Have you ever stopped to ask why you do a specific task each day at work, and whether it can be done more efficiently? Do projects or plans get bogged down to the point where they are late and consistently over budget? If so, business process modeling can help.

BPM is a tool that analysts and project managers use to identify weaknesses and redundancies in companies. This strategy is used in small companies of a dozen people up to major corporations. You don’t have to be an expert BA to try business process modeling, but you do need a drive to improve your department’s efficiency and help your company.

What Is Business Process Modeling?

Business process modeling is meant to map out how your team, department or business gets work done. It visually describes a process from start to finish, so anyone can see how your company operates.

The team at HEFLO defines business process modeling as “a set of activities that must be followed to allow the creation of one or more models for representation, communication, analysis, design, synthesis, decision making and control of business.”

Essentially, business process modeling is any action or series of actions taken by business analysts, company managers and the C-Suite to improve business operations, making them more efficient.

Business process modeling has become an increasingly popular tactic in the corporate world. For the past several years, Paul Harmon at BPTrends has published an analysis on business process management to reflect current trends in business process modeling and tracking the use of BPM by global companies. Insights for 2018 include:

The main goal of BPM for most companies is to save money by reducing costs and improving productivity.

65 percent of companies say their BPM strategies helped increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.

52 percent of companies say they only occasionally model their business processes, if at all.

The biggest challenge people have selling process changes to management is helping them understand the different changes and how they will affect the company.

This data is clear: people want to increase their efficiency and grow their revenue, but lack a clear way to do it. This is why effective BPM is important, so employees at all levels of the organizational chart can understand it.

You can see additional trends related to BPM in graphic form by Emily Schneider at Signavio. One notable piece of information is that BPM is not used exclusively in software development or technology. While the IT department might lead the BPM charge, process improvement is used across the organization. For example, the top three uses for BPM are accounting or budgeting, scheduling, and invoicing or quoting. Every company needs a balanced budget and well-kept calendar.

What Are the Benefits Of Business Process Modeling?