the business process diagram. Using a BPM tool with plenty of customization options like frevvo, you’ll be able to create workflow diagrams that meet your needs. 

Now, let’s go step by step through creating a business diagram. 

This exercise is sometimes called business process mapping . The goal is to create a business process flow diagram , often known as a flow chart. 

By the end of these steps, you’ll have more than a process flowchart — you’ll have a fully automated business workflow. 

1. Outline Your Business Process 

When you begin your business process map, start by writing out the steps of the process as you understand them. You can do this on scrap paper, a whiteboard, or a mind map tool.

Outline of a business process diagram

Consider all the components listed in the previous section, as well as anything that might be unique to your organization. If you have a project management tool or other records, use those to track the current state of your business process.

2. Gather Necessary Information

Make a list of any gaps in your initial outline of the business process flowchart. Then, figure out where to find that information. 

You’ll also need to do some of your own brainstorming. If there are any obvious breakdowns in the business process, how can you fix them? Who can you recruit to help find a solution? 

This is also a good time to think about who will fill each role in your business process. Some steps may be tied to certain positions, like managers or vice presidents, but you may need to designate someone to carry out certain aspects of your process. 

3. Have Colleagues Offer Feedback 

Before you move forward with your business process diagram, get insight from other people who use this process. They may have information or ideas that you can’t see from your position. 

Ideally, you’ll get feedback from someone who is involved at each stage of the business process. This will help you build out the organizational context of your business process, which helps you best optimize it. 

Next, refine your rough draft of the process map according to the feedback you received.

4. Build Your Business Process With a BPM Tool

The best way to visualize a process is to use a business process management tool.

A BPM tool like frevvo can help you create flowchart diagrams using standardized notions that’s easy enough for your whole team to understand. You can also use the code-free workflow builder to create and automate your diagram to speed things up.

5. Assign Roles

At each step of your business process flowchart , designate specific people or types of users who are responsible for the tasks there. 

For instance, if you’re creating a purchase order approval workflow , you may need to assign approvers at the manager level and in the finance department.

When you create a new workflow in frevvo, you can assign approval steps to individual users based on their roles.

Assigning roles to a new workflow in frevvo

By integrating data sources with frevvo, you can autofill information like managers and chains of approval. This will make it easier to have a business process that adapts to your workflow.

6. Set Rules and Conditions 

The next step is to set up the rules and conditions that govern your automations. While this might sound intimidating, frevvo has wizards to walk you through setting up the controls and rules you need. 

Your rules and conditions help your process run as smoothly as possible. When set up correctly, everything seamlessly moves between people, devices, and tools, so the process doesn’t get stuck.

For example, let’s say that invoice approvals are painfully slow. Employees have to constantly chase down their managers for signatures, which makes the process take even longer.

In frevvo, you can create an invoice approval workflow that automatically routes forms to the right approver to sign. You can also add dynamic routing into your workflow (e.g., route an invoice to a senior executive for additional approval above a certain value).

Here’s an example of how this looks:

Example of an invoice approval workflow in frevvo

Approved invoices route directly to the finance department to issue payment.

By outlining what should happen in the case of almost any outcome, you can keep errors to a minimum. There’s always a clear plan of what should happen, so nothing falls through the cracks. 

7. Launch and Test Your Business Process

Before you launch your automated business process, test out your process automation with your team. You may need to make a few small changes so that it runs correctly. 

If needed, train your employees on how the process works or how to use your BPM tool. Since transparency is a key benefit of business process mapping, it’s essential that your team has what they need. 

Remember that BPM isn’t a one-time activity. You’ll always be monitoring, optimizing, and improving your business processes. With frevvo, you can easily make changes whenever you need to. 

Create Your Business Process Diagram Now

A business process diagram helps you visualize your workflows so you can optimize them. 

As you create your business process diagrams, be sure to get insight from everyone on your team. You’ll also want to make sure everyone understands their role in the business process. 

Then, convert your diagram into an automated business process using frevvo, which you can try for 30 days here .

Request a demo of our modern, cloud-based software.

Related posts:

  • 12 Crucial Features Your Workflow System Needs
  • Business Process Management: The Complete Guide
  • The 6 Step Guide to Performing Business Process Analysis

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What is BPMN? The Easy Guide to Business Process Modeling Notation

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In this guide, we will delve into what is BPMN, including its history, when and how to use it, and the benefits it brings to the table. We’ll explore BPMN diagrams, their elements, and symbols, and provide examples to illustrate their practical applications. Additionally, we’ll discuss the challenges of creating BPMN diagrams and how tools like Creately can simplify the process.

What is BPMN?

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standardized diagramming language that provides a graphical representation of business processes, enabling organizations to document, analyze, and optimize their workflows. Unlike traditional flowcharts, BPMN diagrams are rich with specific symbols and notations that cater to the complexities of modern business activities.

Here’s what sets BPMN apart:

  • Standardization : BPMN is a globally recognized standard, ensuring consistency and clarity across various stakeholders and software tools.
  • Expressiveness : With a comprehensive set of symbols, BPMN can illustrate complex process dynamics such as parallel tasks, events, and decision gateways.
  • Versatility : It’s suitable for both technical users who design and implement processes and business stakeholders who need to understand them.

While other process modeling languages exist, BPMN’s widespread adoption is due to its balance of simplicity and expressiveness. It bridges the gap between the technical implementation of processes and the business strategy that guides them.

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History of BPMN

Here are some key milestones that have shaped BPMN into the robust framework it is today. These milestones not only reflect the technical advancements but also the collaborative efforts of key organizations and figures dedicated to the development of BPMN.

History of BPMN

When to Use BPMN

BPMN diagrams are particularly beneficial in scenarios where clear communication and detailed process mapping are essential. Here are some appropriate use cases for BPMN diagrams:

Complex workflow visualization : When dealing with intricate workflows that involve multiple stakeholders, BPMN diagrams provide a standardized method to visualize and communicate the processes.

Business process improvement : BPMN is ideal for identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies in existing processes, helping teams to optimize and refine their workflows.

System integration planning : For projects that require the integration of various systems, BPMN diagrams can outline the interactions and data flow between these systems, leading to a smoother integration.

BPMN Examples

BPMN diagrams serve as a universal language, bridging the gap between process design and implementation. Let’s delve into some illustrative examples from various industries:

  • Healthcare : A BPMN diagram can map out patient admission processes, making sure that each step from registration to discharge is clearly defined and optimized for efficiency and patient care.
  • Manufacturing : BPMN diagrams are used to streamline production workflows, identifying bottlenecks and enabling seamless coordination between different departments, from procurement to shipping.
  • Banking : In the banking sector, BPMN diagrams facilitate the visualization of loan approval processes, making it easier to identify areas for improvement and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

Explore more BPMN templates here.

Features of BPMN

Business Process Model and Notation is renowned for its extensive set of elements and symbols. Each element represents different activities, decisions, and flows within a business process, ensuring that every detail can be captured.

  • Task and activity symbols : From simple tasks to complex subprocesses, BPMN includes a variety of symbols to denote work being done.
  • Gateway symbols : Decision points in a process are clearly depicted with gateway symbols, guiding the flow based on conditions.
  • Event symbols : Events that trigger or result from process steps are represented with distinct symbols, indicating start, intermediate, and end states.
  • Connecting objects : Sequence flows, message flows, and associations are the lifelines that connect elements, illustrating the interaction between different parts of the process.

BPMN 2.0 Diagram Elements and Symbols

Understanding the core elements of BPMN 2.0 diagrams is crucial for anyone involved in business process modeling. These elements are represented by a variety of symbols, each with a specific meaning and purpose within the BPMN framework.

