BPM Lifecycle
The BPM lifecycle is the repeating loop through which an organisation finds, understands, improves and runs its business processes. It is the backbone of the cluster: every method and tool in the BPM hub plugs into one or more of its phases.
The six phases (Dumas et al.)
| Phase | Question it answers | Typical output |
|---|---|---|
| Process identification | Which processes do we have, and which matter most? | Process architecture, shortlist of processes to work on |
| Process discovery (as-is modelling) | How does the process run today? | As-is model, usually BPMN |
| Process analysis | Where does it lose time, money or quality? | Issue register, measures, root causes |
| Process redesign | What should it look like instead? | To-be model, comparison of alternatives |
| Process implementation | How do we make the change real? | Changed procedures, training, automation |
| Process monitoring and controlling | Is it working, and where is it drifting? | Dashboards, conformance reports, new improvement input |
The loop closes: monitoring data feeds the next round of identification and discovery. process-mining is mainly a monitoring and discovery technique; lean and six-sigma-and-dmaic are mainly analysis and redesign techniques; bpm-suites-and-workflow-engines and rpa are implementation technologies.
When to use it
Use the lifecycle as a checklist for a process project: if you jump straight to redesign, you have usually skipped discovery and measurement. See worked-example-order-to-cash-redesign for the phases applied to a small case.
Related
- process-architecture-and-governance, bpm-maturity-models, bpm-cbok
- marlon-dumas (co-author of the source textbook)
Sources
- Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling, Reijers, Fundamentals of Business Process Management, 2nd ed., Springer, 2018 (ISBN 978-3-662-56508-7). Book site: https://fundamentals-of-bpm.org/
- Publisher listing: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-56509-4