Business architecture provides the basis for turning business strategy into actionable results. Organizations use business architecture to address a wide variety of business scenarios. These include shifting to a customer-driven business model, merger / acquisition deployment, regional or global expansion, product line expansion, business / IT alignment and a host of other strategic and tactical scenarios.

The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a standard for business process modeling, and provides a graphical notation for specifying business processes in a Business Process Diagram (BPD), It is based on flowcharting techniques similar to activity diagrams from the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The objective of BPMN is to support business process management for both technical users and business users by providing a notation that is intuitive to business users yet able to represent complex process semantics. The BPMN specification also provides a mapping between the graphics of the notation to the underlying constructs of execution languages, such as Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

Most organizations lack a well-articulated blueprint of their business. While everyone can see their small piece of the puzzle, no one has visibility into the business as a whole. To address this lack of visibility, organizations must be able to visualize their business through formal business architecture. Yet, this is only one piece of the puzzle. Where there is no blueprint of a business, there is no corresponding blueprint of how the business relies on and is intertwined with IT architecture. As a result, it is difficult to determine the impact of key decisions, deploy cross-functional initiatives, optimize key resources and funding, and streamline communication and deployments between business and IT.

Embracing a set of methods and standard approaches are critical for accelerating BPM adoption across an organization. This advanced course is designed to expose the student to a broad array of methods used during different phases of a BPM program. The course is also is meant to demystify much of the hype around using Six Sigma and Lean while managing business processes. Throughout the course case studies are presented to guide the student through the best use of approaches such as iterative and water-fall, and techniques such as the use of work-out-sessions and face-to-face interviews. The course places special emphasis on business-facing process discovery, modeling, simulation, and deployment techniques. The goal is to instill confidence within the student regarding where and when to best apply any given method or tool. Since the course is focused on process management methods the student should have a basic understanding of BPM prior to attending.

To provide students the ability to create a Customer focused – Process Enabled Enterprise. This requires a business process framework, established enterprise architecture, creating "real-time" business intelligence, and a link between continuous improvement projects and key business processes. Most businesses need to evolve from a bottoms-up Six Sigma (DMAIC) or Lean approach, to a strategic framework that will set the foundation for growth, accountability, and performance management.

Whether you are developing a business architecture, creating a process model, leading an improvement team, or running a meeting, great facilitation skills are crucial.  You need to be able to keep people engaged, elicit the necessary information, create shared understanding and build consensus all while keeping them focused on the intended goal.  Not an easy task.

This 1-day interactive workshop focuses on you – the facilitator.  We’ll play with models and techniques that will help you better handle tough issues like managing conflict that arises during meetings, getting folks to make and own decisions, staying on topic and more.  So if you’re a project manager, business analyst, architect or leader with a desire to be more collaborative, this workshop is your first step on the road to your own process improvement.

Introduction to Business Architecture

Business Architecture is a holistic approach, representation and mindset which serves as a bridge between strategy and its successful execution within an organization and facilitates resolution of complex, enterprise problems.  It is a powerful way for the business to understand, improve and transform the organization and become more empowered to take control of its own destiny.  However, most organizations lack a well-articulated blueprint of their organization.  While everyone can see their small piece of the puzzle, no one has visibility into the enterprise as a whole. This constrains the organization’s collective ability to understand and communicate the root causes of critical issues and design holistic Business and IT solutions to address them.  It also reduces the speed and effectiveness with which they can react to customer demands, competition and other external forces.

Business architecture provides the basis for turning business strategy into actionable results. Organizations use business architecture to address a wide variety of business scenarios. These include shifting to a customer-driven business model, merger / acquisition deployment, regional or global expansion, product line expansion, business / IT alignment and a host of other strategic and tactical scenarios.

If you are wondering how to focus your BPM efforts this course is for you. Process modeling can take 6 months and the analysis another 6 months after that. But it doesn’t have to. This course demonstrates a structured approach that gets results faster and more effectively. You will learn how to find and work with a sponsor, how to use two guiding lights to keep you on track with your improvement objectives, and how to get the right cross-functional team to participate and work toward a common goal. This course is a learning laboratory where you will practice mapping your as-is process, selecting the right analysis tools for your efforts, and redesigning an improved to-be process using 17 critical rules – and how computer simulation will help you in your recommendations. This structured approach will accelerate your BPM effort and significantly increase the likelihood of successful implementation.