BPMN 2.0 Diagram Elements and Symbols

Benefits of BPMN

BPMN offers many benefits that streamline organizational processes and improve operational efficiency. Here are some of the key advantages:

Streamlining process management and communication : BPMN diagrams serve as a universal language, allowing stakeholders from different departments or even different organizations to understand and manage complex processes with ease. This common visual language eliminates ambiguity and fosters clear communication.

Improving documentation and compliance tracking : With BPMN, documenting processes becomes more structured and standardized, which is crucial for maintaining compliance with industry regulations. The BPMN diagram can be used as a reference point to make sure all regulatory requirements are met.

Facilitating process automation and improvement : BPMN is not just about mapping out current processes; it’s also a tool for identifying areas of improvement. Inefficiencies become obvious when you visualize the workflow, so you can automate and continuously improve it.

How to Create a BPMN Diagram

Creating a BPMN diagram involves visually representing the steps and components of a business process.

Step 1: Identify the Process

Clearly define the boundaries and scope of the business process you want to model using BPMN.

Step 2: Choose a Tool

Choose a BPMN-compliant modeling tool. For example, you can use Creately’s BPMN software to quickly visualize your business processes. It comes with pre-made templates and an extensive shape libraries for BPMN 2.0, flowcharts, & process maps, real-time collaboration and powerful diagramming and AI capabilities.

Step 3: Draw the BPMN diagram

  • Begin your BPMN diagram with a start event. This represents the initiation point of the process.
  • Use rounded rectangles to represent activities or tasks within the process. Place them in sequence to show the flow of the process.
  • Use diamond-shaped gateways to represent decision points in the process. These indicate where the flow can take different paths based on conditions.
  • Use arrows to connect activities in the order they occur. Sequence flows represent the flow of the process from one task to the next.
  • Use parallel gateways to show parallel paths in the process. Use exclusive gateways for mutually exclusive paths based on conditions.
  • Represent the completion points of the process using end events. There can be different types of end events, such as normal end, error end, or cancel end.
  • Use data objects to represent data exchanged between activities. Include artifacts such as annotations or groups to provide additional information.
  • If your process involves collaboration between different entities, use pools to represent separate participants and lanes to represent their specific responsibilities.

Step 4: Annotate and Document

Add annotations to provide additional information or details about specific elements in the diagram. Document any relevant information that enhances understanding.

Step 5: Validate and Review

Share the BPMN diagram with stakeholders to validate its accuracy and completeness. Address any feedback or questions.

BPMN Subprocesses

In BPMN, sub-models or subprocesses are used to represent a modular and hierarchical structure within a larger process. Subprocesses make complex processes more manageable and understandable. There are two main types of subprocesses in BPMN:

Collapsed subprocess

A collapsed subprocess represents a subprocess at a higher level of abstraction. It is shown as a single shape, often a rounded rectangle, with a plus sign inside. This indicates that there is more detail hidden within the subprocess. When a BPMN diagram is intended for a higher-level overview, collapsed subprocesses provide a concise representation.

Expanded subprocess

An expanded subprocess provides a detailed view of the subprocess within the main process. When you expand a subprocess, you reveal the internal activities, events, and gateways that make up that subprocess. The expanded subprocess allows for a more in-depth understanding of the contained activities and their relationships.

Key points about sub-models in BPMN

Reusable components : Subprocesses can be reused in multiple places within a BPMN diagram or even in different BPMN diagrams. This promotes modularity and consistency across processes.

Separation of concerns : Subprocesses support the separation of concerns by breaking down a complex process into smaller, more manageable parts. Each subprocess can represent a specific aspect or functionality of the overall process.

Encapsulation : Subprocesses encapsulate a set of activities, events, and gateways, providing a higher-level abstraction. This can improve the readability of the main process and make it easier to focus on specific aspects.

Call activities : BPMN includes a specific element called a “Call Activity” to represent the invocation of a reusable subprocess. A Call Activity can reference a subprocess defined elsewhere, allowing for modular design and consistent use of subprocesses across processes.

Transaction subprocess : BPMN also supports a special type of subprocess called a “Transaction Subprocess,” which allows for the modeling of transactional behavior, including compensation activities in case of failures.

Quick Tips for Drawing More Effective BPMN Diagrams

Understand your process : Gain a deep understanding of the business process before starting the diagram. Clearly define the scope, objectives, and key activities.

Follow BPMN standards : Adhere to BPMN standards to maintain consistency and compatibility with BPMN-compliant tools.

Sequence flow clarity : Clearly define the sequence flow between activities. Ensure a logical and easily understandable order of execution.

Correctly use gateways : Understand and correctly use gateways (decision, inclusive, exclusive) to represent branching and merging points in the process.

Use swimlanes wisely : Pools and lanes help visualize collaboration, so use them when appropriate for your process.

Annotate and document : Add annotations to explain complex parts of the process. Use comments or documentation to provide additional details.

Simplify complex processes : Break down complex processes into subprocesses or use expansion markers to simplify the view.

Consider process improvement : Use the BPMN diagram as a basis for process improvement discussions within your organization.

The Goal of BPMN

The goal of BPMN is to establish a standardized visual language to represent business processes, fostering collaboration and clear communication. BPMN provides a universally accepted notation, facilitating the modeling and documentation of complex processes, as well as analysis, optimization, and automation. From design to execution and continuous improvement, it supports business processes throughout their lifecycle, bridging the gap between business and technical professionals. Ultimately, BPMN serves as a powerful tool to improve understanding, streamline communication, and drive efficiency in business process management.

Why Use BPMN

Organizations use BPMN to improve communication, collaboration, and understanding of their business processes. Here’s why they are important;

1. Standardized notation

BPMN provides a standardized notation that is widely accepted in the business process management domain. This common language ensures consistency and clarity in communicating business processes.

2. Clear visualization

It allows for the clear and intuitive visualization of complex business processes, making it easier for stakeholders to understand, analyze, and improve workflows.

3. Communication

BPMN serves as a communication tool between business and technical stakeholders. It bridges the gap between business analysts and IT professionals by providing a shared visual language.

4. Process improvement

Organizations use BPMN to model existing business processes and identify areas for improvement. It supports the analysis and optimization of workflows to boost efficiency and effectiveness.

5. Process automation

BPMN is often used in conjunction with business process automation tools. The standardized notation allows for a smoother transition from process design to automated execution.

6. Training and onboarding

BPMN diagrams serve as valuable training materials for new employees, providing a visual guide to understand how various processes within an organization work.

7. Risk management

BPMN allows organizations to identify potential bottlenecks, risks, and inefficiencies in their processes, enabling proactive risk management strategies.

Challenges of Creating a BPMN Diagram

It can be hard to create a BPMN diagram, even for the most technically savvy product managers. Intricacies of BPMN notation combined with complicated business processes can lead to these problems:

BPMN vs. UML

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is designed for modeling business processes, focusing on visualizing and improving workflows. In contrast, UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a broader modeling language used in software engineering for designing and documenting software systems. BPMN is tailored for business stakeholders, while UML is primarily used by software developers and technical stakeholders. While both use standardized notations, BPMN emphasizes business processes' temporal aspects, and UML covers a wider range of software design aspects. Organizations may use one or both depending on their project needs.

BPMN Vs. Flowchart

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is specialized for modeling business processes with standardized symbols, focusing on clarity and communication for business stakeholders. Flowcharts, more versatile in application, doesn’t have strict standardization and can represent various processes beyond business, providing flexibility in detail and symbols. The choice depends on the specific purpose and audience of the diagram.

