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What is Business Process Management System (BPM)
Tag: BPM
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bGraph for Business Process Management
Introduction
While in article Build a Business Process Management System – Stage of System Building we have defined that the 1st stage of building a system is Modeling, in article Build a Business Process Management System – BFs-WAITER Pivot Table we have further named the content or directions that we should included in the Modeling stage as BFs-WAITER.
No matter how comprehensive the model can reflect the intricacies of the real world, we should have a tool to effectively transform the model to an executable system with a human interface, namely bGraph in Diamond Digital Marketing Group. Before we dive into the functionality of the bGraph, in order to sharpen the effectiveness of the it, it is always a good practice to enumerate the problem patterns that we encountered when using traditional tools.
Problem Patterns in Modeling Stage of BPM Building
Polymorphism in communication
In the very beginning of a Modeling Stage, the Business Analyst (or Consultant, whatever you name it) will conduct an interview to the stakeholders of the target company in order to collect the information relating to the target business process. Any kind of documentation collection, verbal description, or even on front line field observation is carried out by the Business Analyst to be familiar with the target business process.
After the Business Analyst finished the interview, he/she should spend time on organising the data into information and pass it to the System Analyst (and his/her programmer team) and bring the BPM System Building stage to Stage 2 (Standardization).
However, different target businesses, different Business Analysts or different clients, will always use different wording or language to describe the same concept. For example, while the client will refer to the product they are selling as Product, Business Analyst will name the Product as SKU. Another example is that the wording Last Name is a synonym of Surname, which can be used interchangeably.
On the contrary, Business Analyst and Client will use the same wording to refer to different business concepts. One of a typical example is the term “Client“. In a manufacturing industrial chain, no matter if you are the Manufacturer, Distributor or the Retailer ,you will always name your downstream as “Client”. During a BPM System Interview, a Business Analyst needs to pay double attention to figure out who (Manufacturer, Distributor or Retailer) the term “Client” is referred to. As a professional Business Analyst, we will name them as the Brand, the Merchant , the Retailer and the End User respectively in order to uniquely identify them.
This polymorphism in communication not only occurs between the Client and Business Analyst, but also the Business Analyst and the Programmers. The more different wordings are used , the more resistance will be derived during the communication.
Therefore , a communication protocol which can synchronise the wording is necessary.
Duplicated Analysis Wordload with Different Clients
No matter which industry , country or business model the client is in, a CRM system will always share some common properties and features.
For example, the client will expect a standard CRM to have a
Contactmodule which at least hasFirst NameandLast Nameas the properties of the objectContact.As a Business Analyst , in a BPM System Interview, you may not want to waste both you and your client’s time to go through what common properties a CRM System should have, which those common properties may properly went through many times in the previous similar project.
On top of it, it is a must for a CRM to have a
Countryfield for the users to fill in the nationality of the client. As a Business Analyst, you may not want to go through the comprehensive list of countries again and again in different projects.In this sense, it will be a great time saver if we can have a CRM System Building Template which comprises all the common properties of a standard CRM.
No Trigger On Searching Similar Functions in Previous Project.
Even though you (as a Business Analyst) are driven by public-spiritedness that you already encapsulated a comprehensive Country list as an array for next project use, how can the other Business Analyst , or even the future yourself, remember or realize that you have already created the Country List before?
Even worse, the concept
Countrycan and will occur not only in CRM , but also almost any kinds of system like Project Management System, Eshop or Booking system. What will make (i.e. trigger) the programmer who is going to build a Booking system think that he can refer to the previously built CRM system to find out the Country List? If he/she cannot realize that a Country list already existed in some other project blueprint , he/she may probably will spend time to do it again, what duplicated the cost of development.If the next Business Analyst does not realize that you have already done this before, he will not search for the Country List. There is always a gap between searching for the solution and the solution itself.
Unique Wordload with Different Client
Although there are many properties in common in a CRM system, there are different properties too. For example, while a trading company may expect a
Contactis defined as a Company or Organisation which should haveCompany Namefield, a Beauty salon may expect all theirContactis an individual which should haveFirst NameandLast Namefield.It is necessary for us (Diamond Digital Marketing Group) to have a system which stores all the common and differences of building different systems for different clients.
Streaming (vs Batch) BPM Building Process
To continue the example of CRM system building, as a Business Analyst, even though you have carefully listened to your client and clearly defined the common and different fields of the target CRM system after the 1st interview, it is very unlikely that you can hit a home run to gather 100% of the expected features and properties of the target CRM system in the 1st interview. While a system building is a lengthy project which always lasts for months or even years, the business environment is probably changed from time to time during the target CRM system building period, which will also affect the features and properties of the target CRM system.
Imagine a scenario as below:
In Day 1 the Business Analyst suggested the field
First NameandLast Nameto be included in theContactModule of the target CRM system. In the very next Day 2 , the programmers have already kicked off the program coding workload and created a Table in the Database , as well as theFirst NameandLast NameField in the user interface.However, in Day 3 due to a new Marketing Manager (a “she”) on board from the client side, she perceived that the fields
Maiden NameandMiddle Nameare common sense and should also be added into theContactModule. While she passed this request to our Business Analyst, and then our Business Analyst passed this request to the programmers on Day 5 by directly appending 2 New Columns Maiden Name and Middle Name in the CRM system Building Blueprint Spreadsheet.This behavior will make the programmers confused because (if you have paid attention to our story) the programmers had already completed the program coding workload in Day 2, how can they realize that 2 new columns are appended to the CRM system blueprint spreadsheet which they had just brought to coding?
