BPM Glossary of Terms
Activity Analysis
The relationships between the steps in the activity, who is responsible for the performance of the activity, rules used and opportunities for improvement.
Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI)
Consortium of business process modeling tools vendors and user companies that are working to develop an XML-based business process language (BPMI), a notation for the language (BPMN) and a query language (BPQL).
Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS)
A specification that defines processes for exchanging documents about buying and selling products over the Internet via a transaction.
Business Process (BP)
Any set of activities performed by a business that is initiated by an event, transforms information, materials or business commitments, and produces an output.
Business Process Automation (BPA)
The use of software to automate business processes. Techniques used for BP automation include workflow, XML, and EAI.
Business Process Change Cycle
A description of the life cycle of a business processes.
Business Process Improvement (BPI)
Business process improvement focuses on incrementally improving existing processes. There are many approaches, including Six Sigma. BPI is focused and repeated during the life of a process.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Outsourcing business processes to other companies to manage and execute.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Making major changes to an existing process or creating a new process.
Business Rules
A statement describing a business policy or decision procedure. Workflow tools and process diagrams both depend on business rules to specify how decisions are made.
EAI (Enterprise Application Integration)
The ability for different software applications to exchange data. Most solutions use middleware such as XML, SOAP, UDDI and other tools.
Value Chain
A very large-scale business process that is initiated by a customer request and results in the delivery of a process or service to a customer. A value chain includes everything that contributes to the final output. A value chain is comprised of a number of business processes.
Workflow
Term for the movement of information (or material) from one person, activity or location to another.
Workflow Engine
Software that defines a process, the rules governing process decisions, and routes information.
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