Business Process Management
Business Process Management (BPM) is an activity focused on the continuous improvement of business operations and the technology that supports it. Business Process Management uses Process Modeling techniques to analyze, design, implement, monitor, and optimize, business functions. From an Information Technology (IT) perspective it is similar to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The IT aspect of Business Process Management is often called Business Process Modeling, and included as part of an Enterprise Architecture.
IT based BPM tools focus on developing a business model based upon a set of selected Business Rules. The Business Rules are defined using a chosen taxonomy of words and phrases along with an ontology of how their functions relate within the process model. Process Models created in this manner are usually constructed graphically using visual design tools like the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The rules are compiled into machine statements that are executed by a rules engine that governs the processing workflow. One evolving standard for expressing BPM is known as Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). BPEL is an XML document format capable of encapsulating Business Rules, and communicating them through web services in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
Of equal importance is the collection of process dataflow gathered by monitoring the exchange of information within an organization. Monitoring helps to identify bottlenecks and locate where improvements should be introduced. Automated regulation of information that compensates for variations in the dataflow behavior is a traditional BPM application. Introducing process management techniques that acknowledge all aspects of human interaction and teamwork is now shifting that emphasis. Social networks common to human interaction and communication, as well as machine-based interfaces are now taken into consideration.
See Also:
Business Process Execution Language
Enterprise Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture
Unified Modeling Language