Business process diagram for the impatient. Training "Description of business processes in Microsoft Visio" Program for describing business processes visio

I am often asked - what to read about business processes?
One of the best sites on the Runet is www.klubok.net. I myself "grew up" on the forum and articles on this site. Many articles have not lost their relevance even now. I recommend starting with him.

But if we talk about books, then I can confidently say the best book on business processes is a book written by Repin and Yeliferov: "Business processes of a company. Construction, analysis, regulation."

Description of business processes: striving for simplicity.

The article deals with the issues of choosing a notation for describing processes for the purpose of subsequent regulation. Frequently used Work Flow notations are compared with each other, such as: "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio, "Procedure" of Business Studio, ARIS eEPC notation and others.

When comparing notations, the focus is on creating simple and understandable process diagrams for employees of the organization.

For business analysts of companies, the theses discussed in the article are a serious reason to think about how effective the approaches they use to develop graphic diagrams of organizational processes are.

Introduction

One of the most important goals for the formation of graphic process diagrams is their subsequent use in the regulatory documents of the organization. As a rule, these schemes are used by employees who are not trained in complex notations, do not have system analysis skills, etc. For them, simplicity and clarity of schemes are very important. Complex, confusing schemes containing many different symbols are poorly perceived by people, which makes their practical use difficult. Therefore, for practical purposes, the correct choice and use of the notation (method) for describing processes is important. By what criteria should such a notation be chosen? How to compare different notations with each other? Let's look at some popular notations and try to answer these questions.

Notation Comparison

The following process description notations were chosen for comparison:

"Simple flowchart" (with displaying the movement of documents, using the "Decision" block);
"Simple block diagram" (without displaying the movement of documents, without using "Solution" blocks);
"Procedure" of the Business Studio system (one of the possible presentation options);
ARIS eEPC.

A simple and intuitive process was chosen as a test case. The results of the description of this process are presented in fig. 1-4.

Rice. 1. Process diagram in the notation "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (with the movement of documents, using the "Solution" block).

On the diagram of Fig. 1. The sequence of process operations in time is shown with thick arrows, and the movement of documents is shown with thin dotted arrows. Blocks "Solution" are used in a classic way. They display information (questions) on which the subsequent course of the process “depends”. This approach to the use of "diamonds" is very common. But in fact, the entire logic of decision-making and the formation of certain outputs (documents) should be contained within the operations of the process. If you think about it, the value (meaning) of drawing these "diamonds" is not obvious. What are these objects: process operations, events? It seems to be neither one nor the other. These are rather statements for making a decision on some condition. But after all, we are developing a process diagram for people, and not writing a computer program in a special language. In a computer program, "diamond" would be a full-fledged operation for comparing conditions, and so on. But on the process diagram, you need to show real objects - processes performed by people, documents, information systems, etc. Think about it, is it correct to show “diamonds” separately from the process operation on the diagram? Instead, you can:

a) describe the decision-making logic in the form of a sequence of operations on the scheme of the process under consideration;
b) describe the logic in the form of a diagram of the steps of the corresponding sub-process, moving to the level below;
c) describe the logic in text (in the text attributes of the operation) and subsequently bring it into the process execution schedule.

Let us formulate the “pluses” and “minuses” of the above (Fig. 1.) method of using “diamonds”.

"Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (with the movement of documents, using the "Solution" block)
"Pros"	"Minuses"
Visual display of the "logic" of the choice of certain outputs of the process. Focusing the performer's attention on the decision point / process branching depending on the conditions.	Removing the decision-making logic “outside” of the process operation (incorrect from the point of view of the formal decomposition of processes). It is inconvenient to document the process (you have to duplicate the “diamonds” with text when forming a text description of the operation). The process diagram becomes information overloaded. "Diamonds" are often used too formally, without a real need.

On fig. 2. shows an example of the same process, only described without the use of "Solution" blocks and documents. It is easy to check that there are 24 less graphic elements in this diagram than in the diagram in Fig. 1. Scheme fig. 2. looks much simpler. From the graphic elements it does not dazzle, but from the point of view of informativeness, this scheme is quite understandable and accessible to the end user. If for each operation of the process the requirements for its implementation are described in text, then by combining the tabular and graphical forms of presentation, it is possible to adequately describe the procedure for the execution of the process for company employees.

Rice. 2. Process diagram in the notation "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (without the movement of documents, without using the "Solution" block).

"Pros" and "cons" of the graphical representation of the process in the form shown in fig. 2. are shown below.

In general, the use of schemes in a format similar to that shown in Fig. 2 is convenient for both developers and employees working according to these schemes.

On fig. 3. the process diagram is presented, formed in the "Procedure" notation of the Business Studio modeling environment. The scheme has several features. Firstly, the "Decision" blocks are not used in a standard way - not as a graphic element for displaying a question and branching, but as a full-fledged process operation associated with decision-making. In Business Studio, a “diamond” has almost all the attributes of a full-fledged process, but cannot be decomposed (perhaps the system developers will make this possible in due course). Using a "rhombus" (instead of a quadrilateral) makes the diagram clearer. At the same time, any textual information can be entered into the diamond attributes: description, beginning, end, deadline requirement, etc.

