Although a new paragraph was added in the new GSBPM to define “process” and “activity”, there is still a request to define “(statistical) business process” more explicitly (e.g. Israel, Italy). Do we want to define explicitly in the document, if so, how?

For example, Israel said

(Paragraph 67): " Quality assurance and approval of the frame and the selected sample are also undertaken in this sub-process, though maintenance of underlying registers, from which frames for several statistical business processes are drawn, is treated as a separate business process."

It is not clear what is defined above as a "separate business process".  Is it the "maintenance of underlying registers"?  This is my guess. But anyhow, I was disappointed that the GSBPM v5.1 still does not include the definition of a business process, so we cannot judge what is a "separate" one and why it is so.

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4 Comments

  1. InKyung Choi

    25 Sep, 2018

    (Meeting 25th September, 2018)

    "Process" and "Business Process" can be synonymous in context of GSBPM. It would be still helpful to have some definition of "Business Process". 

    Action: Edgardo and Juan to propose a definition. 

  2. InKyung Choi

    19 Oct, 2018

    (Juan and Edgardo proposed a definition as below)

    Statistical Business Process

    A collection of related, structured phases, sub-processes, activities and tasks performed by a group of people applying models, tools and methodologies on input data in order to deliver statistical information.

    Explanation:

    In the context of GSBPM, organizations or groups of organizations performs a statistical business process to create valuable official statistics to satisfy the needs of the users. The output of the process may be a mixed set of physical or digital products presenting data and metadata by different means like publications, maps, electronic services, among others.

    Organizations can use GSBPM to produce not only statistics, but also other kinds of information, like geographical, from different kind of sources and employing traditional and emergent methodologies and tools.

    References:

    Process

    A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. (Oxford Dictionary)

    A coherent set of activities carried out by a collaborating group to achieve a goal. (OMG)

    Business Process

    Is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment that in a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a particular customer or customers. (Wikipedia)

    An event-driven, end-to-end processing path that starts with a customer request and ends with a result for the customer. Business processes often cross-departmental and even organizational boundaries. (Gartner)

    The complete and dynamically coordinated set of collaborative and transactional activities that deliver value to customers. (OMG)

  3. InKyung Choi

    19 Oct, 2018

    (Feedback from ABS; 16th October, 2018) 

    • My colleague suggested this could start with a cross industry definition of "Business Process"
      • For example, BPMN defines a Business Process as A defined set of business activities that represent the steps required to achieve a business objective. It includes the flow and use of information and resources
        • There might be a better reference definition.
          • The general Wikipedia definition for "Business Process" looks fine to me semantically but doesn't seem to be widely used beyond Wikipedia?
      • The definition would then suggest broadly what qualifies a "Business Process" as a "Statistical Business Process" (eg "defining a statistical outcome").
    • The aim would be to ensure that the GSBPM definition of "Business Process" was as relatable as possible to anyone who has experience of business process modelling and management (including terminology) beyond official statistics, including vendors.
    • My colleague noted that in the current definition "phases, sub-processes" are "lenses" applied to a Statistical Business Process when considered in the context of GSBPM as a reference model ("activity and task" are more standard).  This means "phases, sub-processes" do not define a Statistical Business Process intrinsically.
      • Another way of looking at it is that you need to understand GSBPM before you can understand that part of the definition of "Statistical Business Process"
    • Other comments were
      • The definition seems to have dropped the reference to a 'customer' which is used in both Gartner and OMG. Customers essentially set expectations for quality from that process so would be good to capture as their expectations are as much an input into a statistical process as the data (see also ISO 9001).
      • I would have thought that we could be future focused and drop the 'people' requirement for having a statistical business process. It is increasingly conceivable that data could pass through  statistical business process without human intervention beyond the design and setup 
        • (A question might be whether the process serves the needs of a group of people - something like customers, which could be statistical staff internal to the agency - regardless of whether it is performed in part or in whole by people or whether it is fully automated.)

  4. InKyung Choi

    19 Oct, 2018

    (Meeting; 16th October, 2018)

    To decide between two options: 1) the proposed definition, along with following two paragraphs, to be inserted around GSBPM document para. 7; and 2) in GSBPM document para. 1, move the second sentence in the beginning and define business process after that.