Business Process Management: A Rigorous Approach

Re-engineering or creating new business processes or organisational structures?

Need to identify IT solutions involving workflow, document management or Business Process Management systems?

Preparing process definitions intended for a Quality Management System?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you need a copy of Martyn Ould’s Business Process Management: a Rigorous Approach.

Businesses need to adapt constantly in order to remain competitive, but are often held back by static IT systems that aren't designed to change with the business. The challenge is to create systems that can. Business process management (BPM) is an important emerging technology that overcomes this problem. With the advent of the technology, new methods are required to exploit it effectively.

Riva is a pioneering method addressing the major emerging technology of Business Process Management that is business-focused. It is a method for designing, modelling, analysing and recording business processes. It is about modelling organisational behaviour in a way that is revealing and communicative, showing exactly what processes there are and how they interact. The architecture is derived from an understanding of what business the organisation is in, rather than its current structure or culture. Once the architecture is understood, it becomes apparent what is required from the IT systems supporting these processes.

The sorts of process models that Riva generates are designed to be of real practical use in a number of BPM situations, whether that’s the reengineering or re-design of business processes and operations in a radical change or for improvement in an incremental change or somewhere in-between.

The methods described in Business Process Management: a Rigorous Approach work on a business level, but they are IT orientated, making it essential reading for both IT people involved in understanding business processes as a first step in developing requirement for IT and BPM solutions, and for business-focused people involved in requirements definition, or engaged in process improvement or process design work.

Business Process Management: a Rigorous Approach is an in-depth practical guide divided up into two parts. The first builds up the theory, with lots of examples from real life, while the second puts the theory into action, showing use in process discovery and definition, diagnosis and improvement, design, support and enactment.

What makes this book different?

* With its roots in business theory, rather than software development, the Riva method has gained a reputation for addressing the business aspects of processes in a way that is accessible by the everyday user, whilst giving the analyst powerful tools for process understanding, diagnosis and design.

* Riva is a pioneering method addressing the major emerging technology of Business Process Management.

* Riva addresses current industry concerns over the quality of support given by IT systems to a business and the recognised need to be able to represent and think about business processes in a rigorous fashion.

* Concern about business processes has become more prevalent in the wake of increased interest in BPR, TQM (Total Quality Management) ISO 9001, and enabling technologies such as ERP and workflow management.Business Process Management: a Rigorous Approach can help.

Martyn Ould is an independent consultant on the software development process and the design and diagnosis of organisational and business processes. A graduate of Cambridge University, he has over three decades of software development and business process management experience, working for leading software houses and management consultancies Deloitte, Praxis and Logica. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Chartered Engineer, and an experienced author. He regularly lectures to public, government and corporate audiences, and teaches at Oxford and Bristol Universities. Martyn has pioneered the development of the Riva method for business process management.