Even though you may suggest that the Business Analyst can notice the programmers after they had done any adjustment in the blueprint spreadsheet, due to the fact that the specification of the blueprint is in fact under a streaming status which can be and will be changed from time to time, it will be impossible for the programmers to build the system based on a ever changing blueprint. Do you expect the programmers to click if there is any modification in the blueprint spreadsheet every 1 hour?
In this sense, a streaming oriented system blueprint is necessary for the communication between the Business Analyst and the Programmers, instead of a traditional system building blueprint which only reflects an instantaneous time spot.
This streaming oriented communication mechanism not only satisfies the modification need during the development status, under a DevOps concept, but also in the future after the system is brought to production due to the fact that the system is a living organism which is dynamic to the ever changing business environment. The traditional Batch (or Versioning) oriented can not satisfy in this sense.
Mobility of the System Building
As an experienced Business Analyst , you can imagine that no matter how you ask your client to submit an expected new field or new feature of a system via a submission form, the client may probably not follow your instruction and simply send that expected new field to you via email or even WhatsApp.
After you receive the request from the client, instead of only simply forwarding the request to the programmer to handle, as a responsible and professional Business Analyst , it is our duty to validate whether or not the new request is a valid request (most of the time the request is invalid).
For example, if the Client complains in the Contact module of a CRM that the field
Sexis missing in the Form in the user interface, you should first of all go to the project blueprint to check whether the fieldSexshould be included in the blueprint. If theSexfield can be found in the blueprint but not in theFormin the user interface, then you should contact the programmer to fix it up. But in the real world, most of the time after you conduct the checking, you will realize that the fieldSexis in fact named asGenderin theFormin the user interface of theContactmodule.Can you imagine this kind of back and forth checking and non productive communication is the main cause of eroding the time on production.
Think about if you are handling 10 BPM system building projects on hand , how can you quickly open a system (if there is any!) in your mobile device to check whether the complaint from one client is valid or not? If the complaint is valid , how can you quickly send an instruction to the programmer to fix the bug, provided that you are not seated in front of the desktop but instead on the way travelling to the next client meeting?
If you find the complaint is valid and is a critical path of the project which if you don’t fix up the bug immediately the error will cascade to the next node of the critical path of the project which in turn derives an irreversible catastro, you cannot afford to notify the programmer after you finished the meeting.
A powerful steaming BPM building system is necessary for catering all the mobility needs of the communication.
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What is a Pivot Table
Introduction
Pivot Table is a feature which you can usually see in the Google Spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel. While alots of people can address it existence, seldom people can explain what it is and what it’s difference between the normal table. In this article, we are going to break it down and elaborate it in detail with illustration.
Definition
Pivot Table
It is a good to start explaining what is Pivot Table by a normal Table.
Month Sales Turnover (USD$) Salesperson Jan 5,000 Anna Feb 2,000 Anna Feb 3,000 Angela Mar 1,000 Ann Sales Turnover Normal (Salesperson , Month) You will not feel strange about the tabular data pattern which a normal table brings to you. In this Normal Sales Turnover Table, you can easily get 5 piece of information because there 5 records inside the table.
The information, i.e. the 5 records, are in atomic level which means that they are already deintegrated into smallest granularity that if you further break down the record, say breaking down from information per Record to information per Cell, you no longer can get the useful information because it will be meaningless if you only know the value “Anna” without knowing what Month and how much Sales Turnover she get. In summary, a Record is the atomic level of a normal Table.
This “Tree View” of a normal Table is good for recording due to the fact that each record can be input separately without affecting the meaning and usefulness of each other. For example, it is totally fine that there is missing information of March Sales Turnover from Joan if you are only interested in the February result of Anna.
However, it is not good for “Forest View” when you want to see the consolidated result of the Sales Turnover Report. How about if you want to know the Total Sales Turnover Amount from Anna? Of course you can do the calculation by yourself each time you want to know the Total amount. But what if there are 10 million records?
Besides, the normal Table only tells you what you can see , it does not tell you what you cannot see. For example, what if I want to know the Sales Turnover of Joan in Jan ? “No Value (or Null)” is also a valuable information that you want to know.
Now, let’s see how we turn the Normal Table into a Pivot Table.
Jan Feb Mar Total by Salesperson Angela 3,000 3,000 Ann 1,000 1,000 Anna 5,000 2,000 7,000 Total by Month 5,000 5,000 1,000 Sales Turnover Pivot Table (Salesperson , Month) In the Pivot Table , now not only you can see the consolidated total amount in terms of Month or Salesperson, but also can easily address the Cell with missing value.
It’s glad to know, but still not impressive enough.
Because in the previous example, it we only use 2 parameters (i.e. Month and Salesperson) to co-ordinate a value (i.e. Sales Turnover Amount). How about if you want to add an additional parameter , for example, Product ?
Month Sales Turnover (USD$) Salesperson Product Jan 5,000 Anna Apple Feb 2,000 Anna Banana Feb 3,000 Angela Cherry Mar 1,000 Ann Dragonfruit Sales Turnover Normal Table (Salesperson , Product , Month) While there is no big different in terms of the look and feel of the table except the additional 1 column added in the very right of the Normal Table, you can compare it with the new Pivot Table which added the Product parameter in below:
Salesperson Product Jan Feb Mar Angela Cherry 3,000 Ann Dragonfruit 1,000 Anna Apple 5,000 Banana 2,000 Sales Turnover Pivot Table (Salesperson , Product , Month) , pivot by Salesperson Same as the Normal Table, an additional column Product is added immediately after the column Salesperson. And most important is that the Value Anna is shown only 1 time instead of 2 times (in Normal Table) due to the fact that the Pivot Table helps to “consolidate” the data to make it minimal.
While in the previous Pivot Table example there is the Total Amount , I skipped this information because it is not the focus on the essense of the Pivot Table. Feel free add the Total Amount any time you want to create a Pivot Table via using Google Spreadsheet ,Microsoft Excel or any Tabular tools.
