Business Process Modeling and Process Management

A business process is a series of tasks that are repeated in order to produce a measurable output. Pay attention to how the business process has been defined in business literature over the years. Take a moment to write a definition of a business process in your own words.

A major advantage of ePK-diagrams is that they are easy to read and are intuitively understood. An important disadvantage is in the limited ability for automatic analysis. A sample ePK diagram is shown in Exhibit 18. As a core element of ARIS, ePK diagrams will be treated when we cover tools for process modeling.


Exhibit 18: Example elements of an ePK diagram

We can describe the business processes within an organization in terms of events and function. Examples of events include an incoming order and sending out of invoice. The total of all possible events in an organization and its environment is defined as the organization's event scope. Functions include or describe a business management chain of activity (e.g. examination of creditworthiness). A function is a time consuming occurrence, which is triggered through a starting event and is completed by an ending event. Sometimes a function is also called a chain of activity, occupation, or operation. Functions can also be broken down or aggregated. An informational object describes the data that are processed by a function (e.g. a customer's record). Connectors describe the different forms of process branching (see Exhibit 19). In Exhibit 17, we see an example of an ePK diagram.


Exhibit 19: Connectors


Exhibit 20: an ePK diagram

Functions and events create an event controlled chain of process, with arrows showing the flow of the process. An incoming event initiates a function and a function when completed, in turn, initiates another event. Connectors can be used to combine parts of a chain. Complex chains can be broken down into layers, with high level layers showing the overall flow and lower layers recording the fine details. There are some common conventions for process modelling, including:

  • Events (e.g. parts missing) initiate functions (procurement). 
  • Parallel of functions should be modeled with logical operators. 
  • A process model should flow from the top to the bottom. 
  • Clear and understandable terms should be used for functions and events. 
  • An organizational unit responsible for the execution of each function should be identified.