How Creately Can Help You to Create a BPMN Diagram

Creating a BPMN diagram can be a complex task, but with Creately, the process becomes significantly more manageable. Here’s how you can use Creately to draw a comprehensive BPMN diagram;

Easily create complex BPMN diagrams

With standard BPMN 2.0 shapes and ready-to-use templates to create complex BPMN diagrams easily. Quickly change visual attributes of the diagrams using the quick toolbar and host multiple templates to analyze them side by side on the infinite canvas.

Capture process requirements effectively

Use the integrated notes for each shape to capture and document process details and embed documents, add images, and attach links for better context. Or embed images, documents, videos, etc. relevant to the process directly on the canvas for quick reference. Keep track of changes made to the diagram with version control.

Collaborate and share easily across teams

Easily control access to public & private process details for external stakeholders with advanced workspace sharing options and collaborate with cross-functional teams & clients on a shared canvas. Connect with your existing tools and workflows with powerful integrations for Confluence, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, etc.

Learn how to create a BPMN diagram with Creately .

As we wrap up our exploration of BPMN, it’s clear that this standardized language has a significant impact on business efficiency. By providing a clear and consistent way to document processes, BPMN helps organizations to analyze and improve their operations effectively.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

The Complete List of BPMN Symbols and Their Meanings

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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How to Design a Winning Business Model

  • Ramon Casadesus-Masanell
  • Joan E. Ricart

Smart companies’ business models generate cycles that, over time, make them operate more effectively.

Reprint: R1101G

Most executives believe that competing through business models is critical for success, but few have come to grips with how best to do so. One common mistake, the authors’ studies show, is enterprises’ unwavering focus on creating innovative models and evaluating their efficacy in standalone fashion—just as engineers test new technologies or products. However, the success or failure of a company’s business model depends largely on how it interacts with those of the other players in the industry. (Almost any business model will perform brilliantly if a company is lucky enough to be the only one in a market.) Because companies build them without thinking about the competition, companies routinely deploy doomed business models.

Moreover, many companies ignore the dynamic elements of business models and fail to realize that they can design business models to generate winner-take-all effects similar to the network externalities that high-tech companies such as Microsoft, eBay, and Facebook often create. A good business model creates virtuous cycles that, over time, result in competitive advantage.

Smart companies know how to strengthen their virtuous cycles, undermine those of rivals, and even use them to turn competitors’ strengths into weaknesses.

The Idea in Brief

There has never been as much interest in business models as there is today; seven out of 10 companies are trying to create innovative business models, and 98% are modifying existing ones, according to a recent survey.

However, most companies still create and evaluate business models in isolation, without considering the implications of how they will interact with rivals’ business models. This narrow view dooms many to failure.

Moreover, companies often don’t realize that business models can be designed so that they generate virtuous cycles—similar to the powerful effects high-tech firms such as Facebook, eBay, and Microsoft enjoy. These cycles, when aligned with company goals, reinforce competitive advantage.

By making the right choices, companies can strengthen their business models’ virtuous cycles, weaken those of rivals, and even use the cycles to turn competitors into complementary players.

This is neither strategy nor tactics; it’s using business models to gain competitive advantage. Indeed, companies fare poorly partly because they don’t recognize the differences between strategy, tactics, and business models.

Strategy has been the primary building block of competitiveness over the past three decades, but in the future, the quest for sustainable advantage may well begin with the business model. While the convergence of information and communication technologies in the 1990s resulted in a short-lived fascination with business models, forces such as deregulation, technological change, globalization, and sustainability have rekindled interest in the concept today. Since 2006, the IBM Institute for Business Value’s biannual Global CEO Study has reported that senior executives across industries regard developing innovative business models as a major priority. A 2009 follow-up study reveals that seven out of 10 companies are engaging in business-model innovation, and an incredible 98% are modifying their business models to some extent. Business model innovation is undoubtedly here to stay.

how to create a business process model

  • RC Ramon Casadesus-Masanell is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author, with Joan E. Ricart, of “How to Design a Winning Business Model” (HBR January–February 2011).
  • JR Joan E. Ricart ( [email protected] ) is the Carl Schroder Professor of Strategic Management and Economics at IESE Business School in Barcelona.

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The Definitive Guide to Business Process Modeling

Last Updated on January 5, 2024 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

Business Process Modeling

Featured Bonus Content: Download the FREE Checklist for Business Process Modeling! You will get access to a complete worksheet to help you map your current as-is business process and determine your to-be business process. Click Here To Download It.

Introduction

To say that we are living in an era of plenty would be a colossal understatement. But we seldom stop to reflect and appreciate how all the amenities we take for granted today make it to our hands. While it may seem that many of the technological breakthroughs that enable high-quality goods to be created and distributed only started around the middle of the 20th century, the science of business process has existed and been evolving far longer than commonly known.

Even though means, materials and efficiencies have no doubt increased manifold since, the underlying principle remains essentially the same. But business process modeling as a concept wouldn’t take shape until the early 20th century when gantt charts, flowcharts, functional flow block diagrams, etc started being used to document and affect business methodologies.

Whether it was Henry Ford’s Model T that halved the price of cars or Just-in-Time manufacturing that greatly reduced the time it takes to manufacture and distribute goods, every quality of life improvement can be traced to an innovative business process.

But even as business process models have helped power many industry trends, companies today are confronted with challenges that until recently were non-existent. Just look what Airbnb, Uber and Lyft have done to their respective industries. With newer methods of working such as BYOD, digital nomadism and remote working gaining popularity, companies are being forced to work in asymmetrical ways that both challenge older business process models and present interesting new advantages.

Since remote working is expected to at least equal fixed location working by 2025, companies have to adapt and update their business process models to function efficiently in this new dynamic. In the interest of self-preservation, companies are best to anticipate radical, sometimes devastating changes unless they want to be caught unprepared. But such challenges also demand that we answer some perplexing questions:

  • How does a company opt for a business process model if there is no guarantee it will remain useful as markets or work practices change?
  • If a company does come up with a set of business process models, can they be updated on the fly?
  • Are the company’s current processes really inefficient to the point they have to be replaced?
  • Is new technology presenting newer models that can be leveraged to provide a competitive advantage?

In the following sections, we will attempt to answer each one of these questions (among others) to help you find and implement the best business process for your business’s unique way of working and challenges. Let’s begin.

The Definitive Guide to Business Process Modeling – Content Index

Chapter 1: defining a business process model, chapter 2: four business process modeling techniques, chapter 3: how to select a business process modeling technique for your company, chapter 4: how you’re probably underestimating business process modeling, chapter 5: five questions to ask before creating your business model, chapter 6: tools for business process modeling, concluding thoughts, defining a business process model.

Defining a Business Process Model

Despite the best of intentions, businesses rarely operate at their highest efficiency. Important things get overlooked: office politics, power games, people getting sick and lost opportunities all play an unfortunate, albeit inevitable, role in a company’s life. A business process model is therefore a tool that can be used to graphically present how a company works and identify opportunities to improve processes.

The term first appeared in 1967 in S. William’s paper titled Business Process Modeling Improves Administrative Control which explored physical control systems for understanding business processes. The strategy uses graphing methods such as flowcharts, Gantt charts, data-flow diagrams, Petri nets, etc., to illustrate all the different business functions and how they interact with one another. The following is a simple illustration of a BPM.

Defining a Business Process Model 2

Two types of business process models are drawn: as-is models that represent how a company works presently, and to-be models that denote how a company should look in the future.

