Business Process Analysis

Introduction:

Business process analysis (BPA) is an approach to analyzing business operation processes. It is a detailed, multi-step examination of each part of a process to identify what is working well in your current process, what needs to be improved and how any necessary improvements can best be made. There are different business process analysis methods, but all apply the underlying principle that optimized systems generate better overall business results.

BP structure:

• Define: Start by identifying the processes you want to analyze. Typically, these are where you see problems first. Process analysis can start with (and also include) process diagrams for each step. Analysts begin with as-is processes and look at formal and informal processes, such as documented processes and processes specific to an organization’s culture.
• Measure: Next, review how the process functions against defined metrics. This step is also at the root of helping to create improved KPI metrics. If those are well-defined first, a business will measure processes against the KPIs. KPIs include efficiency versus effectiveness indicators, quality, productivity, profitability and value indicators. They also include competitive and capacity indicators. For instance, customer engagement workflows might be measured by quality and effectiveness versus efficiency metrics.
• Analyze: There are several types of analysis techniques, and each one serves a different purpose. Business process analysts might run a value analysis, a gap analysis or root cause analysis (RCA). These are extensive analytical methods that each include their own set of steps. A gap analysis reveals what’s missing in the process. A value analysis conveys what is of value within the process — and what is waste, as a result. A root cause analysis applies certain “why” questions and methods that help you to work backward to the root cause of the problem in a process.

Deploying business process improvement:

Business process analysis begins with analyzing as-is processes. Business process mapping is a common tool used in BPA. It is an important visual resource and document to draw upon for your analysis. Using the documentation and insights gained from the analysis, your organization can then create a business process improvement plan. Business improvement plans will typically generate new business process models, using flowcharts, with improved process flows.

Tools:

Process modeling and process mapping tools are integral to BPA. Organizations use business process model notation (BPMN) diagramming and supplier, input, process, output, customer (SIPOC) model diagramming as two workflow solutions for better operations. These visual tools are an excellent way to show changes in a process. They can be used as a “before and after” visual guide to train employees, for instance, or to map every process improvement back to your key business goals.

Automation:

Currently, hyper automation is considered one of the highest priorities across enterprise businesses. Gartner has forecasted that the industry will reach $600 billion by 2022. Hyper automation steadily decreases the amount of human intervention for a fully automated, responsive process — or a smart process.

Business process analysis (BPA) can help your organization create a documented, mapped path to integrating automated processes and moving toward a goal of hyper automation. As an example, moving from a hybrid to fully automated customer chatbot support is one way service centres lower costs and optimize customer support with hyper automation.

Small-to-Medium Enterprises:

First, target mission-critical processes with the highest business impact. Then, consider mapping a process for automation. Next, standardize automation documentation — as well as process documentation — across departments and your organization.

For instance, IT can use BPA to map the process for software security protocols for various roles, which enables your organization to better manage onboarding and scaling as a result.

Drawback:

Business processes may suffer from inefficiencies and bottlenecks, leading to delays, errors, and increased operational costs. To address this drawback, organizations can implement process streamlining and automation solutions.

Solution:

Analyze the existing processes to identify unnecessary steps or redundancies. Simplify workflows and eliminate non-value-added activities. This can improve the overall efficiency of the process and reduce the time required to complete tasks.

Implementing technology solutions to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks can significantly enhance efficiency. Automation helps reduce human errors, speeds up processes, and allows employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities. This could involve adopting workflow automation tools, robotic process automation (RPA), or other digital transformation initiatives