Now by referring to this Pivot Table , you can answer the question from your boss like:
What is the performance of each Salesperson so far ?
You can sense that the focus is on the Salesperson which the boss probably wants to decide the quarterly bonus based on the performance of each Salesperson.
How about if the boss wants to see the profitability of his/her business? He may probably ask:
What is the performance of each month since the beginning of the year?
Apple Banana Cherry Dragonfruit Month Anna Anna Angela Ann Jan 5,000 Feb 2,000 3,000 Mar 1,000 Sales Turnover Pivot Table (Salesperson , Product , Month) , pivot by Month Due to the fact that the focus of the question shifted from Salesperson to Month, we then put the parameter Month as the name of the row to present as the focus of the table. We name this action as pivot by Month. Compared with the previous Pivot Table which is pivoted by Salesperson, you can find that the name of the Salesperson Anna shows twice this time. Because as we want to consolidate the data of Month (i.e. pivot by Month), we can only sacrifice the neatness of the Salesperson.
The term “Pivot” means whenever you want to rotate any one of the axises from 3 axises (for example), you need to use 1 axis to rely on. The axis you relied on is called the Pivot, while the axis is referring to the columns (or parameters, or dimensions , whatever you name it) in a normal Table. While in the physical world there can only be a maximum of 3 axises , you can add as infinity number of axises as you wish in logical world.
Use Case of Pivot Table
NOT for Recording
Pivot Table is good for presentation and bad for atomic level recording. If you start recording by applying the data schema of the Pivot Table, you will realise that if you try to insert the value of the table like what “Sales Turnover Pivot Table (Salesperson , Product , Month) , pivot by Salesperson” Table did previously, eventually you will have some missing value in the cell of the row’s name. Besides, the Pivot Table can never serve the function of data processing in turns of filtering and sorting.
Even worse, the client , including your boss, would like to derive different views for different scenarios in different periods of time. If you directly record the data in Pivot Table format, you will soon realise that whenever the client wants to change the pivot of the Pivot Table, say based on Month instead of based on Product, your previous effort on typing in the value , will be in vain. Therefore:
Use Normal Table format to record
Use Pivot Table format to present
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Build a Business Process Management System – BFs-WAITER Pivot Table
Introduction
Recap from the article Build a Business Process Management System – Stage of System Building that the MSC Matrix (Modelling – Standardisation – Coding) describing different stages of building a system. In this article, we dive into how we observe the real world to do the Modelling by using the BFs–WAITER Pivot Table.
Definition
What is Pivot Table
The “pivot” part of the Pivot Table comes from the way you can “pivot” or rotate your data to view it from different angles. It’s like being able to look at the same set of numbers from multiple direction. Please find comprehensive explanation in the article What is a Pivot Table.
What is BFs-WAITER Pivot Table
BFs-WAITER is a DDM Terminology which is the acronym of all the dimensions when describing a Business Process Management System:
Business Rules
Business Rules are the if-then-else conditional logic which the user of the system , or the system itself should comply with.
For example, when you insert an email address in the Email Address Field of an Contact Us Form, the system will show an alert of “please insert an valid email address” if the “@” character is absent inside the email address. This is an Email Validation Rule that the web application developer will usually use.
Besides the rules in programming, we can also find other rules in the business world. For example, you want to adapt a bundle discount in your business that if the clients buy both 1 shoe and 1 skirt in 1 order, they will enjoy a 10% discount. This kind of if-then-else condition logic can be named as Discount Rules, which is classified as one of the Business Rules. While you can and should customise the own business rules specific for your own business, there are some common Business Rules that we should cater in most frequently:
- Shipping Rules
- Discount Rules
- Coupon Entitlement and Redeem Rules
- Email Validation Rules
- Password Validation Rules
- Return and Refund Rules
- Pricing Rules
- Traffic Routing Rules
Fund Flow (or Cash Flow)
To be precise , the term Cash not only refers to the currency note or the debit balance in your bank account, but also the credit balance or any payment token. As there are too many ways to represent a payment, we name it all under the term Fund.
Infact , Fund (or Cash) Flow, Information Flow, Stock Flow and Work Flow are 4 flows which we mentioned very often when describing a business process. Without surprise, Cash Flow is not going to be absent in our model.
Stock (or Service) Flow
The lowercase “s” inside the acronym “BFs-WAITER” means it is optional. Whether you want to record the Stock or Service Flow depends on if you should do stock (or service) taking on the product or service you sell.
Work Flow
Quoted from Wiki the definition of Time:
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future.
While I am not going to (and not capable of) triggering the debate on what Time really is, referring to wiki, time is a continued sequence of Events.
In a Business Process Management System, there is no better way to describe the Business Process than in the aspect of Time. While time is best to be presented in terms of Events, Events can be regarded as Steps or Procedures inside a Business. For example, in a Self-serve Cashier Register Checkout System :
- Client press the Start Button
- Client scan the Barcode over the package of the goods
- Product Quantity and Price shown in the Screen
- Client press Checkout Button
- Client pick a Payment Method and Pay
- Client get the Receipt printed by the Cashier Register Machine.
Above is a typical but straight forward example on describe a Business Process. In most of the time ,Events are far more complicated than we can imagine. Allow me to introduce some concepts that you should master before you move forward:
Backbone Events
Back to our previous Cash Register Checkout System example, allow me to detail it as below:
- Client press the Start Button
- Client scan the Barcode over the package of the goods
- If the Client want to remove the items, then ….
- Product Quantity and Price shown in the Screen
- If the Client buy more than one item of the same SKU, then ….
- Client press Checkout Button
- Client pick a Payment Method and Pay
- If choosing Apple Pay, then ….
