What are the Three Main Types of Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business Process Management (BPM) provides a framework for improving how work gets done. While the overarching goal is always efficiency and effectiveness, not all processes are the same. Understanding the different *types* of processes helps organizations select the right tools and apply the most suitable improvement strategies. Commonly, BPM is categorized into three main types based on the primary focus of the process.

The Three Core Types of BPM

While real-world processes can be complex and blend elements, they often lean heavily towards one of these three categories:

1. Human-Centric BPM

As the name suggests, these processes revolve around tasks performed primarily by **people**. They often involve significant human judgment, decision-making, collaboration, and interaction. These processes can be less predictable than system-driven ones and frequently require robust exception handling.

• Characteristics: Emphasis on user interfaces, task management, notifications, approvals, collaboration tools, flexibility for exceptions.
• Examples: Employee onboarding, customer complaint resolution, marketing campaign approvals, creative content development, complex case management, sales opportunity management.
• Tool Focus: BPM suites strong in workflow automation, task management, user forms, collaboration features, and low-code/no-code development are often used. The Business Process Consultant often spends significant time mapping these.

2. Integration-Centric BPM (or System-Centric)

These processes focus on integrating different **IT systems** and automating the flow of data between them with minimal human intervention. They are often high-volume, repeatable, and critical for straight-through processing (STP).

• Characteristics: Emphasis on APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), web services, data mapping and transformation, message queues, error handling between systems, monitoring system interactions. User interfaces are typically minimal or non-existent for the core process.
• Examples: Automated order fulfillment syncing e-commerce platforms with inventory and shipping systems, data synchronization between CRM and ERP systems, automated financial transaction processing, real-time data replication.
• Tool Focus: Tools strong in enterprise application integration (EAI), service-oriented architecture (SOA), API management, and robust backend orchestration are key. AI can enhance these integrations, as seen in AI in BPM.

3. Document-Centric BPM

These processes are centered around a **document** (or a collection of documents) as the primary artifact. The process involves routing the document for review, approval, modification, and storage, often ensuring compliance and maintaining an audit trail.

• Characteristics: Emphasis on document capture (scanning, OCR), document management features (version control, metadata), routing and approval workflows based on document content or type, digital signatures, archiving, and compliance tracking.
• Examples: Contract management and negotiation, invoice processing and approval, loan application processing, insurance claims processing, regulatory submissions, new product documentation approval.
• Tool Focus: Systems often combine BPM workflow capabilities with strong Document Management System (DMS) or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) features.

Overlap and Reality

It's important to remember that these categories are not always mutually exclusive. Many real-world business processes are **hybrid**, incorporating elements from all three types. For instance:

• An invoice (document) might be received, scanned (document-centric), data extracted and validated against a PO system (integration-centric), and then routed to a manager for approval if it exceeds a certain threshold (human-centric).

However, understanding the *primary driver* of the process—people, systems, or documents—helps in selecting the right approach and tools for managing and improving it.

Conclusion: Tailoring the Approach

Categorizing BPM into human-centric, integration-centric, and document-centric types provides a useful framework for understanding the diverse nature of business processes. By identifying the primary focus of a process, organizations can better select appropriate BPM software, apply relevant improvement techniques (like automation, user interface design, or integration patterns), and ultimately achieve their desired outcomes more effectively. Recognizing these distinctions is a key step in applying BPM successfully.

Choosing the right BPM approach is crucial for success. DataMinds.Services helps organizations analyze their processes and implement tailored BPM solutions, often enhanced by AI.