The second feature of the process diagram shown in Fig. 3., is the use of arrows. To display the sequence of operations, you can use an arrow with one tip - the "precedence" arrow. You can use an arrow with two tips to show the movement of documents. But it is in Business Studio that you can use only one type of arrow - the "precedence" arrows. At the same time, the required number of documents, which are defined in the reference book of activity objects, can be attached to the named arrows. This approach makes it possible:

significantly reduce the number of graphic elements on the process diagram, and at the same time:
display the necessary information about incoming and outgoing documents in the process regulations.

Thus, without cluttering the diagram with unnecessary elements, we can, nevertheless, fully describe the process and upload all the necessary information to the regulations.

"Pros" and "cons" of the graphical representation of the process in the form shown in fig. 3. are shown below.

Rice. 3. “Procedure” of the Business Studio system (variant with non-traditional use of “Solution” blocks).

In the case of using Business Studio, the "Procedure" notation can be used in slightly different ways. The author of the article tends to the approach presented in Fig. 3.

On fig. Figure 4 shows a diagram of the process under consideration, developed in the ARIS eEPC notation. Note that some operations of the process did not fit on the diagram. This incomplete diagram of the simplest process, made in ARIS eEPC notation, contains four logic statements and eight events! The person reading the diagram must be able to correctly interpret all of these logical operators. Without special training and some skills in reading such diagrams, an ordinary employee is unlikely to be able to understand the logic of the process in question without a detailed textual description or the help of a qualified business analyst.

Note that the process diagram in the ARIS eEPC notation takes up significantly more space than the diagrams shown in Fig. 1-3. The complexity of the formation of such a scheme is also significantly higher.

Process diagram in ARIS eEPC notation (built in Business Studio)
"Pros"	"Minuses"
When forming the scheme, a strict, formal logic of the process is maintained. All events occurring during the process are clearly defined.	Difficulty of perception. Significant complexity of the formation of the scheme. Employees should have special skills and experience in interpreting such schemes. information redundancy. Takes up too much space, which is inconvenient for documentation.

In general, if you are not going to buy SAP R / 3, then the choice and use of the ARIS eEPC notation is not, from the point of view of the author of the article, the optimal solution. It is worth paying attention to more visual and intuitively understandable notation for process descriptions. However, for some, the ARIS eEPC notation may seem more clear and understandable. To a certain extent, it's a matter of taste.

Rice. 4. Process diagram in ARIS eEPC notation (built in Business Studio).

Description of the process for subsequent automation purposes

It is interesting to look at the process diagram in question if it is described in the BPMN 2.0 notation. This notation is intended to describe "executable" processes, i.e. processes supported by the BPM system.

Your opinion on using BPMN 2.0. shares A.A. Belaichuk - General Director of the company "Business Console":

On fig. 5 shows the same process in BPMN notation. As we can see, this figure is similar to Figure 1: in BPMN notation, tasks are represented by rectangles, forks - by diamonds, data - by an icon similar to a document. Control flows are solid lines, data flows are dashed.

It should be noted that only a small part of the BPMN notation is involved in this diagram: only one type of fork out of 5 available in the palette, one type of tasks out of 8. In addition to a wider palette, this notation is distinguished by the ability to model not only an isolated workflow, but also several processes interacting with each other through messages or data. In addition, this notation is more strict: it defines not only icons, but also the rules by which they can be combined with each other. The need for such rules is dictated by the fact that the BPMN notation is focused not only on the fact that people will read it, but also on direct execution by special software - the "engine" of the BPM system.

At the same time, as this example shows, when using a limited subset of the palette, BPMN is no more complicated than a familiar flowchart. Well, for those who want to master BPMN professionally, we recommend specialized training www.bpmntraining.ru.

Rice. 5. Process diagram in BPMN 2.0 notation.

Life practice

On fig. Figure 6 shows a fragment of a process diagram developed by business analysts of a very specific company in the notation they invented. The scheme is built using the principles of the "Simple block diagram" - the "Solution" block is used in its classic version. In addition, the diagram shows many other symbols used in a non-standard way.

When forming the scheme of Fig. 6, business analysts obviously "fought" for visibility and maximum clarity for the average user. They sought to minimize, or even eliminate, textual commentary on process diagrams. The performers simply printed an A3 format diagram, when reading which everything immediately became clear: what to do, how, what documents to use, etc.

The scheme under consideration is, of course, not an example of simplicity and clarity. But it was formed in order to convey the maximum of useful information to the executors of the process.

conclusions

So, it is obvious that when describing processes, one should strive for simplicity and understandability for employees.
The use of complex, formalized notations when describing processes leads to:

difficulties in the use (interpretation) of schemes by ordinary employees;
the impossibility (difficulty) of organizing work on describing processes by employees of departments who have not undergone special training;
a significant increase in the labor costs of business analysts for the formation of schemes;
additional difficulties in documenting circuits (large volume, etc.);

Therefore, do not clutter up the process diagram with various graphic elements. But even if they are used, it is better that they carry useful information for employees, and are not simply a consequence of the formal application of modeling notations.

V.V. Repin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Executive Director of BPM Consulting Group LLC, Head. Department of Business Process Management NOU HPE "IEF "Synergy", founder of the portal www.FineXpert.ru

It is these simple principles that I am trying to convey to business leaders who, fascinated by beautiful presentations of software products, often forget that a simple checklist is often better than 10 pages of regulations.

