Working with Business Processes 2013

Business processes matter, because business processes are how value is delivered. Understanding how to work with business processes is now a core skill for business analysts, process and application architects, functional area managers, and even corporate executives. But too often, material on the topic either floats around in generalities and familiar case studies, or descends rapidly into technical details and incomprehensible models. This workshop is different - in a practical way, it shows how to discover and scope a business process, clarify its context, model its workflow with progressive detail, assess it, and transition to the design of a new process by determining, verifying, and documenting its essential characteristics. Everything is backed up with real-world examples, and clear, repeatable guidelines.

Learning Objectives

Identify a "true" business process, and specify its boundaries and goals
Describe the key factors that differentiate process and functional approaches
Employ a variety of techniques to keep stakeholders involved, and promote "process orientation"
Establish the scope, issues, and goals for a business process
Model process workflow at progressive levels of detail using Swimlane Diagrams
Stop process modeling at the appropriate point, and move on to other techniques or phases
Conduct a structured assessment of a business process
Transition to the design of a new process while avoiding common (and serious!) pitfalls