ABPMP CBOK (version 3.0)

ABPMP CBOK (version 3.0) is the first edition of the ABPMP Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK®). This reference book is the copyrighted property of the Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPMP) and published in 2013.

The book contributors include Tony Benedict, Nancy Bilodeau, Phil Vitkus, Emmett Powell, Dan Morris, Marc Scarsig, Denis Lee, and Gabrielle Field.

• Activity. The aggregation of tasks needed to deliver a definable part of a sub assembly or service. An example is the milling of a part that will become part of a sub assembly. Here the raw material will need to be heat treated, then milled, then degreased, then polished, then tested for tolerance. These tasks form a definable outcome or part of a sub assembly. In a service business (insurance), an example is the claim review, which may be part of the claim adjudication subprocess, which in turn may be part of the line of business management process. Activities can aggregate to form scenarios. These are groups of activities and their tasks that are always executed in certain events or in response to specific needs — such as customer registration or on‐boarding in a banking wealth management line of business.
• Activity Based Costing. An approach to cost accounting. It starts by determining how much it costs to perform a given activity in a process, and then adds up costs of all activities in the process to determine the total process costs. Fixed, variable, and direct costs associated with the activity are considered. This analytical technique is used as part of a business transformation effort to gain an understanding of the cost and income associated with a product or service, in order to determine true profitability.
• Agile Methodology. One of several software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, as opposed to traditional linear or waterfall‐type software development methodologies. An agile methodology provides a framework to support the design, development, and testing of software solutions throughout their life cycle. Agile methods (e.g., Scrum) encourage rapid and flexible responses to change by promoting adaptive planning, collaborative requirement identification, and rationalization between self‐organizing cross‐functional team, as well as time‐boxed, incremental development of solutions. Many modern commercial software development efforts follow this type of approach.
• Architecture. In process modeling, a purposeful arrangement of models in a framework that describes a whole business in terms of its component parts. These may be created in compliance with well‐known frameworks to reduce ambiguity. Examples include architectures based on The Zachman Framework and its derivatives, such as The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF).
• ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems). An approach to enterprise modeling. It offers methods for analyzing processes and taking a holistic view of process design‐management workflow and application processing. The ARIS approach provides a well‐documented, methodological framework for BPM, based on Prof. August Wilhelm Scheer's research from the 1990s. ARIS uses a modeling language known as Event Driven Process Chain (EPC), which brings multiple aspects of enterprise modeling together using the ARIS House of Business Engineering framework.
• Benchmarking. A comparison of the performance of a process in one organization to performance of similar processes in companies within the same industry. Many companies seek benchmark data to help with business transformation efforts and determine how well other companies are managing similar processes.
• Big Data. Data from the outside world, obtained from social media, sensors, and mobile capture.
• Bottleneck. A constraint that creates a backlog around the "bottleneck." Usually, these constraints prevent the system from achieving more of its goals. There are many ways the constraints can show up. They can be internal or external to the system types and could be a result of equipment, people, policies, or ineffective processes. Identifying constraints and alleviating bottlenecks are often a key objective of business transformation projects.
• Business Analysts (BAs). A person performing this role is responsible for analyzing the business operation's work and workflow to help propose changes that will eliminate problems, cut cost, improve quality, and improve customer interaction. Once improvements are identified, the Business Analyst then defines how information technology changes can improve the business operation. Business Analysts usually work as part of the process team.
• Business Architecture. The design of a business operation, usually described in terms of business capabilities and supporting technology capabilities. This design is conceptual and is used to determine how a business will need to change to support a given strategy.
• Business Architect. A person performing this role is responsible for determining how the business operation needs to change to support business strategy. The Business Architect works with the corporate planning group to define the business outcomes needed to deliver the strategy, and to identify how the current and anticipated business capabilities will need to change in order to produce these defined outcomes. The Business Architect then works with the Process Architect to define how the company's processes must change to support this mix of current/modified and new business capabilities.
• Business Process Improvement (BPI). Business process improvement focuses on incrementally improving existing processes. There are many approaches, including the popular Six Sigma approach. BPI is usually narrowly focused and continuously applied at various stages during the life of a process. BPI includes the selection, analysis, design, and implementation of the (improved) process. This usually results in an initiative or project to improve the performance of a particular process in alignment with the organizational strategy and customer expectations.
