7 typical problems when conducting Business Process Analysis (BPA)

The goal of Business Process Analysis (BPA) is to enable companies to model and analyze their business processes. 

Armed with this data, business analysts can gain insight into complex business problems and begin making recommendations on how to solve them. 

Here are some examples of typical business problems for which a business process approach is relevant:

1. Diagnosing the root cause of a known process problem. For example, discovering why the warranty process takes too long.
2. Identifying unknown weaknesses and bottlenecks in existing processes, such as the claims process (for insurance) or the warranty process (for manufacturing).
3. Understanding the interrelationships and integration of hundreds of data and documentation components, such as in the clinical trial process (pharmaceutical industry).
4. Creating standard processes for supply chain interactions (e.g., applying the SCOR methodology).
5. Converging multiple parallel processes, carried out by different departments, into a single corporate standard process.
6. Preparing for package implementation, especially for conducting a gap analysis between current requirements and those of the new package.
7. Generating functional requirements that can be given to developers for a new custom-built system.

In addition, there is one more challenge to consider, as a bonus: designing the business logic for a process that will be automated using BPMS tools.

Challenges

In addressing all these challenges, the discovery process enables the analyst to:

• Understand how the current process really works, not a simpler version or a managerial level. But, observing each step and interaction in detail.

This data will be necessary to ensure integrity and accuracy when the analyst begins to design process improvement or introduce digitization.

• Identify what is wrong with the current process, including weaknesses, bottlenecks, manual steps, and redundancies. The idea is an “X-ray” of the process as a basis for diagnosis.

• Have a baseline for comparisons (the better the To Be process – what it should be – is compared to the As Is – as it is – process, the better the return on investment – ROI – analysis will be).