BUSINESS PRO

INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO
CESS MANAGEMENT (BPM)

by Ryan K. L. Ko
Abstract
Computers play an integral part in designing, modelling, optimizing, and managing business processes within and across companies. Although business process management (BPM), workflow management (WfM), and business process reengineering (BPR) have been IT-
related disciplines with a history of about three decades, there is still a lack of publications clarifying
definitions and scope of basic BPM terminologies, such as business process, BPM versus WfM, work-
flow, BPR, etc. Such a myriad of similar-sounding terminologies can be overwhelming for computer
scientists and computer science students who may wish to venture into this area of research. This
guide aims to address this gap by providing a high-level overview of the key concepts, rationale, fea-
tures, and the developments of BPM.

Introduction

Every human endeavor, from planning a holiday to managing complex manufacturing processes, is governed by processes. Processes can be optimized by either experience (e.g., planning a holiday) or by prudent scientific investigations (e.g., manufacturing processes). Likewise, there are business processes in business. Business processes (e.g., purchase orders, price negotiations, shipping management, request for quotations, merger-and-acquisition procedures, etc.) are commonly found in business organizations and across organizations. There are many types of business processes. Fundamentally, business processes are either private or public business processes. Private business processes are those internal to the enterprise and can be at the strategic, management, or operational level. Public business processes involve external organizations, e.g., delivery of goods, ordering of materials, etc. Public business processes are also commonly known as collaborative business processes (cBPs). With intensified globaliza-tion, cBPs are becoming more important because of:

1. The rise in frequency of goods ordered.

2. The need for fast information transfer.

3. The need for quick decision making.

4. he need to adapt to changing demands.

5. A larger pool of international competitors.

6. Shorter cycle time.

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In a bid to deal with these challenges, Information Technology IT) was harnessed to manage business processes. Previously manual hand-filled forms are increasingly being replaced by their “paperless” electronic counterparts. This eventually gave rise to business process management (BPM). According to prominent BPM researcher van der Aalst [33], BPM is defined as “supporting business processes

i using methods, techniques and software to design, enact, control and analyze operational processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other sources of information.” Software tools supporting the management of such operational processes became known as business process management systems (BPMS).

At the end of 2006, the BPMS market reached nearly $1.7 billion n total software revenue [ 14] and began to exhibit the characteristics of an early mainstream software market, i.e., proven technology, stable vendors, vendor consolidation, and rapid user adoption. The BPMS market is also the second-fastest-growing middleware (a type of integrative software) market segment. Gartner estimates that the BPMS market will have a compound annual growth rate of more than 24% from 2006 to 2011 [ 14]. Interest in BPM from among practitioners and researchers grew rapidly. A wide variety of paradigms and methodologies from organization management theory, computer science, mathematics, linguistics, semiotics, and philosophy were adopted, making BPM a cross-discipline “theory in practice” subject.

Background and Objectives

Perhaps because it is cross-disciplinary, BPM practice and research are fraught with duplication and possible misunderstandings. This does not help the computer scientists who are trying to understand this field. A common problem in BPM is the absence of universal terminologies [ 8, 23, 30, 34, 37]. Terms are used loosely to represent distinct scope and feature differences [ 15]. One example is the interchangeable reference between business processes and Web services. Another example is the confusion between business process reengineering (BPR), workflow management (WfM) and BPM. Such confusion has led to mismatched (or worse, wrong) BP solutions being implemented. The frequent mention of BPM in many information systems research such as the Semantic Web and Service Oriented Architectures may also be rather overwhelming to a beginner in the field and may be mistakenly passed off as another buzzword.