• Business Process Management (BPM). BPM is a management discipline that integrates the strategy and goals of an organization with the expectations and needs of customers by focusing on end‐to‐end processes. It brings together strategies, goals, culture, organizational structures, roles, policies, methodologies, and IT tools to (a) Analyze, design, implement, control, and continuously improve end‐to‐end processes, and (b) Establish process governance. It is focused on delivering operational improvement, or, in a large‐scale change, transformation. This process‐centric approach to business management is supported by automated tools to deliver an operational environment that supports rapid change and continuous improvement. BPM provides a view of the business activity through the use of process models with clearly visible associated business and technical operational rules.
• BPM Methodology. A formal, written, comprehensive list of organized tasks with supporting documentation on how the tasks should be performed, the data that the team should look for, and identification of the deliverables from tasks. All together, this information should provide direction on how the BPMS/BPM project should be done.
• Business Process Management Center of Excellence (BPMCOE). An internal group within a company, which specializes in BPM and BPMS use and helps the business address enterprise process management and performance issues.
• Business Process Management Operating Environment. BPM today melds Business Process design, improvement, and transformation methods and techniques, with Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) automation capabilities to achieve radical Business Transformation. In this emerging environment, the BPM teams use the full spectrum of BPMS tools to deliver business and IT change. Together, BPM and BPMS form a new operating environment that integrates new business management automation with legacy production applications to open access to data and functionality.
• Business Process Modeling. The set of activities involved in creating representations of an existing or proposed business process. It can provide an end‐to‐end perspective or a portion of an organization's primary, supporting or management processes.
• Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). A set of graphical standards that specify the symbol sets that will be used in BPM diagrams/models. As such, they define the symbols that will be used in depicting process and workflow in business modeling. Created by the Business Process Management Initiative, now merged with the Object Management Group (OMG), an information systems standards setting group, BPMN has growing acceptance as a standard from many perspectives, which has resulted in its inclusion in several of the most widely used modeling tools. It provides a robust symbol set for modeling different aspects of business processes. Like most modern notations, the symbols describe definite relationships such as workflow and order of precedence. In addition to symbol standardization, BPMN attempts to standardize terminology and modeling technique. It serves a purpose similar to the Event Process Chain (EPC) notation used in the ARIS methodology. This standard has gone through several iterations, the latest being 2.0. However, the standard will continue to be modified and the version number and content will change. It is anticipated that the BPM modeling tool vendors and BPMS vendors will adjust to the standards as they change. Although BPMN provides a set of standard modeling symbols, most organizations will still need to apply their own architectural and engineering standards to have a complete BPM modeling solution.
• Business Process Management Suites (BPMS). A set of automated tools that allows the business to be modeled, showing flow, rule use, data use and more. This provides an integrated suite of software that defines the application architecture and infrastructure technology needs for the operation and execution of the applications that run within the BPMS technical environment. The BPMS operating environment addresses business users' desire to see and manage work as it progresses across organizational activity. A BPMS supports process modeling, design, development, and the managed execution of work and applications. The information in the BPMS design and rules libraries is used to automatically generate the applications that are used in the solution. This allows very fast change, with control over the way the change will be applied. A BPMS provides a new type of business environment that melds the business and IT. We use the term "environment" to describe the resulting operation when using a BPMS, because these tool suites generate the applications and provide the overall operating environment through which the business and the applications run. While component parts of these tool suites have existed since the late 1980s, they were not combined until a breakthrough in the early 2000's. The real breakthrough that allowed this coalescing of products was the advent of rules‐based application generation that was tied to process models. Since 2003, various component products have been brought together to form BPM product suites. It is the melding of the BPM approaches, techniques, and tools, along with their ability to quickly generate applications, which delivers the speed needed to optimize an operation and to support rapid change. This ability is what delivers both initial optimization and continuous improvement.
• BPMS Architecture. A design of how the various component software tools that work together to provide a BPMS environment fit together.
• BPMS/BPM or BPMS‐Supported BPM. A business operation that follows a BPM approach to improvement using a BPMS tool to drive and support business activity and coordinate the use of legacy IT applications. This forms an operating "environment" where the business actually runs using the BPMS.
• BPMS Repositories. Electronic databases (repositories) that have the ability to store a majority of an organization's business process information in a single location. This can significantly reduce the need for managing large volumes of Microsoft Office documents (e.g., Word, Excel and Visio) and simplifies version control. They do not however, usually store all the real‐time data that is collected from transactions processed through the BPMS‐supported business operation (through data entry in the screens that are used) or obtained from Legacy Business Applications or Databases.