This article continues the cycle of publications on tools that Russian companies can use to solve the problems of modeling and improving business processes without significant risks. Recall that in the previous article of this series, we talked about the products of IDS Scheer, which occupies the highest positions in the ratings of analytical companies. Today we will talk about a product of a different price range, not so functional in terms of business process modeling, but very popular and massive - Microsoft Visio.

And again, the opinion of analysts ...

Visio's low cost, along with factors such as belonging to the leading family of office products produced by the software industry leader, has led to a very significant market share for business process modeling tools (according to Gartner - 34%) and high ratings in analytics reports. companies. Thus, the analytical company Gartner classifies this product as a market leader (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Leading manufacturers of business process analysis tools
(source: Blechar M. Magic Quadrant for Business Process Analysis Tools,
2H07-1H08 - Gartner research note G00161090, 23 September 2008)

According to Gartner, Visio is one of the best tools for those companies that are just starting to model and analyze their business processes and are primarily focused on their visualization. However, in the process of developing this direction in a company, this product is usually replaced by a more functional tool.

Visio in the Russian market

On the Russian market, Visio is presented in the same way as other Microsoft office products - that is, it is available in all regions through a highly developed partner network. Through it, services are provided for maintenance, technical support and training in Russian. The Russian version of this tool has existed for a long time. There are books about the product and solutions based on it (including business process modeling tools; however, these tools are the subject of a separate discussion, since their availability, capabilities and prices differ significantly from the availability and capabilities of the original product and prices for it).

Product features

Technical features. Data storage

Technically, Visio is a desktop application that manipulates individual files (documents). A Visio drawing includes one or more diagrams arranged on one or more pages. Each document contains a set of symbols (corresponding to model objects) and connectors (corresponding to links), while symbols, in addition to names, may have additional attributes defined by the user during modeling.

If necessary, the character set included with the product can be extended with user-created characters. There are no global restrictions on the rules and the ability to create links between certain types of symbols in the product, however, the mechanism of the so-called diagram templates is available in it, the use of which allows you to limit the set of symbols available directly on the corresponding toolbar during the modeling process. Templates can be created by users, while the product package includes a set of ready-made templates (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Diagram templates included with Visio

As a rule, the set of models describing the activities of a company is a set of separate files, and in the case of sufficiently large companies and a comprehensive description of the activities, the number of such files can be several thousand. There are no technical means for providing relationships between models stored in different files at the product level, although the product provides the means for independently implementing such relationships (we will talk about them a little later). Therefore, the use of Visio in such cases, especially in conditions of constantly changing processes, requires a considerable amount of maintenance for such an impressive set of models.

Supported Methodologies and Notations

As long as the set of symbols and templates of Visio can be arbitrarily extended and the product itself does not imply global restrictions on the possibilities of using symbols and relationships between them, the description of business processes using Visio can formally be carried out within the framework of almost any methodology. At the same time, the product package in any edition (Standard, Professional) has a set of model templates for the most common notations, such as data flow diagrams, quality-added chain diagrams, Event-driven Process Chain, IDEF0, SwimLane diagrams, as well as templates for modeling of organizational structures of companies (Fig. 3 and 4).

Rice. 3. Swim Lane Process Model

Rice. 4. Model type EPC (Event-driven Process Chain)

Document processes and create solutions based on Visio

Microsoft Visio includes the Visual Basic for Applications code runtime, which allows you to both write code while the user is working, and create it using the development environment (Figure 5).

Rice. 5. VBA Development Environment in Microsoft Visio

To access model data, Visio provides an appropriate object model that is accessible through COM interfaces both from the VBA code runtime within the application itself and from external applications. Note that both the programming language and the object models of all Microsoft Office applications, including Visio, are well documented. This means that with a certain VBA programming skill, the user can generate reports of any complexity, and create means for transferring data between Visio and other modeling tools, and generating models by creating solutions based on applications of this family, and expanding the functionality of the modeling tool itself, and creation of various solutions (for example, for simulation modeling, automated publication of models on the Internet, and other tasks).

In addition to VBA, to document processes, you can use Visio integration tools with Microsoft Office applications, such as inserting Office Visio 2007 diagrams into Microsoft Office documents as illustrations and creating Visio 2007 diagrams directly in these applications, calendaring tools in Visio 2007 using Office Outlook data 2007, tools to connect Visio 2007 diagrams to Excel 2007 spreadsheets or Access 2007 databases to integrate data sources and charting components, graphing and Gantt charting tools into Visio 2007 by importing relevant data from Project 2007, Gantt charting and graphing information exporter Visio 2007 in Office Project 2007, organization charting tools based on the Exchange global address book.

Also interesting for documenting processes are the tools to save work as web pages provided by the latest version of Visio, as well as the tools to dynamically exchange process data with other applications using standardized XML-based exchange formats such as ODX and BPEL.

Limitations and possible problems

The phrase “within almost any methodology” used in one of the previous sections of the article does not mean that Visio is the best tool for modeling and analyzing business processes. So, unlike the products of the ARIS family, Visio does not explicitly solve the problem "what is the same object" - the rules by which it is decided whether two symbols on the same model display the same object, Users must work out and observe independently, while the product does not provide technical means that support the developed rule - they will have to be created independently using the available programming interfaces.