As-is Business Models: An as-is model defines and lists out all the functions of a business as they exist today, complete with their strengths and weaknesses. These consist of all the roles, responsibilities, steps, exceptions, etc. While as-is business models aren’t necessary, creating one can be extremely beneficial to tracking the company’s performance over time. Certain situations also require as-is business models to be obtained before moving forward. For instance:

  • The company is facing issues such as customer service inquiries not getting processed in time.
  • Orders are taking an inordinate amount of time to get processed, far more than the industry standard.
  • There is palpable confusion regarding responsibilities and users often overstep their boundaries.
  • The management has discovered methods to improve efficiency in certain processes or automate them entirely.

These are some of the more common reasons, and many more such scenarios can be added here. Documenting business processes is a good practice in itself as it can uncover many issues that may plague a company, often unknowingly.

To-be Business Models: These models define the state that an organization wishes to be in. Oftentimes, a to-be model is an as-is model with procedural improvements. However, if a company wishes to rewrite how it works entirely, then a completely new model can be created.

For instance, if a company grows, then it might have to add a new department or a warehouse that will come with its own set of processes. The company will then need to document all the new functions and processes into its existing business process model and assess how each of them affects the rest of its functions.

Over the years, many different business process modeling techniques have come up, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ones and what advantages they have to offer.

Four Business Process Modeling Techniques

Business Model Integration

Even a cursory online search will reveal a plethora of modeling tools you can use to get a good idea of what your company’s processes look like. The problem, however, is that many of these tools are either untested or simply ideas without any sound real-world applications. While you are encouraged to find as many actionable insights online as possible, let’s take a look at four of the most well-known business process modeling tools.

Business Process Model and Notations (BPMN)

By far the most common business process modeling technique, BPMN uses flowchart based graphical notations and is similar to activity diagrams found in the Unified Modeling Language.

BPMN is popular because the notations used within it are intuitive and simple for business users, yet provide enough technical semantics for some of the more complicated processes.

The notations are standardized so they can be understood by all stakeholders.

The model was developed by Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) which merged with the Object Management Group in 2005 and is ISO 19510 compliant.

As part of its standardization, BPMN uses five categories for denoting business functions. They are:

  • Connecting Objects: Connects different tasks via lines. Solid lines represent task transfers; dotted ones are for messaging.
  • Flow Objects: Represents events with circles; activities with rectangular boxes; gateways and control points come in diamond shape.
  • Swimlanes: Details how different responsibilities are to be shared within a process. Here, a sub-task is denoted as a “pool” and lanes represent people or departments.
  • Artefacts: Used to show extra information that isn’t part of the process but can help illustrate it better.
  • Data Objects: Are used to denote four data types. A page icon is used for singular data objects; page icon with arrow is for data input and outputs; and a container is used for data stores.

BPMN is an evolving system that is being added to all the time. For the most updated version of BPMN, check out bpmn.org/ .

Subject-Oriented Business Process Management (S-BPM)

A communication based tool, S-BPM is derived from CCS-Calculus by Robin Milner which was designed to provide a mathematical framework to understand communication systems. S-BPM uses a simple five-symbol system to model any process. The underlying premise of S-BPM is that every system is built up of subjects which can be a locus of activity, a process or a computational unit. Notations here can be mapped as follows:

  • Subject (who): the subject
  • Object (with what): data
  • Predicate (what): action

A subject executes an action on an object. The notation is best illustrated with a flowchart of a quiz, where an asker asks a question to a responder, who then provides an answer which is then responded to with feedback (if it’s needed).

Flowchart Technique

Everyone knows of the humble old flowchart and its many uses. Most of the other business process models are essentially just a different iteration of flowcharts with a few features added for greater flexibility. While flowcharts have been superseded, they still remain relevant due to their simplicity.

Flowcharts are used for documenting sequential actions, simple processes and functions. A standard flowchart can be made with just two symbols: a rectangular box to denote an action, and a diamond-shaped box to highlight decisions. Even so, over the years many symbols have been added including oval rectangles for start/end functions, parallelograms for input/output, circles for connectors, triangle for inventory, rectangle with rounded corners for alternate processes, and so on.

Even though more advanced tools are certainly available today, the simplicity of flowcharts make them an ideal starting point for companies looking to get into business process modeling. Their intuitive nature makes them easy to understand with little or no training, which is why they are still being used in business and technological applications even to this day.

Activity Diagrams (UML)

Unified Modeling Language was created in 1994 by Grady Brooch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh primarily for documenting software systems. Despite being complicated due to the sheer amount of information and techniques added to it since its inception, UML has use cases beyond software and has been successfully applied to business functions as well.

Activity diagrams that are a part of behavioral diagrams in UML offer a very efficient way to record business processes as they are designed to document flow of actions. Even in UML, activity diagrams are the second most popular tool after class diagrams. Activity diagrams can be created using five basic components:

  • Start node: uses a black circle to symbolize the beginning of an activity
  • Action: uses a box (sometimes with rounded edges) to denote an action taken by an actor
  • Decision node: represented by a diamond, has one input and two or more outputs
  • Control flows: uses arrows, join and fork symbols to connect the different steps
  • End node: Uses a black within a white circle symbol to denote the end of a process

Other symbols used include the hourglass symbol to highlight the amount of time between processes, arrow box to represent outgoing events, an arrow fletch symbol for incoming events, and a document symbol for annotations.

How to Select a Business Process Model for Your Company

How to Select a Business Process Model for Your Company

Your company’s business process is a subset of its entire business process management lifecycle and as such needs to fit into your strategy. As Gartner says, “Processes span organizational boundaries, linking together people, information flows, systems and other assets to create and deliver value to customers and constituents.” A typical BPM lifecycle looks like:

Typical BPM Lifecycle

As the model itself will be a small part of your productivity equation, it’s best to consider all the other variables that will play here. As such, you must:

Generate organization wide buy-in: Your business process model needs to document every step of your value chain. Most of these steps will be known best to the people who perform them every day, i.e., your team members. Asking everyone to share how they do what they do and what they might want to improve will be not only a great way to communicate the need for documenting your business process model, but involve everyone too which will help implementing any new model(s) all the more easier.

Map your as-is processes: Once you have some buzz built around your BPM initiative, it’s time to create a database of all the existing processes you are currently using. Consider sending a form to all your team members with a series of questions that helps them define their roles, responsibilities, processes they follow and any issues that they might be facing.

Relate the processes to your business strategy: Many processes are thought of and implemented in the spur of the moment as and when the need arises. Since there is no guarantee that these processes actually help achieve the company’s goals efficiently, they should be mapped against the latter.

Define your to-be processes: By now you should have a good idea on what your overall process chain looks like, which processes add the most value to your organization, which can be replaced and which are simply dead weight. Your ideal to-be BPM should therefore include the processes that your company has mastered, upgrade legacy processes that are falling behind, and replace those that are obsolete. You can also add processes that new technologies are enabling at this stage.

Implement Continuous Process Improvement (CPI): If you haven’t already, that is. The idea behind CPI can be traced back to the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen which highlights the importance of continually improving yourself, your service/product and your organization’s culture. The primary focus of CPI is to continuously look out for and remove sub-optimal processes from the value chain. This can be accomplished via constantly reflecting on the processes, the value they add to your organization, and how they can be used as a foundation to build something even better. Improvements can be added in an iterative manner or in one fell swoop as needed.

