business process automation (BPA)

Before beginning a BPA project, it is critical to understand how the existing process works, why it is a good candidate for automation and how it should be changed. Here are some necessary first steps:

Analyze the enterprise’s appetite for business automation. Business process automation changes how work gets done, so it requires buy-in from key stakeholders. The scope of the automation will determine the level of executive commitment needed for a BPA effort. Employees, who may fear automation will eliminate their jobs, also need to be kept in the loop. Whether the BPA project is as straightforward as converting a paper form into electronic format and routing it the appropriate people, or a transformative automation effort designed to support a new business model, employees impacted Analyze processes that might lend themselves to automation. It’s hard to get to where you want to be if you don’t know where you’re starting from. Before deploying an automation tool, it is critical to know what the existing process involves. Understanding existing business processes and the business rules that govern them, however, will not be easy for many organizations. In a 2018 Harvard Business Review, “Before Automating Your Company’s Processes, Find Ways to Improve Them,” business process innovation expert Thomas Davenport notes that in many cases, process knowledge “is quite low.” Moreover, many of the “business rules haven’t been examined [in] … years and don’t make sense in the current environment,” he said. Davenport cites the example of a business rule described as requiring a manager’s judgment but in fact hinges on clearly defined criteria and could be turned into an algorithm that delivers more consistent and better results.

Companies typically reap the largest return on BPA projects that automate complex, business-critical processes and case management scenarios. Most experts, however, advise companies with limited experience in automation to start small, homing in on recurring, rules-based tasks, such as purchase orders, where the steps (including exceptions) are unambiguous and well understood.

Identify process steps that can be eliminated, optimized, automated. “Don’t pave the cow path” is another common saying in the process automation world. The idea is that automating an existing process without first examining where it can be improved or how it should change simply speeds up existing flaws. There is some debate about the wisdom of this warning, especially for companies looking for quick wins from automation, but in general BPA experts believe an existing process shouldn’t be automated without analyzing how it could be more effective and without input from key stakeholders. According to software engineer James Highsmith III, a prolific writer on software development and one of the original authors of the Agile Manifesto, successful automation projects have input from multiple sources, including business analysts, development teams and IT.

CIO Beth O’Rorke talks about making business process automation a priority at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.