In addition, as soon as the number of business process models required to solve enterprise problems exceeds a dozen, and there are several model authors, the issue of delimiting the access of model authors to data becomes very relevant. When using Visio, you can implement such a distinction by using the file access control tools provided by the operating system of the corresponding file server, or by using a document management system like EMC Documentum. In this case, access control tools for models are administrative tools for the operating system or document management system, which means that the task of restricting access to models is, in fact, assigned to the system administrator.

The mechanism of methodological filters (tools for restricting the types of models, objects, links available to a specific user or group of users for a specific project), similar to that available in a number of other tools (for example, in products of the ARIS family), Visio also does not provide.

As for the means of maintaining the integrity and consistency of data, there are no ready-made mechanisms in the product either, but they can be created independently using the above-mentioned programming interfaces. However, the development of functionality missing in the product is an additional cost, and it is not a fact that the use of Visio in such conditions will be economically justified.

Comparison with other products

Let's try to compare Visio with other modeling tools.

The main advantage of Visio over the products of the mentioned families is its low cost and ease of use, which makes it a good starter tool for companies that have just begun to describe their business processes and are still interested mainly in their visual representation. Another advantage of this product is its perfect integration with other Microsoft Office applications - the office suite, by far the leader in the market. An important advantage of this product is well-documented programming interfaces - thanks to them, many solutions have been created on the basis of Visio, including more expensive tools for modeling and analyzing business processes developed by Microsoft partner companies.

The disadvantages of Visio as a business process modeling tool are, in fact, a continuation of its merits. Ease of use turns into a lack of functionality that is usually expected from such tools, for example, the lack of means to restrict access to data, analyze and validate models, maintain data integrity and consistency. This means that, having decided to use Visio at the stage of process management and business process analysis, in the future, most likely, you will have to pay attention to other, more functional modeling tools, for example, products from IDS Scheer.

We will continue the discussion of business process modeling tools in the next articles of this series.

In this lesson, you will learn about building simple (top-down diagram, data tracking diagram, process scheduling diagram, etc.) and functional block diagrams (displaying the relationship between a business process and departments).

Simple block diagram

The Simple Flowchart template is designed for designing flowcharts, top-down diagrams, data tracking diagrams, process planning diagrams, and structural forecast diagrams. The template contains the necessary shapes, connectors, and links.

Exercise 1

Rice. 3.3.Simple block diagram (step 3)

8. Enter text in the flowchart shapes (see Figure 3.4). To enter text into a shape, follow these steps:

9. Tab home in Group Service select tool Pointer.

Click the shape in which you want to enter text.
Type in the desired text.

Note:

To zoom in on the figure, press the keyboard shortcut + and left-click on the shape until you reach the desired scale.
To zoom out on the figure, press the key combination on the keyboard + and right-click on the shape until you reach the desired scale.

Rice. 3.4. Simple block diagram (step 4)

Figure numbering in a block diagram

Visio can number the shapes in a flowchart. To specify numbering options, on the tab View in Group Macros click the button add-ons and select in the group Additional Visio Solutions command Figure numbering. In the opened window Figure numbering specify the desired numbering options and click the button OK.

Task 2

In the flowchart prepared during task 1, add automatic numbering of all figures (see Fig. 3.6).
For this:
- On the tab View in Group Macros click combo button add-ons, select a group Additional Visio Solutions, and in it the command Figure numbering.
- In the opened window Figure numbering specify parameters
  - tab Are common:
    - Operation - Autonumbering;
    - Apply To - All Shapes;
    - Start at - 1;
    - Interval - 1;
    - Select the Continue numbering shapes when dragging onto page check box.
  - On the tab Additionally:
    - Place number - Before the text of the shape;
    - Numbering order - Left to right, top to bottom;
    - Check the box Exclude connecting lines.
  - Click the button OK.
Save the block diagram.

Rice. 3.6. Simple block diagram (step 6)

Changing the flowchart

Adding a shape between two other shapes

To add a new shape between two other flowchart shapes, drag the new shape onto the connector connecting the shapes between which the new one is inserted. Visio inserts the new shape between the existing ones and automatically expands the flowchart.

Deleting a Shape

To remove a shape from the flowchart, select the shape and click on keyboard.

Renumbering figures

To renumber the flowchart shapes, do the following:

On the tab View in Group Macros click the button add-ons and select in the group Additional Visio Solutions command Figure numbering.
In the opened window Figure numbering tab Are common select radio button Renumber in the same order, specify starting number for numbering and click OK.

Task 3

Modify the flowchart prepared in task 2:
- Delete figure Document(Submit application).
- Between figures Solution(Application is completed correctly) and Document(Send rejection) place the figure Process(Forward to trade show assistant).
- Add a Shape Process(Call exhibitor about payment) below figure Document(send invoice).
- Renumber the flowchart shapes in the same order, starting with the initial number - 1.
Save the block diagram.

Rice. 3.7. Simple block diagram (step 7)

Repositioning connected shapes

Once the connection of the flowchart shapes is created, you can completely reposition them and rebuild the connections. To do this, on the tab Constructor in Group Layout click combo button Change page layout and select the desired layout.

If you change the flowchart layout, it may not fit on the document page. In this case, change the page size (tab Constructor, group Page settings, the Size combo box) or its orientation (the Constructor, group Page settings, combo button Orientation).

Task 4

Function block diagram

Purpose of Layout Functional Block Diagram

Layout Function block diagram is designed to display the relationship between a business process and organizational or functional units, such as departments responsible for performing the steps in this process.

