Business Process Management: Methodology, Lifecycle, and Maturity Model
Competitive companies have a firm grasp of their processes across departments, systems, and locations. This is made possible by Business Process Management (BPM): a method for process-oriented business management that measures, controls, and continuously improves business processes.
The goal of BPM is to effectively support a company’s strategy through optimized processes. In manufacturing companies, Business Process Management also serves as the foundation for successful digitization and automation—because for processes to be digitized effectively, they must first be transparent and traceable.
What is Business Process Management?
Business Process Management (BPM) is a holistic approach to process-oriented business management. It is used to comprehensively map, analyze, and optimize all business processes within a company—from the customer inquiry to delivery. Business Process Management defines which processes exist, who is responsible for them, how they are documented, and how they are measured. This approach also incorporates all relevant roles and IT systems.
Business Process Management in connection with process management and process optimization
When it comes to working on processes, there are several terms in use that are closely related yet describe different approaches. A clear distinction helps ensure that responsibilities and expectations within your company are addressed in a transparent manner:
All three areas are interconnected, with Business Process Management providing the framework within which individual optimizations have a lasting impact. An improvement realizes its full value only when upstream and downstream processes, roles, and systems are integrated. It is only through governance, key performance indicators, and a continuous control loop that isolated improvements can be transformed into sustainable process excellence.
The BPM Lifecycle: The Five Phases of Business Process Management
Business Process Management is understood as a management task that is carried out continuously through four to five distinct phases within the BPM lifecycle.
For the BPM lifecycle to have a lasting impact, the changes in your organization must be supported by change management. This is because the added value of optimized processes and IT systems can only be realized once your employees are empowered to work with them independently.
1. BPM Analysis: Document Current Processes and Assess Process Maturity
Existing processes are identified and evaluated based on their maturity and alignment with strategy (including the system landscape that supports them). At the conclusion of this analysis, areas of potential and initial, prioritized courses of action are identified.
2. Design and Process Modeling: Defining Key Metrics and Process Reengineering
After a thorough analysis of your processes, modeling conventions, rules, and key metrics are defined. In addition, process reengineering involves modeling the target processes, typically using BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation).
3. Execution and Process Implementation: Embedding Workflows Through Change Management
Your entire organization, including all systems and employees, will be aligned with the new processes. Based on these requirements, a actionable plan will be developed that outlines the implementation of BPM and empowers your employees to ensure sustainable implementation through change management.
4. Optimization: Achieving Sustainable Process Excellence Through Lean Principles and Continuous Improvement
Through continuous improvement (CI), we permanently enhance process performance in your company and ensure that your internal processes remain stable and run smoothly.
5. Monitoring and Control: Identifying Deviations Using Process KPIs and Process Monitoring
Even after optimization, we continue to apply the principle of continuous improvement on your behalf: To this end, process performance is measured in real time and managed using key performance indicators. Discrepancies between target and actual performance become apparent and can thus be addressed in a targeted manner.
Process Modeling with BPMN: From Target Process Design to the Preliminary Stage of Automation
In the second phase of the BPM lifecycle—design and modeling—the desired business processes are designed and translated into a standardized format. The international standard for this is BPMN:
What is BPMN?
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is used for the graphical modeling of business processes and is constantly being refined. The notation defines a standardized visual language with symbols for activities, events, decisions (gateways), and responsibilities (pools and lanes). Since each symbol has exactly one meaning, business units, IT, and external partners can all read and understand every process model and BPMN diagram in the same way. This prevents misunderstandings between process descriptions and system implementation and creates a clean model that serves as the foundation for control and automation.
The current version of this standard is BPMN 2.0: BPMN models created using it are machine-readable, meaning they can be imported and executed by workflow and automation platforms. This allows a sequence of steps to be derived directly from a process diagram. Process modeling thus becomes the preliminary stage of automation.
Effective BPMN models follow established modeling conventions—naming conventions, level of detail, and symbol set—to ensure that the process landscape remains consistent. Striking the right balance is crucial: as detailed as necessary for control and implementation, yet as clear as possible for comprehensibility and system maintenance.
Process Documentation as a Foundation
Before processes can be managed or automated, they must be documented in a traceable manner. Process documentation uniformly records all relevant workflows, roles, interfaces, and systems, making process knowledge accessible to all employees in your organization, independent of individual personnel. Consistent modeling conventions ensure that process documentation is comparable across departments and locations. This creates a single source of truth: a shared, authoritative knowledge base that business units, IT, and management can all rely on.