• Business Process Transformation. The fundamental rethinking of a process. This is focused on the end‐to‐end alignment and change of a business's functions, processes, organization, data, metrics, and technology in accordance with the strategic objectives and tactical demands of the business, delivering a significant, measured increase in customer value. The goal is innovation and the application of new concepts, capabilities, technology, etc., to the design of the work that needs to be done. In this business redesign, no idea is off the table. No option is initially rejected—unless by company policy, law or financial reality. Improvement is thus not the goal, but a by‐product of a radical change to the way the process is approached and performed. This level of change is by nature invasive and will be disruptive.
• Capability Maturity Model (CMM). A Capability Maturity Model (CMM) lists important activities common to similar organizations and provides rating scales (e.g., 1‐5) for each activity, along with descriptions of what each rating means. A CMM is a way of evaluating how well an organization does what it does. CobiT is an example of a framework that contains a CMM used to rate the activities of Informational Technology divisions across all stages of service design and implementation. The ratings of a CMM may be correlated to other measures of organizational success, such as brand value, profitability, and market growth. A CMM, when used by external, impartial, third‐party evaluators, helps other interested parties compare multiple organizations. When used internally, a CMM can be used to establish an organizational vision, and organizational and individual goals. This helps set the time‐frame in which an organization may achieve each level of the CMM.
• Change Management. A structured approach to manage the people‐ and organization‐related aspects of change to achieve the desired business outcomes. It is aimed at helping management, employees and stakeholders to accept and embrace change in their current business environment. This often involves conducting formal change‐impact assessments, developing individual action plans, improving communications, and providing training to counter resistance. The result is that these plans help align changes to the overall strategic direction of the organization.
• Continuous Improvement. An approach to operational process improvement that is based on the need to continually review operations for problems, cost reduction opportunity, streamlining, and other factors that together allow optimization. Often associated with process methodologies, continuous improvement activity provides ongoing insight, measurement, and feedback on process performance to drive improvement in the execution of processes. In Continuous Improvement (following evaluation techniques like Six Sigma) business managers work with BPM and IT professionals to implement performance monitoring and measurement—i.e., to identify, define, measure, analyze, improve and control business processes. This leads to an ongoing list of improvement opportunities and related projects that allow the company to optimize its operations.
• Critical Success Factor (CSF). Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are those activities and capabilities that are essential for a company to succeed in its market. CSFs are those few things that absolutely, positively must go right to ensure success for the organization. Because these factors are industry‐ and at times geographically‐specific, they will vary from company to company. These factors relate to what the company needs to do to succeed in a continuous manner, not necessarily what it is currently doing. Typically referring to process‐related improvement programs, CSFs are the key factors as relayed by stakeholders that are important to the success of the project/program.
• Cross‐functional processes. See Enterprise Process Management
• Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing resources to an organization as a complete service over the Internet, rather than having the organization purchase each component separately and internally manage and support the computing resource. Think of it as renting a computing resource instead of buying, building, and operating your own computing infrastructure. Similar to the "time‐share" computing services of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, cloud computing provides users with access to software applications, data, hardware and support resources without the users needing to know the location and other details of the computing environment. End‐users access cloud‐based applications through a Web browser. Access is to business software and data that are stored on servers at remote locations. Cloud Computing is also referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS).
• Data Flow Analysis. An analysis technique that seeks to understand how data flows through a system. It looks at data use in different parts of an organization as well as how data is used by applications supporting a given business process.
• DCORTM. Design Chain Operations Reference: a reference model created by the Supply Chain Council.
• Dynamic Business Applications. Applications that can quickly adapt to changing business needs, competitive pressure, and market opportunity.
• Enterprise Process Management (EPM). EPM is the application of BPM principles, methods, and processes to an individual enterprise. It (a) assures the alignment of the portfolio and architecture of end‐to‐end processes with the organization's strategy and resources, and (b) provides a governance model for the management and evaluation of BPM initiatives.
• Enterprise Process Model(s). A model that shows the full end‐to‐end activity (high‐level view) needed to create the outcome (service or product) of the process. Enterprise Process Models may also be known as value chain models. Depending on the needs of the organization or project, these models can be created, at different levels of detail—processes decomposed into subprocesses, activities, and tasks—to provide a complete functional view.
• Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP systems). A pre‐packaged set of business software applications that help integrate internal and external management information across an organization. Typical areas of functionality include finance/accounting, sales and service, manufacturing, inventory management, procurement and customer relationship management. ERP systems can run on a variety of computing platforms, and typically feature a central database for storing information.
