Fundamentals of Business Process Management 2nd ed

Book Preface

Business processes represent one of the core assets of organisations for many
reasons. They have direct impact on the attractiveness of products and services,
influence customer experiences and ultimately revenue in case of corporations.
Processes orchestrate corporate resources to fulfil these external demands and
therefore are a key factor determining the cost-to-serve and operational efficiency.
In particular, they determine tasks, jobs, and responsibilities and by this, shape the
future work of every employee and machine along a business process. Processes
are the arterial system within organisations and in inter-organizational supply
networks. Consequently, any process failure can bring corporate life and the entire
process ecosystem to a standstill. Processes determine the potential and speed of
an organization to adapt to new circumstances and to comply with a fast-growing
number of legislative requirements.

However, unlike other corporate assets such as products, services, workforce,
brand, physical or monetary assets, the significance of business processes had not
been appreciated for a long period. Despite the fact that processes are the lifeblood
of an organization, they did not develop the status of a primary citizen in boardroom
discussions and managerial decision-making processes until the very end of the
twentieth century.

The growing demands for globalization, integration, standardization, innovation,
agility, and operational efficiency, coupled with the opportunities raised by digital
technologies, have finally increased the appetite for reflecting on and ultimately
improving existing as well as designing entire new business processes.
In response, a comprehensive body of tools, techniques, methods, and entire
methodologies to support all stages of the business process lifecycle has emerged
over the past two decades. It is called Business Process Management (BPM), and
it consolidates a plethora of tools and approaches coming from diverse disciplines,
including Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, Quality Management,
Human Capital Management, Corporate Governance, Computer Science, and Information Systems Engineering.
“Fundamentals of Business Process Management” takes on the challenge
of distilling the current landscape of BPM methods and tools succinctly and pedagogically. It brings meaningful order and consistency into approaches that often have been developed, discussed, and deployed in isolation. It derives its
merits from its firm foundation in the latest applied BPM research. Relying on
scientifically sound practices means capitalizing on evidence rather than depending
on confidence. This clearly differentiates this much-needed publication from many
of its predecessors. In particular, it gives BPM the credibility that a still growing
discipline requires.

The book itself is also a compelling showcase for the importance of a new
class of processes, i.e. internationally distributed, complex, and flexible business
processes. In this case, it is the process of jointly writing a book involving four
authors in four different countries. The team has addressed this challenge brilliantly
and the outcome is an impressive compilation of the individual strengths of each
author grounded in a shared understanding of the essential BPM fundamentals and
a common passion for the topic.

It has been no surprise that the first edition of the book had a tremendous uptake
and gained rapid adoption worldwide. The hundreds of institutions that have adopted
the book in their teaching, and the tens of thousands of students and professionals
who have taken the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed on the basis
of this book, are a testimony of both the growing demand for BPM education and
the technical and pedagogical value of the book.

As the field evolves and matures, a second updated and extended edition is
most welcome. The second edition significantly expands the reach of the first one
with a more in-depth coverage of process architecture, process discovery, process
innovation, process analytics, BPM strategic alignment, and governance, all of
which are essential ingredients in a sustainable BPM program.

I have no doubts that this second edition will contribute to shaping the toolset, and
even more the mindset, of the current and future generations of BPM professionals.
The book will continue to be the standard reference for everyone who is keen to
learn more about and to embrace the fascinating discipline of Business Process
Management.

Brisbane, Australia Michael Rosemann
February 2018