How to Apply the Six Phases of Business Process Management to Improve Business Outcomes

In many organizations, making or delivering a product requires employees to adhere to a procedure, or process, to accomplish a task. At best, this process is streamlined, clear and efficient; at worst, it is cumbersome, filled with inefficiencies and confusing.

While many business processes lie somewhere in between, nearly every business could benefit from strategic business process management. Business process management (BPM) is much more than a record of the process employees are to follow. According to Villanova University’s Essentials of Business Process Management course, BPM is a strategic, cross-functional methodology with six phases that equips BPM practitioners to plan and execute their projects.

Why Does Business Process Management Matter?

An intentional approach to managing business processes ensures they yield efficient and effective processes for businesses. Effective business process management practices can result in improved business agility, process visibility, organizational efficiency, customer service and product and service innovation.

Whether a business is transforming raw materials into a product sold to a customer or properly recording financial transactions, implementing an efficient and effective process is paramount to maximizing efficiency and reducing errors.

For example, if the process for submitting a sales order for production is clear and efficient, it’s much more likely the order will be processed and delivered correctly the first time and the customer will be satisfied.

Business operations overall are comprised of multiple business processes, which means if an organization is committed to running efficiently, a commitment to actively managing and streamlining every business process at the organization is essential.

The Six Phases of BPM

BPM is more holistic than methodologies like Lean and Six Sigma, which focus solely on process improvement. BPM’s goal is to manage – not just improve the process. (However, the two processes can be used in tandem to help eliminate issues in specific processes). The six phases of business process management, as identified in Villanova’s Essentials of BPM course, are Assess, Design, Model, Implement, Monitor and Modify.

• Assess: BPM practitioners should begin by understanding where the process is currently. This should include establishing and documenting what occurs with the process, who is responsible for each task, the length of time the process requires and how often the process is running.

According to the Essentials of BPM course, the goal of the assessment phase is to sketch the process flow in its current state and enable stakeholders to review the data. This should also include any errors and potential consequences to show business impact.

• Design: The design phase should be high iterative, as BPM practitioners use the collected data from the assessment phase to design solutions to process issues. A valuable design reduces problems in the process lifecycle and offers accuracy and efficiency. Presenting multiple designs to stakeholders to test them with data and weigh in on the best option is generally the most effective option.
  The Essentials of BPM course suggests using process maps to form ideas and designing solutions that reduce the number of problems over the lifecycle of the process.

• Model: In this phase, designs are tested with predictive data. One important note the Essentials of BPM course conveys: practitioners should ensure the accuracy of the data in order to obtain valid results. The goal of the modeling phase is to manipulate variables (such as time, cost and resources) to understand the outcomes. For example, what the impact of the process would be if the process reduced the employees involved from three to two. Or, what would need to occur for the timeline to move up by one week?

In this phase, stakeholders need to make a decision: based on the potential outcome models, should a process change be introduced?

• Implement: A significant amount of work goes into implementing changes that are designed and modeled. BPM practitioners must develop a detailed change management plan that outlines what specifically is changing. Keep in mind, this may include job descriptions and roles, informing customers or suppliers, or updating systems.

Prepare a contingency plan as well, Villanova’s Essentials of BPM course teaches, as even the best ideas can falter during implementation.

• Monitor: BPM is intended to be an ongoing process, which means practitioners must continuously assess the process using data modeling and simulation to consider possible outcomes. They should also benchmark performance against several data points, including any key performance indicators (KPIs), employee feedback or overall objectives. For example, if a new process’ objective was to deliver a product to the customer two days earlier, but employee feedback indicates achieving the goal requires substantial overtime, the process may need to be revisited.

• Modify: In the modify phase, the process should be continually adjusted based on data to improve outcomes. If changes are required, the business case should be revisited and the six-step phase cycle should begin again, starting with the assessment phase.

Benefits of Business Process Management

BPM enables organizations to improve processes and drive better results, which can lead to lower costs, higher revenue and increased customer satisfaction. When a process is streamlined, it can more closely align with customer needs. In addition, the organization can better manage costs when BPM is running efficiently, supported with useful data and tracking toward clearly defined goals.

Implementing a BPM strategy can enable:

• Teams to prioritize core business processes that will have the greatest impact on the business
• Increased revenue through higher customer satisfaction
• Lowered costs with the elimination of waste
• Better accountability with a clear owner and stakeholder defined
• Improved productivity and better use of research
• Greater accuracy from data
• Better compliance
• Increased security

Hone Your BPM Skills

Professionals in any industry can employ BPM best practices to reduce costs, prioritize important business processes and increase an organization’s response time in order to fulfill customer demand. To help refine your business management acumen, Villanova offers a three-course Certificate in Business Process Management program designed to equip working professionals with the business and technology skills needed to align business objectives with processes and emerge as process leaders in their organization and industry. By successfully completing the three-course program track, project and optional certification exam, you can demonstrate your business process management expertise by earning Villanova’s Certified Professional in Business Process Management (CPBPM) credential. Earning this Villanova credential validates your understanding of the core concepts of the BPM program and can help distinguish you as a business process management expert.