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). A software architecture—supported by a set of software tools, software, and a communication medium or carrier—that moves data between applications and communications equipment. The combined ESB components control the movement of data between computers.
• Event Process Chain (EPC). Event‐driven Process Chain models are a type of flowchart used for business process modeling. They serve a purpose similar to BPMN models in supporting business process improvement by helping to link different views of an enterprise model together. An EPC considers "events" as triggers to or results from a process step; this is useful for modeling complex sets of processes. EPC triggers resulting from a process step are called "functions." Thus, the flow is normally event‐function‐event.
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). A FMEA is a Six Sigma risk assessment technique that identifies how a product, service, or process can fail, estimates the related risks, and prioritizes actions that reduce the risk of failure.
• Flow Charting. A type of diagram that represents in visual format a sequence of events, processing steps, and/or decisions. Originally approved as an ANSI standard, flow charting includes a very simple and small set of symbols, which are not standardized; it facilitates "quick capture" of process flow.
• Framework. In process modeling, a framework is any planned association among the models applied to meet a policy, design, or usability requirement. The framework may or may not be architecturally significant. Example: a value chain for a process, with overlays depicting aspects of performers, timing, and financial elements, and with event chains describing details of process steps.
• BPM Governance. BPM Governance orchestrates the process of process management and provides a sustainable continuous process improvement capability, which is aligned with the business strategy.
• Handoffs. Any point in a process where work or information passes from one system, person, or group to another is a "handoff" for that process. Handoffs are often illustrated as process interfaces or intermediary events.
• Integrated Definition Language (IDEF). A Federal Information Processing Standard that highlights the inputs, outputs, mechanisms, and controls of a process, and clearly links processes up and down levels of detail; IDEF is a good starting place for an enterprise‐wide view of an organization.
• ITIL. ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It is a collection of best practices for Information Technology (IT) service management.
• Key Performance Indicator (KPI). KPI refers to the metrics or measures of a process that are indicative of overall performance. Companies that measure performance should have set targets and standards for measuring performance on those things they consider to be really important. These measures are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPI's measure factors that management believes are an indication of operational excellence. To be a realistic indicator, each KPI should be based on a reasonable target and should change over time as the business improves.
• Lean. A philosophy and approach that stresses the elimination of waste or non‐value‐add work through a focus on continuous improvement to streamline the operations. It is customer‐centric and stresses the concept of eliminating any activity that fails to add value to the creation or delivery of a product or service. Lean is focused on providing higher quality, reduced cycle time, and lower costs. Because it produces improved production systems, it is believed to increase production capability and flexibility. But in practice, its concepts can be, and have been, applied in all areas of a business. James Womack and Daniel Jones developed the term "Lean" in their book about the Toyota Production System (TPS), THE MACHINE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. Today, Lean is supported by tools and statistical methods that, although not as robust as those of Six Sigma, are an important part of improvement projects. For the most part Lean has been used in manufacturing, where organizations are applying Lean tools in service and transactional settings with great success. Typical results show dramatic reductions in time while significantly boosting quality. This approach is sometimes combined with Six Sigma techniques and referred to as Lean/Six Sigma (L‐SS).
• Measurement. The quantification of data (or data set) in an acceptable standard and quality (accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness).
• Measurable Activity. Any properly defined activity is measurable. At a minimum, the number of cases coming into the activity, the time in the activity, the error rate, and multiple other factors can be measured. That an activity can be measured however, does not mean it should be measured. A measurable activity is one that should be measured. It may be a cost driver, a quality checkpoint, or something else. But care should be taken in identifying measurable activity because it is easy to measure the wrong things, and it is easy to over‐measure and create worthless reports.
• Metric. A quantitative measure of a given attribute in a system, component, or process. Metric represents an extrapolation or a mathematical calculation of measurements, resulting in a derived value.
• Modernization. Activity that uses the knowledge of the current operation and leverages new technology, new manufacturing techniques, and new management philosophies to define how the products or services will be produced by the operation.
• Notation. The specific set of symbols and their rules of usage in describing a thing. There are notations created or adapted for use in BPM, just as in other fields. Flowcharting is an example of a notation used both for business process documentation and for documenting computer‐programming logic. Other examples include BPMN and EPC.
• Performance Management. Performance Management is the use of performance information to control the process or workflow/business unit's productivity, quality, cost, etc., against predetermined targets. This measurement information is used to direct specific improvement that helps reach performance targets.
• Performance Measurement. All business activities can be monitored, measured, and evaluated when properly understood and modeled. Although this measurement can be used to monitor the overall performance of a process, it typically refers to the measurement of groups of activities against specific standards, targets, KPIs or success factors.
