The modern working world knows both: the same structured activities that work more efficiently when managed by process models, and knowledge-based tasks whose completion demands greater freedom during execution. Modern BPM provides support for both concepts.

1. G R O U P
Business Process Management
Better without
the waterfall
Author: Dr Gregor Joeris, Product Manager of the SER Group

2. The modern working world knows both: the same structured
activities that work more efficiently when managed by process
models, and knowledge-based tasks whose completion demands
greater freedom during execution. Modern BPM provides support
for both concepts.
“Doing by Design” refers to the classic top-down process management for structured processes,
also known as the “waterfall model”
Business Process Management is tradi-
tionally understood as a normative
management of processes – derived
from the work-sharing production pro-
cesses in industry. Applied to office
work, normative BPM guides “producti-
on workers” as they execute strongly
regimented work steps. The modern
“knowledge worker”, on the other hand,
is confronted with a variety of tasks
that are by no means forced into a strict
process framework. Therefore, the
general automation of office work, in
contrast to industrial production, does
not necessarily lead to greater efficien-
cy. Due consideration should be given
to whether or not a process can be
automated. Only then, where the
sequence of routine work can be exact-
ly described, is automation possible, for
example often for auditing and invoice
approval. However, anywhere that
human decisions are best made, pro-
cess models that are too narrowly
defined can prove disadvantageous.
Here, “knowledge workers” need to
keep the upper hand in order to be able
to make assessments and provide inst-
ructions based on their knowledge and
skills. The knowledge work falls to the
person. Automation is often too inflexi-
ble and elaborate to reflect the comple-
xity of reality. With complaint manage-
ment, processing cases of damage or
selecting applications, decisions must
be made on a case-by-case basis. Com-
pletely managing knowledge workers
here using process models is not useful,
motivational or results-oriented!
There thus needs to be another process
model outside of automation, one that
does not focus on the process but ins-
tead the case, for which a goal has been
set. A case can be the customer, a pro-
ject, an order or a complaint.
To better clarify this, Business Process
Management distinguishes between
“normative” (“Doing by Design”) and
“adaptive” BPM (“Design by Doing”).
Both sub-disciplines of Business Pro-
cess Management are equally found in
company practice. The normative BPM,
also called “Production Workflow”,
addresses processes for which the
course of action can be determined
beforehand, while the adaptive BPM,
also known as “Adaptive Case Manage-
ment”, “Ad-hoc Workflow” or “Smart
Process Applications” (according to
Forrester), supports any activity carried
out by the knowledge worker proces-
sing a case. The definition of the EABPM,
an association of legally independent
national companies for the promotion
of Business Process Management, can
thus be understood as follows: “Busi-
ness Process Management is a syste-
matic approach toward entering, desig-
G R O U P

3. Business Process Management
Task Management
(“Design by Doing”/Ad-hoc workflow)
Situationally managing ad-hoc tasks and processes
Processes also without process model
Ad-hoc planning of tasks
Refining tasks into sub-tasks
Resubmissions
Flexible search for tasks/task lists in workbaskets and pro-
cesses
Processes as document folders/main document functionality
Determination and logging of decisions
Ablauf des Design by Doing
ning, documenting, measuring, monito-
ring and managing both automated and
non-automated processes, and thus
achieving process goals in accordance
with the company strategy over the
long term. BPM comprises the consci-
ous, joint and increasingly IT-supported
determination, improvement, innovati-
on and maintenance of end-to-end pro-
cesses.”
”Doing by Design”
vs. ”Design by Doing”
The basic principle of the waterfall
models is as follows: the process model
defines the execution. Every exception/
alternative must be defined in the
model – or it will not be possible! This
design concept can be applied to pro-
cesses that never change, for example
order processing in online trade or acti-
vating mobile phones. The process
modelling is often too complex, e.g. for
application processes and many other
typically administrative processes.
“Doing by Design” is completely unsui-
table for the implementation of pro-
jects, for example, and for a situational
workflow management for which no
mandatory processes can be deter-
mined beforehand.
However, the knowledge work of the
knowledge workers does not take place
in a vacuum. Tasks such as processing
an insurance case or a customer request
cannot be strictly regimented. Yet no
administrator or customer advisor rein-
vents the wheel for each case. Instead,
he asks himself whether he has already
dealt with a similar case, which he then
uses as a guide and reference. Or he
asks a colleague: “I'm working on a simi-
lar project to you, can you give me your
project plan, I can change it around to
suit this job.” This “copy and paste”
method takes similar cases as a starting
point in order to generalise them and
extract them as best practice. This rea-
lity-based design principle is also known
as “Design by Doing”.
Integrated ECM & BPM
A modern BPM solution should combine
both disciplines – “Doing by Design” and
“Design by Doing” – in one architecture.
While adaptive and normative BPM is
discussed in theory, here at SER we call
the two sub-disciplines of our Doxis4
iECM Suite “Task and Business Process
Management”.
SER thus takes the approach of “Integ-
rated ECM & BPM” and sets itself apart
from Middleware and integration-orien-
ted BPM systems. In contrast to the
Middleware-oriented BPM systems, with
Integrated ECM & BPM there are no
additional SOA required in order to inte-
grate the BPM into the application
environment. Integrated ECM & BPM
solutions are used across the company,

4. from corporate development and orga-
nisation to the specialist departments
and IT in order to independently model,
manage, administer, optimise and exe-
cute document-based business proces-
ses, both ad-hoc and standardised. They
can also be used within individual orga-
nisational units, within a company and
across several companies. An import-
ant feature is the joint metadata plat-
form for all documents, records, pro-
cesses and tasks.
“Standalone BPM is dead”, declared
BPM veteran Tom Baeyens back in
2010. It is now time for “Integrated ECM
& BPM” to take over as the new genera-
tion of Business Process Management
in companies.
Business Process Management
(“Doing by Design”/model-driven)
Definition and execution of process models
Two process engines: “State charts” and “Dependency
graph” (dependencies between tasks)
(just like project management/Gantt Charts)
Support of automatic activities
Combination of “model-driven” and ad-hoc tasks through
refinement
EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS
SERgroup Holding Europe GmbH
Joseph-Schumpeter-Allee 19 | D-53227 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 90896-0 | Fax: +49 228 90896-222 www.ser.de | info@ser.de
Trading companies in Germany: SER Solutions Deutschland GmbH,
SER eGovernment Europe GmbH, SER HealthCare Solutions GmbH
and SER Banking Software Solutions GmbH
© SERgroup Holding Europe GmbH
Subject to technical changes. Errors and omissions excepted, including misprints. All trademarks cited are registered trademarks of their respective owners.
G R O U P