Q1 : What is BPM Software?
A : BPM Software is the technology that automates, executes, and monitors business processes from beginning to end by connecting people to people, applications to applications, and people to applications is termed as BPM Software.
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Q2 : What do you infer from Business Process Model?
A : BPMN defines a Business process Model as a network of graphical objects, which are activities, and the flow controls that determine their order of performance.
Q3 : What do you understand by connecting objects?
A : Flow Objects are connected by using connecting Objects. There are three types of connecting objects: Sequence flow, Message Flow, and Association.
Q4 : What do you understand by Business Process Modeling Notation?
A : Business Process Modeling Notation was developed by the Business Process Management Institute to provide a process modeling notation that is understood by all process modelers, users, analysts, etc.
Q6 : What do you understand by Activities in BPM terms?
A : An activity is any work that is being performed in a process. An activity is represented by a rounded-corner rectangle in a Business Process Model. There are two types of activities tasks and sub-processes.
Q7 : What are Annotations?
A : Annotations are used to add textual comments within a process diagram.
Q8 : What do you understand by Data Object?
A : Data objects are used to show data is required or produced by activities in a process. Data objects are represented by a picture of a piece of paper folded at the corner in a Business Process Model.
Q9 : What are Artifacts?
A : Artifacts allow process designers to extend the basic BPMN notation to include additional information about the process in the process diagram. There are three types of artifacts: data object, group, and annotation.
Q10 : What do you understand by Events?
A : Events are anything that “happens” during the course of a business process. Events can have a cause, referred to as a Trigger, and/or an impact, referred to as a Result. Events are based on where they occur in the flow process (start, middle, or end).
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Q11 : What is Asynchronous Process in Appian?
A : In an asynchronous process, one activity sends a message to another, but does not wait until it gets a response. A phone call to another person is a synchronous process – it can’t go forward if the person you want to talk to doesn’t answer the phone. Leaving a message on an answering machine turns it into an asynchronous process. You leave your message and go on with your business, figuring the person will respond when they get the message.
Q12 : What is Business Process Automation?
A : Business Process Automation refers to the use of computer systems and software to automate a process. Processes can be completely automated, so no human intervention is required, or semi-automated when some human intervention is required to make decisions or handle exceptions. Techniques used for BP Automation, include workflow, BP-XML languages, ERP, and software development and EAI.
Q13 : What is Business Analytics?
A : Business Analytics is an aggregated information on business processes that enables managers to analyze process trends, view performance metrics, and respond to organizational change.
Q14 : What are Business Rules in Appian?
A : Business rules in Appian is a statement describing a business policy or decision procedure. Some programming languages run business rules together into very complex algorithms. In business process analysis, each rule is usually stated independently, in the general format: If A and B, Then C. Workflow tools and detailed process diagrams both depend on business rules to specify how decisions are made. We generally associate business rules with activities.
A decision diamond is adequate to show what happens if a loan is accepted or rejected, but dozens or even hundreds of business rules may need to be defined to clarify what a loan should be accepted or rejected. Training programs, job aids, software systems and knowledge management systems aim to document business rules either to automate the decision process or to and make the rules available to other decision makers.
Q15 : What is Appian?
A : Appian is the BPM expert. Appian margin the market in flexible, delivering comprehensive, BPM innovation and easy-to-use solutions made to measure the needs of governments worldwide and businesses. The Appian Enterprise BPM Suite is a 100 % Web-based solution, real-time analytics, and including integrated knowledge. Appian explains process collaboration between IT and business, allowing all customers to be part of the process of concluding corporate goals. Appian everywhere, the early and only complete BPM Suite usable on-demand, functionality, and distribute all the power of Appian Enterprise along (SaaS) Software-as-a-Service model.
Q16 : What is Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL, BPEL4WS)?
A : In the first draft of this glossary, we described two alternative XML business process languages, WSFL from IBM and XLANG from Microsoft. As the glossary is published, IBM, Microsoft and BEA have announced that they will be combining WSFL and XLANG to create a common XML business process language that will support both public (protocol) and private (execution) language.
Q17 : Name any top competitor of Appian BPM suite?
A : The top competitor of Appain BPM suite is Pegasystems BPM Suite.
Q18 : Is BPM Appian an open source application?
A : No. BPM Appian is a proprietary.
Q19 : What is Business Process Management (BPM) Platform?
A : A Business Process Management(BPM) Platform is a more comprehensive approach to BPM, it provides all of the process management capabilities of BPM software, plus the following functionality: knowledge management, document management, collaboration tools, business analytics, and a work portal.
Q20 : Who are Business Process Management (BPM) Vendors?
A : Vendors that design, develop and/or sell Business Process Management software and solutions.