• Performance Evaluation. The identification of gaps between how a process is currently performing in relation to how it should be performing to meet the organization's objectives. This evaluation can be against standards, targets or existing performance.
• Process. A process is a set of functions in a certain sequence that delivers value to a customer. Processes are started by clearly defined external events. They are formed from a combination of all the activities and support that are needed to produce and deliver an objective, outcome, product or service, regardless of where the activity is performed. These activities are usually a cross‐functional, cross‐organization aggregation of activities that work together to create an end product or service. Activities are shown in the context of their relationship with one another to provide a picture of sequence and flow. This context includes a defined set of activities or behaviors performed by humans, systems, or a combination of both to achieve one or more goals. Processes are triggered by specific events and have one or more outcomes that may result in the termination of the process or a handoff to another process. Processes are composed of a collection of interrelated tasks or activities that solve a particular issue. In the context of business process management, a "business process" is defined as end‐to‐end work that delivers value to customers. The notion of end‐to‐end work is critical as it involves all of the work, crossing any functional boundaries, necessary to completely deliver customer value.
• Process Analysis. Process analysis is the act of conducting a thorough review and arriving at a complete understanding of a business process (or portion thereof), with the goal of maintaining or achieving process excellence, or achieving incremental to transformational improvements in a business process. Process analysis involves looking at all components of a process — inputs, outputs, mechanisms and controls—inspecting each component individually and as they interact to produce results. These components can often be categorized into the people, processes, applications, data, and technology needed to support a business goal or objective. Analyses cover and uncover quality, time, and costs at all points of a business process, from inception to completion. Aids to process analysis include (1) Visual process models, both static and dynamic, (2) Data collected at the beginning, duration, and end of key activities, lower‐level processes, and the entire business process itself, (3) Business process analysis methods such as value chain analysis, end‐to‐end modeling, and functional decomposition. Some typical process analyses are (a) Resource utilization, (b) Distribution analysis, (c) Cycle time analysis, (d) Cost analysis, (e) Software application usage, (f) Global/Local process variations. Holistic business process analyses evaluate (1) Total cost of the process tools (e.g., computer systems), (2) Impact of the process on internal participants (employees) and external (paying) customers and stakeholders, (3) Impact of the process on the organization's community (e.g., environmental impacts) and other stakeholders.
• Process Analyst. A person with this role is responsible for working with business managers and staff to define and validate the current business operation and design future process models with business participants, Process Architects and Process Designers. Their role is to help identify how a business operation really functions and then to help identify, design, build and deploy improvement. They are often called upon to train project team members on modeling standards and approaches as defined by the Process Architect and Business Architect.
• Process Manager or Leader. A person with this role manages process transformation projects, leads process discovery and design workshops, coaches process owners, and measures and reports on process performance.
• Process Architect. A person with this role is focused on defining, redesigning, and optimizing activities in a process or group of processes. These people work with Business Architects to look at how processes need to change to deliver business goals, with Solution Architects to ensure performance, maintainability, and scalability, and with Enterprise Architects to identify IT capability, limitations, and support changes.
• Process Component. The parts of a process: inputs, outputs, mechanisms, and controls. (a) Inputs are resources or data that must be present, and "triggers" " (different types of events) that invoke a process. (b) Mechanisms are the "tools," including machines, systems, and people, that perform "activities," the actions upon and in response to the inputs. (c) Controls are the requirements, constraints, guides, and restraints; and defining laws, policies, rules and regulations that shape and determine the actions upon the inputs. Mechanisms and controls can be the same: for example, regulations, money, or people. (d) Outputs are the results of the actions of the mechanisms, guided by the controls and mechanisms, upon the inputs. Optimally, outputs are services or products meeting or exceeding the time, quality, or cost expectations of an organization's customers. They may also be events that trigger other processes in the same or in a different organization.
• Process Culture. Organizations where the business's processes are known, agreed on, communicated, and visible to all employees.
• Process Design. Process design is the act of transforming an organization's vision, goals, and available resources into a discernible, measureable means of achieving the organization's vision. Process design may start with process analysis; best practices from similar organizations; process reference models from industry‐standards organizations (e.g., SCOR or eTOM) or third party consultants; or "green field" — ideas coupled with the experience and insights of the process design team. Process design focuses on defining what the organization will do to achieve its financial and other goals.