The lanes in a flowchart represent functional units, such as departments, positions, or some other function. Each shape representing a step in the process is located in the track of the functional unit responsible for that step.

Task 5

Adding, moving, deleting a track

For additions tracks into a functional block diagram, do one of the following:

Right-click an existing track on the diagram and select the item from the context menu. Insert "Track" before or Insert "Track" after.
Hover your mouse over a corner of one of the tracks. Click the blue arrow that appears Insert path shape.
On the tab Function block diagram in Group Insert press the button Track. The track will be added after the selected track or at the end of the strip if no track is selected.
From a set of elements Function block diagram shapes drag the track to the desired location on the lane boundary.

For displacement tracks:

Click the title of the track you want to move to select it. The mouse pointer will change to a move icon.
Drag the track to the desired location.

Shapes placed on the track will move with it. To check if a shape is on the track or just on top of it, select the shape. If the shape is on a track, the color of the track will change to yellow-orange. If the shape is not on the track but needs to be placed there, move it a bit and the track will identify it.

For removal tracks:

Click the label of the track you want to delete.
Press key on keyboard.

Note. Deleting a track also deletes all the shapes it contains.

Vladimir Repin

General Director of LLC "Vladimir Repin Management"

Member of ABPMP Russia

management consultant

Business trainer

PhD

The article deals with the issues of choosing a notation for describing processes for the purpose of subsequent regulation. Frequently used Work Flow notations are compared with each other, such as: "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio, "Procedure" of Business Studio, ARIS eEPC notation and others. When comparing notations, the focus is on creating simple and understandable process diagrams for employees of the organization.

Introduction

One of the most important goals for the formation of graphic process diagrams is their subsequent use in the regulatory documents of the organization. As a rule, these schemes are used by employees who are not trained in complex notations, do not have system analysis skills, etc. For them, simplicity and clarity of schemes are very important. Complex, confusing schemes containing many different symbols are poorly perceived by people, which makes their practical use difficult. Therefore, for practical purposes, the correct choice and use of the notation (method) for describing processes is important. By what criteria should such a notation be chosen? How to compare different notations with each other? Let's consider several examples of describing a business process using popular notations and try to answer these questions.

Notation Comparison

The following process description notations were chosen for comparison:

"Simple flowchart" (with displaying the movement of documents, using the "Decision" block);
"Simple block diagram" (without displaying the movement of documents, without using the "Solution" blocks);
"Procedure" of the Business Studio system (one of the possible presentation options);
ARIS eEPC.

A simple and intuitive process was chosen as a test case. The results of the description of this process are presented in Fig. 1-4.

Rice. 1. Process diagram in the notation "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (with the movement of documents, using the "Solution" block)

In the diagram shown in Fig. 1, the sequence of process operations in time is shown using bold arrows, and the movement of documents is shown using thin dotted arrows. Blocks "Solution" are used in a classic way. They display information (questions) on which the subsequent course of the process “depends”. This approach to the use of "diamonds" is very common. But in fact, the entire logic of decision-making and the formation of certain outputs (documents) should be contained within the operations of the process. If you think about it, the value (meaning) of drawing these "diamonds" is not obvious. What are these objects: process operations, events? It seems to be neither one nor the other. These are rather statements for making a decision on some condition. But after all, we are developing a process diagram for people, and not writing a computer program in a special language. In a computer program, a “diamond” would be a full-fledged operation for comparing conditions, etc. But on a process diagram, you need to show real objects - processes performed by people, documents, information systems, etc. Consider whether it is correct to show “diamonds” separately from process operations on the diagram? Instead, you can:

Describe the decision-making logic in the form of a sequence of operations on the scheme of the process under consideration;
Describe the logic in the form of a diagram of the steps of the corresponding sub-process, moving to the level below;
Describe the logic in text (in the text attributes of the operation) and subsequently display it in the process execution schedule.

Let us formulate the "pluses" and "minuses" of the above (Fig. 1) method of using "diamonds".

"Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (with the movement of documents, using the "Solution" block)

On Fig. Figure 2 shows an example of the same process, only described without the use of "Solution" blocks and documents. It is easy to check that there are 24 less graphic elements in this diagram than in the diagram in Fig. 1. Diagram Fig. 2 looks much simpler. From the graphic elements it does not dazzle in the eyes, and from the point of view of informativeness, this scheme is quite understandable and accessible to the end user. If for each operation of the process the requirements for its implementation are described in text, then by combining the tabular and graphical forms of presentation, it is possible to adequately describe the procedure for the execution of the process for company employees.

Rice. 2. Process diagram in the notation "Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (without the movement of documents, without using the "Solution" block)

"Pros" and "cons" of the graphical representation of the process in the form shown in Fig. 2 are shown below.

"Simple flowchart" in MS Visio (without document movement, without using the "Solution" block)

In general, the use of schemes in a format similar to that shown in Fig. 2 is convenient for both developers and employees working according to these schemes.

On Fig. 3 shows the process diagram formed in the “Procedure” notation of the Business Studio modeling environment. The scheme has several features. First, the "Decision" blocks are used in a non-standard way - not as a graphic element for displaying a question and branching, but as a full-fledged decision-making process operation. In Business Studio, a “diamond” has almost all the attributes of a full-fledged process, but cannot be decomposed (perhaps the system developers will make this possible in due course). Using a "rhombus" (instead of a quadrilateral) makes the diagram clearer. At the same time, any textual information can be entered into the diamond attributes: description, beginning, end, deadline requirement, etc.