While the steps mentioned above will help you with the cultural aspect of organizational change, selecting the right business process modeling tool will need a different approach. Wenhong Luo and Y. Alex Tung in their paper titled A Framework for Selecting Business Process Modeling Methods give an excellent strategy on how to go about finding the right process modeling tool for your organization. They highlight five steps that can help you do so:

Identification of modeling objectives: List out the reason why modeling business processes is required. Are you trying to get a better idea of how your business runs? Do you want to improve certain processes/sub-processes only? Do you feel that your legacy processes are facing obsoletion? Have you discovered inefficiency in your value chain? Several reasons can also coexist throughout the process reengineering effort as well.

Identification of required perspectives and desired characteristics: Once the modeling objectives have been ascertained, you can determine from which perspective a model will be crafted. Luo and Tung suggest that models can either be from the object perspective , which emphasizes the objects being manipulated, i.e. data, documents or physical items, or from the activity perspective which highlights the activities being performed and the relationship between each activity.

So if the objective of your modeling initiative is to help employees understand their roles better, then your models should be from the activity perspective. The model should ideally be simple to understand as non-technical people will be required to study and implement it. On the other hand, if your model is to examine process performance, then it should be drawn from the object perspective.

Identification of alternative BPM methods: In this step, all the viable BPM tools, complete with their respective strengths and weaknesses, are listed. From the example above, let’s assume your objective is to enhance employee performance. You therefore consider BPMN, activity diagrams and flowcharts as potentially ideal modeling tools. Both offer great activity perspective potential and have a plethora of features to help you achieve your goal.

Evaluation of modeling methods: Your selected models are now weighed against their respective strengths. Upon deeper analysis, you discover that activities that BPMN can highlight with a single symbol sometimes require several symbols (and steps) in AD. The conclusion shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, as AD being a derivative of UML is, in fact, object based at its heart since it was created to model software systems.

That being said, BPMN is far more complex than needed and you realize that many of its core features such as swimlanes won’t even be needed. You only need enough visualization to help employees picture the entire process better. Flowcharts, on the other hand, are perfectly adequate as they are simple, and your staff is also well familiar with it, making implementation and buy-in easy.

Selection of the appropriate method: It is entirely possible that more than one tool will be needed. However, in our given example, flowcharts are the clear winner.

The decision making process that most companies will face will no doubt be far more complex, and recreating a detailed account of what it might look like is beyond the scope of this article. The research paper goes into more depth on how to decide which business process modeling tool to select, so be sure to give it a read.

There is hardly a business process out there that cannot be documented with one of the four modeling tools mentioned above. That being said, here are a few honorable mentions you can look into.

  • Cognition enhanced Natural Language Information Analysis Method : CogNIAM attempts to integrate different classes of data, rules, processes, and semantics, and is also known as the “Knowledge Triangle.”
  • Event Driven Process Chain : A simple ordered graph of events and functions, EDPC can be thought of as the flowchart technique on steroids.
  • Formalized Administrative Notations : Useful for helping managers identify and describe responsibilities and operations.

How You’re Probably Underestimating the Benefits of Business Process Modeling

How You’re Probably Underestimating Business Process Modeling

Documenting business processes is incredibly easy to underestimate. So often, we end up getting carried away by daily goals, deadlines, and handling customer issues to the point where we forget about how the underlying processes can be enhanced.

Even if documenting and modeling business processes may seem like a fairly mundane chore, neglecting it can have catastrophic consequences for a business. According to market research firm IDC, companies can lose 30% every year due to inefficiencies.

Companies are often guilty of continuing with the same processes simply because they have become too accustomed to them as well. Such practices result in inefficiencies getting deeply entrenched into the organization’s culture and can hurt its performance in the market. The opposite is true as well. General Electric reported that a one percent increase in oil production led to an additional 80 billion barrels of oil per year.

James Proctor , director of professional services at the Inteq Group, in his white paper on Misconceptions of Censuring Current State Mapping , suggests four reasons companies give when ignoring current state mapping and analysis:

We already have a process, it works, so there’s no need to evaluate and improve: Beyond  the processes that are explained in onboarding tours, rule books and management sessions, a company’s staff also maintains procedural knowledge gained by experience over time. This deep business knowledge is almost always maintained in the minds of the people and rarely documented, even though it has a very high say in how a company produces its output. The consequence here is twofold:

  • The knowledge is lost when an employee leaves the company. Or,
  • The processes remain inefficient as they are never discussed openly.

One of the advantages of mapping current processes is that they can help a company mine its intuitive, subjective knowledge. It can also help answer the processes what and how, thereby enabling the company to build on top of it.

We know our processes don’t work, so let’s move to the latest, greatest thing: Also known as “shiny object syndrome,” this line of reasoning is again given to jump to a new solution without trying to understand what the underlying problem is. Oftentimes, there will be salvageable knowledge that can serve an organization, or the processes itself will need some fixing. Organizations also ignore the human element in their processes where vested interests and poor allocation of resources can come together to wreak havoc on the output. As most companies will follow industry specific processes, they can misdiagnose problems.

Mapping business processes can help companies understand where they are going wrong, what they can do to fix it, and how to go about affecting their solutions. Consequently, they may uncover solutions that do not require a complete overhaul, making new process implementation both easier and more affordable.

We are outsourcing our business process to a third party, so we don’t need to look into our processes ourselves: Many times, companies will look to specialized vendors to help them come up with better business processes—no doubt a great way to fast forward to a new desired step. But simply relying on another company’s solution can also result in lost knowledge and overlooked opportunities to increased efficiency.

A desired future state can only be attained once the current state has been understood. In fact, even after implementing a radically different method, 60% to 80% of a business’s existing concepts continue to apply . Reason being, while the processes themselves may be altered slightly, their fundamental premise (i.e., business logic) will remain the same. Moving to a third-party solution will require an astute understanding of a company’s current processes and how they can coexist with the vendor’s solution, making business process mapping all the more necessary.

We have industry best practices already at work, so we don’t need to innovate: While existing workflow templates are no doubt a great, well-tested source to draw your organizational design from, they are best not taken at face value. Most such instructions draw from their respective sources experience, business challenges, and subjective views on how to go about solving certain problems. These insights may or may not apply to your company’s particular operation. You may find utility in some parts of the template and rely on your existing models for other functions.

The best organizations use templates to create their own business processes that are tailored to their strengths while helping them overcome their weaknesses. A business model becomes more than a tool to complete a process as quickly as possible and can be used to differentiate a business from its competitors.

The bottom line here is that there is never a good reason not to document your processes and procedures. Even if a business process model doesn’t seem necessary now, there are plenty of scenarios that may prove to be invaluable.

Five Questions to Ask Before Creating Your Business Process Model

Five Questions to Ask Before Creating Your Business Process Model

Even though the importance of having a business process model in place is well established, there needs to be a well-defined use case starting out. The following five business analysis questions are a great way to create a framework for mapping business processes:

What are you currently doing?

Essentially you list out all the processes, activities and sequences that are currently being carried out by the company to create its product/service. Consider listing each activity and process in detail, who is responsible for it, and any issues you may be facing in executing it.

What are you currently doing that is not needed?

In other words, of all the activities and processes listed, which can you do without and/or can be replaced? Many organizations have business processes and policies that either have little or no value.

More often than not, these will be legacy ware that has been in practice for a long time and can be replaced with more modern tools. On other occasions, procedures and policies may have been put in place to comply with legislations that have since been removed, making said policies obsolete.

What are you currently doing that can be improved?

When obsolete processes are discovered, the first impulse is usually to replace them quickly. However, analysis can reveal that certain business policies, processes, and procedures can be improved with minor modifications. Improvement is always best prioritized over replacement as it can lead to substantial improvement in performance at lower costs.

What are you not doing that you should be doing?