• Process Designer. A person in this role works with business managers and staff to define and validate the future‐state operational design of processes. The Process Designer is thus the catalyst to the future‐state design and its continuous evolution. These people understand the mechanisms of the business and know how to develop a solution that meets performance targets, is scalable, and can be easily maintained. The Process Architect views the process from the perspective of how it interacts with the bigger picture (outside in).
• Process Flow. The aggregation of subprocesses into a sequential relationship that shows the order in which they are performed.
• Process Management Maturity. A measure of the state of a company's journey to consider and manage work using a process centric approach. The level of maturity is defined by comparing the company's current operation against characteristics and capabilities that are defined in one of the many Process Maturity Models in the market.
• Process Manager. A person in this role performs and coordinates the work on a process or processes and manages the process/processes' business performance.
• Process Modeling. Process modeling is the act of creating visible illustrations, which can be static or dynamic, of what an organization does to produce services or products (optimally of value to one or more customers). Optimally, process modeling results in an illustration that an independent evaluator can compare and match to the organization's process.
• Process Organization. An organization that is structured, organized, managed, and measured around its primary business processes. Its knowledge area addresses two types of organizations: (1) The process‐driven organization, (2) The roles and responsibilities of the governing bodies needed to support the process‐ driven organization.
• Process Owner. A person in this role has the ongoing responsibility and accountability for the successful design, development, execution, and performance of a complete end‐to‐end (cross‐functional) business process. Process ownership can be adopted full time or as an additional responsibility, as a line or staff function. Executive process owners (Enterprise Process Owners and Chief Process Officers) commonly have financial responsibility for groups of business processes. They have an inherent investment in the successful execution of cross‐functional business processes that are key to the success of the company. Process owners are among the essentials to business process success. A business process without an organizationally influential process owner is like a ship without a rudder, propeller, and sails — the business process can't execute in the most efficient and effective way possible.
• Process Team. A process team is a process owner and the supporting "players" who define, analyze, and refine a business process. The more common process team roles include (a) Process manager, (b) Process analyst, (c) Process designer, and (d) Process architect, along with (e) Business analyst, (f) Subject matter expert, and (g) Executive management and leadership. Process teams are often advised by a Business Architect and/or Process Architect.
• Reference Model. A normalized model that provides a high‐level integrated view of a business, its technology, and its data; it is used as a reference for building similar models. Reference models are useful in providing a degree of standardization among elements of a discipline. A well‐known reference model is the supply‐chain operations reference (SCOR), which allows for describing supply chains using common terminology and relationships to aid in comparisons and diagnostics. Another popular industry reference model is the eTOM or Enhanced Telecom Operations Map published by the TM Forum. The eTOM model describes the full scope of business processes required by a telecom company and defines key organizational and business process elements and how they interact. eTOM is often associated with ITIL, a standard framework for best practices in information technology. Many consulting organizations also offer business process reference models for specific industries.
• Risk Analysis. Examines the effectiveness of process control points against given stresses to determine when something will fail. It also can mean the level of risk that can be expected in a given course of action and the probability of failure—such as the probability of project failure if a given action is or is not taken.
• Role. A business role is a group of related skills with a level of authority to perform a given task. This includes all task types whether they are a manual or system enabled. Business roles are not the same as: (a) Organizational Jobs — a job is a role that exists in the organization and comprises a common set of responsibilities. For example, a manager's job includes performing the function of a department manager and being responsible for direct report employees. (b) Organizational Positions — an organizational position is a specific opening that someone fills (in a specific location). This is a skill‐ and location‐specific opening that is filled by a specific person. For example, a departmental manager in the San Francisco office. (c) Security Roles — a security role is a tactical object that gets assigned to a user ID, and allows the user access to the system.
• Rules. The logic that defines what will be done, when it will be done, where it will be done, why it will be done, how it will be done, and how it will all be managed or governed. Rules can take many forms, from simple binary decisions to decisions involving more advanced Boolean logic rules. Examples range from simple yes/no decisions to multi‐threaded decision trees to determine how a process responds to a given event.
• SCOR®. Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) is business process reference model endorsed by the Supply Chain Council as a de‐facto standard diagnostic tool for supply chain management. SCOR is a management tool spanning an organization's suppliers to its customers. This reference describes the business activities associated with all phases of satisfying the customer's demands. This reference model looks at business processes and activities used in all stages of supply chain activity. The SCOR a model is based on three major pillars: process modeling, performance measurements, and best practices. The process model is divided into five groups: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return. Each of these process groups is decomposed into progressively lower levels of detail to help model supply chain activities. Each level is a decomposition of the activities in the level above and all are supported by a set of standard key performance indicators (KPI).
