Business Process Modeling and Design Thinking

Business Process Modelling (BPM)

  • BPM divides business processes into basic components like functions performed for the business.
  • It shows how a product or service changes as it moves through the organization process, usually in near real-time.
  • Procedure models facilitate communication between stakeholders, including business analysts and process partners.
  • BPM models provide a shared understanding to inform various process-related steps: Process Map, Process Detection, Process Imitation, Process Analysis, and Process Development.
  • BPM has replaced previous effective packages like Time and Movement (TMS) and Total Quality Management (TQM).

Advantages of Business Process Modelling

  1. Aligns operations with business strategy.
  2. Improves process communication.
  3. Increases control and consistency.
  4. Improves operational efficiencies.
  5. Gains competitive advantage.

Design Thinking in Business Process Modelling

  • BPM discloses how things are done in the organization and compares that with how they should be done, highlighting dependence and interpersonal relationships, processes, and technology.
  • Design thinking focuses on development, taking the experience of the end user or customer as a starting point.
  • Design thinking uses empathy to understand how people feel about using a service or product, including where their frustrations lie.
  • It builds on that knowledge to improve customer lives and knowledge.

Agile in Virtual Collaboration

  • Agile methods are popular in the software industry, and other industries want to pursue their benefits.
  • Working in a global environment makes these structures challenging to function effectively.
  • The Agile method can accommodate changes at any time compared to the waterfall method.
  • Collaboration between clustered groups slows down processes faster without communication, interactions, improvements, editing, and reviews.
  • Remote or distributed performance is considered competitive and a suitable performance model.
  • Businesses want to nurture talent, utilize the best talent, and achieve higher productivity for strategic reasons.
  • With the growing demand for remote operation, faster methods can work with distributed teams using tools and techniques.

Key Elements for Agile Excellence in Distributed Teams

  1. Allow Openness: Create a transparent environment and provide confidence in team members for their decisions. Align decisions with the company's goals and vision. Explain functions and make results public. Establish open communication channels.
  2. Establish a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Encourage improvement within the team. Seek opportunities for improvement and get ideas from the group. Listen to suggestions and take appropriate action. Agile drives continuous development, and team members should be open to development opportunities. Generate calculated tests to gauge improvement efforts.
  3. Communication: Communication is a critical skill in any group. The way you organize your communication determines the outcome. Practice deep communication at all levels. Emphasize communication through emails, calls, meetings, and ERP tools.
  4. Rhythm Building: Three essential elements in a fast-paced workflow are clarity, testing, and flexibility.
    • Scrum incorporates these elements:
      Clarity+Testing+FlexibilityClarity + Testing + Flexibility
    • It is important to build a tempo that aligns with these Scrum pillars, fostering a collaborative team and Agile excellence.
  5. Develop a Culture of Courage and Flexibility: Encourage immediate failure. Failure is acceptable. Set up a place where the team has the courage to take action and try something new. Reduce delays by identifying failure quickly and re-engineering plans.
  6. Establish a Stable Environment and Work-Life Balance: Distributed teams should maintain normal working hours and avoid overtime. Establish rules and ensure that no team member violates these terms. Plan accordingly and set reasonable expectations.
  7. Visualize the Whole Thing: Task planning is a tool that provides a clear interpretation of tasks to be completed. Establish a solution that allows team members to monitor the flow of work, show who is working on it, guide together, and choose the right priority at the right time. This solution will help scan problem areas and restore them properly to improve processes.

Scenario Based Prototyping

  • Design thinking is best when concrete prototypes can visualize new products and services.
  • In complex software systems, portable prototypes are not always possible.
  • A situation-based prototyping method can be used to design complex software programs based on structural and behavioral models.
  • This approach supports step-by-step enrichment and interoperability of the model and the sequence between artifacts collected during previous design phases and scenarios.
  • The models provide a more legitimate result of the process of designing low-level engineering works, narrowing the gap between design and engineering.
  • Circumstances define the sequence of events, reflecting the activities of one or more individuals in the real world.
  • Goals should be realistic, detailed, and concise.
  • It is best to cover a limited time in a situation.
  • Distinguish between terms of use, which involve dialogue and independent analysis in real-world settings, and design conditions, which are updated versions of usage.