- If choosing Credit Card, then ….
- If the Credit Card failed to process the transaction , then….
- Client get the Receipt printed by the Cashier Register Machine.
- If the Cashier Register Machine is out of receipt printing paper, then….
You can imagine in reality there are tons of if-then-else branches which can be happening in any of the steps. In some cases you cannot even imagine this scenario will happen until it really happens in front of you in real life. For better communication and project management purposes, we should in first priority identify the shortest path from start to the destination of the business process and skip all the possible if-then-else branches. (i.e. Clients get the receipt in the above example) We called this shortest path Backbone Events.
Scenario
Scenario means one of paths within all possible combinations of outcome which can but may or may not happenⓘ. To make it simple, let’s illustrate with an example:
- Finished input the Product Quantity > Choose Apple Pay > Transaction Success
- Finished input the Product Quantity > Choose Apple Pay > Transaction Failed
- Finished input the Product Quantity > Choose Credit Pay > Transaction Success
- Finished input the Product Quantity > Choose Credit Pay > Transaction Failed
In the example above, while there are 3 steps , which :
- First Step have 1 option value
- 2nd Step have 2 option values
- 3rd Step have 2 option values
To do the maths, there will be 1 x 2 x 2 = 4 possbile outcomes, and we call each of the outcome a Scenario.
Imagine if there are 10 steps and each step has its own 2 option values, there will be 210 , which is equal to 1,024 Scenario. Addressing all these scenarios is already a huge challenge , not to mention catering them one by one.
Recall the article Build a Business Process Management System – System Index Concepts, A good System caters all the scenarios after interacting with the environment, which is exactly what we have mentioned in this paragraph.
Authority
When you login an application, you are authorized to login after you insert a valid password. When you want to open the door of your home, you are authorized to do so only if you a have valid key. The password and key in these examples, are the Authority that we should have to carry out the action.
The Authority is usally presented in following ways:
Role Base Access Control (RBAC)
It literally means that the Access Control is based on the Role of the user. For example, Only the Role of Admin in the website can install a plugin, while the Role of Guest User cannot.
Session (Time) Base Authority
For example, you rent a meeting room in a shared office for 2 hours. That means you are only allowed to access the meeting room within these 2 hours. After this 2 hours (i.e. Session), you are not authorized to access the room.
Authorization Token
In ancient times when there was no Facebook or Instagram, it was extremely hard for everyone in the country to know (in terms of the real face) who you really are. The only way to justify that you are the king of the country is to show some kind of Totem, like a imperial jade seal, which is the emblem of the authority for the local officer of the country to recognize the king.
Imperial Jade Seal as a Authorization Token in Ancient China Authorization Token is the same logic as the Totem in the ancient world. No matter who possesses at that moment, he/she is authorised. In morden world, whoever get the remote control (i.e. the Totem) of the TV set in the living room, who is the king/queen.
In the computer world, we usually apply Authorization Token during the communication between system and system (i.e. not between system and human). For example, if you want to let your WordPress website to fetch the Instagram Feed directly from your Instagram Business Account, you should generate a Access Token (i.e. Authorization Token) from Instagram Business Account and pass it to the WordPress Website.
While there is a rare case the Authorization Token is presented in a physical form, most of the time it is in fact nothing more than a meaningless cluster of strings that you keep in a secret computer file.
Information (Document) Flow
Recall the article Relationship between Human Learning and Data Structure , Data is the signifier (i.e the pointer) of the signified (i.e underlying objects).
For example, the Sales Invoice is the signifier of the happened event of the delivered material products (i.e. the signified) , while the Payment Receipts is the signifier of the Cash material currency note (i.e. signified) paid physically (i.e. pay offline) to settle the Sales Invoice.
By simply operating the Data , rather than operating the physical underlying objects, we can speed up the analysis of Business Process a lot.
When a large amount of pieces of related Data bonded together bringing the user a meaningful value, they become Information.
When we describe the Business Process in terms of information, we call it Information Flow.
While most of the time the information will be presented in or delivered via a Document as a media of convey, we therefore use the terms Information Flow or Document Flow interchangeable.
Whenever you master the information flow, you can get use of them by facilitating your decision making process in a timely and accurate manner.
Tools
A computer , a laptop, a Cashier Register Machine, a Camera, a PDF Converter Online Website, a Credit Card , can all be regarded as Tools, whatever you name it.
Entity
In legal terms, a legal entity refers to any organisation or individual with legal rights and obligations under the law. Such entities can enter into contracts, initiate or face lawsuits, and own assets in their own name.
We pick the term Entity (instead of the term Person) because it may have both individual person and organisation , or somtimes even a system or an algo (how complicated this world become!) involved in the Business Process.
On top of that, while in rare cases we can specifically address a particular person in a Business Process (for example, Anna, Ann, Joan , etc) , very often we can only put the Entity Type (instead of the Entity Instance) inside the Business Process. For example, Client, Admin Manager and User are the Entity Types we will describe in the Business Process due to the fact that we don’t know in advance which name client really is in the planning phrase.
Risk (Problem Pattern)
While the concept Risk is easy to understand, the term Problem Pattern is used in Diamond Digital Marketing Group very often, which is indifferent to Risk.
In order to manage the Risk, we cater the following aspects:
Identity the Risk (i.e. Frequency of the Risk)
Some risks are easy to address. For example, human error on data entry. Nevertheless, some risks are invisible and can hardly be addressed, or even hardly be classified as risks. For example, when your salary is USD$50,000 per month , you are unlikely to realise that your ability is in fact worth USD$120,000 , which means you are risking USD$70,000 per month and you have no idea at all because you have already satisifed when you reached USD$50,000 per month.
