Business Process Management

Octal Business Process Management is based on the research process and on personal experience in that field. We feel and believe that Business modeling is important because one can simulate different scenarios or resource combinations to yield the best improvements. Business processes are a fundamental building block of organizational success. Even though effectively managing business process is a key activity for business prosperity there remain considerable gaps in understanding how to drive efficiency through a process approach.
The business model defines the goals and context of the business in funding the application. Some of the questions about your application this model answers are:

What are the business requirements for this project?
What business objectives/features must it provide?
What level of investment will provide the best financial return?
How fast must the project be delivered?
How expensive can it be to deploy?
What platforms must it support?
How many users must have access to it concurrently?
How important is security?
How reliable must it be?
How long until this release is replaced or updated?
How quickly must new business policies or end user needs be incorporated into new updates?

The business model directly interacts with the user model, the logical model, and the technology model. The following table characterizes these interactions and gives brief examples of each.

Sub-model	How the business model relates to it	Example
User model	Determines who will use the application, their skill levels, and their desktop configuration.	An application that must be used by inexperienced personnel must be highly intuitive and well-documented.
Logical model	Sets policies about how business assets must be managed. These policies are reflected in logical business rules.	Business policies determine how shipping, inventory, and sales must respond to new orders.
Technology model	Determines or constrains the technology needed to satisfy business requirements.	A business requirement to direct market the company’s products through electronic commerce mandates Internet tec

There are four critical components of a BPM Suite:

Process Engine – a robust platform for modeling and executing process-based applications, including business rules
Business Analytics — enable managers to identify business issues, trends, and opportunities with reports and dashboards and react accordingly
Content Management — provides a system for storing and securing electronic documents, images, and other files
Collaboration Tools — remove intra- and interdepartmental communication barriers through discussion forums, dynamic workspaces, and message boards

BPM also addresses many of the critical IT issues underpinning these business drivers, including:

Managing end-to-end, customer-facing processes
Consolidating data and increasing visibility into and access to associated data and information
Increasing the flexibility and functionality of current infrastructure and data
Integrating with existing systems and leveraging emerging service oriented architecture(SOAs)
Establishing a common language for business-IT alignment