Recently, there has been a tendency in business to move from functional to process management, in connection with which the role of correct description and formalization of business processes is significantly increasing. Only after the completion of these actions can we talk about the optimization of business processes as a means of increasing the efficiency of the enterprise.
It is necessary
CASE tool that allows you to formalize a business process in graphical notation
Instructions
Step 1
The first is to concisely and accurately formulate the name of the described process, which should be understandable and reflect the general essence of the sequence of actions that make up the business process. For example, instead of “Submitting an application for the manufacture of a product to production and control of its execution”, it is enough to name the process “Control of product production.” The second is to correctly break down the entire described process into smaller (“atomic”) tasks or subprocess functions and decide on the sequence of their implementation. With such a split, the described process will be the top-level process. The granularity of the high-level process may vary, but should be adequate for the understanding of the audience using your description.
Step 2
There are several ways to describe a business process. The most popular of them is graphical, with the help of diagrams made in various notations (notation is a set of symbols to denote something).
The most common types of notations for describing business processes are IDEF0, BPMN, EPC (ARIS), etc.
As an example, let's focus on a diagram made in BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) notation using the PowerDesigner CASE tool (Fig. 1). The main elements in the diagram are:
1. "Process" (function) - a rectangle rounded at the corners;
2. "Transition" - an arrow connecting processes;
3. “Solution” - a diamond containing a question that can only be answered “Yes” or “No”;
4. Conditions - textual expressions under which the transition from one function to another is carried out. Conditions are always enclosed in square brackets. It is sometimes useful to break your diagram into "Tracks" - vertical or horizontal sections that represent the departments in the enterprise or the people responsible for a specific function. In this case, the icon for this function must be within its section. In addition to the listed elements, the diagram may also contain a list of data that are input or output to the process, as well as links to the rules or regulations according to which this or that function is performed. An example of the description of the business process "Product production control" is shown in Fig.1. It is easy to see that this diagram is very similar to the block diagram of the algorithm for solving the problem.
Step 3
A graphical description of a process can also be supplemented with a textual description of its subprocess functions in the form of a table containing the following columns: process name, department (process owner), process description, process execution result. An example of such a description is shown in Fig. 2. If further optimization of the described business process is expected, then another column can be added to the table describing the difficulties or shortcomings of the currently performed subprocess functions.