Probability of Risk
Even if there is a chance that your business may suffer from alien-attack to the planet, you are more likely to cater to the risk of a fire accident compared with the alien-attack scenario. The chance (i.e. probability) that the risk happens will highly affect the priority that we handle the risks.
Magnitude of Risk
While you can foresee there is a high chance that the plastic bags which can be freely grabbed in the cashier by the client will be abused by the clients, you may probably not to cater the risk, at least not in a higher priority than catering the risk of the Google Ads campaign which brings the sales turnover to your business being restricted.
Radius of Risk
In hollywood movies, whenever there is a public health affairs which the zombie virus is going to spread out from the lab, the supervisor of the hero will make the hard decision to quarantine the people to the lab in order to control the radius of the virus spreading distance, in sacrifice of the survival chance of the people who are stuck in the quarantine zone. At this moment, the hero will stand up and rescue the innocent.
Quantifying the Risk
The first step of automating anything is by quantifying it. Quantifying the Risk is a combination of the Frequency, Probability, Magnitude and Radius of the Risks. The arithmetic operations will be explained in future articles.
Putting BFs-WAITER into Pivot Table
You can visualize that all the 9 Components (i.e. B/F/s/W/A/I/T/E/R) are in fact the 9 dimensions in the Pviot Table.
It also implies that whenever you want to mention a single Step (or Event), you should at the same time mention the other 8 dimensions in order to coordinate that single Step (or Event). While it is really sophisticated for human beings to comprehend all the data points by a normal Table, a Pivot Table is a good presentation which visualises the relationships among all dimensions in every Data Point (i.e. a Cell in a spreadsheet). This significantly assists the communication among the stakeholders including client , programmor, system engineer, web developer , salesperson , system users and a lot more.
Separate between modelling and standardization
In BFs-WAITER, while Modelling means to enumerate all the option values of all the components , says all option values of Documents and Entity Type, Standardization means how to analyse the relationships among each component and interconnect them.
Modelling and Standardization are 2 different processes which will be carried out by 2 different roles in different time. While Salesperson or Consultant are more prone to listen to the clients in a sales meeting in order to enumerate the system requirements , documentations or stakeholders (i.e. Entity), System Engineer will on the other hand focus on logically connecting them in order for a meaningful and logical relationship.
While it is much easy for the Salesperson to adapt a normal Table to records all the option values of all the components during a consultation meeting, a Pivot Table is a much more helpful tool for a System Engineer to connect the relationships and switch it among different presentation views (i.e. Pivot by different dimensions) within a second.
In Diamond Digital Marketing Group, we will apply the BFs-WAITER Pivot Table as the main tool for Business Process Management System development. While this article is mainly focusing on the Meta System level in System Index , and the Standardization in MSC Matrix, any hands-on operation will be left for future chapters.
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Build a Business Process Management System – Stage of System Building
Abstract
The Meta System aims to create a system that can, in turn, build other systems. This implies the presence of repetitive patterns or tasks that can be identified and reused within the Meta System. In this article, we will elaborate on and evaluate these patterns.
Stages of Building a System
First thing first, the most challenging part on writing this article is that as we are writing the guideline on how to build a system to build a system, it is really hard for both the reader and the author to address which System Index (i.e. System , Meta System , Meta System2) that he/she is reading/writing. The only suggestion to keep your mind clear is that , read this article only when you get 100% energy fully charged.
While discussing how to build the Meta System, we first need to address how to build a system itself. Regardless of the system you’re building, you will need to consider these four objectives, and the order in which you achieve them is important. Allow me to introduce the MSC Matrix (Modelling-Standardisation-Codingⓘ ) as below:
Stage 1 – Modelling
Let’s start with an example , assuming that you are the Software Engineer who is responsible for building a Cashier Register System for your MNC scaled supermarket.
As mentioned in previous article that a good system can cater all possible outcome , which the system interacts with the environment. Allow me to named the term “all possbile outcome” as Sample Spaceⓘ,
Before we jump into the execution level to discuss step by step on how to enumerate every single instance within the Sample Space, I would rather in theory discuss what is and when we need to do the Modeling.
If the objective of us (i.e. the Cashier Register System) is to cater all possible outcomes (i.e. Sample Space) interacting with the environment1 (i.e. the environment of a MNC scaled supermarket), finding out the Sample Space will be the prerequisite before every other steps.
However, as a human being, bounded by our mortal presence and limited compute power, it is extremely difficult , if not impossible , to enumerate all the instances inside the Sample Space. For example, instead of describing how the clients bring the goods into the cashier conveyor belt, are you going to write an Apocalypse Handbook describing how to survive during an alien attack during the opening hour of your supermarket, as the very 1st presentation session to your C-Suiteⓘ boss?
Although you might think there is a chance to happen (which i am on your side, bro!) and you may have the chance to become a superhero, you may not dare to do it to risk your career path in this company. If you nod your head, it means that you are filtering what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to put into the system, which is named as Modeling.
You may challenge that human decision is always paired with a risk. While you start filtering , it is no longer all possible outcomes, which I totally agreed with. However, as stated before, due to the limited resources , we need to strike a balance between the Utopia and feasibility. The more experienced the Software Engineer is , the higher chance that he does the modeling which is close to reality. It is more of an art than a science.
The rule of thumb is simple:
The higher chance it will happen , the higher the priority to be recorded.
If you are “I.T.” enough, you can draw the Entity Relationship Diagram to do the Modelling. If you not , simply using a Google Spreadsheet will be good enough for enumerating and communicating all the factors and components
Stage 2 – Standardization (SOP)
Once you have do the Modelling by filtering all the relevant steps, concepts or objects in priority, you can do the Standardisation. In business world , you can also refer this standardization action as SOP – Stand Operation Procedure.
