Business Process Management 101

BPM: Process Mapping and Modeling

The heart of a successful BPM strategy is to map or model all the processes in a business. Managers must develop a clear picture of how each business process fits into the overall organizational structure, how it should function, what other processes it depends on, and how well it is "performing" at any given time. The five major steps of business process mapping are as follows:

1. Process identification – Listing all the processes and their component steps

2. Information gathering – identifying objectives, risks, and key info in a process

3. Interviewing – understanding the point of view of all users for a process

4. Modeling – using software to graphically represent processes and dependencies

5. Analysis - making the process run more efficiently

Business process mapping, modeling, and flowcharting software tools are available that can help gather and analysis this information.