Process modeling: what is it and what can you do with it?

What is process modeling?

Process modeling deals with various ways and techniques to clarify business processes. The goal is to ensure that all processes are connected to the company's goals. Think customer satisfaction, efficiency, effectiveness, or growth.

Whatever stage within BPM you are at with your company, process modeling is essential to reaching the next step. After all, process management starts with knowing what processes exist, how they run, and who does what in the process.

Deploying the right process models makes work instructions, job profiles, routes, and role descriptions, for example, become (more) transparent.

Process modeling involves diagramming processes. Those diagrams are what make process modeling so useful. You make every step within a process negotiable. The RASCI model is an example of a method for modeling processes.

Within process management, ensuring the processes is often forgotten. It is precisely by securing information that it becomes clear which processes exist within an organization. Who does what? Which link am I? What do I need to be able to do my job? Process modeling and mapping and ensuring these processes works enlightening. It forces you to look critically at yourself and the process.

When situations change as a result of process modeling, assurance is very important. Working agreements that have been made, must be easy for (new) employees to find. New process descriptions, manuals and how-to's must be easily retrievable in a clear system.

Why process modeling?

You add information to process models so colleagues see what their role and responsibility is within the chain. This allows you to work more independently. Process models provide a transparent picture. They show exactly how the work is done and provide a basis for external audits, for example, which is important for both quality management and risk management.

Without clear process models, automation is difficult – which makes perfect sense. However, you still see companies purchasing software packages that supposedly 'have it all' but turn out to be less great than expected. How come? It's mostly because the wishlist of colleagues who have to work with the software do not match with the software specs, or that additional expensive consultancy is involved.

Getting started with process management in WoodWing Scienta

WoodWing Scienta complements your process modeling, allowing you to easily secure information and communicate with all employees in your organization. Publish process descriptions, tag them or mark them as favorites. And with the Scienta Editor you can easily create workflows or flowcharts. With Scienta, you not only describe the processes, but make process modeling transparent to everyone in your organisation.

On top of that, Scienta provides a number of key features to take your organization's process modeling to the next level:

• See changes in just one click
• Link documents to process steps
• Find all process descriptions in one place