BPM Tools and Software at a Glance
The tools available for business process management can be broadly divided into four categories. The selection is always based on your company’s level of maturity and vision, and we make this selection in a vendor-neutral manner:
-
Modeling and Documentation:
Tools for creating process landscapes and BPMN models provide the foundation for establishing standards and describing processes consistently.
-
BPM Suites:
Platforms that combine process modeling, execution, and monitoring and provide end-to-end support for the control loop.
-
Process mining tools:
Reconstruct actual processes from system data and provide transparency regarding how they actually unfold.
-
Automation platforms:
Automate the execution of stable, standardized processes—from the workflow engine to Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
The right tool depends on the existing process architecture, system landscape, and the employees who work with it on a daily basis. We provide support for tool selection and implementation as part of our project services in the areas of process and system harmonization as well as software selection and MVP development.
Digitalization in Business Process Management:
BPM 4.0
Business Process Management is evolving from mere documentation to real-time, predictive, end-to-end management of business processes. This is made possible by digitalization through the use of real-time data, process mining, and process automation. With this kind of digitally driven Business Process Management 4.0, process management becomes even more effective:
- Increased Transparency
-
Processes can be visualized, monitored, and controlled throughout the entire system.
- Better Decisions
-
Data-driven analyses and “what-if” scenarios provide a detailed basis for decision-making.
- More Resilience
-
Real-time data collection and clearly defined roles make processes adaptable and resilient.
- Relief in Everyday Life
-
Automation handles routine, rule-based tasks and frees up resources.
Sustainable process excellence is achieved through clear leadership, measurable goals, and end-to-end accountability—not through the next tool. Technology makes problems visible; people must make the decisions.
Florian Christoph
Director Digital Solutions, Ingenics Consulting
The Ingenics Consulting Maturity Model for Business Process Management
The path to mastering processes is a step-by-step one. The Ingenics Consulting Maturity Model for Business Process Management provides guidance: four stages that build on one another, offering an assessment of the current state, a target vision, and a roadmap. Each stage delivers measurable benefits in its own right and paves the way for the next:
-
Level 1 – Standard
Processes are defined, described, and made accessible to everyone, including the definition of interfaces and roles. A process map visualizes the workflows.
-
Level 2 – Transparency
Process performance is measurable: Target and actual states are compared using key performance indicators, often with the support of process mining.
-
Level 3 – Automation
Based on this transparency, processes are automated—ranging from simple workflows and routines to robotic process automation (RPA).
-
Level 4 – Prediction
Processes are monitored in real time and proactively managed using predictive analytics; deviations are detected before they have an impact.
When combined with Lean principles, the model leads to the highest level of maturity in effective process management: waste is consistently reduced, and processes are continually refined. In this way, the one-time advancement to the next level becomes a continuous improvement process that maintains the level achieved and drives ongoing development.
Our performance page Process and System Harmonization demonstrates how to determine your company’s process maturity level in a specific project and how to elevate it across locations and systems.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions About Process and System Harmonization
What phases does the BPM lifecycle include?
A common four-phase approach is: Analysis (capturing and evaluating current processes), Design and Modeling (defining standards, rules, and metrics; modeling target processes), Execution Planning and Implementation (aligning the organization, systems, and employees), and Optimization (establishing continuous improvement) through monitoring and control (measuring and controlling process performance in near real time). It is crucial that the BPM lifecycle be continuously followed.
How do you model a business process?
The first step is to define the purpose and scope: What question is the model intended to answer, for whom, and at what level of detail? Next, the process is delineated (triggers, outcomes, interfaces) and represented using a standardized notation such as BPMN. Fixed modeling conventions ensure consistency across the process landscape. The process model is then validated with the stakeholders and refined where control or automation requires it—as detailed as necessary, as clear as possible.
What is a maturity model in process management?
A maturity model uses defined stages to show how far a company has progressed in process management (from documented standards to predictive control). This objective assessment helps prevent misguided investments in the process environment: Since automation and prediction require standardized processes, new technology is introduced based on the maturity model only once the necessary procedural foundations are in place.
When is it worth seeking external support for business process management?
External support is particularly valuable when establishing a process landscape—specifically when developing the maturity level, target state, and roadmap, and defining standards and process governance. BPM consulting is also beneficial for project-based initiatives such as a merger, a carve-out, an SAP transformation, or the cross-location harmonization of processes and systems.