Book Contents
Preface to 2012 Edition
Chapter 1 - The journey’s beginning—introduction
Perspectives
What is a business process?
How to find business processes
Concluding remarks
Chapter 2 - Background themes
Improvement or innovation?
How many processes?
Business Processes Cut Across Business Functions
(Re)Engineering?
Input—process—output
Binding time
Purpose
Management responsibility for business processes
Concluding remarks
Chapter 3 - Lessons from history—the evolution of process analysis techniques
Technology, information, and business processes
The focus of system analysis
Workflow and process flow
Workflow and transaction processing
Classical process analysis techniques
Systems, complexity, and de-composition
Concluding remarks
Chapter 4
Simple process models: introduction to object property relationship (OPR)modeling
Problem Statements and Requirements 50
Implications of Identifying Carnap as the Origin of Analysis Techniques 53
Object property relationship modeling: more advanced rules 60
A simple business process meta model 66
Business Process Language 68
Concluding remarks 69
Practical Advice 70
Chapter 5 - Business visions
Background
Concluding remarks
Chapter 6 - Simple text analysis
Example one
Example two
Fundamentals
Text analysis
Simple Example
Nouns and objects
Verbs and relationships
Synonym and homonym detection and resolution
Ambiguity and equivocation
Anthropomorphism
Constructing object property relationship models
Model testing
Text analysis and business processes
Document analysis
A simple method
Chapter 7 - Analyzing diagrams
Diagram analysis
Process diagrams
Simple flowcharts
Process charts
IDEF diagrams
UML Diagrams
Data Diagrams
Diagram consistency and completeness checks
Concluding remarks
Chapter 8 - Analyzing information
Information systems analysis and BPW
Data analysis and modeling
Process analysis
Structured design
Object-oriented analysis
Information analysis
Concluding remarks
Chapter 9 - Analyzing costs
A simple example
Types of cost: collection and classification
Cost objectives
Conventional allocation of overhead costs
Opportunity costs
Activity-based costing: a simple example
Chapter 10 - Analyzing organization
Organizational models
Organization and information technology
Collaborative work
Goals, values, and cultures
Organization and practical analysis
Chapter 11 - Information technology and business processes
Information technology and business processes
Information technology and business process analysis
The information ages
Information as an asset
Key paradigms
Concluding remarks
Chapter 12 - Measuring process performance
Quantification of business processes
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Performance measurement
Data envelopment analysis
Actuality, capability, and potentiality
Units, resources, and resource consumption in OPR models
Operational metrics and activity-based costing
Concluding remarks
Chapter 13 - Business process simulation
Simulation models
Games and experiments
Kinds of simulation
Why simulate?
Advantages and disadvantages of simulation
Choice of simulation approaches
Discrete, stochastic, event-driven simulation
System dynamics simulation
Chapter 14 - Business process specifications
Process specifications
Cognitive models
Purposes of process descriptions
Correctness
Completeness
Consistency
Defining standards
Implementing standards: a case study
Suggestions for business process documentation
Chapter 15 - Business process architecture, engineering, epistemology, management, maturity, ontology, etc.
Business process engineering
Business process architecture
Business process epistemology
Business process management
Business process maturity
Business process ontology
Reconciling business process epistemology and ontology
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)—and Insourcing
Chapter 16 - Journey’s pause—epilogue
General commentary
The professional business process analyst
Core skills and competencies
Methods and techniques
New processes: build or buy?
BPA as a core strategic process
Speculation about the future of BPW
Final comments
Acronyms
BPA Services
Consulting and Projects
Workshops, Seminars, and Training
Appendix A - Process Description Forms
Level I Process Form
Level I process Form - Linguistic Equivalent
Level II Process Form
References and sources
Index