What is Business Process Lifecycle?

Business Process Management is an intelligent manner to improve your company.

The bottom line?

It is a continuous and cyclic process that ideally must be part of the company’s culture, in a way that every supplier, employee, and managers always think about how to implement the processes they work with.

It will integrate the organization and enhance the communication between teams and people, giving everybody a clear vision of what they do.

In this post, I will show all steps of the business process lifecycle and some examples of how to implement using technology.

Stages of the business process lifecycle

In order, there is a cycle to follow to implement continuous improvement into an organization. It’s called the business process lifecycle.

As the name says, it is a cycle in an endless way. The steps are modeling, implementation, execution, monitoring and optimization.

Business Process Lifecycle: Model

The modeling phase starts when we gather the details about the process.

Now it is time to get to know it, what are the steps, who participates in them, where does the process begin and where it ends, what is its purpose.

With all that information in mind, we create a flow or diagram, to visualize the process as a whole.

At that time, we also begin to check for improvements opportunities and weaknesses points, since we have a complete knowledge of the process.

With the process defined, it is possible to test some scenarios and start to see what can be done. It is also necessary to check and see what has been done so far and even to simulate use cases and see what it works.

In the picture below you can see an example of a diagram on HEFLO, that is free for modeling and documenting business processes:

As you can see in the image above the diagram is modeled with BPMN – Business Process Model and Notation – , a standard modeling notation and most used notation in BPM projects.

Business Process Lifecycle: Implement

The next step in the business process lifecycle is to worry about how to execute the process.

If before we gathered data about the process, now we see how it is implemented and used. It is the first step to the execution of the process, the moment when it starts.

In the video below you can see an example of implementation of a process for a service provider:

Business Process Lifecycle: Execute

Time to run the process.

It is important that we do that with the end users, the people that interact with this process on a daily basis.

In all the phases it is possible to identify bottlenecks and improvement points, so the process is each time more round and efficient.

When put into practice in the way it was visualized in the modeling stage, we see if the improvements and changes work, and check for more. The execution is key to the business process lifecycle, and it is crucial to do it correctly.

Watch the video below and see an example of this cycle phase:

Business Process Lifecycle: Monitor

While implementing and executing, it is critical to monitor the process.

Do not forget always to gather data, since the facts and numbers will be the basis for proper monitoring.

Monitoring shows if the premises were correct if what you set as a goal was achieved, what the process influences and what are its impacts internally and externally. This stage is performed through all the business process lifecycle.

Below, see an example of management dashboard used to communicate to the team operational indicators.

Source: How DonorsChoose.org Uses Dashboards to Drive Impact.

Business Process Lifecycle: Optimize

At this point, you know what works and what did not work.

So, now it’s time to optimize it and improve it again! It may seem as the stages are separated, but in fact, they are highly connected.

At the same time that we execute, we monitor, and as we monitor we optimize, soon beginning all over again.

If you want to master on process design I recommend you read the article The nine principles of Process Design.

Conclusion

The business process lifecycle is a continuous loop of improvement.

To apply it correctly, be sure to look for a reliable software or professional, to get the most of the project. To further know about continuous improvement, continue on our website!

If you want more information or advice, leave a question in the comments below.