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Venice Consulting LtdCopyright © Venice Consulting Ltd 2005

Business Process Management Conference Europe 2005

Process modelling for the real worldMartyn OuldVenice Consulting Ltd


Let’s talk about

p Monkeysp Rabbitsp Kebabsp Axesp Spaghettip Bucketsp Pizzas


In the world ofBusiness Process Management …

p we must know what processes we havep we must understand them individually

… or we have nothing to manage


Yesterday …it was enough to think in terms ofp a departmentp a single threadp fixed rolesp static structures


Today …we must think in terms ofp A highly dynamic environment

o changes in the processo changes of the process

p A highly coupled worldo the dissolution of boundarieso greater process intimacy and transparencyo networks of buyer-supplier relationshipso insourcing and outsourcing


Examples

p A pharmaceutical R&Dcompany

p A utility

p A universityo student recruitment and careo teachingo assessment

o asset developmento operationso maintenance

o process scale-upo clinical trialso regulatory submission


Challenge

To be able to get our heads around

p the dynamicsp the collaboration

that characterise our complex and inter-relatedworld


Traditional process modelling hasfailed us on two counts …

It has failed to give us ways of

p deciding what processes we havep talking about individual processes

that capture the dynamism and the collaboration


Leave the axe at home

p We cannot chunk the organisational activity bydecomposition

p We just get a static structure of random lumps


Stay out of the kebab house

p We cannot chunk according to functions,information flows, departments, chains – theseare all design decisions and can be changed

Competitiveanalysis

Marketreview

Productdesign

Productdevelopment

Sales Support

Portfolioreview

QFD

Patentreview

Detaileddesign

etc etc


Two aspects of dynamism

p The monkeysp The rabbit warren


The monkeys

p A customer places an orderp Someone sends an emailp A clinical trial startsp We take on a new supplierp A new product is inventedp A piece of plant fails


The monkeys define the business

p Being in a particular business means there arecertain things we must deal with

p … let’s call them Units of Work� customer order� clinical trial� supplier� product� plant failure


Monkeys mean responsibilities

p Units of work generate responsibilities:� responsibility to handle a customer order� responsibility to handle a clinical trial� responsibility to handle a supplier� responsibility to handle a product� responsibility to handle a plant failure

… until it is done


Responsibilities mean processes

p A process to handle each unit of work� Handle a customer order� Handle a clinical trial� Handle a supplier� Handle a product� Handle a plant failure

p The ‘case process’


The rabbit warren …responsibilities multiplyp A procurement generates a contract with a

supplier, perhaps a new supplierp A drug compound generates clinical trialsp A clinical trial generates recruited patientsp A customer order generates a picking, a

despatch, an invoicep An email generates more emails

A case of one UOW generates cases of another

Let’s draw a pictureThe business of doingclinical trials is a dynamicaffair


The rabbit warren needsmanagementp How do we manage the scheduling, resourcing,

and prioritising of competing cases of a unit ofwork?

p With a ‘case management process’p Examples

o Manage the flow of products (pipeline)o Manage the flow of orderso Manage the flow of deliverieso Manage the flow of production batches


Think living spaghetti

p Chunk the organisational activity according tothe subject matter of your business

p Your organisation is a network of processesp As it runs, there is a flux of case processes

under the control of a set of case managementprocesseso nothing static about this

p Those are the true dynamics

Let’s drawanother picture

This RivaProcess Architecturecaptures the true dynamics,not just a glib ‘chain’


Let’s open up a process

p We see people acting and interactingp Again, a lot of concurrencyp Now with added collaboration

p We need a language that allows us to talk abouto the dynamicso the collaboration that makes it work


Enter the world of pizza sharing

p We don’t pass the pizza from one to anotherp We share it out, leaving strands of mozzarella

between usp And we can all eat at the same time

p When we share out the responsibility for acase, we create the need to interact

p And we can all be working at the same time


Forget static bucket chains

p Dealing with a case is distributed acrosscollaborating roles, each taking its responsibility

p Responsibilities are created dynamically, carriedout, and disappear

p Roles operate concurrentlyp Within roles, there can be concurrent threads

of activity


Let’s drawanother picture

This RivaRole Activity

Diagram capturesthe true dynamics,

not just a glibsequence


To capture the dynamics andcollaboration of the real worldp We must view our business as a network of

interacting and activating processeso the spaghetti

p We must view each process as a network ofinteracting and activating roleso the mozzarella that binds us


Benefits

With this approach we can meet the challenges ofBusiness Process Management by trulyunderstanding

p our highly dynamic environmentp our highly coupled world


Exercise for the train home

p Take your favourite process modelling notationp Model the ‘email process’:

o Conversations start spontaneouslyo They generate threads spontaneouslyo Threads are made up of emails to people chosen

dynamicallyo People get involved or leaveo There is a dynamic address book

p If you can’t do it, you couldn’t manage it in aBPMS – you need Riva


For the full story of Riva, read

Business Process ManagementA Rigorous Approach

by Martyn Ouldpublished by the British Computer Societyand Meghan-Kiffer (North America)

web www.veniceconsulting.co.ukemail [email protected] +44 (0)1225 7623 822

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