• Sensitivity Analysis (also known as a "what if" analysis). An analytical technique that tries to determine the outcome of changes to the parameters of or the activities in a process. This is a measure of the sensitivity of something to a given change. It measures the hypothetical impact of different types of change (such as capacity, financial issues) on the overall process, workflow, or activity, and it is useful for determining how a change may impact the operation. It is also known as "what if analysis" and is used to support decision‐making or the development of recommendations for decision‐makers based on changing certain variables in the analytical model. Also called hypothesis testing, the goal is to test the measurable outcomes of performance (e.g. time, cost) from different ways to achieve desired objectives.
• Service Level Agreement (SLA). An agreement between two or multiple parties that defines specific levels of performance related to given activities. The SLAs are targets or standards that must be met by a supplier, outsourcing company, vendor, service provider or partner. SLAs are written in plain language specifying the target performance levels and how the target performance will be measured. They include the timing of the agreed measurement and a clearly defined issue resolution and escalation process for all parties agreeing to the SLA. An SLA may also build in penalties or incentives tied to performance targets for improved performance or for excellence. As related to a process, SLAs focus on measureable outcomes that have been defined by stakeholders to meet set performance criteria.
• Simulation. A modeling technique that uses business process models in a BPMS tool to make predictions about how a process may perform under different circumstances and workloads. Business process simulation can be either formal or informal and use a variety of techniques. Process simulation usually assigns values to activities and then defines a number of anticipated use cases to see how the business process will respond under different circumstances. The simulation of complex business processes can often reveal outcomes that business process transformation teams can't anticipate. This is especially relevant when trying to model new automated business processes being carried out on mobile devices. Simulations require sufficient data, which typically allows the process to be mathematically simulated under various scenarios, loads, or other conditions.
• SIPOC. SIPOC is a Six Sigma tool; it stands for "Supplier‐Input‐Process‐Output‐Customer". A SIPOC diagram verifies that process inputs match outputs of the upstream process and that process outputs match the expected inputs of the downstream process.
• Six Sigma. A method that drives business performance improvement by reducing or narrowing variation in work or in quality. The goal is to reach a statistical variation of Six Sigma (or six standard deviations of variation) within the limits defined by the customer's specifications. Since its introduction in 1987, Six Sigma has become one of the most recognized enterprise improvement methodologies for companies seeking to identify business problems, define improvement opportunities and projects, and deliver solutions to realize predictable and repeatable results.
• SOA. An approach for linking resources to obtain or present data on an "on demand' basis. It is a data access and delivery strategy pursued by the enterprise — it is not simply a tactic or technique that the enterprise adopts to pursue a goal of improved application interfacing. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), is an approach for building computing applications that support or automate business processes by using a set of loosely coupled black‐box components. SOA represents a dramatic change in the relationship between business and IT. SOA makes technology a true business enabler and empowers business and technology leaders alike. From a technical perspective, SOA is a method to design and architect solutions. It could be implemented in a messaging or integration layer or it could be a way that an application is designed to provide services to other applications.
• SOA Implementation. A project or initiative to implement business solutions using SOA technology.
• SOA Execution. A program to invoke a service, but does not contain 'business logic'.
• SOA Interface. The software that calls data from, or presents data to, one or more applications that are external to the application being executed. The interface address information for locating the associated implementation(s) is called the request.
• SOAP. Imbedded within the SOA umbrella is a set of standards that govern data transfer. These standards, named Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), are a set of rules for transferring structured information across a network in the implementation of Web Services.
• Swim Lanes. Swim lane models divide a screen or page into multiple parallel lines or lanes. The lanes are generally represented as long vertical or horizontal rectangles or sometimes‐simple lines or bars. Each of these lanes is defined as a specific organization unit or a business role that a person plays in performing the work. The work moves from activity to activity following the path of the flow from business unit to business unit or from role to role. By showing the flow from lane (role/organization) to lane, swim lanes help identify hand‐offs in a process.
• Software as a Service (SaaS). Sometimes referred to as on‐demand software, SaaS is a software delivery model in which application software and its associated data and infrastructure are hosted on the Internet and accessed by users with a web browser. This is the latest incarnation of the time‐sharing concept of the late 1970s and the 1980s. In this option, SaaS customers sign on to the vendor's hardware/software environment and use the applications from any location (common examples include sales force and payroll automation). The hardware and applications or tools are located externally to the company and may be anyplace in the world. SaaS computing services and applications are typically managed and supported by a third‐party vendor on a fee‐for‐service basis.
