Business Process Management (BPM): The system-wide view of process management

Let’s get to the real deal: how to manage your business processes strategically?

That’s when you need to learn about Business Process Management, or BPM.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Where BPM comes from

We’ve learnt from the previous article that process management gained formal identity in the 1990s. In 1993, Michael Hammer and James Champy published Reengineering the Corporation, introducing Business Process Reengineering (BPR) – a bold approach that encouraged organizations to rethink and radically redesign their processes for dramatic improvements. BPR encouraged companies to ask: “If we were starting fresh, how would we design this process?”.

Although BPR led to big breakthroughs in process design, the business world soon realized that such a radical overhaul wasn’t always sustainable.

By the early 2000s, Business Process Management (BPM) emerged as a more balanced response.

While Business Process Reengineering (BPR) focuses on one-time redesigns of core processes for breakthrough improvements, Business Process Management (BPM) emphasizes continuous, incremental optimization through a structured and ongoing management approach.

Crucially, this era has also brought technology into the picture. Unlike BPR, BPM actively embraces software and technology as integral enablers. With this, BPM moved beyond theory into a practical, operational toolset used across industries.

Definition of Business Process Management (BPM)

Despite a highly popular concept, there is no universal definition of BPM. According to Elzinga et al. (1995), an early research on BPM, Business Process Management is “a structured approach that allows the analysis and continuous improvement of the activities carried out within an organization”.

However, even though different researchers focus on different parts of BPM, their definitions share a few common ideas:

• Structured methodology – BPM is a step-by-step method to manage and improve business processes.
• Continuous improvement – It focuses on making small changes over time, not just big one-time changes.
• Strategic alignment – Processes are built to help the company reach its goals, serve customers better, and improve performance.
• Stakeholder involvement – BPM engages multiple roles in the design and improvement of processes.
• Integration of technology – BPM uses software tools and IT systems to help design, run, and improve processes.
• Lifecycle-based execution – Covers designing, modeling, execution, monitoring, and evaluation stages.

The principles of BPM

According to Kohlborn et al. (2014), ten principles of good BPM form the backbone of effective implementation:

The objectives of BPM

As a methodology to develop a process-oriented organization, BPM offers many benefits. Delgado et al. (2014) points out that the top five reasons for companies to adopt BPM are:

Increase customer satisfaction:

By improving how services are delivered, BPM helps meet customer needs more consistently and efficiently. This leads to better experiences and stronger customer loyalty.

Improve business process quality

BPM standardizes workflows and reduces errors, resulting in more reliable and higher-quality outcomes.

Reduce costs

BPM identifies and removes unnecessary steps, waste, and inefficiencies, helping organizations save money.

**Increase business process agility: **

BPM provides enough structure for companies to adapt their processes quickly in response to market changes or new demands.

Support continuous improvement:

With regular monitoring and feedback, BPM encourages ongoing updates to keep processes effective and up to date.

And by creating a system that is both stable and responsive, BPM helps organizations grow and adapt without losing control.

5 key stages of the BPM framework

Rather than being a one-time fix, the BPM framework is best understood as a cycle. It follows five main stages that together form a continuous improvement loop.

1. Design

This is where you identify and define the process. You gather input from the people involved, map out the current steps, and clarify the intended outcomes.

You also document any rules, business logic, or exceptions. The outcome of this stage is a complete, agreed-upon version of how the process should work in practice.

2. Model

During this step, your team should create a visual representation of the process model. This should include specific details, such as timelines, task descriptions, and any flow of data in the process. Utilizing business process management software is helpful during this stage.

3. Execute

Now the process moves into the real world. This may involve deploying a BPM system to route tasks, assign responsibilities, and enforce the defined sequence. Or it may be done manually, but with adherence to the process structure.

4. Monitor

Once running, a process should be monitored to understand how well it's performing. You establish process performance indicators (KPIs), collect operational data, and set up reporting routines. You make sure the process runs as designed, and identify where it doesn't, so that risks don’t turn into bigger problems.