Whatever you name it , Standardisation (or SOP) is a procedure which you can apply anywhere within your business scope. For example, you can standardise the procedures of the self-serve checkout function in the Cash Register System as below:
- The customer brings the goods in front of the Cash Register
- The customer picks up the one goods and uses the scanner embedded in the Cash Register to scan the barcode printed in the package of each goods.
- The product information will be shown in the screen of the Cash Register
- The customer presses the Checkout button on the screen, and brings him to the Payment Screen.
- The customer chooses the Payment Method, Apple Pay for example.
- The customer scans the Apple Pay QRCode shown in the screen of the Cash Register by the QR Code scan of his/her smartphone.
- The checkout process is successful and the receipt is printed
Although the steps mentioned above is only the backboneⓘ procedures (as enumerating the Sample Space is not the focus of this session, i will bypass this exercise) , the above 7 steps will be happened almost every time for every single customer bringing the goods in front of the self-serve checkout Cash Register.
In this stage, while you are standardising the procedures , please do not rush to think of or work on any programming or coding stuff. Especially when you have a programmer background with solid hands-on coding experience, it is very tempting for you to dig into the code and write any kind of framework , database or UI to start building the software. Because in your mind you may think that Coding means automation, and automation means efficiency. You are wondering why the frontline staff need to spend double time on doing the same steps while you can automate them via coding.
Indeed you are not wrong. However, you are not correct either. Because Coding is a all-or-nothing game. You cannot write 80% of the code and bring it to production stage. Any of a single tiny bug might bring the application to fatal error. And then you need to condense all your energy into fixing that bugs. Once you sink into coding, you will spend most of your time focusing on coding for a single step of the whole system, which in turn you cannot get use of the man hour of your frontline staff and can only let them idle because they do not know what to do without any standardised procedures for the whole picture.
Allow me to illustrate this concept with Bingo Theory
Bingo Theory In Business Process Management Development Bingo Theory is a terminology invented by Diamond Digital Marketing , which is a all-or-nothing concept stating that if someone does not finish all the steps in a business line (i.e. Say Bingo! in a Bingo game), all his effort will be in vain no matter how much he had already contributed.
Illustrated in Figure 1, if there are 5 Steps to say Bingo! in each stage , we can conclude that:
- In Modeling Stage , due to the fact that we do not enjoy the efficiency brought from standardising or coding (i.e. automation) the procedures, the cost of each step will be £5 , which brings a total cost of £25 to say a Bingo!. As long as the reward of Bingo! is £30, there is still a £5 profit in Month 1.
- In Standardisation Stage, due to the fact that we have to do all the 5 steps in both Modeling Stage and Standardisation Stage in each step, therefore the total cost per step is £5 + £3 = £8. Therefore you will get £30 – £40 (£8 x 5) = £10 Lost in month 1.
- In Coding Stage, same logic as Standardisation Stage, the total cost per step is £5 + £3 + £1 = £9, and therefore you will get £30 – £45 = £ 15 Lost in month 1.
Based on Figure 1 ,you can deduce that when the time goes by (i.e. Month 2 and 3), your business in Coding Stage will get the highest profit due to the fact that it can enjoy the efficiency generated from coding (i.e. automation), provided that your company have sufficient fund (i.e. -£15 Lost in month 1 , and -£5 Lost in month 2) for you fill the deficit for your business survival. For sure, it is also not the greatest decision for any business to stay forever in the Modeling Stage to gain the minimum profit due to absence in Standardisation and Coding.
While striking a balance between efficiency and sustainability is case by case, If you are similar to us without solid external financial support , it is suggested to go for Standardisation before directly jumping into the Coding Stage. On the contrary, if you have external financial support, please contact us and invest in us!
Even worse, while you are drowning in Coding , some of the smarter frontline staff might find their own way to carry out the Cash Register procedure based on their past experience, which brings your business to risk. While your whole business now all rely on the frontline staff, you may have either wrong procedures which cannot cater the backbone procedures, or you may have many ways to do the backbone procedures due to the fact that each different smart staff may have their own working style and hence suggesting different procedures. Regardless which way it takes, it will in turn either generate errors or arguments , i.e, extra cost incurred.
Therefore, please be reminded again that in this Standardisation Stage, what you should do is simply to standardise the procedures making your Cash Register System functional.
Instead of coding, you can standardise the procedure in an Google Spreadsheet, in a Google Document, or even verbally or taking a video to record the step by step actions, depending on what way you and the users are comfortable. The purpose of the standardisation is to avoid the miscommunication due to the ambiguous definition of the benchmark of the input or output of the task. Manually input or output will be good enough in this stage.
Besides, there is a big difference between System and Software. Imagine 60 years ago before computers were popular, the supermarket with a manual Cash Register already existed. Even without the aid of computers, they can still run properly, if not as smoothly as nowadays.
In this sense, standardising all the procedures with manual input will be good enough for this stage. By standardising all the steps within the Checkout procedures, you can eliminate most of the errors generated by humans, which in turn free your hand from error handling and human resources training.
By using the extra time earned from error handling, you can spend the time profit you saved to do the coding stuff in the next stage.
And I can officially and seriously tell you putting the Standardisation Procedures between Modelling and Coding is the key to success in running a business. When you read through the financial reports of some of the leading companies, you might realise that their spending on R&D (Research and Development) can always be absorbed by their profit, which makes their research and development sustainable. If your whole business consumes most of your resources on developing the coding and automation of the Business Process Management System, the daily operation will be ruined. On the contrary, if your business keeps staying on Modeling Stage, your business will only become a theory which can never be realised, or at least the slope of the development curve will grow too gentle and behind your competitors.