• Strategic BPM Planning. Strategic BPM Planning defines the way BPM and BPMS will be used in the company. It translates the vision of business improvement into action plans and aligns required BPM/BPMS capabilities with the approach that will be taken in improving business processes. This is important in delivering the business objectives of transformation projects.
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). These individuals are typically people who have a deep understanding of certain business functions or operations, often possessing years of experience as a participant in business operations. This term is also applied to people who have deep expertise in an area of IT, production operations, supply chain management or other areas of activity.
• Success Criteria. The topics or items that a project must address and the standards, targets, and limits that must be achieved in order for it to be a success.
• Systems Dynamics Models. These models are "activity on arrow" diagrams rather than "activity on node" diagrams like most of the other notations. These are more often used to model an entire enterprise or line of business than to model lower‐level workflow. They describe the enterprise business "architecture" from a dynamic behavioral perspective rather than a static structural perspective.
• Task. The steps or actions taken to perform a specific piece of work — such as to enter a claim's information into the line of business' claim system, register a patient in a hospital, or enter an order for a project into a sales system. A number of logically related tasks can be combined into a higher‐level "Activity". A task may or may not have automated support. Some tasks can even be totally automated. These may be shown in a workflow model to provide information that helps staff understand what is happening. Tasks can also combine to form scenarios that are repeated based on events, timing, etc.
• Unified Modeling Language (UML). Maintained by the Object Management Group, a standard set of diagramming technique notations primarily for describing information systems requirements. UML models are most often associated with custom software development efforts, though they may also be associated with the custom development portions of an ERP implementation project for defining custom reports, interfaces, conversions, and enhancement (RICE) objects.
• Value Chain. Value chains are large‐scale business processes that are initiated by a customer request, and result in the delivery of a process or service to a customer. A value chain includes everything that contributes to the delivery of a given product. By adding up all the costs of each activity in the value chain, and subtracting the total from the sales price, an organization can determine the profit margin on the value chain. Most organizations support from 3 to 15 value chains. Introduced by Michael Porter in his 1985 book entitled COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE, this approach emphasizes capturing those processes and activities that "add value" to the service or product provided to a customer. Value Chains provide a strategic view of business processes across the organizations and products they support.
• Value Chain Notations. A category of symbol sets used to visualize the accumulation of value or steps toward achievement of a goal.
• Value Stream Mapping. A Value Stream Map is a Lean Six Sigma tool used for detailed process analysis and design. It captures all key process activities and metrics, and focuses on eliminating activities that do not add value to the product or service being built or delivered. In Lean Manufacturing, this is used to add process resource costs and time elements to a process model to clearly show the flow of materials and products, and to depict process efficiency.
• Workflow. This is a generic term for the sequential movement of information or materials from one activity in a process or subprocess to another in the same overall process. As applied in the CBOK, this is the aggregation of activity within a single Business Unit. Activity will be a combination of work from one or more processes. Organization of this work will be around efficiency. The activities in the workflow will be shown as a flow that describes each activity's relationship with all the others performed in the Business Unit. Modelling will show this work as a flow that describes each activity's relationship with all the others performed in the Business Unit. Workflows can be manual, automated, or more likely a combination of both. Workflow models often include both the diagram and the specific rules that define the flow of information from one activity to the next. When used in conjunction with the workflow system or engine, it usually refers to a software‐based workflow system that will move information from a database to one computer or organization after the other.
• WSDL. The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is a standard way of defining an SOA service interface.
• Web Services. Web Services are a set of standards that enable the integration of web‐based applications. In BPMS, Web Services are used to move data and initiate processing in applications that are not part of the BPMS solution operating environment.
• Web Application. A computer program or set of programs that are called from a web portal and used to perform a given business function—such as purchase a product. The term may also mean software application that is coded in a browser‐supported language (such as Java) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application's executable over internal networks or over the Internet. These applications can either be purpose‐built or purchased from a vendor; they usually link to other legacy or special‐purpose background applications that can access multiple databases or perform given functions in the background while the web application continues to interact with the application user.
• Web Portal. A website that provides a single point of access to information over internal networks and/or the Internet. Web portals usually provide access to specific information and capabilities that a company wants to make available to a broad range of people in a consolidated manner. Well‐structured web portals allow users to personalize their views. In addition to information gathering and sharing, web portals can be built to include workflow management, work group collaboration, and content management features to help deliver self‐service support.