A Business Owner has a problem and asks for a solution… 

There are 4 main parts to a BPM project: Analysis, Design, Construction and Implementation.  The Analysis portion is the most critical.  If a solution is designed, constructed and implemented that doesn’t meet your needs you will have wasted lots of money.

A business analyst must uncover the problem(s) you are trying to solve.  Since we are talking about BPM, I will assume that the problem is a process problem.  These 5 steps will drive success.

1. Document the process
   What are the steps of the process?  Who performs these activities?  Are there any business rules that determine a process path?
2. Determine if you have documented the process properly
   Follow the process manually to see that you have accurately recorded the steps and see who performs what activities.  Check with these people to see if there are some unspoken business rules and so on.
3. Measure the process
   Measure the existing process as it is currently being executed.  We need to know a before measurement so that we can determine our success.
4. Improve the process
   Now is your chance to remove all non-value add activities from the process.  While looking at the process, you may see other things that you can do to make the process more efficient.  Create a new process map.
5. Measure the process
   Follow the new process manually and measure the time it takes to cycle through.  Compare this time with the measurements in step 3.  You should see an improvement.

Addressing the problem process is only one item in your list of requirements.  The requirements document can be quite lengthy – I will address some others in my next blog.

Your Thoughts…

Have you tried these steps?  If not, what was your approach?

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