Many times, stakeholders become aware that a procedure, policy or process is proving to be a bottleneck. They may also be aware of certain actions or tools that can help to iron out the kinks and drive up productivity but are unable to implement them either due to financial or time constraints. Listing out such problems along with available known solutions will be a good start toward getting more people involved and thereby putting them into practice.

What are you not doing that you don’t know you should be doing?

Not all requirements can be known ahead of time, and the same can be said for potential solutions. This question is to coax stakeholders into looking out of their immediate vicinity to find solutions that may exist they are currently unaware of. Asking third party specialists and analysts, researching online, and keeping up-to-date with industry news, are all great ways to get some new ideas flowing in house.

Business Process Modeling Software

Obviously, creating modeling for your business processes is an involved and tedious task that is going to take some time. And if you are planning on using spreadsheets, emails, document files and PDFs to document your processes, then it will take longer than it really has to. A number of cloud-based business process tools exist today that are designed from the ground up to help companies create, distribute, and track their processes, all from one place. Not only do these tools greatly speed up documentation, but also act as a central repository for all the company’s knowledge, making process implementation all the more efficient.

Here are five such tools:

SweetProcess

SweetProcess

Features: Document processes, procedures and policies, steps can be added to each as checklists and can include videos and/or pictures, enables training on the job

Price: Starting at $99/Month for team of twenty with $5/additional member

Free trial: 14 days

The software above is designed for process mapping and documentation. But none of them really delve into the basic components of BPM. In fact, most business process modeling tools only deal with the process part of the equation while ignoring its two siblings: policies and procedures. And yes, all three are very different in definition and application. An organization’s business schematics needs the proper implementation of all three in order to be implemented successfully. The difference between them is:

  • Policies : A list of rules and guidelines that need to be followed to accomplish a goal.
  • Procedures : The outline on how to carry out a task.
  • Processes : The exact step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task.

Essentially, processes make up a procedure, and procedures make up a policy . All three components work best when they use the preceding tool as context. This is where SweetProcess shines. The platform allows users to systematically create their policies, procedures, and processes, and assign them to teams and/or users.

SweetProcess also allows companies to capture information in real time and integrate it into their overall business model effortlessly. People can be trained on new procedures on the spot and all their feedback can be recorded on the job card for future reference.

Users can implement a document-as-you-go process model where their business process model can be revised and adapted based on new information, technique, or technology. In other words, companies need not assign a huge part of their time and manpower to revising their business process—it can be done on the fly as and when needed.

ProcessMaker

ProcessMaker

Features: Highly intuitive and personalizable dashboards, output document builder, easy to track KPIs

Price: $1,500/month for standard package

Free trial: 30 days

Some of the biggest challenges that a company faces when coming up with new processes appear mundane on the surface. For instance, maintaining paper records and backups, signing soft copies digitally and coming up with a unified design that everyone in the company can work with can give managers more than a headache. ProcessMaker takes care of these issues (among many others) by providing a simple interface to both create and distribute process-related documents.

ProcessMaker is a drag and drop BPMN-based process-making tool that allows users to create their own process models without needing to know any programming knowledge. Entire processes can be created offline and synced with the company’s database when the user goes online. BPMN elements such as Gateways can be designed on customized conditions and form-fields can be created print-ready with definable variables.

ProcessMaker also comes with a responsive dynamic forms designer which can be customized to any requirements, have sub-forms and can be integrated with outside variables and files. Their dynaforms function uses the same drag and drop functions that the BPMN tool does, but developers can edit the forms in JavaScript if they so choose. The forms can auto-adjust to desktop, laptop or smartphone screens.

By far the most interesting feature that ProcessMaker comes with is their awesome dashboards. The Process Efficiency Index (PEI) is an intelligent system that learns from your processes over time and establishes better performance levels using resource costs and comparative rankings, among other factors. The Employee Efficiency Index (EEI) carries out a similar analysis of every user, and suggests ways they can improve their performance.

KissFlow

Features: Unique five-step app wizard, attaching Google Docs, prebuilt reports, hands-off workflows

Price: Starts at $149/month for 30 users

With over 10,000 customers in 121 countries, Kissflow is easily one of the most popular BPM tools out there. If there’s one constant theme in all the reviews that it has garnered, it is that the software offers unprecedented ease in helping users create and use workflows.

True to its name, nothing in Kissflow requires elaborate coding knowledge. All forms and process workflows can be created with drag and drop items. The software is built from the ground up to be scalable and can easily add users, data objects, and complexity with ease. It also offers out-of-the-box integration with Zapier so documents can be moved to and from any of the 1,500 web apps online.

Kissflow has some very well thought-out access controls and lets process creators define and implement accesses at each step of a process based on a users rights and responsibilities. The app can send out updates to all the users within a process based on predefined conditions automatically. Tasks can be escalated to certain teams and individuals if predefined conditions are triggered.

With the app’s robust reporting features, your entire auditing process can easily be carried out online. Custom reports can be created right down to specific processes with the same drag and drop functionality that Kissflow is known for. Even so, the app allows you to create a paper trail for manual audits or backups if necessary.

Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator

Features: Smart reports, collaboration tools, multi-language tools, custom reports

Price: Starts at $5/user/month

Free trial: 15 days

Like Kissflow and ProcessMaker, Zoho creator is billed as a code-free process creation tool that users can jump into and start fiddling with. Unlike the previous two, however, Zoho is ideal not only for small, medium and large businesses, but freelancers as well, thanks to a very low starting price of $5 per month.

Zoho has one of the most inclusive workflow management features, including access control, a robust approval process control system, advanced workflow configuration, and business process automation that allows emails and predefined messages to be sent at each step of the way and many more.

Even though Zoho creator can easily be used by non-technical users easily, the platform has one of the best app creator features in the business. If your work requires building custom apps, then Zoho can not only provide you with a workflow management suite, but an app development platform as well. Combining both the features can drastically decrease development time.

Nintex

Features: Proprietary Nintex connectors, heavy emphasis on mobility and automation, easy to create process-friendly forms

Price: Starts at $950/100 processes/month

While Zoho Creator and Zoho offer process documentation and modeling features as part of an elaborate cloud based productivity suite, Nintex is wholly dedicated to process management only. Consequently, it offers far more “process management” oriented features than most other competing products. Nintex allows users to plan, map, and share processes with a few simple clicks.

Furthermore, Nintex allows processes to be automated without any coding knowledge. The software can help users identify processes that can be automated. The processes can then be automated using Nintex’s Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots. RPA is usually thought of as a daunting, expensive task, which is why Nintex allows users to choose the number of processes they want to automate, rather than the number of bots they implement. This stands in stark contrast to typical RPA pricing that is often very confusing and is implemented differently from one vendor to the other. 

Business process reengineering is all the rage today because companies are coming face to face with the truth that change is becoming ever more pervasive. The slow, steady-as-we-go approach that has served organizations so well until the cloud took over is now decidedly obsolete and needs to be replaced with a forward thinking, faster model that adapts to newer market conditions and changes on the fly.

The most obvious question here is, do time tested processes become obsolete also, and whether companies really need to start from scratch? Obviously, we’d all want our hard-earned knowledge to stick around, and there’s always the danger of poorly understanding whether change really serves a purpose and carry any short/long term value.

Business process modeling done the old way would require far too intensive an effort to really understand the value of a new direction. Cloud-based tools such as the ones mentioned above become an utterly indispensable tool to speed up the process and keep up with the new reality that we work in.

Business process modeling means documenting every step that your company takes and there’s plenty that can be overlooked or missed. Download our free checklist on creating a business process model to stay on track!