Stage 3 – Coding
Coding Stage implies to automate all the standardised procedures of the Business Process Management System as much as you can by any kind of programming language , or even simply Google Spreadsheet Formula.
Bringing the company to this stage is a milestone in which you can outperform your competitors. Although I am not going to describe the step by step guideline in this article, i would like to share some rules of thumb of the Coding Stage as below:
- Automate the procedures which happen most in 1st priority.
- Automate the procedures which is easiest in coding in 1st priority.
- Rhythm between operation and development is the key to success in business. Always get a “C” grade to survive first, and get a “A” grade with the spare resource. Perfectionism always deficit first. If Apple , the manufacturer of iPhone is a perfectionist, it should only have iPhone 1 and not iPhone 16 because iPhone will wait until all the features are “perfect” before it is launched in the market.
In conclusion, each record (or row) in Model-Standardise-Coding Matrix is for a specific objective in the Business Process Management System. If you have 10 steps in your Business Process Management System, you do not need to do all the 3 steps (for example) in the Modelling Stage before you can move to the next Stage. I personally suggest a horizontal move (Table 1) before vertical move (Table 2) due to the based on Bingo! Theory. Nevertheless ,whether you go vertically or horizontally is dependent on the resources and manpower capacity of your company which is a preference and not right or wrong.
Stage / Step Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Modelling Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Standardisation Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Coding Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Example of Horizontal Model-Standardisation-Coding Matrix (Table 1) Stage / Step Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Modelling Day 1 Day 4 Day 7 Standardisation Day 2 Day 5 Day 8 Coding Day 3 Day 6 Day 9 Example Vertical Model-Standardisation-Coding Matrix (Table 2)
- Refer to article Build a Business Process Management System – System Index Concepts
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Build a Business Process Management System – System Index Concepts
Definition
What is Business Process Management System
Business Process Management System is the system which you want to standardize and automate literally any business procedures happened in your business routine. While some of the Business Process Management System, for example , a CRM System (Customer Relationship Management) is mature and well modularized which you can subscribe any canned CRM SaaS easily, some of the business routine, for example , a factory owner who wants to standardize the routine of the production line, should be customized and hence a Business Process Management System is needed to be built on purpose.
What is a System
Before we dive into the definition of a system, allow me to start the paragraph with the citation from a ancient wisdom.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Aristotle
While the statement from Aristotle is a genius idea exactly addressing the synergy which is derived from the system, the statement by itself does not have any executable guide for people to follow.
Input-Process-Output Model
In practical, you can take the definition of system as an Input-Process-Output (IPO) model which is a framework used to describe the structure of a system or process. Here’s a breakdown of each component:
- Input: These are the resources, data, or materials that enter the system. Inputs can include raw materials, information, energy, or human effort.
- Process: This is the transformation stage where inputs are converted into outputs. It involves the steps, actions, or operations performed on the inputs.
- Output: These are the final products, results, or outcomes that exit the system after the processing stage. Outputs can be goods, services, information, or any other result of the process.
In a daily example, when you want to withdrawal the cash from ATM machine, you insert the debit card and input the password and withdrawal amount (Input), then the ATM machine do the calculation on deducting the balance from your bank account (Process), and finally the currency note come out from the slot (Output).
Whatever if when you input the same thing, it will always process the same thing and output the same thing, this is call a System.
A system is not necessarily related to “computer” or “digital”. For example , all of us in our body have a respiration system, digestive system , nervous system and so on.
Systems Chain
After you get the Cash from the ATM machine, and then go to the train station and put the cash note into the self-serve Ticketing machine to buy the ticket. Immediately after you chose the destination and number of tickets, the ticket dropped out from the ticket slot.
You can realise that in fact the Cash that you withdrawal from the ATM Machine before, is in fact the at the same time BOTH Output of the ATM Machine (i.e. the 1st System) and the Input of the Ticketing Machine (i.e. the 2nd System).
The Output of a system is always the Input of another.
So if the story goes on, you may realise that you can link up literally anything , i mean anything, no matter material or immaterial ,in this world by the System Chain concept. In fact, it is a philosophy of how you interpret the world. When you think like this , you will become a Philosopher. When you act like this , you will become an Engineer.
Scope of a System
So we back to our ATM machine example. To recall your memory , a System implies you will always get the same output if you provide the same input. As long as the following the criteria are satisifed , you will always get the cash note:
- The Debit Card is functional
- Password is correct
- Your bank account have sufficient fund
- ATM Machine is functional
- ATM Machine cash slot has sufficient cash note
I will congratulate you if after you read and you want to challenge me that there is nothing can be “always” except “the Change” itself. In fact, deciding what components are related to the system among the infinity number of concepts from the world , is as important as building the components inside the system.
What if there is out of electricity supply during the transaction?
What if the operating system inside the computer of the machine is down?
What if the internet connection between the ATM machine and the terminal server is broken?
in the world of Business Process Management System development, while Programmer is more on automating the system via coding for the components and functions within the system, an Engineer is more about observing the world to address what components are related to the system, as well as figuring out the interaction between the environment of the system and the system itself.
Coverage of the System
What if you hungover and input the wrong passwords 3 times? If this is the case , the ATM machine will eat the card and then the screen will show up asking you to contact the staff of your bank, and then of course the user (i.e. you) will kick the ATM machine and growl a FXXX.
When you start thinking like this, to think of all possible scenario which may be happened during the Usage of an ATM machine, you may realise that this is the most difficult part of building a system due to the fact if you are trying to identity all the if-then-else scenario and chain them up based on their dependencies , you will visualize a if-then-else decision tree diagram which finally enumerate almost infinity number of potential outcome that might be happened, that is why Dr. Strangeⓘ said he considered 14,000,605 possibilities in Avengers 4ⓘ. The parallel universe begins.
