Wrapping up, the key to intelligent processes is treating decisions as peers. Decisions may require a human but an intelligent process will automate those that can be automated. Even when a decision cannot be completely automated an intelligent process will load share between automated components and users. Even when a case exceeds the ability of the system to make decisions automatically, an intelligent process continues to make any decisions it can make.
- By identifying and managing decisions explicitly, an intelligent process increases flexibility and becomes more dynamic because it is often decisions that must change.
- Explicitly managing and improving decisions allows for new ways to assemble and use standard process components, making for more adaptive processes.
- Separate decisions, managed using business rules, are an essential component in transparency.
- Making micro decisions, decisions about a single transaction, earlier in processes makes processes more citizen- or consumer-centric.
Only by treating decisions and processes as peers can truly intelligent processes be delivered, so:
- Discover and model decisions, not just processes, so you understand what decision-making you need
- Use business rules to build independent, agile decision services that make decisions for your processes
- Invest in ongoing analysis of results, continuously improving the decisions you make
For too long organizations have made a false choice between highly scalable, automated processes that don’t handle complexity or variability and flexible but manual processes that are over-reliant on human intervention. A focus on decisions and processes resolves this dilemma, allowing organizations to focus on their customers, or their citizens, and deliver a new generation of intelligent processes.
You can get more on this topic at our webinar on Decision-Centric, Intelligent Processes with Mark Mastop of Blueriq on September 18th at 10am Eastern/16:00 CET. I also wrote a white paper that is available on the Blueriq resources page.