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Business Tips from SCORE: A business plan gives owners a guide to their operations

One of the sure ways of launching a business that will fail is not to plan its launch and growth.

Most budding entrepreneurs’ eyes roll back in their head when they hear “business plan.” It doesn’t have to be complicated or voluminous. It might be as simple as a one-page Business Model Canvas – BMC − plan or if needed a deeper dive with a full business plan . But there’s no better way to think through important issues and gain focus in your business than by creating a guide.

Not only will building a business plan help you get a better handle on where you are and how you’ll grow, but it’s an absolute necessity if you seek outside investment.

A business model is a way of describing how the enterprise will make money.  Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas is a 9-block process that explores, initially, value proposition (your offer, but not what you are selling), customer segments (to whom are you making the offer(s)), communication channels (how will you reach your customer segments). Then validate your assumptions. Then follow-up with customer relationships , activities, resource and strategic partners , expenses and revenue streams . The right side of the BMC canvas focuses on the customer and market or external factors that are not totally under your control. The left side focuses on the internal that is mostly in your control. The middle is the value proposition that represents the exchange of value between your customers and your business.

Here’s an easy guide on how to build a business plan step-by-step.

Step 1: Describe the “Big Idea” in an executive summary

Think of the executive summary as an explanation of your unique selling proposition. You want someone to be able to immediately grasp what your company does and the value you bring to the market.

This section should include a mission statement, brief explanations of the products or services you plan to offer, a basic introduction of key team members and where your company is located. If you’re seeking financing, you’ll also need to include basic information about your finances and plans for use of borrowed funds.

Step 2: Conduct a market analysis

This is where you’ll get into more detail by describing your industry and where your business fits into its landscape. Some questions to answer:

  • What exactly does your business do? 
  • What do you sell and why do you sell it? 
  • Why is your product or service needed? 
  • Who’s going to benefit from the products or services you provide?

Step 3: Introduce your team with a company description

In this section, include information like the legally registered name of your company, your business address, the company’s legal structure (LLC, sole proprietorship, etc.) and key team members. 

If your company is large, consider using an organizational chart to show who’s in charge of what. Also, include any special skills or unique experience your team has that will help advance your mission.

Step 4: Describe the value of your products and services

Piggyback on what you wrote in your market analysis to give details about your products and/or services. Give a thorough explanation of what your product or service does, how it works, your pricing structure, your ideal customer and your distribution strategy.

If you have intellectual property like patents, copyrights or trademarks, mention those as well, along with any research you plan to conduct or have completed.

Step 5: Describe your “go to market” strategy with a marketing and sales plan

How are you going to acquire customers? How are you going to create loyalty? There’s no right or wrong strategy here, only the strategy that makes sense given your current circumstances, the market and your customers’ attitudes. Over time, this may evolve, which is fine!

You can describe your sales process, how you’ll initially attract prospects, how you’ll deepen that attraction into a purchase, what a typical sales cycle might look like, what happens after the sale and so on. 

Step 6: Dive into the numbers with a financial analysis

Depending on how long you’ve been in business, you may not have a lot of concrete numbers for this section. Or, you may have a lot.

If you’re a startup, you’ll have to supply financial projections — forecasted income statements and balance sheets, for example. Be detailed for the first year, breaking down your projections quarterly or, even better, monthly.

If you’re established and are writing the plan to guide your growth strategy, you should include profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, a section for metrics like profit margin and a statement of your total assets and debts. This is also a great place to include any charts and graphs that help tell the financial story of your business. 

Step 7: If you need funding, explain why and for what 

If you’re seeking outside investment, use this section to provide details about your capital needs. How much do you anticipate needing over the next three to five years, what will it be used for, what are the terms you’re seeking, what opportunities will it allow you to exploit, and how will it help you meet your growth targets? And, don’t forget to include your “skin in the game” investment.  A critical step for lender evaluations.

Step 8: Anything else to include?

If you want to include additional information — resumes, leases, permits, bank statements, contracts, photos, charts, diagrams, etc. — include them at the end of your plan in an appendix.

Regardless of which format you select remember that a business plan is a guide, compass and companion for you to reach your business objectives.

Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor, SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands, www.score.org/capecod , 508-775-4884.  A SCORE Mentor Can Help You Build a Detailed Business Plan.  Sources: ASK Score 2023, An Easy Guide to the Business Model Canvas, Creately Blog, May 18, 2022.

  Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription.  Here are our subscription plans.    

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This CEO built his company for $60 in one weekend—it brought in $80 million last year: 'You can copy my model'

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Noah Kagan's book " Million Dollar Weekend " isn't about getting rich quick.

The multimillionaire founder and CEO of discount software firm AppSumo would be the first to tell you that he didn't become wealthy overnight.

But by acting quickly and decisively when he realized he had a good idea on his hands, he put himself in the position to succeed. It took Kagan, now 41, just a few days in 2010 to found AppSumo, a company which brought in about $80 million in revenue last year.

Kagan's idea: copying MacHeist, a site that offers discounted software bundles for Apple users, and making a similar service available for PC. Kagan emailed the founder of Imgur, an image-sharing service popular on Reddit, and offered to promote a discounted version of the software in exchange for a percentage of what he sold.

Then he reached out to Reddit's founding engineer to ask if he could advertise the deal on the site for free.

"Why not?" Kagan recalls hearing. "Our users love Imgur. They'll be thrilled to get a discount."

He paid a developer in Pakistan $48 to build a website with a PayPal button and spent $12 on a domain name. One weekend, $60 down, and he was up and running. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, you may be able to ensure that history repeats itself, Kagan says: "Literally, you can copy my model."

Here are three steps he recommends for anyone looking to start a successful business in 48 hours.  

1. Get started now

Your natural instinct when looking to start a business may be to learn as much as you possibly can. You might spend days taking courses, reading books and watching YouTube videos to build up your expertise. But ultimately, you're wasting time, Kagan says.

"You've got to start today. You can't keep watching videos," he says.

What does that mean? It means that you'll likely have some ideas that don't quite get off the ground and others that outright fail from the jump. Consider these experiments rather than failures, Kagan says — experiences you can learn from.

Successful entrepreneurs, Kagan writes, "take action first, get real feedback, and learn from that, which is a million times more valuable than any book or course. And quicker!"

2. 'Practice the skill of asking'

Starting a small business, as Kagan describes it, is really a series of asks — a process you'll have to get comfortable with if you want to succeed.

"You have to practice the skill of asking," Kagan says. "Asking someone to be your customer, asking someone to be your partner, asking someone for feedback on your idea."

The scariest part about asking is the possibility that you'll be rejected. To assuage that feeling, Kagan reminds himself that, in the grand scheme of his life, none of the people rejecting him will end up being all that important. He even goes so far as to set a rejection goal for himself when rolling out a new idea or initiative.

"'This is going to suck. Let me aim to get at least 20 rejections,'" he says he tells himself. "That alone helps me accept that I will get rejected and turn it more into a game versus a blow to my self-worth."

3. Find a problem people will give you money to solve

When launching a business, you shouldn't be looking to drum up excitement from a product. Rather, you should be looking to find existing demand and satisfy it.

"The most important thing is that you're solving a problem people are excited to give you money for," Kagan says. "You have to find a thing."

Your process may lead you to many things that don't work. Kagan's mishaps include forays into online gambling ("no one came") and lawn care ("no one wanted to give me money").

When you have a potential hit on your hands, though, you'll know it, he says, citing his company's foray into offering discounted alternatives to popular software solutions.

"I asked people if they were interested in a DocuSign alternative," he says. "I did $3,000 in 24 hours."

