Directorate of distance education

A “bottom-up” Approach
The BPM step presents a bottom-up approach which consists in 
analyzing the actual functioning of the enterprise to create a computer 
model thereof. This step represents a break from the so-called “top-down” 
general schemes where the functioning of the enterprise must match the 
model proposed by the managing team.
Life Cycle of a Business Process
Generally speaking, the life cycle of a BPM step can be broken 
down as follows:
➢ Study of the company by analyzing its objectives and its organization 
in order to be able to break down its entire activity into business 
processes.
➢ Modelling of business processes, i.e. computerized representation 
of a model which comes as close to the reality as possible,
➢ Implementation of the solution: implementation of a BPM solution, 

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linked to an information system of the company (applications and 
databases)
➢ Execution: refers to the operational phase during which the BPM 
solution is implemented.
➢ Piloting, consisting in analyzing the status of the processes by 
means of border tables representing the process performances
➢ Optimization, i.e. proposing solutions which make it possible to 
improve the performances of the business processes
Integral Elements
A BPM solution usually comprises the following elements:
➢ A process modelling tool, which makes it possible to create a model 
of the enterprise’s business processes by using a graphical interface.
➢ Implementation-aiding tools, i.e. interfaces (API) and connectors 
which make it possible to integrate the BPM solution with the 
information system.
➢ An execution engine (workflow engine) in charge of instantiating 
the processes and to store the context and their status in a relational 
database;
➢ Piloting and reporting tools based on precise and pertinent 
indicators to create border tables which make it possible to 
quickly take proper decisions. The term BAM (Business Activity 
Monitoring) refers to the concept of monitoring the processes of 
the company step by step.