Processes are an integral part of business operations. Efficient processes lead to high-quality outcomes and reduced turnaround times, helping businesses function better without resource wastage.
However, to design and create business processes such that they run efficiently is a task on its own. This is where the concept of business process management (BPM) assumes singlehanded importance in helping make every business process better.
BPM deals with the isolation of each process and understanding its flow to streamline it by removing roadblocks.
With that said, even the practice or implementation of process management has a process lifecycle to help sustain continual process improvement, implementation, and execution. Process management lifecycle deals with continually improving the ecosystem of managing business processes at a broader level.
Let’s understand what process lifecycle is, what the various stages involved in it are, and why it is important for your business to implement these strategies.
A process lifecycle can be defined as the practice of continuously implementing and improving the existing processes at an organization using methods that are sustainable and scalable.
This may sound similar to business process management; however, there is one major difference. While business process management deals with each individual process to examine and improve it, the process lifecycle aims to improve the way these processes are managed.
In a nutshell, business process management can be called a subset of the process management lifecycle. Other activities are also executed under the process management lifecycle, like documentation and process mining.
Let’s understand this better with an example.
Say your business wishes to improve the process of onboarding recruits to the company:
Being a “lifecycle,” it is a loop of recurring tasks that a business must execute in iterations to build on the existing improvements to BPM and other process-related activities.
Process management lifecycle thus deals with the overall health of the process ecosystem of a business.
The process lifecycle is essential for every business because it helps keep its operations aligned with the desired goals.
Listed below are a few more benefits of the process management lifecycle:
Any process, task, activity, or workflow needs a guideline or a direction that helps it run in the desired way.
Process management lifecycle acts as this guidebook – a set of protocols if you will – that helps the process managers see the direction their process improvement efforts are supposed to lead to.
It helps simplify the activities of business process management, process mining, process improvement, and more.
Managing the processes of an organization isn’t an easy task. Employees can lose track of their efforts which could result in resource wastage.
In this situation, the process lifecycle acts as the procedure book which clearly outlines the next steps a business must take after completing one task related to process management.
It helps alert the stakeholders involved about the recent updates and required actions.
Process management lifecycle is a step-by-step approach to the ecosystem of process management at an organization.
As such, it helps the staff take a step back and check their progress. In simpler words, it functions as a map, letting the employees see how far they have progressed with a process and how much remains to be accomplished.
Organizations today increasingly implement process lifecycle tools to help them create better and more efficient practices for managing their processes.
Many utilize the power of no-code platforms like Hubler to create their own process improvement and lifecycle tools.
If you are considering designing your own custom tool for the process management lifecycle, you must first understand the stages involved in this activity. It will help you design your solution better.
Process strategy alignment helps you examine each process with respect to its contribution to the value chain. This examination reveals the purpose of a process, why it exists in the system, and the value it adds to the goals that your business has.
In this stage of the process lifecycle, you would be dealing with:
Before introducing any changes to your existing processes, it is essential to understand how they operate and flow in the system as they are currently.
Process analysis is the most critical stage of the process lifecycle because it helps you see which processes are managed well and which ones could use a little tweaking.
Based on the process you are analyzing, you may use a qualitative or a quantitative approach toward process analysis.
Instead of looking at the process itself, in this stage, you need to involve the key stakeholders in the process, study the existing documentation, and develop a complete picture of what is going on with that process as a whole.
The process design stage needs the data and insights you gathered from the process analysis stage.
You are now aware of the roadblocks, bottlenecks, and problem areas in the processes. In the process design stage, you would be required to make the decision: is there a scope for improvement in the current process, or does it need to be scrapped altogether? Do you need to design a new process from scratch?
Your approach would either be adopting a continuous process improvement methodology or re-engineering the process. Redesigning a process requires you to undertake process modeling, which is an end-to-end task in itself.
In case you decide to redesign the process, you would need to get the new model approved. Additionally, you would need to develop a process deployment plan to launch this process into your business.
In the process lifecycle, there are two ways to implement a redesigned or improved process:
The only difference between the two approaches is you need software and tools for the systemic approach.
If your business has a system or software in place to facilitate the implementation, use the former method. If not, you should deploy the process manually in a non-systemic manner.
Many businesses create their own solutions for process implementation on no-code platforms like Hubler. If custom software is what you need, you can consider going codeless.
Process monitoring is a continuous activity that involves working with the identified key performance indicators.
There are several tasks that this step encompasses:
This is another critical step in the process management lifecycle because it helps you understand where there is still scope for further improvement in a process.
Business process management is a concept based on continuous monitoring and improvement based on the insights collected.
Process refinement, thus, constitutes bridging the gaps between the current performance of a process and the expected modeled performance.
For refining process management, it is essential to iterate the entire lifecycle with positive reinforcements to the existing processes and monitor them to see if they work.
It is a loop that ideally shouldn’t stop and should progress upwards. However, experimentation does bring a few setbacks – and that’s okay, as long as they lead to better results in the next iteration.
A process lifecycle is a continuous, looping exercise. It encompasses BPM and many other aspects of process implementation and improvement at an organization. It can be challenging to keep things under control without the help of software.
Hubler provides a no-code platform that is extremely simple to use, with a friendly user interface, to create custom software for any end you require. Its drag-and-drop functionality is all you need to understand to quickly put together and mobilize process management lifecycle solutions for your business. Connect with us to learn more.
