Mastering Business Process Analysis in 5 Steps
Key Points
- Business Process Analysis (BPA) is a discipline that drills down into specific workflows—unlike broader Business Process Management (BPM) or Business Analysis (BA)—to pinpoint inefficiencies and improve execution.
- Implementing BPA can boost operational efficiency, tighten governance by exposing compliance gaps, and revitalize company culture by enhancing employee experiences such as onboarding and expense reporting.
- The two main methodological philosophies behind BPA are Six Sigma, a structured 5‑7 step efficiency framework, and Lean Six Sigma, which blends Six Sigma with Lean principles to eliminate non‑value‑adding steps.
- BPA follows a five‑step lifecycle: **Define** the “as‑is” process, **Measure** performance against process‑specific KPIs, then (though not detailed in the excerpt) **Analyze**, **Improve**, and **Control** to drive continuous improvement.
- Mastering BPA is especially relevant in the rapidly growing $600 billion‑plus emerging industry sector the speaker teases, underscoring its strategic importance for modern enterprises.
Sections
Full Transcript
# Mastering Business Process Analysis in 5 Steps **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E6II2U1shY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E6II2U1shY) **Duration:** 00:06:49 ## Summary - Business Process Analysis (BPA) is a discipline that drills down into specific workflows—unlike broader Business Process Management (BPM) or Business Analysis (BA)—to pinpoint inefficiencies and improve execution. - Implementing BPA can boost operational efficiency, tighten governance by exposing compliance gaps, and revitalize company culture by enhancing employee experiences such as onboarding and expense reporting. - The two main methodological philosophies behind BPA are Six Sigma, a structured 5‑7 step efficiency framework, and Lean Six Sigma, which blends Six Sigma with Lean principles to eliminate non‑value‑adding steps. - BPA follows a five‑step lifecycle: **Define** the “as‑is” process, **Measure** performance against process‑specific KPIs, then (though not detailed in the excerpt) **Analyze**, **Improve**, and **Control** to drive continuous improvement. - Mastering BPA is especially relevant in the rapidly growing $600 billion‑plus emerging industry sector the speaker teases, underscoring its strategic importance for modern enterprises. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E6II2U1shY&t=0s) **Untitled Section** - ## Full Transcript
let's define business process analysis
consider its benefits and learn about
the five step structure to implement it
oh and we're going to tie this into a
600 billion emerging industry stick
around to hear which one
so first up we are talking about
business process analysis here that is b
p
a
not to be confused with b
p
m
that's business process management of
which bpa is one such discipline
nor is it to be confused with b
a
b a is business analysis
and ba relates to high level operational
analysis i think financial forecasting
and budgeting
whereas bpa focuses on specific analysis
of processes
now bpa can be used to increase
efficiency
and it increases efficiency in existing
processes a better employee on boarding
process for example and it can also
create better governance
and that's for governance of practices
by revealing where compliance measures
have faltered and then set an
improvement plan in place and look hege
can even strengthen
your company's
culture
and it can do that by breathing new life
into employee experience we've all had
bad processes sell our experience like
oh i don't know
a terrible travel expense submission
tool for example
so i've heard now there are two
predominant philosophies that guide bpa
mythology
the first is called six
sigma
and there's also
lean
six
sigma
what are those well six sigma is a five
to seven step methodology that most
businesses today use to analyze
efficiencies and restraints and lean six
sigma differs significantly in that it's
a combination of the six sigma approach
and the lean philosophy it's a
collaborative approach that focuses on
eliminating tasks and resources that
don't provide defined values so if i
have my own process for baking a cake
well then lean six sigma would aim to
optimize and streamline that process by
for example reducing the number of
cooking steps or eliminating an
ingredient that sort of thing
now there's a five step structure for
bpa and we'll get to that
in just a sec
here in this video studio i've presented
on all sorts of topics from machine
learning to information management some
pretty complex stuff and do you know
what the most commonly asked question i
get is
how do i write backwards
well here's the thing
i don't
i just write facing me and then in
post-production they flip it look i'm
i'm actually right-handed and yes please
do consider subscribing
let's get to that five-step process for
bpa and it starts with step number one
define
define as in defining the process you
want to analyze and let's begin with as
is processes which is to say how things
work today and that could be a
formalized documented process or
otherwise
then with the process defined we move to
step two step two is
to measure
and we measure by reviewing how the
process functions against defined
metrics such as key performance
indicators
kpis provide indications of things like
effectiveness quality productivity and
value
kpis are process specific so for
instance customer engagement workflows
might be measured by kpis for quality
and effectiveness versus kpis for
efficiency now step three
is
analyze
and here business process analysts might
run a value analysis a gap analysis or a
root cause analysis a gap analysis that
reveals what's missing in the process a
value analysis conveys what is the value
within the process and therefore also
what's considered waste and a root cause
analysis applies certain why questions
and methods that help you to work
backwards to the root cause of the
problem you know like a like a
seven-year-old child at bedtime it's
time for bed
so you're not tired in the morning
because you have to go to school
yeah you get the idea
now with a process defined measured and
analyzed it's time to make it better
business process managers and analysts
create and execute plans to
improve
the problem errors in a process and
improvements may mean remapping a
process increasing resources or shifting
communication approaches and channels
and then the final step
that is
control whereby decision makers can use
all of this analysis to better manage
resources responsibilities and processes
and also to monitor these changes for
future analysis
oh and that
600 billion dollar industry i teased at
the beginning that industry
is called
hyper
automation
and hyper automation
is the use of advanced technologies like
ai or artificial intelligence and
robotic process automation to automate
tasks that are currently performed by
human beings and bpa can help your
organization create a documented mapped
path to integrating automated processes
and moving towards a goal of hyper
automation
a good example of that is how customer
service centers can lower costs and
optimize customer support by moving to
fully automated chatbot support
look the the net of all this is that bpa
defines an approach to perform a
detailed
multi-step examination of each part of a
process to identify what is working well
in your current process what needs to be
improved and how any necessary
improvements can best be made
improvements do you hear me travel
expense tool
if you have any questions please drop us
a line below and if you want to see more
videos like this in the future please
like and subscribe
thanks for watching