The second feature of the process diagram shown in Fig. 3, is the use of arrows. To display a sequence of operations, you can use an arrow with a single tip - the "precedence" arrow. You can use an arrow with two tips to show the movement of documents. However, in Business Studio, you can get away with using only one type of arrow, the "precedence" arrows. At the same time, the required number of documents, which are defined in the reference book of activity objects, can be attached to the named arrows.

This approach makes it possible:

Significantly reduce the number of graphic elements on the process diagram, and at the same time;
Display the necessary information about incoming and outgoing documents in the process regulations.

Thus, without cluttering the diagram with unnecessary elements, we can, nevertheless, fully describe the process and upload all the necessary information to the regulations.

The fact that the name of the arrow does not depend on the documents that are attached to it, allows you to name the arrows on the diagram in the most understandable and convenient way for employees. For example, a set of specific documents can be linked to the precedence arrow “A set of reports has been prepared”. The name of the arrow in this case indicates to the performer the event that completed the previous operation called "Generate a cash collection report for the day." (Note that in the STU methodology, the arrow after the process operation is an entity, not an event. After the “Solutions” block, you can show the possible results of the solution).

Rice. 3. “Procedure” of the Business Studio system (variant with non-traditional use of “Solution” blocks)

"Pros" and "cons" of the graphical representation of the process in the form shown in Fig. 3 are shown below.

"Procedure" of the Business Studio system (variant with unconventional use of "Decision" blocks)

In the case of using Business Studio, the "Procedure" notation can be used in slightly different ways. The author of the article tends to the approach presented in Fig. 3.

On Fig. Figure 4 shows a diagram of the process under consideration, developed in the ARIS eEPC notation. Note that some operations of the process did not fit on the diagram. This incomplete diagram of the simplest process, made in ARIS eEPC notation, contains four logic statements and eight events! The person reading the diagram must be able to correctly interpret all of these logical operators. Without special training and some skills in reading such diagrams, an ordinary employee is unlikely to be able to understand the logic of the process in question without a detailed textual description or the help of a qualified business analyst.

Note that the process diagram in the ARIS eEPC notation takes up significantly more space than the diagrams shown in Fig. 1-3. The complexity of forming such a scheme is also significantly higher.

Rice. 4. Process diagram in ARIS eEPC notation (built in Business Studio)

Process diagram in ARIS eEPC notation (built in Business Studio)

Description of the process for subsequent automation purposes

It is interesting to consider the above example of a business process description if it is presented in BPMN 2.0 notation. This notation is intended to describe "executable" processes, i.e. processes supported by the BPM system.

Your opinion on using BPMN 2.0. A. A. Belaichuk, General Director of the Business Console company, shares:

"In Fig. 5 shows the same process in BPMN notation. As we can see, this figure is similar to Fig. 1: In BPMN notation, tasks are represented by rectangles, forks are represented by diamonds, and data is represented by a document-like icon. Control flows are solid lines, data flows are dashed.

Rice. 5. Process diagram in BPMN 2.0 notation

Life practice

On Fig. Figure 6 shows a fragment of a process diagram developed by business analysts of a very specific company in the notation they invented. The scheme is built using the principles of "Simple block diagram" - the "Solution" block is used in its classic version. In addition, the diagram shows many other symbols used in a non-standard way.

Rice. 6. Examples of the process diagram of one of the companies

When forming the scheme Fig. 6, business analysts obviously "fought" for visibility and maximum clarity for the average user. They sought to minimize, or even eliminate, textual commentary on process diagrams. The performers simply printed an A3 format diagram, when reading which everything immediately became clear: what to do, how, what documents to use, etc.

The scheme under consideration is, of course, not an example of simplicity and clarity. But it was formed in order to convey the maximum of useful information to the executors of the process.

conclusions

So, it is obvious that when describing processes, one should strive for simplicity and understandability for employees.

The use of complex, formalized notations when describing processes leads to:

Difficulties in the use (interpretation) of schemes by ordinary employees;
Impossibility (difficulties) of organizing work on describing processes by employees of departments who have not undergone special training;
A significant increase in the labor costs of business analysts for the formation of schemes;
Additional difficulties in documenting circuits (large volume, etc.).

http://finexpert.ru/ — communication environment for professionals http://bpm3.ru/ — processes, projects, efficiency

If it is necessary to analyze various issues of managing an organization (enterprise), problems “interfering with the life” of the company are considered, for example:

− low decision-making speed,

− irresponsibility of employees,

- malfunctions.

The consequences of these problems are:

− decrease in profitability and competitiveness,

− slowdown in development,

- even the termination of the company's activities.

And, when, the owner or manager at one fine moment realizes that “it’s impossible to work like this!”, then questions will arise: « Who's guilty? What to do first?

At the same time, it is intuitively clear that in order to solve problems, it is necessary to “put things in order”:

- describe in a certain way, in accordance with clear rules, all the activities of the organization, because it is impossible to present all business processes at once;

- explain to employees how they should work, what to strive for

In other words, urgent problems require a systematic approach and formalization of the organization's activities - a set of convenient and easy-to-use documents that determine what should happen and how, who is responsible for what.

