Explorative process design patterns

Abstract

The dominating process lifecycle models are characterized by deductive reasoning; that is, during the process analysis stage, problem-centered approaches such as Lean’s seven types of waste are used to identify pain points (e.g., bottlenecks), and defined response patterns are deployed to overcome these. As a result, exploitative business process management (BPM) has reached a high level of maturity. However, explorative BPM, with its focus on adding new value to business processes, lacks an equally mature, deductive set of design patterns. This paper proposes to close this gap by offering seven explorative process design patterns that support the identification of options to create new value from existing business processes. Derived from secondary data analysis, the patterns are presented and comprehensively exemplified. Contributing these seven types of process exploration has the potential to help complement the focus on operationally excellent processes with a view on revenue-resilient business processes.