BPTF Architecture Overview - Value Chain Group

Copyright©2010ValueChainGroupallrightsreserved|PartIBusinessProcessTransformationFramework6DocumentbasedapproachusinggraphicalprocesscaptureModelbasedapproachusingreferencemodelsUsingthefirstapproach,theBAteamcollectsdocumentsandorganizesthebusinessprocessflowdesignscapturedusingprocessrepresentationtemplates,usuallyhardcopygraphicaltemplatesanddrawings.Theprocessisdocumentedatvariouslevelsofdetailindifferentmanualdocumentsanddiagrams.Linkagebetweenthelevelsofprocessdetailisnotpreservedbetweenvariousdocuments.Rather,documentnomenclatureisutilizedtoestablishthehierarchicalstructurefornavigatingthroughcapturedprocessknowledge.Thisapproachiscumbersome,andlessthaneffectiveduetolackofstandardizationofthemodelingelementsandlackoftheprecisionrequiredforautomatedanalysisandexecution.BPTFDeinfition:Semantics–thestudyorscienceofmeaninginlanguage.Howwecommunicateandreachagreementonthemeaningofbusinessprocesselements.Themodelbasedapproach,ontheotherhand,solvesthesemanticproblemimposedbyduplicationofelementlistingsacrossmultipleartifacts.Itreliesondevelopmentanduseofreferencemodelsinwhichbuildingblocksaredefinedconsistentlyandaretheonlyonesused(fullynormalized)inalldictionaries.Typically,oneofthedictionariesservesasamaster(highlevel)dictionaryandisanopenstandarddictionary(maintainedoutsideofanyspecificcompany).Otherdictionariescontainadditionalprocesssubsetsanddetailsuniquetoaspecificcompany’soperations.Thereareotherdictionariesdefiningadditionalbuildingblockssuchasdeliverables,inputsoutputs,metrics,resources,rules,practices,technologycomponents,etc.Withinacompany’sBPTF,fourtypesofmodelsareoftenfound: Industrylevelneutralreferencemodels(e.g.VRMorAPQP)CompanyspecificextensionsoftheopenstandardmodelProjectreferencemodelsdefiningstagegatedeliverablesSystemfunctionmodelsrepresentingtypicalsystemfunctionsandtransactionsTable1BPTFReferenceModelsFollowingaconsistentontology(setofdefinitionsofbuildingblocksandtheirassociations)enablesreuseofprocessmodelsandcaptureofprocessdesignsatanylevelofdetailrequiredinthemethodologyofcontinuousimprovementandprocessstandardization.ContinuousImprovementProgramsThisBPTFdimensionmakesvaluestreamsandbasicbuildingblocksdynamic.Modelingutilizesstandardbuildingblocksandautomaticallygeneratesmodelsdepictingacompany’svaluechainsegmentation.However,modelsarealwaysspecificandrepresentativeofasnapshotintime.Forexample,onemodelcanrepresentaspecificvaluestreamanditsstandardbuildingblocksatthebeginningofanimprovementinitiative(asissnapshot).Othermodelscanrepresentdesireddesignsofthesamevaluestreambuiltfromsamestandardbuildingblocksatvarioustimesinthefuture.Thesemodelsenableanalysisandfacilitateconsensusindeterminingandeliminatingtherootcauseofperformancedegradation.Modelsfacilitateandaccelerateidentificationofperformanceproblemsevenincomplexprocesseswithhundredsoftasksanddependencies.