BPM vs Workflow

 

We are often faced with the question from customers and partners alike on the difference between Business Process Management (BPM) and workflow. BPM is about managing a business problem where workflow is a technology. BPM uses workflow as one of its dimensions to manage business processes. The dimensions of BPM is also defined by the cube as the icon for BPM with its six sides.

 

The six sides of the BPM cube.

 

• BPM has a human workflow (WF) dimension;
• BPM has a rules engine (RE) dimension;
• BPM has an enterprise application integration (EAI) dimension;
• BPM has a service oriented architecture (SOA) dimension;
• BPM has a content management (CM) dimension; and
• BPM has a business intelligence (BI) dimension.

 

If BPM has all these dimensions it is argued that a BPM Suite (BPMS) should allow for the configuration of all of the dimensions from one interface or product suite. A true BPMS provides the ability to create Composite Process Solutions (CPS) with all of these elements from a single toolset.

 

A typical CPS may be a relatively complex Order Management Cycle (OMC) solution with complex business rules, human intervention, various documents and data integrated to the CRM and ERP solutions in the business. The OMC solution needs to provide operational feedback and notifications to line managers as well as the ability to analyze completed processes and identify opportunities to improve the processes by reducing bottlenecks and redundancy. A simplified model of the cube would be to integrate RE with WF as well as EAI and CM with SOA.

 

This leaves three dimensions for BPM:

 

• Rules based human-centric workflow and process automation [Automate] A
• SOA based EAI and CM [Integrate] I
• BI based Performance Management [Manage] M

 

 

A.I.M. the processes in your organisation

 

Copyright Exomin Pty Limited 2010