Business Process Model Hierarchy
Consultants are used to jargon . Sometimes they say different names for same things & other times same names are used for different things .
Business Process, Business Process Model, Business Scenario can be very confusing in the beginning . If you are working in the ERP domain its inevitable you will be dealing with this terms on a daily basis. APQC defines business processes in 5 levels & in this post we will examine & understand how these processes are mapped in the real world .
Level 1 — Business Area : An organization is composed of many departments or business functions. For e.g. Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales etc. With reference to SAP business functions are referred to as Business Areas.
Level 2 — Process Group : These are the main processes of every Business Area . There are more than one process groups that each business process area carries out e.g. Sales Processing, Accounts Payable etc. These process groups are referred to as Scenario & are referenced as Level 2 processes.
Level 3 — Business Processes : This is the first level SAP transactions & will be describes as a set of business processes . e.g. Create Sales Order, Create Purchase Order etc. At level 3, you can start mapping the Business Processes to SAP Transaction Codes .
Level 4 — Business Process Step : The level 4 transactions are required to map to-be processes to SAP solutions . e.g. Sales order for known customer & is referenced using a SAP transaction as well.
Level 5 — Business Process Activity : Level 5 is the ideal state to map to-be process activities & its different variances to SAP Solutions . Example of this would be Sales order invoicing . Business Process Activity is the most detailed level of process activity & can be thought of as a work-instruction that is provided to an Operating Engineer on a shop floor .
References : Applying real world BPM in SAP Environment
Photocourtesy : Pixabay
Originally published at www.sarfarazmulla.com on August 15, 2015.