If you set yourself the task of understanding management issues thoroughly, this will require quite a serious investment of time and effort, you may even have a desire to undergo additional training. Here we will answer some real questions that are often asked by business owners and leaders of domestic companies at different stages of their development.

1. Your company is at the beginning of its development: it has recently entered the market and is just beginning to master it. Usually at this stage the number of employees of the organization is small (up to 30 people), the organizational structure is not too formalized, there are no more than 3 levels of hierarchy, the focus of management is most often on the production and sale of the Product / Service.

§ lack of a clearly defined strategies further development (to what and why are we going?)

§ uncertainty in segregation of duties and responsibilities each employee and entire departments, reducing the quality of work and causing internal conflicts

§ occurrence serious problems when changing workers even at the lower level of the company, because there are no mechanisms for transferring knowledge and skills to new employees, because of which they have to learn from their mistakes. Faced with a similar situation at least a couple of times, the leader inevitably begins to think about the need to somehow formalize the rules for the work of subordinates who perform typical operations day in and day out.

§ the impossibility of further development of the company without attraction of additional specialists with specialized knowledge and skills.

The regularity of the manifestation of these and similar difficulties indicates the need to form in the organization orderly and formalized control systems. In other words, the management system must become, firstly, properly organized, and, secondly, equally understandable for everyone, i.e., documented in precise terms.

It is possible to develop regulations and keep them up to date manually, but after a while this will become a costly torture. This task is faster and easier to solve by building a business model that will provide a basis for the development of the company in the future.

In addition to the fact that the development of a business model is a useful and interesting activity in itself, you can quickly feel a number of positive effects:

1. In the process of describing the activities of the company, you begin to better understand how really works company, i.e., how the main processes take place in it. It is highly likely that already at this stage ideas will begin to appear on systemic improvement.

2. The result of the description is a set of documents (regulations of processes, job descriptions, regulations on departments, etc.), which actually fixes your work performance technology. Subsequently, it is convenient to use it if it is necessary to quickly train staff (if an employee leaves, it becomes much easier to train a new one).

3. When the technology for performing work is clearly presented, it is much easier for the manager delineate areas of responsibility between employees.

4. In general, the presence of a real working business model improves manageability companies and efficient use of its resources: if the model is continuously updated, then the manager has the opportunity to "keep abreast" of the company, controlling the compliance of its organizational structure and resource allocation with real tasks.

In principle, you can build a business model for a small company "on the knee" using the familiar MS Office tools and MS Visio, which is widely used for working with graphics. However, in the future, with the development of the company, you will definitely need to make changes and additions to the model created by trial and error, and the more dynamic the company develops, the more corrections you will have to make in various schemes and tables, which means you will spend everything on it more time. Keeping a model up-to-date is much more convenient if it is initially built in a special environment designed for business modeling.

Most of the leaders of companies that are leaders in their markets, successfully applying business modeling technologies, admit that when they decided to start transformations in their organizations, they did not expect that the initial stage would require strong will - they have to rebuild not only their own ideas and stereotypes, but also the thinking of colleagues and subordinates, a system for evaluating their activities, a familiar organizational structure. However, having shown perseverance and overcoming the momentary desire to quit the project, the manager receives a convenient tool for putting things in order in his business. An additional “bonus” for those who, at the very beginning of the organization’s formation, spared no time and effort to design it, is the ability to avoid many problems at later stages of development, which means a significant increase in the chances of success in the competition.

In particular, the formalization of the strategy and description of the company's business processes allows management to focus on performance organizations. realizing business process as a set of actions that is performed in a company to obtain a given result, and considering all the activities of the company as a set of a certain number of business processes, the process approach allows you to avoid excessive growth in the number of personnel and reduces the likelihood of internal competition between departments of the organization.

2. The company has passed the initial stage and is actively growing, more and more functional units and levels of management appear in it, the number of employees is such that top management is no longer familiar with each person personally.

In practice, in companies with more than 50 employees, one often has to deal with a functional-hierarchical management system. Its essence can be briefly described as the allocation of a certain number of functional areas in the activities of the enterprise and the construction of a management system in accordance with them. Moreover, as the organization grows, each of the functional areas builds its own hierarchy of managers - from the head (a kind of "expert" in this field) to an ordinary performer, and the larger the organization, the more levels of this hierarchy. And if at first the whole system functions more or less successfully, providing the organization with manageability, then as the company grows, its efficiency inevitably decreases. This is due to the specifics of decision-making in the system, when the interaction of all “experts” in various functional areas is necessary to consider the problem from all sides. While there are few levels of hierarchy in departments, interaction is organized quite quickly, but as the organization grows, the time spent on decision-making exceeds all reasonable limits. The result of this is the transfer ALL solutions to the highest level and a global decrease in manageability.

Possible problems that make you think about optimizing control:

§ The solution of operational issues takes all the working time of the head

§ Staff growth outstrips revenue growth

§ Competition in the market forces us to look for reserves to reduce the cost of production

§ Each of the functional divisions of the company "lives its own life", coordination between them occurs only at the highest level - at the level of the director.

At this stage, it is already extremely difficult for the company's management to do without a clearly defined model of the management system, since the structure of the company and the information flows in it are quite complex, and it becomes impossible to manage them “on a whim”. At the same time, a simple display of the hierarchical functional structure of the company on a piece of paper, unfortunately, does little to improve the efficiency of its activities. The problems of functional management are especially pronounced in large companies during the period of external instability, when the speed of decision-making becomes a critical characteristic of the system.

