Business Processes Architecture and Design

The problem of interest to us is how to design such structure, with a particular approach in mind: to start with a general normative structure that gives a pattern from which to derive a design. This idea is related to several proposals for frameworks that enterprises have used to guide architecture design, such as Zachman’s framework [13, 25]. But we depart from such proposals in that our intent is to make use of specific business knowledge which allows us to propose more precise and detailed patterns to support design. Our first proposal for such patterns was made in 1998 [4], based on the experience derived from a large number of BP design projects. In summary, we proposed four major grouping of processes, valid for any enterprise, that we called macroprocesses. They are Macro1, the Value Chain; Macro2, for New Capabilities Development –new products, infrastructure, etc.–; Macro3, for Business Planning; and Macro4, for Support Resource –human, financial, etc.– Management. Then, a general architecture was developed which included the relationships among these macroprocesses. The general architecture was detailed by giving, by mean of what we called Business Process Pattern (BPP), the component processes of each macroprocess and the relationships among them by means of flows.