Introduction to Business Process Analysis

Business Modeling and Simulation
Poonam Mehta, India
Hello Beretti, I am an MBA student and pursuing my specialisation in Business Modeling and Simulation. The basic needs to understand and apply this subject are enough knowledge of MS Excel and of Distribution theory.
Especially consider Normal Distribution, Uniform Distribution, Erlang Distribution, Triangular and many more....
An important thing is the application of these distributions. Example: when we say there is waiting line model, we generally generate ramdom number for our service time (customers spend time to get their services). It should be exponetial.. It depends from model to model.. When there is inventory model it is Normal Distribution.
I m also preparing a model for my Business which I'm going to start in the near future.. I hope this information will help you..

Business Modeling
Federico Romero, Perú
Hi Breretti, I'm a Project Manager and I'm in the same situation. Currently, I'm clear that there are a lot of methodologies. Today I'm working based on BPMN with the support of a free software called BizAgi which includes some tutorials. I hope to have helped yourself.

Improving BPM Skills
Leon Booysen, Management Consultant, South Africa
Hi Beretti, The best and I believe the only way to improve process analysis and modeling skills is to understand the process in current state and what is deliverable of a particular process.What is the result the "customer" expects? The study different modeling tools like UML is really secondary.

BPM for Anything....
Marcio Da Costa Coelho, Brasil
Hello, Beretti. I’m director of a Brazilian company focused on business solutions, and I have been working and searching about BPM for the last seventeen years. My recommendation for you is to define the drive of your BPM application, what you need as a result of BPM application. Today there is a lot of different approaches for BPM, for example: Performance improvement; work-flow implementation; software development, ERP implementation or tuning, quality programs; activity based costing, EAI, SOA…… For each different drive, probably, you will find a different approach for same subject BPM. BPMN, for example, is not a method and was created to support specifically the workflow orchestration modeling and script generation. It´s poor for the others applications! Here, we develop, and, are using an multidimensional approach for BPM. With this approach we can support fully the several drivers whit the same set of models and specifications. rgs

New Book About BPM, SOA and EA
Alexander Samarin, Entrepreneur, Switzerland
Hi Beretti, I would like to introduce you to my new book 'Improving Enterprise Business Process Management Systems' which has just been published.
This book looks at the following three concepts of BPM:
1. The Theory: BPM as a management discipline (i.e. managing business by processes);
2. The Tools: BPM as a software (BPM suites);
3. The Practice: BPM as a portfolio of the business processes of an enterprise, and the practices and tools for governing the design, execution and evolution of this portfolio (BPM System).
In particular the book concentrates on the last concept which is often neglected although all enterprises need it. This book will help you to industrialise Enterprise BPM systems. It describes a holistic approach to the application of BPM, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) for improving enterprise business performance.

Business Process Analysis and Modelling
Ali Mohammed Dube, Manager, South Africa
The approach that works for me is to start by studying my department’s role in the value chain; the role of other stakeholders and our interdependencies.
I then look at basic activities, principles and behaviors within my department. I work with my team to identify and address bottlenecks in our internal processes.
This helps to leverage on collective intelligence and to get buy-in from the team. I then get the team to commit to "perfecting the basics" within our department, which constitutes day to day operating standards, activities and behaviors.
It is only then that I engage with other stakeholders with a view of ensuring synergies between our cross-functional processes.
My focus is always on achieving efficiencies without compromising on the end-result which in my case always constitutes customer experience. Process mapping and documentation are key features in this exercise.
I trust that my humble insight will be of some value and good luck with your research.

Enterprise Architecture
Jorgen Fagerquist, ICT Consultant, United States
'Troux Enterprise Architecture Solutions' by Richard J. Reese.

BPM Modeling Tool
Matthias Bittrich, Business Consultant, Germany
Hi! In Western Europe one modeling tool is quite common and widespread: ARIS from the former IDS Scheer company, today belonging to Software AG.
Details: "With ARIS Express, Software AG is offering the world's first free business process modeling software. ARIS Express is the perfect tool for starting with Business Process Management. It's easy to install and allows intuitive and fast process modeling. So everyone can get started and no BPM expertise is needed." Greetings, Matt

Reference Book on BPM
nilakantan, Teacher, India
I teach a course called BPF with the book: Managing Business Process Flows by some Kelloggs professors (Ravi Anupindi et al.). The book explains relevant concepts of BPM with many examples of situations in BPM. This is a good place to start.