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Q21 : What do you understand by BPM?
A : Business process management (BPM) is a field in operations management that focuses on improving corporate performance by managing and optimizing a company’s business processes. It can, therefore, be described as a “process optimization process.”
Q22 : What do you understand by Association?
A : An Association is used to show relationships between data, text and other Artifacts and flow objects in a process. An association is represented by a dotted line with a lined arrowhead in a Business Process Model.
Q23 : What do you understand by Business process Diagram(BPD)?
A : A Business process Diagram is a simple diagram is made up of a set of graphical elements that depicts a business process. There are four primary elements of BPD: flow objects, connecting objects, swimlanes, and artifacts.
Q24 : What is BPM System?
A : According to Gartner, Inc., BPM is “a management practice that provides for governance of a business’s process environment toward the goal of improving agility and operational performance.” This more holistic view offers a structured approach for optimizing processes and takes into account the software tools discussed above as well as an organization’s methods, policies, metrics, and management practices.
Q25 : What is Business Intelligence (BI)?
A : Software systems and tools that seek to extract useful patterns or conclusions from masses of data.
Q26 : What is Business Process Design or Redesign?
A : Business Process Redesign focuses on making major changes in an existing process, or creating a new process. Depending on the size of the process, this can be a major undertaking, is done infrequently, and, once done, should be followed by continuous business process improvement.
Compared with BPR, as defined in the early Nineties, Business Process Redesign usually focuses on smaller scale processes and aims for more modest improvements. Redesign focuses on major improvements in existing processes. Design focuses on creating entirely new processes.
Q27 : What is Application Programming Interface (API)?
A : An application programming interface (API) is a set of definitions of the ways one piece of computer software communicates with another. It is a method of achieving abstraction, usually (but not necessarily) between lower-level and higher-level software. APIs are implemented by writing function calls in the program, which provide the linkage to the required subroutine for execution. Thus, an API implies that some program module is available in the computer to perform the operation or that it must be linked into the existing program to perform the tasks.
Q28 : What is Activity Cost Worksheet in Appian?
A : A grid or matrix that one can use to analyze the various costs of a set of activities. Activities are listed on the vertical axis and data about outputs, costs, times and problems are described for each activity.
Q29 : What are Administrative Workflow Systems in Appian?
A : Workflow systems that keep track of what individuals are doing and assign new tasks according to some set of rules. Compare with Ad Hoc and Transaction or Production Workflow Systems.
Q30 : What are Ad Hoc Workflow Systems in Appian?
A : Workflow systems that wait on users to indicate what should happen next. An insurance system might pull up documents for an underwriter only on request. Compare with Administrative and Transaction or Production Workflow Systems.
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Q31 : What is Activity in Appian?
A : Processes that can be sub-divided into smaller and smaller units or sub-processes. We define activity as the smallest sub-process that a given business process team decides to illustrate on their process diagrams. (We could reverse that and say that a process is made up of one or more activities.)
Activities can consist of a single step, like approving a purchase request or placing a cap on a bottle passing on a production line. Other activities involve multiple steps, like filling out a form, or assembling a chair.
There is no consistency about how the various methodologies use terms like task and step, but, increasingly, the term activity is reserved for the smallest unit of analysis. A given activity could be performed by one or more employees, by a software system, or by some combination.
In the UML notation, both processes and activities are represented by rectangles with rounded corners. (See Business Process Hierarchy.) We sometimes indicate if activities are manual (normal line around rectangle), systems (bold line around rectangle) or mixed activities that involve both manual activities an systems (dashed line around activity rectangle).
Q32 : What is Business Process Management Software (BPMS)?
A : An enterprise application software that enables an organization to streamline processes and gain organizational efficiency through the modeling, execution and analysis of business processes.
Q33 : What is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?
A : Many companies outsource business processes to other companies to manage and execute. Few companies outsource core business processes that they depend on for their unique position in the market. They fear that the outsourcer won’t be able to improve the process quickly enough to respond to market changes. Some companies are now offering to outsource such processes, arguing that they have an approach that will let the owner make changes in the process as needed.
Q34 : What is Business Process Reengineering (BPR)?
A : A term coined by Hammer and Davenport in the early Nineties. As originally defined in their books it emphasized starting from a blank sheet and completely reconceptualizing major business processes and using information technology in order to obtain breakthrough improvements in performance. The term became unpopular in the late Nineties and many business people associate BPR with failures. Those who still use the term have redefined it to mean what we mean by Business Process Redesign.
Q35 : What is Collaborative BPM?
A : BPM created using a collaborative business process language (usually ebXML). It is particularly suitable to describe the collaborations between partners that are all considered at the same level.