Business Process Modeling Approaches - Article Example

BUSINESS PROCESS MODELLING APPROACHES Business process modeling refers to the process of analyzing and improving the current business processes of a business. The main goal of carrying out this process is to improve the efficiency of the business. It helps a company to improve on its production and service delivery techniques. This eventually yields more profits and a better image for the company. Most businesses carry out complex and very expensive business modeling approaches to improve their business.

Although these processes are beneficial in the end, they take long and their benefits may not always outweigh the implementation costs. Paul Harmon comes in to provide much simpler, quicker, less expensive yet equally beneficial ways of improving the performance of one’s business. Paul picks up from Rummler and Brache who introduced a very straight forward modeling approach (Harmon, 2003). They named this approach Process Mapping. The Process Mapping model was further developed to form the Unified Language Modeling and later into the Business Process Modeling Notation.

Paul argues that these models involve the use of extra work and he tries to simplify them while at the same time ensuring that the end results will be equally worth it. He starts by saying that any business that wants to carry out a business process modeling needs to identify its current position, reasons for the remodeling as well as what it wants to achieve at the end of the process. In his book Business Process Change, Paul picks up on the Unified Modeling Language to describe and uses it to describe various business processes that may need remodeling if a business is to improve its efficiency.

Here, Paul identifies different levels of business process from external processes, top-level processes down to the junior-level processes where roles have been assigned to various junior officers in the company. He says that it is important for every business level to be remodeled if the company wants the best results from the whole business modeling process (Harmon, 2003). Paul Harmon brings out various business modeling diagrams that are essential for a business to have. He introduces that ‘is diagrams’ which reflect the company’s current position, the ‘could diagrams’ which indicate the company’s targets and that ‘should diagrams’ which are a must attain target for the company.

He recognizes the need for a business to integrate human activities and information technology (IT) activities in the modeling process for best results. According to Paul, any efficient business utilizes all the available resources in an equal manner. He notes that human labor and the fast working speed of the used IT systems in a business can be improved to yield better results. Paul goes on to identify the importance of noting down the inputs and outputs from each remodeling process. He says that it is important for the output to always outweigh the input.

He further goes on to discuss the relevance of putting into place effective techniques of measuring the output of the remodeling process. He recommends a follow up after full implementation of the remodeling approach to see if the targeted goals have been accomplished. If this is not the case, review of the entire process is needed to identify where the reengineering team went wrong. Paul compares his follow up techniques to the balanced scorecard and the key performance indicators that are suggested by Kaplan and Norton.

Paul tries to simplify the pre-existing business modeling approaches that have been used in the past. His approaches have been tested by various companies over the decade and found to be very efficient for modern day businesses (Bridgeland & Zahavi, 2009).Reference Top of FormHarmon, P. (2003). Business process change: A managers guide to improving, redesigning, and automating processes. Amsterdam: M. Kaufmann. Bottom of FormTop of FormGrover, V., & Kettinger, W. J. (1995). Business process change: Concepts, methods, and technologies.

Harrisburg, USA: Idea Group Pub. Bottom of FormTop of FormBridgeland, D. M., & Zahavi, R. (2009). Business modeling: A practical guide to realizing business value. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier. Bottom of Form