Do you know how effective your business operations are?Can you predict where they need to be?Sure, you might have a broad idea of the organization’s current challenges and successes, but if you want to improve, you have to pinpoint exactly what you’re doing and how well you’re doing it.That’s where business process modeling comes in. Business process modeling helps companies document and assess their business processes and workflows so they can adapt and improve with precision and effectiveness.Here we’ll discuss exactly what business process modeling is and how it can support your company’s initiatives for long-term growth and success. What is business process modeling?Organizations and companies use business process modeling (BPM) to visually document and understand their current (as-is) processes and identify opportunities to improve them.BPM is part of the Business Process Management discipline, which focuses on improving performance by managing processes. Among other tasks, Business Process Management uses BPM to discover, model, analyze, optimize, and automate business processes for greater corporate success. Benefits of business process modelingBPM is an important tool for process managers and other high-level stakeholders to understand and improve their company’s operations. Here are just a few of the benefits: Align operations with strategyWhen you know your current processes, you can make sure they are aligned with your greater organizational strategies and initiatives.
BPM helps leaders maintain consistent processes and adapt to and evolve with changes effectively. Establish consistencySuccessful organizations rely on streamlined processes that operate consistently and as expected. By mapping out your business processes, you can see each step in your operations and keep everyone on the same page.With one operational source of truth, you can rest assured that everyone is working from the same playbook. Increase efficiencyBusiness process modeling helps leaders and employees understand each level of operations and their roles within them. Consistent, standard processes improve efficiency across the board.When stakeholders know their roles and leaders are able to identify opportunities for improvement, operations run more smoothly. Improve communicationClear communication is essential for a well-run operation.
Process modeling is an effective way to communicate people’s roles and show how their work relates to the rest of the process. This understanding helps prevent bottlenecks and miscommunications.Additionally, documenting your processes mitigates the risks of knowledge loss in the event of turnover and team changes. With everything clearly recorded in your process model, new team members can quickly get up to speed. Business process modeling methodologiesThere are numerous ways to approach business process modeling.
Three of the most common modeling methodologies are Business Process Modeling Notation, Universal Process Notation, and original process flowcharts. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Diagram Example (Click on image to modify online) Business process modeling and notation (BPMN)is the gold standard for process modeling. About Lucidchart:Lucidchart is the essential visual productivity platform that helps anyone understand and share ideas, information, and processes with clarity. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can learn to work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more.The most popular online, Lucidchart is used in over 180 countries by more than 15 million users, from sales managers mapping out prospective organizations to IT directors visualizing their network infrastructure.