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Business Workflow Analysis - BA34 ( 3 Days )

Course Outline

Abstract/Overview

A critical step in improving the performance of an organization is the understanding and documenting the process workflows of the business. A Workflow model is a representation of an organization"s business processes in terms of its component activities and the flow of information and objects between the activities. Providing a clear picture of how an organization currently performs its essential business activities provides the ability to design a cost-effective solution to support the business needs. Workflow models provide the ability to discover and address any unstated requirements prior to finalizing the gathering of requirements.

Business process modeling theory and concepts are examined in detail. Extensive examples are used to demonstrate their application in real life situations. The inclusion of practical tips and techniques further enhances the learning process.

This course will provide you with the skills to produce workflow models of current operating procedures and look for areas of improvement. You will be prepared to construct and analyze the workflow models, identify opportunities for process improvements and modify workflow to reflect these new improvements.

Audience - Who Should Attend?

The course is intended for Business Analysts and those responsible for (re)designing end-to-end business processes to improve process performance.

Prerequisite

Experience in requirements gathering and documentation, familiarity using standard modeling techniques and notations would be helpful.

Objective

At the end of the course, the student will:

• Understand the objectives of workflow modeling and how it is positioned within the system development life cycle.
• Know how business activities fit within the overall structure of the business enterprise
• Learn about key process model components: functions, processes, elementary processes, events, and external objects.
• Understand the purpose and process of functional decomposition and be able to construct an Activity Hierarchy Diagram.
• Learn how to examine activity relationships through dependency analysis and how to document those relationships using Activity Dependency Diagrams.
• Understand the purpose and process of Line-of-Visibility Modeling as a natural extension of Dependency Analysis
• Learn about key workflow components including swim lanes, actors, steps and flows
• Be able to accurately model current business workflow
• Be able to establish standard metrics for cost and elapsed time for workflow activity
• Be able to apply a method to improve the performance of an existing workflow

Content

Introduction

• Information Systems Development and Business Requirements
• What is a Business Model?
• What is a Process Model?
• What is a Workflow Model

• Business Activities
• Function
• Process
• Procedure
• Elementary Process

• Activity Decomposition
  • Purpose
  • Decomposition vs. Composition
  • Rules
• Function, Process, and Elementary Process
• Activity Decomposition Approach
  • Top-Down
  • Bottom-Up
  • Middle Out
• The Activity Hierarchy Diagram (AHD)
• Dependency Analysis
  • Purpose
  • Process
• Activity Dependencies
• Event
• External Object
• Information View
• The Activity Dependency Diagram (ADD)

• Actors and Roles
• Converting the ADD to a Workflow Model
• Swim lanes
• Process Steps
• Flows
• Metrics & Measurement

• Team Organization
• Suggested Approach
• Project Phase
• Preparation
• Execution
• Project Wrap Up

• Definition
• Purpose
• Principles
• Who does BPR
• Why do BPR

• Best Practices
• Goals
• Philosophy/Approach
• Key Steps
• Caveats
• Motivation and Measurement
• Getting Started
• Develop ideal workflow
• Develop to-be workflow