5. Optimize

Based on the data and feedback collected, you refine the process to improve speed, accuracy, or efficiency. This stage can be small and continuous, or occasionally involve redesigning parts of the process. All changes should be tested, documented, and communicated before being adopted.

What BPM is not

BPM is not flowcharts

Many people think Business Process Management (BPM) is about drawing diagrams with arrows and boxes to show how work moves from one step to the next. These maps can be useful, but they are only one part of a much bigger picture.

In real BPM, a process map needs to be connected to clear goals, defined roles, rules, and performance measures. After creating the map, the process must be tracked, monitored, and improved over time. A diagram by itself won’t help much unless it’s part of how the business is actually managed.

BPM is not a software product

Another common mistake is to think that BPM means buying BPM software. While many companies use tools to model and automate their processes, using a tool is not the same as doing BPM.

BPM is more about the way you manage work than the tools you use. You can manage processes using paper, spreadsheets, or even whiteboards, as long as you're thinking carefully about how work should flow. Without thoughtful design, clear ownership, and accountability, software will just speed up confusion.

BPM is not recording as-is processes

Some people believe BPM means simply documenting current procedures or creating standard operating procedures (SOPs). But more than that, BPM is about managing processes actively – deciding how they should work, measuring results, improving them, and making sure they support business goals.

Good BPM includes having people responsible for each process, setting regular times to review how things are going, and making updates when needed. It is a living practice, not a static documentation exercise.

Common challenges in business process management

Even with a clear understanding of the BPM lifecycle and its benefits, applying it in real business environments isn't always straightforward. Companies often start with good intentions but encounter difficulties that slow down or derail the effort. Here are some of the most common challenges that business leaders face when managing processes:

Lack of clarity about what the process really is

Many companies operate on habit. Processes are known by those who do the work, but rarely documented or aligned across teams. When asked to describe a process, different people may give different answers, or skip steps without realizing it. Without shared clarity, it's hard to design or improve anything.

What to do: Always begin with observation and mapping. Walk through the process with the people who do it. Write it down, ask questions, and validate it with all stakeholders. Don’t assume it’s understood until it’s clear and visible.

Resistance to change

BPM often reveals the need to change how things are done, and not everyone is ready. Employees may be protective of the old ways, especially if they helped build them. Some may see process changes as a threat to autonomy or job security.

What to do: Involve people early since the very first Design stage. Let them contribute to process design and explain the ‘why’ behind each change. Emphasize that BPM is not about taking control away, but about helping everyone work better together, with less confusion.

Poor alignment between process and real business needs

Sometimes, teams over-engineer a process to match a textbook model or a new tool, instead of designing it to serve actual business goals. This leads to friction: steps that don’t make sense, rules that get bypassed, or tools that sit unused.

What to do: Keep the business goal in focus. Every process should exist to deliver a result the business cares about – whether it’s faster delivery, fewer mistakes, or better service. Don’t build for the sake of structure; build to solve real problems.

Inconsistent execution

A process may be well-designed and documented, but in practice, it’s carried out differently by each person or team. This inconsistency leads to quality issues, slowdowns, and confusion – especially when processes cross departments.

What to do: Use SOPs, training, and standard work instructions to anchor execution. Integrate processes into daily routines and systems, not just manuals. The more repeatable the process, the more reliable the outcome.

No mechanism for follow-through and monitoring

After launching a new process, many businesses move on without tracking whether it's working as expected. Without clear ownership and performance indicators, problems resurface, and improvements stall.

What to do: Assign clear process owners. Set measurable KPIs and establish routines for checking performance. Monitoring doesn't mean policing – it means knowing whether the process is doing its job and spotting opportunities to improve.

Closing thoughts

At this point, you have a clear picture of what the Business Process Management framework is, and even what it is not.

But understanding the concept is one thing. Knowing what to do next is another.

When it comes down to what actions you can actually take – starting tomorrow – you need something more actionable. Not just principles, but specific steps to follow.

In the next section, we’ll walk through that. Using the same main stages of BPM as a backbone, we’ll break the process down into smaller, practical steps that help you start organizing your business, whether you’re just improving one process or building a management system that can scale.