The solution to the problems inherent in functional management is the transition to process management: all activities, regardless of which functional feature it belongs to, are grouped into mixed divisions, where each executor is responsible for its own block of operations. The fundamental difference between these approaches is the transition from managing the FUNCTIONING of an organization (and its structural divisions, united on the basis of the SUBJECT of activity: accounting, legal department, supply, sales, etc.) to managing BUSINESS PROCESSES based on the RESULTS of activities. In this way, the focus is shifting towards the effectiveness of the organization. At the same time, all possible situations in the performance of business processes are described in as much detail as possible, since in practice 80% of situations that arise are typical, and it is advisable for them to create a detailed regulation of activities. In this case personnel in typical situations can act as efficiently as possible and, most importantly, independently, i.e., without the participation of a manager. In fact, the leader is included in the process only when a non-standard situation arises, the actions in which are not regulated.

By shifting to process management, companies with a large scale of operations are able to systematize their activities, benefiting from two directions at once:

1. The number of hierarchy levels is reduced, since the management structure is built in accordance with the structure of processes, and in practice there are rarely more than 5-6 of them

2. The norms of manageability in the process approach are 2-3 times higher, since management consists in coordinating employees, and including them in the process only when it deviates from its usual course.

To reorganize the management system based on a process approach, management needs to decide on the design of a new system, and the direction of this design is top down, i.e. Initially, the strategic goals and objectives of the organization, indicators of their achievement are determined, and a system of processes is built on this basis. Based on the processes, an organizational structure is formed. Significantly reduce the complexity and speed up the design allows the use of modern software for the appropriate purpose, in particular, the Business Studio business modeling system. In addition, this system allows not only to prepare the reorganization, but also to support the implementation and subsequent maintenance of process management.

3. The organization has entered a new stage of its development: You open branches and turn into a network structure.

Sometimes the development of a company is so dynamic that it does not have time to transform the management system. This usually happens in fast-growing markets with favorable market conditions.

When making decisions about opening remote divisions, one should not underestimate the importance of the company's internal readiness for such a step. It is no secret that some companies successfully reproduce and develop business regardless of the region, while others have many branches that are unprofitable.

The fact is that the methods and technologies of functional management, up to a certain point effective for "simple business", cannot work on network structures.

An assessment of a company's readiness to open regional divisions is usually carried out at the following levels:

§ managerial;

§ financial;

§ marketing;

§ process

If a company managed according to a functional-hierarchical principle begins to form a network, the transition to process management becomes almost inevitable, because the serious scale of the tasks and the problems of remote business management make the introduction of regular management techniques an urgent need.

Possible problems that make you think about optimizing control:

§ Lack of formalized efficient operation technology

§ Impossibility (or high cost) of control all aspects activities of subsidiaries

Usually, when opening branches, the best way from all points of view is to transfer already developed technologies of activity there (yes, the same technologies that you get when describing and optimizing the organization's business processes). This allows you to effectively apply the existing experience and “replicate” it with minimal problems: after all, if the technology of activity is not formalized, the manager is forced to personally organize the branch or allocate the most competent employee for this. And if you need to open more than one or two branches, and even in a short time? The presence of a business model in this case solves a large part of the organizational issues.

Further, simply opening branches is only the first step, and when planning such a development path, you need to be aware that the network will have to be managed. Effective management of a network of branches is impossible without a high degree of independence for them to adapt to a variety of external conditions. In this case, the corporate center acts solely as a coordinating body that controls financial and commodity-material flows. Therefore, network management is akin to process management, when the attention of management is not focused on functioning, but on the results of activities.

As practice shows, most companies with a successful regional strategy use several tools:

1. optimal structure– flexible and meeting the requirements of the market;

2. correctly chosen branch management model, which determines the measure of their independence;

3. detailed instructions, regulations and documents defining work

4. branch network.

In a real market situation, the corporate center must form a management system that, on the one hand, will provide a sufficiently high level of regulation of the activities of branches, and on the other hand, provide opportunities for flexible response to changes in market conditions.

How to determine the optimal degree of standardization of individual processes?

One of the options may be to use such an algorithm: by defining standard processes, the company solves the problem of the optimal distribution of functions between the center and branches. Thus, each regulated process of the company (management, main, auxiliary) is distributed according to the rule: only in the center, performed branch only, performed jointly. Obviously, the processes performed only in the center are standard and should be regulated. When performing processes at both levels, it is usually advisable to standardize and regulate them as well. For branch-level processes, it is possible to either standardize the execution of the process - if all branches are similar, or make standard reporting on the process - if the execution of the process in different branches can differ significantly.

As a result, the company receives a list of processes that need to be standardized.

In order to successfully carry out all the preparatory work and build an effective network structure, it is necessary to form a process management system based on clearly defined strategic goals with an optimal distribution of powers and responsibilities between the corporate center and branches. The application of the process approach in this case is dictated by the logic of the development of the organization and the need to provide it with adequate management.

Thus, no matter what stage of development the company is at, the earlier its management and owner pay attention to building a management system using a process approach, the more likely it is to get ahead of competitors and prevent the occurrence of typical "growing pains".

The design of a control system, its implementation and subsequent proper functioning are greatly simplified when using specialized business modeling software.

It might be useful to read: