Value-orientation in business process management

Abstract

The purpose of business processes is to create value, and the purpose of business process management is to support this value creation. However, the concept of value is little understood in BPM, and a number of BPM initiatives have missed the opportunity to demonstrate value creation in practice. In fact, there is little understanding in the BPM discipline concerning how business processes become valuable and what kinds of value may arise from specific BPM initiatives. This chapter structures the value discussion in BPM by elaborating on the general notion of (economic) value and providing a frame of reference. Against this background we review extant contributions on value considerations in BPM and characterize the emerging field of value-oriented BPM. As an example, we present the Return on Process Transformation (ROPT) as a measure for evaluating the monetary effects of decisions on process (re-)design.