Decision Tree Diagram If you start doing the job to test the possibilies and user scenario of a software, you become a UATⓘ Tester. If you start thinking of how to find a way to scientifically enumerate all the possiible outcome among all the if-then-else scenario, you will become a Mathetican in the aspect of Statistic, Graph Theory and Optimisation Theory.
A good System caters all the scenarios after interacted with the environment
Finally, before ending this session , back to the ATM example, you can consider to put the hidden microphone inside the ATM machine in order to record the FXXX after the user kicked the ATM machine because of Debit Card being eaten by the ATM machine, which is one of the possible scenario that you can think of, despite out of the scope of ATM machine software development.
What is Meta System
Build a System to build another System
As the ATM Machine metaphor continues, instead of the ATM machine user, now you become the engineer who built the ATM Machine. Based on the reading and you realise that to build an ATM Machine (i.e. a System) you need to cater all the possibie if-then-else use cases.
One day, you successfully created a ATM Machine system which is very useful, and the CTO of the bank is going to bring your design to mass production. The next challenge is, how to justify the output quality of the ATM Machine?
It is quite inevitable and reasonable to think of building another system to build the ATM Machine. And therefore here comes another System which builds the ATM Machine, which we name this kind of system as Meta System.
What is System Index
If you are crazy and idle enough, you may wonder what if I can build a System that can build a system to build a system (notes : there is no typo)? When in our daily conversation it is really hard to tell which level of System we are referring to, allow me to name the 3 Level of system as below:
Level 1
System : To standardize and automate a specific function
Level 2
Meta System : A system to build the System in Level 1 which search a specific function (i.e. build a system to build a system)
Level 3
Meta System2 : A generic system which can build any kinds of Meta Systemt to build a System for specific function. (i.e. build a system to build a system to build a system)
For better communication, we, Diamond Digital Marketing, named this concept of System Level as System Index.
While you can still understand why it is a need for the Meta System, you may in this moment consider Meta System2 as excessive. I understand your feeling and will suggest you to be patience to read the comprehend the whole idea in this or upcoming articles, which in turn will let you realising why there is a must for a Meta System2 and how many hundreds of hours and manpower you can save during the system development cycle.
Suggested Reading
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What is Business Process Management System (BPM)
Definition
A Business Process Management System (BPMS) is a platform (normally a SaaS) that manages and automates well-defined business processes. It creates an infrastructure that enhances company agility, making work faster and easier. BPM involves modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement, and optimization of business activity flows to support enterprise goals across systems, employees, customers, and partners. CRM , Booking System, Human Resource Management System , can all be regarded as part of the Business Process Management System.
What Problem Business Process Management System is going to solves
Inconsisent Business Process
As Murphy’s Law stated , “when something can happen, it will happen”. Whenever there is an inconsistent business process, there is a chance of risk, no matter how little the chance is , as long as you tried enough times, the risk will finally be suffered. As a enterprenuer who run a business, Risk is the synonym of Cost which we should avoid. To standize the Business Process of a business means whenever you provide a same quantity and quality of input, the output of that Business Process will always be the same. This is one of the reasons why a Business Process Management System should exist.
Monotonous Workload
Imagine you are requested from your superior that you have to deliver a Weekly Sales Report to your superior from different platforms including Shopify and Woocommerce. Due to the fact that these 2 platforms are not synchronised and you have to copy and paste the data from the Sales Report from these 2 platforms and consolidate the 2 reports into one and deliver them to your superior. In fact this is a monotonous and trivial data process that in fact brings little value to the company. But it’s inevitable for you to carry out the Task.
Imagine how much time can be saved if there is a system which can be scheduled and automatically synchronise the data from different data sources and consolidate them into 1 report.
This is the reason why a Business Process Management System should exist in order to automate the work process and bring us better life.
Lack of Tour Guide of the Application Interface.
Do you have the experience that when your company is using a Google (or Excel) Spreadsheet as a CRM which you are responsible to update the record of the clients based on some event triggers , including
- Event 1 – Enquiry Submitted
- Event 2 – Sales Order Placed
- Event 3 – Coupon Redeemed
While there may be 50 columns in one Google Spreadsheet for each record of a client, each Event may only require you to modify a particular column (i.e. not all columns).
However, there will be a very long learning curve to memorise the mapping between the 50 columns and the 3 Events.
Even worse, you will never know the sequence of filling in 10 columns for a particular event.
For example, you may never know you need to fill in the Birthday Field in the CRM before there is a Birthday Coupon shown in the drop down list of the Available Coupon list.
By using a Business Process Management (BPM) System, we can set the conditional logic inside the BPM so that the frontend interface of the system will always guide you what to do next, and hide any fields or buttons that are not suitable for your next move, which can significantly eliminate the time of learning the frontend interface.
Too Many Cooks Spilt The Broth
Have you had the experience that a single Google Spreadsheet is acting as a Client CRM which is shared by 10 Salesperson and 4 departments?
Whenever one sales person is using the Spreadsheet , he may probably apply a record filter so that he only filters the records that are related to him.
Meanwhile, if another sales person wants to use the same Spreadsheet, he may need to deactivate the filters applied by the previous sales person , which means the Spreadsheet cannot be used at the same time by 2 people.
Even worse, if there are 50 columns in the same Spreadsheet. And you can imagine that not all columns are related to all columns.
For example , the Date of Birth field may not be relevant to the Warehouse department which is only responsible for inbound and outbound sales order.
When one of the staff mistakenly erases the value of a field, no one will have any idea who damages the Spreadsheet and makes the Hygiene Spreadsheet never be good.
How To Build a Business Process Management System (BPM)
In order to build a Business Process Management System, following stacks should be considered:
Business Process Steps
Step as the timeline of the BPM