Business Process Explorer

Overview The activities that take place over time in a business are called processes.  Businesses generate revenue by either producing products purchase by their customers or by delivering services.  Products may either be tangible like durable goods or they may be intangible like software or information. 

Tangible products are produced by processes that describe how raw materials, supplies, parts and assemblies are transformed into products that are sold to customers.  Process models identify the people, machines, computers, and software that are required to carry out tasks.  They describe the flow of material and information through the web of tasks, facilities and organizations.  Knowledge and information are essential elements that are created and used throughout business processes. 

Each business will have processes that are dominated by one or more of these elements.  Some businesses like Dunn and Bradstreet, for instance, are dominated by information.  Others such as Whirlpool make washers, dryers, and refrigerators.  In the case of D&B business processes will be dominated by information creation and manipulation.  Raw materials and parts are not part of their mainstream business.  On the other hand, Whirlpool production processes and dominated by parts and assemblies. 

The neXus provides the necessary vocabulary to describe these disparate processes.  

Business process models describe how products are produced and how services are delivered.  They also describe the projects that transform businesses, and these projects may be carried out with internal resources or they may be outsourced to consultancies.  The Business Process Explorer (in conjunction with Visio diagrams) enables you to model and understand your business processes. 

Process

Activity

Task

Step

Tasks

• Model Business Processes

• Derive objectives

• Inventory required roles and competencies

• Inventory required knowledge

• Identify required equipment

• Identify required facilities

• Identify required software

• Define software requirements

• Define IT infrastructure requirements

• Identify use cases

• Identify required information

• Inventory required raw materials, supplies, parts and assemblies

• Identify products produced

• Identify inventories

Connections

• Business Processes and tasks to Products and Services

• Business Processes and tasks to Objectives and Strategy
• Business Processes and tasks to Businesses and Organization
• Business Processes and tasks to IT Infrastructure
• Business Processes and tasks to SW Inventory
• Business Processes and tasks to IT Development
• Business Processes and tasks to Facilities
• Business Processes and tasks to Equipment
• Business Processes and tasks to Human Capital
• Business Processes and tasks to Knowledge

Diagrams

• Business process

• Cross functional flow

Reports

• Process summary

• Process objectives

• Process competency requirements

• Process knowledge requirements

• Process equipment requirements

• Process facility requirements

• Process software requirements

• Process IT infrastructure requirements

• Process material requirements

• Process information requirements

• Inventories accessed by Process

• Products produced by Process

• Task summary

• Task objectives

• Task competency requirements

• Task knowledge requirements

• Task equipment requirements

• Task facility requirements

• Task software requirements

• Task IT infrastructure requirements

• Task material requirements

• Task information requirements

• Inventories accessed by task

• Products produced by task

• Task use case summary

• Task software requirement summary