Once you find something that works, double and triple down, Kagan says.

"The best business is the one that works," he says. "I started three other businesses that did similar things. And when I finally cancelled those and really focused on the one that worked, that's when my business really took off."

Want to land your dream job in 2024?  Take CNBC's new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

I was fired from Facebook in my 20s—now I make $3.3 million running my own tech company

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  1. How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

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  2. 10 Business Process Modelling Techniques

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  3. 10 Business Process Modelling Techniques

    how to create a business process model

  4. 10 Business Process Modelling Techniques

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  5. Business Process Map Model Diagram

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  6. Guide to make a Business Model for a Start-up

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  6. How to Create Business Process Flows (BPF) in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

COMMENTS

  1. How to Make a Business Process Model: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

    Make sure also that the labels associated with each step, if any, can be moved easily with the step. [6] 2. Start with the beginning of the process and follow the sequence. Put the starting point of the process at the top left of your model. Then, add each subsequent step, including decisions between them.

  2. How to develop a business process in 8 steps

    Make sure to clearly state expectations and timelines for tasks, get involvement and input from managers in this process, and continue to track and measure goals. 6. Test and implement the process. Process definition and operation requires an interactive process that needs to be measured constantly.

  3. Business Process Modeling: Definition, Benefits, and Examples

    Gives everyone a clear understanding of how the process works. Provides consistency and controls the process. Identifies and eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies. Sets a clear starting and ending to the process. Business process modeling can also help you group similar processes together and anticipate how they should operate.

  4. Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN) 101

    Process modeling notation is a language that's readable to humans and that describes the structure and elements of a business sequence. The vocabulary is defined, and the language is organized such that we understand how it should flow and how the information is presented. As a data science, process modeling notation includes about 40 ...

  5. What Is Business Process Modeling?

    A business process model is a graphical representation of a business process or workflow and its related sub-processes. Process modeling generates comprehensive, quantitative activity diagrams and flowcharts containing critical insights into the functioning of a given process, including the following: Events and activities that occur within a ...

  6. Business Process Modeling (BPM) Definition & Techniques

    Business process modeling notation (BPMN) diagram. BPMN stands for Business Process Modeling Notation, and it's a technique that helps you represent your processes in a visual manner through 100+ proprietary objects. Some of these objects include: Process flow object: represents the sequence flow and execution of tasks.

  7. BPMN Tutorial: Quick-Start Guide to Business Process Model and Notation

    Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN) is like a flow chart on steroids. It's the one true way to graphically map your processes and is a globally-recognized, standardized method. In other words, it's information any business looking to draw reliable process maps needs to know. When you map your processes (especially with a standardized method like

  8. Guide to Business Process Modeling

    Process modeling is based upon the flexible composition of business services. The approach can be tailored to address what the designer's goals and requirements are in architecture development by using building blocks. Services carry out small tasks, such as data development, or simple service procedures.

  9. How to create a business process model: 10 infallible steps

    Learn how to create a business process model in your company with this guide that covers the 10 steps from communication to continuous improvement. Find out the benefits, tools and best practices of BPM and how to map your AS-IS and TO-BE processes.

  10. The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Modeling

    Business process modeling is so much more than just diagrams. Every element, shape, and symbol in a business process model has a specific meaning. Each one of them outlines a particular process or action. A robust BPM software such as Wrike supports the new-generation advanced business process modeling standard BPMN 2.0. Wrike provides ...

  11. Top business process modeling techniques with examples

    Select a process in greatest need of improvement, map all the steps in the process flow using business process management methods, and diagram and document the entire process visually using the selected modeling technique. Business process modeling can then spot potential delays, redundancies and opportunities for much-needed improvement in the ...

  12. What is Business Process Modeling Notation

    Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a flow chart method that models the steps of a planned business process from end to end. A key to Business Process Management, it visually depicts a detailed sequence of business activities and information flows needed to complete a process. Its purpose is to model ways to improve efficiency, account ...

  13. Business Process Modeling (BPM) Tutorial

    Business process modelling represents: Business activities, Information flow and, Decision logic in business processes. With the power of visualization, it is used to communicate information regarding a process and the interaction it includes within / between organizations either among the persons reading a model or the persons who create it.

  14. Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0 Tutorial

    Learn how to create a BPMN 2.0 diagram in this tutorial. We provide a basic overview of BPMN shapes and then give step-by-step training on how to make a basi...

  15. Business Process Management: Template, Examples and Guide [2024] • Asana

    Create a business process management template 5 stages of the business process management lifecycle. Business process management helps you reduce inefficiencies and optimize business processes. To get started, follow these five steps of the BPM lifecycle: 1. Analyze. Before optimizing your processes, you first need to understand what they are.

  16. Business Process Modeling Techniques with Examples

    Learn about various business process modeling techniques, such as BPMN, UML, flowcharts, data flow diagrams, role activity diagrams and more. See how to create different types of diagrams using Creately's online tool and templates.

  17. How to Create a Business Process Model (BPMN) Tutorial

    To create a dossier structure: Go to the Visual Designer. Create or open a Cabinet. Select the cabinet in the Explorer treeview. Create a dossier. Create four folders in the dossier: Data, Model, View, and Visualization. Step 2. - Enter Data. On Dragon1 you can enter data by dragging shapes to a folder.

  18. All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams

    Business Process Mapping details the steps that a business takes to complete a process, such as hiring an employee or ordering and shipping a product. They show the "who," "what," "when," "where" and "how" for these steps, and help to analyze the "why.". These maps are also called Business Process Diagrams and Business ...

  19. 5 Tips to Master the Art of Business Process Modeling

    Create Labels Suggesting the Type of Action. This, again, helps make the model easier to understand. A common technique used to create such labels is the action-item methodology, which phrases the action being performed as a prefix to the item it will be performed on. For example, if an action is representing a statement validation, use the ...

  20. How to Create a Business Process Diagram (With Examples)

    This will make it easier to have a business process that adapts to your workflow. 6. Set Rules and Conditions. The next step is to set up the rules and conditions that govern your automations. While this might sound intimidating, frevvo has wizards to walk you through setting up the controls and rules you need.

  21. What is BPMN? The Easy Guide to Business Process Modeling Notation

    The goal of BPMN is to establish a standardized visual language to represent business processes, fostering collaboration and clear communication. BPMN provides a universally accepted notation, facilitating the modeling and documentation of complex processes, as well as analysis, optimization, and automation.

  22. How to Design a Winning Business Model

    Ramon Casadesus-Masanell is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author, with Joan E. Ricart, of "How to Design a Winning Business Model" (HBR January-February 2011). JR. Joan E ...

  23. The Definitive Guide to Business Process Modeling

    S-BPM uses a simple five-symbol system to model any process. The underlying premise of S-BPM is that every system is built up of subjects which can be a locus of activity, a process or a computational unit. Notations here can be mapped as follows: Subject (who): the subject. Object (with what): data.

  24. Business process engineering (with steps and factors)

    Business process engineering is a method in which organisations analyse their current business practices and create new strategies to increase overall efficiency, productivity and operational costs. The aim of BPE is to discover the issues with a company's operations and redesign, recreate and implement new processes to ensure higher productivity.

  25. How to build a successful business plan in eight steps

    A business model is a way of describing how the enterprise will make money. Strategyzer's Business Model Canvas is a 9-block process that explores, initially, value proposition (your offer, but ...

  26. CEO built AppSumo for $60 in a weekend, brought in $80 million ...

    Starting a small business, as Kagan describes it, is really a series of asks — a process you'll have to get comfortable with if you want to succeed. "You have to practice the skill of asking ...